Utah Snowbird 2016-2017, The Revenge Of Ullr...

[Jim Kenney]

Bob, thanks for the continuing reports. Glad your buddy survived the snowboard strike. There could be 5 or 10 of us East Coast pugskiers/epicskiers converging on UT during last week of Mar and first week of Apr, with highest concentration on weekend of Apr 1 and 2. I'll stay in touch in case we get a BBQ grill going at Snowbird one of those days for lunch or après-ski. I have five more days gotta use on my ten pack at Snowbird, but we'll also be skiing Alta and some of the other mtns.

 

[BobMc]

Howdy Jim, I talked to Vince a couple times today, then watched from the tram as he led a couple of his kids across Jaws into Great Scott this afternoon. Let me know when you get here, the bypass has been pretty festive lately, it's like spring is in session.

 

[BobMc]

It was a picture perfect spring day. I woke up pretty early today and got there in plenty of time to be on first tram. Most of the regulars straggled in late so it was pretty easy to get on, only 83 people, not even a full car. We dumped into Mineral first thing hoping to find softness, but were surprised to find it pretty crunchy over there. We got the heck out of there and went back to the frontside. The Peruvian side wasn't bad first early, a bit crispy up high but more careveable the lower you got. The lower mountain hadn't gotten quite as deep of a freeze last night so it was allowing a lot more of an edge than the upper mountain.

There was a bit of a breeze and some scattered high clouds that slowed down the melt, we headed over to Gad2 and milked some of the easterly facing runs successfully finding softer snow. It was about noon when the majority of the mountain softened up, Regulator started popping about 1:00. The breeze and high clouds seemed to keep most of the mush away and even the bottom pitches were manageable late in the day. Saw someone straightline Andersons, switch.

Rode a few lifts with my buddy Burke today. He was featured in a Powder Magazine Q & A last year, tomorrow Ski Utah is coming to Snowbird to film a short with him. It should be pretty interesting.

An earlier forecast called for rain/snow tomorrow, but now it shows mostly sunny. I'd much rather ski in sun than rain, my fingers are crossed.

Not many pics today, Travis in Mineral.



My buddy Mike après ski, bypass style.

 

[Tricia]

Thanks for sharing your season. I hope Phil and I get a chance to use our Snowbird tickets this year and get you to show us around.

 

[BobMc]

Back to winter! I left my house at 7:50 and parked at the bypass at 8:25. It was sprinkling in the valley and a bit of rain driving up the canyon, the rain turned to snow right about entry one at Snowbird. I knew it'd be a wet day at that point. I booted up and headed down to the plaza to join the tram line, I was the tenth in line at that point, the pressure for snow seems to be waning. That was pretty much the theme for the day, walk on trams and empty lift corrals. The winds were kicking up top for the early part of the day, small flakes fell pretty steadily all day. The snow today fell on top of the snow from Thursday's small storm, it was all a bit heavy but smoothed things out a fairly well. The visibility was pretty tough for most of the day, flat light and clouds moving in and out. The Gad side was noticeably crisper, and busier due to a rather large youth race going on today.

It seemed to snow harder as the day went on, I quit at 1:30 and hung in the lot till 2:00. During that time I'd say another inch piled up on my car. The snow line creeped down during the day, when I left it was snowing down to the bottom of the canyon. It's stopped raining here in the valley so I think the "storm" is over, tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and a return back to spring. I'm bringing out my little guy so it should be a good time.

Tram cables disappear into the murk.



après glass of wine.

 

[BobMc]

Today it was back to spring again. It was also an exercise in patience as I took my 5yo skiing for his first time. I started my two other children at 3 years old, one of them got hooked the other isn't a fan. My 5yo hadn't been interested in going at all till now, and I'm not sure he'll want to stick with it just quite yet.

Like I've done with all my kids I hit up the Ski Connection on the way up, good service, fair prices and decent equipment as always. I knew it was going to be a sunny day and a short one with the boy in tow. So, we waited to leave the house till noon, counting on finding someone from the early crew leaving the spots above Chickadee. Our timing worked out pretty well and we scored a parking spot after only one cruise of the lot. The boy had never been in ski boots so it took us a while to reach the 100 yards to the top of Chickadee, heh. Once atop Chickadee he was a bit frightened, he didn't take to it as well as I was hoping. We'd done the pizza and fries talk the whole drive up, once the skis were on that was out the window and hold me Dad was his main way of getting down.

We made it down to the plaza and soaked in the sun and sites there for a while, I picked up his free ticket and we decided to take a tram ride. We went through the line with the usual 5yo amounts of questions, he's pretty humorous. Once on the deck we got close to the rope behind a group of site seers in street clothes. A guy at the rope lifts the rope and tells them to go under it. I remark to him, "They're gonna get yelled at." He tells me they let non-skiers under the rope to get in first, I try to tell him that yes but only after the tram is down, he argues with me some more. Sure enough, the tram comes down, as it enters Chris (Tram op) is pointing to one of the other ops on the other side of the deck and pointing at the people under the rope. He opens the door, nicely asks the people standing there who told them to get under the rope? All of them point at the guy who picked up the rope, heh, lecturing ensues.

