See Epic Ski Trip Report for pictures.
Snowbird, Mon 2/1, Tues 2/2Nothing subtle about Snowbird. In-your-face seemingly endless steeps and the wide-open intermediate-accessible (with often poor snow conditions) Mineral Basin. Years ago, the first time I drove up to Snowbird, people in the car got quiet. All conversations stopped. It can be a pretty intimidating mountain from the road (or even more so when on your skis or boards.)
In the Alta versus Snowbird wars, I used to be an Alta-holic. I'm now leaning towards The Bird.
Monday was a blue bird surprise powder day. It apparently snowed more than expected that night, because we hit plenty of knee deep pow. On 40+ degree steeps. Sweeeet!
Highlight of the day (and trip) was skiing Monday AM with Bill Kerig. Bill is the writer/director of
The Edge of Never, a book and film about the son of extreme skier Trevor Peterson, Kye, being instructed by Glen Plake and some legendary Chamonix guides on how to ski the run on which his father died. Powerful stuff. We also had a screening and book/DVD signing later that night at the Cliff Lodge.
Bill is obviously a great skier (he was on the pro mogul tour and in some ski movies), but an even greater guy. Turns out he graduated from St. Michael's college in Vermont the same year I graduated from nearby Middlebury College (he was a Feb frosh at Midd but was having too good a time at St. Mike's) and he was/still is a hockey player. We have a lot in common, except that he is a much better skier, hockey player, more famous, better looking, and has a better family life.
We hit several of the legendary Snowbird runs off the tram. We warmed up with a single black(?) off the side of Chip's Run traverse. Steep, deep snow. We hit some gullies near the bottom; first rule of skiing with a group on a pow day: go first. I'm not bashful on the slopes.
Two of us who didn't get lost during the course of the run were instructed to ignore the cliff area sign at the bottom of Blackjack; it's just to scare off tourists. Turns out, Bill was right. (As a rule of thumb, I'd advise against ignoring all cliff area signs.) We all met back at the tram base (default meeting location.) Skied a couple of runs starting with uber steeps underneath the tram. A couple of tricky traverses and turns above some areas I wouldn't want to accidentally slide down. Knees get a little wobbly and turns get a bit sloppy under that situation. Both runs ended up in wide-open, no worries steeps. Unless you fell and had to hike 200 feet back up to your skis.
On the next tram ride up, we noticed the gates to the High Baldy traverse were dropped. A steady procession of ants with skis on their backs were making their way up to the queen bee. We were soon in that procession. Hike starts out at close to 11,000 feet and at a *leisurely* pace, takes about 10 minutes if you are reasonably fit. I live at prolly 30 feet, but I was third to the top. If you view the Epic thread, others (not in our group) weren't as lucky as we were on the way down. Pays to have a guide in terrain like that. (Skied it two years ago led by BWPA and Bob Peters.) By process of elimination, I was elected one of the two sweeper backs. There is some serious semi-patrolled terrain up there, so you should know what you're doing and have some steeps/cliff band experience. Some of the turns on the run down were classic; knee-deep hard-charging turns down 40+ degree steeps.
A few more runs with Bill, and we were all exhausted and ready for lunch. He, in contrast, was ready to start skiing hard.
Took some newbies to Mineral Basin in the afternoon. Mineral Basin is probably the most well-known area of Snowbird for tourists. It is primarily intermediate to easy advanced wide-open terrain. (It does have some steeps - The Bookends - and some high traverses which generally open up later.) If you hit it early on a pow day, you are in luck and will be treated to some great postcard-worthy turns. After that, frankly, it sucks. It has southern exposure (worse than that at Whitetail) so the snow degrades quickly and is served by two high speed quads, so it gets skied off quickly. Mineral Basin absorbs the crowds, so it has its benefits.
The Road to Provo off the Little Cloud lift is another accessible wide-open bowl that is often opened a bit later. If you time it right, you're in luck. It becomes quickly degraded, often by traverses across the slope. See the Epic thread on that one. The ski area equivalent of Beltway yahoos driving 50 mph in the left hand lane while talking on their cell phones. Clueless and in their own world.
Just a note about the Bird; the top of the mountain can be heinous on a low visibility day. This includes the tram, Little Cloud lift, and top of Mineral Basin. No trees, some rocky traverses, and some areas you wouldn't to accidentally fall into. Best to stay low on those days (to keep out of the way of those willing to take more of a risk.
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Tuesday: one day after a powder day. Hit 4 runs of knee deep powder for at least 1000 feet, plus plenty of other runs with great snow Secret: hit the trees. Advice: be experienced in the trees and know the mountain. Some terrain opens a bit later than others.
It is about a 1.5 hour drive north of SLC (stayed in Midvale/Union Park at the base of Big Cottonwood Canyon.) Like its near neighbor Snowbasin, Powder Mountain often is in a different weather pattern than the Cottonwood resorts near Salt Lake. Unfortunately, Pow Mow did not get anywhere near the 84" of snow that Alta and other areas got the previous week (in fact, it was nearly shutout.)
