Utah Snowbird 2015-2016

[BobMc]

Some days are good for different reasons, some are because it snowed 12 inches, some are good because you skied a line you were looking at for a while, some are because you got to ski with folks that make you smile.

Today was the latter, and smiles were plentiful I arrived at the bypass at 8:30, already having been texted from friends that arrived even earlier han I. We easily made first tram, which was loosely full. There were few spots that were crisp, but even the top was carveable. We picked up friends all day, it consisted of mainly an old school Solitude fest. The snow remained good all day, a slight morning ground cloud left early to allow good visibility for most of the day.

The bypass scene was happening once again, a good time was had by all.


There was no deep freeze last night, first thing this morning you still sank in down low.




Oops, wrong website...





I was shown a new bird feeder today, it was hidden in plain sight.





I think this is a good goal...





It's nice to have friends in high places...





Only one more weekend of the tram and bypass, I'm going to miss my bypass buddies.

 

[BobMc]

Winter's last gasp? Although the storm didn't deliver on the forecasted totals from earlier in the week it did manage to leave 9 inches of supportable cream that varied in consistency across the mountain. There were pockets of blower, pockets of mashed potatoes, and pockets of cream, with some crunch underneath thrown in for good measure.

I had to go into work for a few minutes first thing in the morning so I missed first tram, but I arrived a bit after 9 and managed to walk right onto the tram deck. Apparently there was a large line-up as is usual for powder days, but it was gone by the time I arrived. Regulator/Little Cloud bowl/Puckerbrush was the only thing open first thing. It took them a bit of time to get the Peruvian side open, once open it served up a smorgasbord of goodness. Lorenzo and I hit the Cirque traverse soon after it opened and got fantastic turns on Glens. We hit up the Cirque a couple times while waiting for something else to open. The tram line went pretty long after the Cirque opened, the entire resort hit the Cirque at about the same time and all ended up at the tram.

Mineral was the next to pop open, we hit up Cham bowl while watching 99% of the hordes head out Powder Paradise. Cham bowl was sublime, the snow was soft yet supportable to keep you afloat above any hiding crunch. We hit it up twice before the people figured it out. Both runs I think I crossed a track once.

I hit the car at 2:30, Road to Provo hadn't opened and I didn't see them running any routes on it. Tomorrow should be good when that pops open.


It was prett greybird today, didn't take the phone out much for pics. The clouds were pretty low on the drive up, visibility came and went today.





Greybird sky.





The top had decent visibility most of the day, but soon after you dropped down you encountered ground level clouds. You had to channel your inner Tao and rely on other senses...

 

[BobMc]

Another stellar day. There were a few low level clouds here and there to hamper vis a bit, but nothing too bad. The wind had blown and things were buffed out even better than yesterday. We got there early enough to be on first tram, I was hoping for an 8:45 tram but it wasn't to be. Once at the plaza I realized I left my goggles at the car, heh, it was a teary first run down.

The snow was fantastic, all of the 9 inches made the groomers in fine shape and anything off of them soft and forgiving. The Road to Provo was still on hold, so we spun a few laps on the frontside and then ventured into Mineral while we waited. There was quite a line-up of people waiting at the gate for it to open.

We hit the top of the Mineral lift and looked over at the line-up to watch patrol pull the rope. We scooted on down and had a bit of a momentum advantage on folks that had waited, most of the folks milled around behind each other in the middle, a lane opened up on the left and we managed to get by 3/4 of the field. We hit Mark Malu with only 3 or 4 people ahead of us, peeled left across the Rasta's and over onto Hoops. I scored a line between patrol bomb sluffs, big grins all the way down. My buddy Travis kept past Bonar's pass and hit the highest line from there.

Most everything opened today, the Bookends opened around noon. The Gad 2 touring gate was the only thing I don't think got open, it looks to hold some good lines tomorrow.


