Since I had purchased Mountain Collective passes for the family in the spring, I had decided awhile ago on a multi-destination post Christmas trip. For those that don't know us, my wife is a terminal slow groomer skier while my 13 y/o daughter and 10 y/o son have each been on skis since they were 2 and will generally go anywhere with me at this point even if they don't have the best form. I bought flights to SLC in early fall when prices dropped over the holidays for a short time. I figured I could make cancellable hotel reservations at a variety of places and make a last minute decision on where exactly we would go. I hoped Sun Valley would have decent conditions as I had never been there and I figured it would be good for our family. With a good December all over the west, I decided to start in SLC and finish in Sun Valley.
We flew out of Philly Christmas afternoon on a relatively uneventful flight to SLC through Charlotte. We stayed at the Crystal Inn in Midvale which had slightly larger than normal rooms and a good breakfast.
Saturday 12/26 - Alta - First day of the season for us. I hoped to avoid that scenario but summer in December in the east put a damper on those plans. Thanks to the favorable timezone change, we had no trouble getting to Alta early with a close parking spot at the GMD to redeem our Mountain Collective and get in the Collins line a few minutes before the 9:15 opening. With me in new Zipfits, my wife in new boots, the first groomer runs down and up Sugarloaf were a bit of an adventure. After the huge storm earlier in the week, much terrain was still closed. It was odd seeing all of the untouched snow on the Backside. We did a Supreme run and a few more Sugarloafs before lunch at Alfs. Then we went back ofter to the Collins side. Did a run off of Wildcat and came back up Collins to see a huge line just starting the Ballroom traverse which had just opened. Other than a 5 minute wait at opening, we didn't see another lift line all day. It was a very cold day which probably helped things. Anyone that wasn't inside must have been waiting for that Ballroom opening. We finished up back on the Sugarloaf side, where I missed the opening of the terrain on the lower section under the lift while the rest of the family returned to Alfs for a hot chocolate refill. I was done by that point so we called it a day.
Sunday 12/27 - Snowbird - We got an early start again and boarded Gadzoom before the scheduled 9:00 start. It was another very cold morning. I had read that portions of Mineral Basin had opened the previous day and hoped that we could get there from Little Cloud but that was not to be, so we took Regulator Johnson, past the mid-mountain restaurant and all the way down to the Peruvian chair and up to get through the tunnel to Mineral Basin and finally some sun and warmth. Skiing down Lupine Loop I saw good snow in what I now know is Chamonix Bowl, so I convinced the kids to head out there the next lap. We all struggled a bit in the somewhat steep cut up powder, but my son and it was good so we hit it again. We were going to get an early lunch at the 1 day old Summit lodge, but as we were coming down we saw that they had opened Baldy, so we headed to that with hopes of some low angle powder. Unfortunately, there was enough of a wind slab/crust to make it not as fun as what we had been skiing, so we headed into lunch after that. The Summit is a great addition to Snowbird. The food is better than anything else I've eaten there. The portion of beef brisket (plus sides) they gave me was huge. At about $20, it was also pricey - I would have been happy with half the portion at 2/3 the price. After lunch, I took the kids back to Chamonix Bowl. Each time we'd take a slightly different entrance and the snow was still great in there. And still no holiday lift lines to be found. Not sure what happened at that point, but I was in some pretty serious foot pain with the new Zipfits. We headed back down Chips to take a rest back at Creekside but I decided additional skiing wasn't worth it with 4 more planned days on the trip, so we called it an early day.
Monday 12/28 - Brighton - Our non-Mountain Collective day. I thought it would be a good place for us because my wife could ski the grooomers while the kids and I could hit the trees in between. That part worked out very well. Apparently everyone else in the Salt Lake valley had the same idea as we finally found the holiday hordes. The line to rent equipment went all around the lodge, up and down stairs. The base Crest and Majestic lifts the lines were so long it was hard to move around the base area. Even so, we were able to get in quite a few runs. It was good to get into the trees again even if none of us were skiing them all that well. We spent most of our time on Crest and Snake Creek with one run on Great Western. We never made it over to Milly. Coverage in the trees was good - it was especially noticeable when my son and I were skiers left of Snake Creek which has often had exposed hazards when I've been in there in previous years but we found very little poking through. It turned into our longest day so far - not so convenient since we were driving straight to Sun Valley after skiing, but we all had such a good day it was hard to stop. I was happy my foot issues from the previous day did not continue.
