Utah, March 25th thru 27th, 2005

Helen and I spent a long weekend in Salt Lake City, UT, with our friends Paul and Jenn to help them celebrate their 5 year wedding anniversary, and to do some snowboarding. They got married on March 25th, 2000 at the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird, so they returned for their anniversary.

We spent 2 days at Snowbird, and one day at Solitude. Pics and a brief trip report are below.

 

Snowbird, UT

We took the early flight on Southwest from Seattle to Salt Lake City on Friday morning and we were riding at Snowbird by about 12:45. We met up with Paul and Jenn at about 1pm and rode with them for the rest of the day. It had been snowing there for most of the week, and there was tons of light, fresh snow everywhere. Unfortunately, visibility was terrible, with near white-out conditions on the upper part of the mountain. Paul, Helen, and I ended up spending a lot of the afternoon in Mineral Basin skiing and riding by feel and having a blast. The great snow made it easy, even though we couldn't see too far up top. We didn't get any pictures on Friday, though...

On Saturday Helen dropped me off at Snowbird then went off to take photos of the great scenery in the canyons around Salt Lake City. It was a bluebird day, and she wanted to take advantage of the weather to get some beautiful pictures. I'm sure she'll post some shots at her site, Artgeek Studios.

I slathered on the sunscreen and headed up the hill. It was a beautiful day, and you could hear bombs going off all morning. I got to the Little Cloud lift just after they opened Road To Provo and access to Gad Valley, which had been closed most of the week. I ended up in the second wave of people who hit it, and I managed to find fresh tracks through 2+ feet of light, fluffy powder all the way down after a short traverse.

After that, I headed over to Mineral Basin and took the long, grueling traverse out to The Bookends, where I got in the line of fools waiting for that to open. The traverse is hell on a snowboard. It's set by skiers with poles and undulates up and down along it's length. Add to that a gaggle of people rubbernecking their way along like a traffic jam on I5 and you've got a situation where it's impossible for a guy to keep his momentum. Ugh. It took me more than 30 min to get out there, and I was dead tired by the time I made it. Next time, I'm bringing collapsible poles! I didn't go very far in and opted for a nice line just past the gate which was fantastic. Tons of fresh, light powder and sunshine again. I went out there twice before heading to the front again.

Riding up the Mineral Basin lift I noticed people hiking up Mt. Baldy, so I went over and hiked on up myself. It was about 10 min to the start of High Baldy Traverse, then an easy traverse along the ridge to a sweet tree run that ended in a wide chute between some little cliffs. Fluffy deep pow and sun again... can you tell it was a great day!

I took a break for lunch, then headed back to Gad Valley again. By this point, some clouds had rolled in and visibility was going back and forth from so-so to terrible. I had to sit on the traverse for a little while to wait for a break in the fog, but it was worth it. Although completely tracked out, the snow was still great. At this point Paul joined me, and we played around in Gad Valley a little more before heading over Upper Cirque and down to the lodge at the end of the day.

Gad Valley at about 10am on Saturday. It's getting tracked out fast, and I'm in line for my second ride :)

A closer shot of the far end of the traverse.

Another shot of where people are heading at this point.

I ended up dropping just below that line of skiers crossing the avalanche path  in the center of this picture on my first run.

The line of crazy people waiting to get back up there. I gotta say, there was a distinct lack of common courtesy in this lift line. I know it was a good day (okay, a great day), but that's no excuse for pushing 12 year old girls out of the way...

The line to get into The Bookends. The traverse looked a lot like this the entire way. It was thin and cut into a steep slope all the way around. If you didn't have poles then you were hurting on this thing.

The Bookends from the Mineral Basin lift.

The line of fools working their way in. I went down near the line of sparse trees to he left of this picture on the first run.

It is amazing how quickly this place got tracked out!

Gad Valley from the top of the tram.

You can see Salt Lake City from the top of the tram, though it's tough to see in this picture.

Paul getting ready to drop into Upper Cirque.

Paul headed down. You can see the tram cables in the background.

Paul headed down the lower part of Upper Cirque. This is at about 3:45pm on Saturday, and you can see that although it's tracked up, the snow quality is still fantastic.

Another shot of Paul, who was doing fine until...

This was a great fall... I love this picture. He was really moving when he caught something, and I think we both thought he was going to end up right on top of me!

Paul after his crash, looking for where he's going to go next :)

This is a shot of the tram from right where the last picture was taken.

Solitude, UT

Sunday was another bright sunshiny day. Helen dropped me off at Solitude and once again wet picture taking while I explored Solitude.

I'd never been to Solitude before, and I liked it a lot. It's a smaller ski area than Snowbird, and one canyon over. There were no crowds at all, and not a single lift line. They also have a groovy lift pass that scans through your clothes, and little automatic gates at each lift that open when you get close enough to be scanned. Very cool... every ski area should have these. The terrain as great, with a nice mix of steeps, trees, and cruisers. The grooming was excellent, too, and there is great carving to be had under the Eagle Express chair. I checked out some of the nice steep tree runs off of Powder Horn and the Summit chair. On this day, everything in the sun was very heavy and hard work, while everything in the shade was still fluffy and nice. The terrain out past Headwall Forest was particularly nice, with a relatively easy traverse through the trees. The trees in Honeycomb Canyon were also great, though I only took one ride down through the Black Forest area.

All-in-all, this is a great ski area that I'd definitely like to go back to some day.

This was one of the runs out past Headwall Forest. This entire face was mostly shaded and the snow was still very good here.

A view back up the same slope.

This is at the top of Honeycomb Canyon from the top of the Summit chair. You can hike up along the ridge and take the lines from the top.

Further to the right.

A little further along the right. You can see the traverses out to the far side of Honeycomb Canyon.