This is the last weekend of the tram (although I heard today that the Peruvian lift will run next weekend) so I brought up a thank you treat for the tram ops.





Early morning wind buff sift off of the Baldy lift.





Got off the Mineral lift to see the rope being pulled. (You can see the line down at the gate)





I hit an early line, my buddy TLB801 went past Bonar's pass. (That's him on the traverse, my track is in the foreground.)




Travis laying nice tracks...





Random skier amongst tracks...





Myself out on Hoops.




Took a stroll by a Snowbird landmark.





Kooky parking going on, although I doubt the ability of Snowbird to enforce parking violations.

 

[Lorenzzo]

Sorry to miss it butt I have last minute tax bs to complete before the deadline.

I sure hate having to be responsible.

 

[AmyPJ]

So, who's going to be there next Saturday or Sunday? I'm in total denial and withdrawals that the season is ending, and it's my birthday Saturday, soooo...

 

[BobMc]

I'll be there, and from what I hear riding the Peruvian lift! I'm not sure if that means the bypass road will be in play, but we'll see.

 

[Lorenzzo]

I should be there too.

 

[BobMc]

The last first tram of the season! I got there about 8:30 this morning, early enough to get on the first tram which rewarded the early risers with a free hat and stickers. I'm going to miss the tram badly, the stoke of a full box of friendly faces can't be duplicated on a chair. Today's first tram consisted of most all of the regulars, everyone wanted to be there for that last first box.

The frontside was chalky till about Andersons and below where it got a bit firm. Even though the sun came out the bottom took a while to soften up. Mineral was pretty nice first thing, (as usual) the groomers off of Baldy were in tip top shape, not a hint of hardness. Today was a noodling in the sun kind of a day and I took full advantage. I skied till 2 and then joined the festive bypass scene. Today was the annual bypass party, sun, fun, all the folks you normally see on the mountain.


The last first tram of the season...





Red tram heading down.





Red tram docking.



Is this what they call a metaphor?





But, at least I got a hat.

 

[dean_spirito]

Throwin it back to the Bird just a few short weeks ago.

Mineral Basin Cliff

• dean_spirito
• Apr 20, 2016

Sending a little cliff in Mineral Basin the day after a 16" dump

 

[BobMc]

If you want to go fast at Snowbird and see how fast you were going, now's your chance...

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...e-14th-Annual-Radar-Speed-Trap-Day-is-upon-us

I'll be there just to see how close the radar gun jibes with the Ski Tracks app. If I beat my age I'll be happy.

 

[John Webb]

If you want to go fast at Snowbird and see how fast you were going, now's your chance...

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...e-14th-Annual-Radar-Speed-Trap-Day-is-upon-us

I'll be there just to see how close the radar gun jibes with the Ski Tracks app. If I beat my age I'll be happy.

My speed test at the bird was to bomb the hill to try to beat the tram to the bottom. Best time was about 30 seconds after the tram.

 

[BobMc]

My speed test at the bird was to bomb the hill to try to beat the tram to the bottom. Best time was about 30 seconds after the tram.

About a month ago I caught 6 blue tram cars in a row. If you want to beat the tram down it's easiest if you get a spot by the door, get out, click in and go. I've experimented beating it down by a number of different routes. Next season I want to try and ski the Cirque while beating it down, I have a friend that claims he can ski Lone Pine and still beat it down.

 

[BobMc]

Sneaky good day! I got up and checked the 6am report and it showed zero inches overnight. When driving up the canyon I saw a couple cars with a couple inches of snow on them coming down. As I got near Snowbird it became apparent that it had snowed a little, when I pulled into the lot my buddy there said, "Well at least they got two inches." I pulled out my phone, checked the report and sure enough it showed 2 inches.

I got there pretty early and took a spin by the bypass road to see if it was still open, although there was nobody there at that time it was open for parking. They had signs warning tomorrow would be the last day to access it by skis. The forecast called for winds and heavy snow, I was worried of a Peruvian closure so we ended up parking at the cat crossover down by Zoom.