(Sorry, no pics for the Utah portion)
We flew out of Philly Christmas afternoon on a relatively uneventful flight to SLC through Charlotte. We stayed at the Crystal Inn in Midvale which had slightly larger than normal rooms and a good breakfast.
Saturday 12/26 - Alta - First day of the season for us. I hoped to avoid that scenario but summer in December in the east put a damper on those plans. Thanks to the favorable timezone change, we had no trouble getting to Alta early with a close parking spot at the GMD to redeem our Mountain Collective and get in the Collins line a few minutes before the 9:15 opening. With me in new Zipfits, my wife in new boots, the first groomer runs down and up Sugarloaf were a bit of an adventure. After the huge storm earlier in the week, much terrain was still closed. It was odd seeing all of the untouched snow on the Backside. We did a Supreme run and a few more Sugarloafs before lunch at Alfs. Then we went back ofter to the Collins side. Did a run off of Wildcat and came back up Collins to see a huge line just starting the Ballroom traverse which had just opened. Other than a 5 minute wait at opening, we didn't see another lift line all day. It was a very cold day which probably helped things. Anyone that wasn't inside must have been waiting for that Ballroom opening. We finished up back on the Sugarloaf side, where I missed the opening of the terrain on the lower section under the lift while the rest of the family returned to Alfs for a hot chocolate refill. I was done by that point so we called it a day.
Sunday 12/27 - Snowbird - We got an early start again and boarded Gadzoom before the scheduled 9:00 start. It was another very cold morning. I had read that portions of Mineral Basin had opened the previous day and hoped that we could get there from Little Cloud but that was not to be, so we took Regulator Johnson, past the mid-mountain restaurant and all the way down to the Peruvian chair and up to get through the tunnel to Mineral Basin and finally some sun and warmth. Skiing down Lupine Loop I saw good snow in what I now know is Chamonix Bowl, so I convinced the kids to head out there the next lap. We all struggled a bit in the somewhat steep cut up powder, but my son and it was good so we hit it again. We were going to get an early lunch at the 1 day old Summit lodge, but as we were coming down we saw that they had opened Baldy, so we headed to that with hopes of some low angle powder. Unfortunately, there was enough of a wind slab/crust to make it not as fun as what we had been skiing, so we headed into lunch after that. The Summit is a great addition to Snowbird. The food is better than anything else I've eaten there. The portion of beef brisket (plus sides) they gave me was huge. At about $20, it was also pricey - I would have been happy with half the portion at 2/3 the price. After lunch, I took the kids back to Chamonix Bowl. Each time we'd take a slightly different entrance and the snow was still great in there. And still no holiday lift lines to be found. Not sure what happened at that point, but I was in some pretty serious foot pain with the new Zipfits. We headed back down Chips to take a rest back at Creekside but I decided additional skiing wasn't worth it with 4 more planned days on the trip, so we called it an early day.
Monday 12/28 - Brighton - Our non-Mountain Collective day. I thought it would be a good place for us because my wife could ski the grooomers while the kids and I could hit the trees in between. That part worked out very well. Apparently everyone else in the Salt Lake valley had the same idea as we finally found the holiday hordes. The line to rent equipment went all around the lodge, up and down stairs. The base Crest and Majestic lifts the lines were so long it was hard to move around the base area. Even so, we were able to get in quite a few runs. It was good to get into the trees again even if none of us were skiing them all that well. We spent most of our time on Crest and Snake Creek with one run on Great Western. We never made it over to Milly. Coverage in the trees was good - it was especially noticeable when my son and I were skiers left of Snake Creek which has often had exposed hazards when I've been in there in previous years but we found very little poking through. It turned into our longest day so far - not so convenient since we were driving straight to Sun Valley after skiing, but we all had such a good day it was hard to stop. I was happy my foot issues from the previous day did not continue.
(Sorry, no pics for the Utah portion)
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