Timberline Mountain's new six passenger chairlift:
My
personal ski season in 2020 was fun while it lasted, but I only got
about 25 days of lift served
skiing, mostly in Utah. I did three more days of the
"skinning" variety at Alta after the pandemic shut down the formal season on March 15. My wife and I decided to stay in Utah to social
distance with our son Vince until late July. The most infectious stage
of Covid-19 was late to arrive there.
I
sneaked in a visit to beautiful Grand Targhee ski area in WY a couple
weeks before the pandemic cut short the 2020 ski season:
Between
March and July 2020 we biked and hiked and visited some spectacular
Utah state and national parks. When we finally returned to our primary
residence in the Washington DC suburbs it was the weirdest car trip! To
avoid exposure to the virus we dry camped three nights in
primitive tent sites and carried all our food
and drink supplies with us in our vehicle. Our only retail purchases
were at gas pumps about every 500 miles. The interstates were largely
devoid of civilian motorists, but packed with truckers and I felt a deep
sense of appreciation for their role in keeping our nation's supply
chain open.
Primitive campsite at Sutherland Reservoir, NE, July 2020. Shortly after this
photo was taken a three hour rain and wind storm passed over the area:
2021:
This was the masked ski season. I did not ski in the Mid-Atlantic for
the first time in 54 years. I delayed my ski season and my annual
migration to Utah while waiting to get vaccinated. I finally lost
patience and drove to Salt Lake City without it in mid-February. A week
later I was able to get a shot in a suburban grocery store with one
other person in line. This made me feel safer and I skied frequently at
Snowbird through May, but things certainly weren't fully back to
normal. I rarely rode Snowbird's aerial tram and mostly stuck to
open-air chairlifts. Masks were mandatory everywhere.
Even Yetis from Utah wore masks in the winter of 2021:
Aside
from Kathy and Vince, chairlift conversations were my primary form of
social contact since the pandemic started one year before. And I heard
some amazing chairlift stories. It seemed like everyone under the age
of 40 was having the time of their lives,
traveling the country while enjoying the freedom of working remotely.
Those over 40 were more fearful of the virus and living significantly
restricted lifestyles. The importance of the sport for my physical and
mental well being had never been greater. I wrote about the exhilarating freedom of skiing here.
Snowbird, UT March 2021, a friend caught me in photog mode on Great Scott trail:
2022:
This year was a return to normalcy, well almost. Just as the season
got underway the news broke that Vail Resorts made another major play in
the Mid-Atlantic by purchasing Seven Springs, Hidden Valley, and Laurel
Mountain ski areas in western PA. It was part of a continuing strategy
within Vail's Epic Pass network to unite large and small
resorts across the country under a single ski pass to increase ski area
visits and grow corporate revenue. Mega ski passes like Epic, Ikon,
Mountain Collective, and Indy were now a firmly entrenched fact of the
skiing lifestyle.
I was becoming a regular
Utah winter resident and logged over 60 ski days in the winter of 2022, a personal record. I
bought a Snowbird senior season pass again and for the first time I
also purchased an Ikon Base pass when Snowbird offered it as an
inexpensive add-on product. This gave me multiple great options to ski
in Utah where I spent most of my time, but also throughout the rest of
the US. On my migratory drive west in January I skied Steamboat for
three fun days with the Ikon Pass. Steamboat's relatively low elevation
is an advantage for flatlanders seeking an easier Rocky Mountain
altitude adjustment.
Four Points Lodge at Steamboat, CO, January 2022:
In
April I took a 550 mile drive from Salt Lake City through desolate, but
beautiful central Nevada to ski Mammoth Mountain, CA for the first time
ever. It's famous for good spring skiing and I caught some fine
conditions. I also caught Covid-19 for the first time. Fortunately, it
didn't affect me until I returned to my son's house in Utah. My wife
and son got it first, but we all recovered within a week or so.
View from the Paranoids Chutes at Mammoth Mountain, CA:
2023: What a year! Utah set all kinds of records for snowfall in 2023. Alta ski
area
saw a record 903” of snow, topping its previous high by more than
150”. Snowbird issued 838" commemorative lapel pins. Pretty much all
other ski areas in the region shattered seasonal snow records as well. I
skied through it all and wrote about my experiences during the snowiest winter here.
The skiing was great, but with big snow came big crowds, tight parking, snarled traffic, and
exhaustive avalanche mitigation work. I logged a total of 62 ski days in
Utah in 2023 while enjoying a dozen or more legitimate powder days, but
at times the Wasatch Mountains were a madhouse. I heard from a Snowbird
employee that the access road up to the resort in Little Cottonwood
Canyon was closed for all or part of 39 different days during the
2022-23 ski season.
Solitude, UT ski area "only" experienced 768" of snow in the winter of 2023:
In
the middle of the 2023 insanity I got a chance to ski Sundance ski area
near Provo, UT for the first time. It was on a real fine powder day
and I found the area to be a refreshing change of pace compared to frenetic storm days spent at the bigger name resorts closer to Salt Lake City. The mountain is a little smaller, but so are the crowds, prices, and stress levels, making for a fine tradeoff.
Sundance ski area (2150' vertical, 500 acres),has the goods:
When
weighing the pros and cons of Utah's monster snow year, I’m obviously
glad to have been a part of it, but maybe I don’t want it every year. In
2023 the crowds didn’t die down until nearly the end of April. But in the end, it is the snow that I will remember.
Ski Utah, the state’s winter promotional organization, issued 44 powder
alerts signaling at least 12” of new snow in a 24-hour
time span. The average number of powder alerts in a season is 19.
Avalanches frequently threatened the Alta/Snowbird access road, even as late as mid-April 2023:
2024:
70-70, I matched my age in ski days in 2024 and in the process enjoyed
skiing for free (or nearly free) for being a full fledged geezer. I
played the senior card at Massanutten, VA (four times) and at Monarch,
CO (two times). My first ski day of the winter was December 8, 2023 at Massanutten
Resort, VA. My last day was May 11, 2024 at Snowbird, UT. 70 ski days in one season was a personal record.