We dawdled a bit and made it down to a tiny lineup at Zoom at 8:50, we were third chair back. Once atop Zoom we goomer cruised it down and found the two inches of creaminess just kept you from any crunch underneath and provided stellar turns! We hit up most of the mountain today, there was some crunch here and there but for the most part it was pretty nice. Cheater Baldy skied extremely well, we were the first folks out there just before 11.. It was so good we hit that stuff three times. The sun peeked through about 1, just as they pulled the rope to Powder Paradise, we found wind buffed smoothness out there. While we had some visibility we hit up MI'd Cirque and found softness we could see.

Road to Provo, High Baldy, and the Bookends never opened today, they should ski well tomorrow. We're supposed to get a small shot of snow tonight, so that should soften things up even more. Tomorrow is closing day at Alta, I still have one of my free days left over there and may take a stroll and take in closing day. If nothing else I'll at least stop by the lot to say hi to Marc Guido of Firsttracksonline.

Tomorrow is the end of the bypass parking...





The creek is starting to flow briskly.





The elusive picture of Lorenzo skiing.





Travis having some fun in the shallow pow.





Things start appearing as the snow melts.





They were doing a lot of monkeying around with the tram getting ready for the big job ahead.





Myself somewhere or another.





It was raining pretty good on the way down.

 

[BobMc]

The Wasatch keeps delivering! Yesterday the forecast had called for 5-9 inches during the day with heavy snow starting after 1. I stayed till three and it had barely started snowing. The forecasters were kinda right, they just had the timing off, I awoke at 6 to see a report of 11 inches in 12 hours! I also had a text notifying a road closure, . A couple of my friends saw the closure and decided to sleep in, I figured I'd grin and bear it for the chance of a late season pow day.

I left my house at 7:50, which normally without a closure or traffic would put me parked on the bypass at 8:20. Today I got to the bypass at 8:20. I'm not sure if they did indeed have a closure as I never got a text saying it'd been lifted but I never encountered any kind of backup and drove onto a sparsely populated bypass. There was a public safety guy there warning people that Peruvian wasn't running and it might not open. A lot of people were bailing and heading down to The Zoom lot. I had a pretty good idea of the eweather forecast and being as I could hear patrol bombs on the Peruvian side I figured I'd be ok. Just before I left the car the safety guy told me that Peruvian would be delayed about an hour.

I headed down to a fairly stiff Zoom line up, I was a long ways off from yesterday's third chair, lol. They didn't have things very organized this morning either, the singles line wasn't very well defined and the lack of effective rope lines caused a rather haphazard line up. But, I was still loaded by about 9:12. First thing this morning the snow skied top notch, it was Utah blower for a few hours. The line up was quickly distributed as people headed off to Little Cloud, or Gad 2. We ran laps on a vacant Zoomer hitting up Eddie Moe, we put the third and fourth tracks out all the way. We rode Little Cloud to see if we could time a rope drop for the Cirque and for the entire lift ride the large mass at the rope didn't move. The top was a mass of clouds, we couldn't see anything after getting off the lift. I headed down the Road to Ogden and as I neared Regulator I could see the line up for Cirque was gone!

I beat feet to the traverse and had a nice leisurely way out, I'd timed it perfect to miss all the breathing down the neck and yet still found a swath of steep blower pow to call my own. far left Andersons to a hardly tracked Blackjack made for a fantastic run. We got in a few more laps of pow before the sun came out and quickly changed things, blower became stiff. I skied till 1:15, dawdled in the lot a bit and then headed up to Alta.

I had a good time hanging with the Firsttracksonline crowd, the Alta closing day scene is always raucous. The weather cooperated quite a bit more this year, the warm sun heightened the enjoyment.


Trees covered in snow on the drive up, always a good sign.






Zoom line up, there were a lot more behind me.






Looking down our second lap.





Myself coming out of the bottom of Wilbere Bowl.





Chilling at Alta.




If you know anything about Alta you know who this is...

 

[AmyPJ]

I wish I could have joined you guys! I did have a friend at Alta today and he said it was great--lots of fresh tracks. More storms this week, although, I'm transitioning into biking mode and am ready for dry trails (I know, blasphemy around here!)

 

[Tricia]

Spent the last two days hanging out with @Lorenzzo at The Bird. What sn in edible two days of skiing!,
Surprise powder day yesterday, followed by playful freshness today
Missed you @BobMc

 

[BobMc]

Days like today are why sometimes spring skiing isn't all it's cracked up to be... When I got up at seven this morning the valley was sunshine, I figured it'd be a glorious day of springtime conditions! I got to the lot about 8:15 and was soon joined by my buddy Travis. We hung out slowly gearing up and made it to the small lineup at 8:45. Endlessseason from the TGR board joined us soon as he had brought his radar gun and put out the invite for his 14th annual Radar day. Unfortunately this was probably the lowest turn out, it was us and him, heh.

We headed up Zoom and decided to run a lap on it. We found pretty crisp conditions and a lot of divots and chunks. All of that made it tough to get any kind of high speeds. I figured this would be the case, usually in the spring the Peruvian side is much more luxurious in the mornings. This year we're handcuffed to the Gad side, which is usually crisper in the spring mornings. Emma held true to form, frozen corduroy, it wasn't bad first run down but as the day went on the lower section of the mountain got glassier and glassier.

After the Zoom lap we headed up Little Cloud and out Road to Provo. The snow was better up higher, we spun some laps on Shireen attempting to get some speeds going. But, the surface was still a bit irregular and none of us really felt like letting it all hang out. My buddy Travis got the highest speed Ron registered today at 61mph, I could only muster 49, within 1 of my age.

After we decided to forgo the speed tries we hit up Hoops, the snow out there wasn't bad, but it had a bit of the crunch tagging along with it. Decent turns were had but nothing we wanted to lap. While riding Little Cloud we noticed it looked like Regulator was skiing well. So, we hit it up to be surprised to find the only chalk we could find for the day. It was still skiing as winter snow, edgeable the whole way except for a crispiness at the very top. We spun a few laps there and then decided to see how the bottom of the mountain was fairing. The sun was present for the very first part of the morning and then was chased away by a high cloud deck. This high cloud deck kept the bottom section from softening. Lunch run on down was pretty firm, Emma in particular was frozen solid.

We headed back up top, spun more Regulator laps and called it a day at 12:30. It had started to spit a bit of snow and the softening was in full on halt mode. Highlight of the day was riding a lift with Burke and a boarder buddy of his. We had a quad of a boarder, alpine skier, tele skier, and snow blader, heh. Burke is a good dude that's been skiing the Wasatch for as long as I can remember, he's always stoked on skiing and having a good time.


Tomorrow looks to be much the same, but I'll be up there as usual.


Couple shots of @TLB801 on Regulator.









The Pipe is looking ripe.





My favorite Zoom parking spot.





The bypass road is looking lonely and unplowed.

 

[BobMc]

PS. Word is Mineral is at least 5 days from opening. Heard a rumor it has to do with the cable replacement. It was quite apparent it wasn't opening today, the lift never even spun and there were no cat tracks down it anywhere. I couldn't even see any patrol tracks.

 

[TonyC]

PS. Word is Mineral is at least 5 days from opening. Heard a rumor it has to do with the cable replacement. It was quite apparent it wasn't opening today, the lift never even spun and there were no cat tracks down it anywhere. I couldn't even see any patrol tracks.

With tram and Peruvian side down, Mineral being down too is just one more indication that Snowbird management really doesn't care about its spring ski customers.

 

[BobMc]

In their defense, they did have Gad2 and Wilbere spinning, which usually don't happen this time of year. But, we are hemmed in.