My little guy loved the tram ride, definitely the high point of his day. Downloading was even funner as there was room to run around and ask more questions. The lunchable in the car afterwards hopefully convinced him to give it another try sometime. Next time I'll probably pay the cash and put him in ski school for a half day. I don't have much of a snow report as I didn't ski anything but Chickadee once, my buddy Travis said it was pretty soft though. Upon leaving I decided to drive up to Alta, while driving the road between the Wildcat and Sunnyside bases a rock slide came down the North side of the road about 30 yards in front of me. It was quite loud and deposited a fair amount of rock on the downward lane. If I'd been about 10 seconds further down the road I'd have some pretty good dents in my car. Had anyone been walking on the North side of the road they'd have been squished.

He wasn't real big into the moving.




Fun times in the plaza.



First winter tram ride, hopefully soon he's skiing back down from it.




Lunchables make it all worth while.




Rock slide, you can still see the dust cloud.




Red tram coming to the upper deck.

 

[Jim Kenney]

I see the resemblance. You got a mini-me there!

 

[BobMc]

Pea soup! I haven't taken many days off work this season so I decided to take the afternoon off. I left work at 1:07, went home and picked up gear, heh, and headed to Snowbird. I got there just after 2:00, parked next to my buddy Travis who was on the hill and started to boot up. As soon as I opened my back door to get out my boots it hit me, I'd left my pants and coat on the couch at home! My pass was also in my coat. I called Travis and he said he had a hoody and a pair of work pants in his van, I'd only worn a pair of sweats and a fleece up to the hill. Snowbird will give you a forgotten pass once a season, I cashed in mine today, thankfully I'd brought my wallet and ID.

Luckily it was pretty warm today and I was ok with the light clothing I was wearing. The snow was pretty good today but the visibility was awful. The very top of the mountain was clear but then you dropped into the murk a few hundred vertical feet down. At times you'd have small pockets of fair light but most times it was almost getting lost type viz. It was pretty vacant so fortunately there weren't many people to dodge in the fog.

Not my usual orange and black.



Varying viz on the bypass






Just where I left them!

 

[BobMc]

Thankfully today I arrived with all of my equipment. I picked up my buddy Travis at 7:40, we pulled into the bypass at 8:25 even with a stop at Mickey D's. Once again there wasn't much pressure for the tram, we were on first boat as it left at 8:48. We were excited that the Road to Provo was open after being closed yesterday after the 7 inches. Most folks on first tram headed back to Mineral, in hindsight we should've as well. We headed out the Road to Provo with about 10 other people. Us and one other guy were the only people to head all the way out to Hoops. From the top we could see a lot of avy debris but also some smooth looking lines after Bomar's pass.

It was april fools and the fools were us. It became apparent once we hit Mark Malu that the snow was a bit jacked, some crust on top. Once we got out to hoops my buddy Travis kept going out the sidestep. I looked down and saw what appeared to be wind/sun screwed snow and dropped fairly early. It was pretty heinous, breakable crust that grabbed your ski on every turn. Luckily Travis saw me struggling and didn't go out too far before having his fun with the crust. We continued down the Gad side and found it hard as a rock, Emma was an exercise in pivot slips that only ice afficionados could've appreciated.

We rode up the tram and dropped into Mineral to find much better conditions, the off trail was still frozen and full of chunder but the groomers were where it was at. As usual we spun a few laps and got out around 10:30, we headed down the Peruvian side to find much better conditions. Just to be sure we headed back over to the Gad side and found it still hard. The Peruvian side definitely gives up the Spring goods a lot earlier than the Gad side.

We skied till a bit after 1, then hung in the beautiful sunshine with a couple friends till 2. Tomorrow looks to be much of the same.

If I can just get by this avy debris I'm sure it'll be great! Hah!




It looked good from afar.




We decided to let it soften a bit.




After Mineral filled up we retreated to the Peruvian side.





The trunk held goodies...

 

[BobMc]

I got up at 7:00 this morning and took a look out the window. The mountains were socked in and the forecast didn't look conducive to a springtime snowpack. I slept in a couple extra hours and got to the hill at 10:00. The lots were vacant still and the lifts were the same. I skied with Travis, his wife and their kids today. We walked onto a half full tram deck just as the tram came down. It snowed off and on, fairly heavy at times. The visibility was horrible, we rode the Peruvian a number of times and couldn't see more than a chair in front of us, at times losing sight of the chair in front of us. It was pretty spooky coming across the flats, keeping faith in the grooming crew and hoping nobody would come out of the fog at you.

The snow was surprisingly well on trail and predictably crunchy off trail. There are a few patches of ice here and there but nothing too large. I'm hoping we get some more snow next weekend, the forecast looks good as long as the rain stays away.

Not many pics as most would just show the expanse of whiteness.

Travis getting the grab on Chips.




Looking over at where the Cliff should be from the bypass.



Travis sent me a gif he made today from a couple weeks ago on Great Scott.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=RmxWNW45TUs1cjBzYWRZQVA1ZHNISkYxaUtQU05B

 

[BobMc]

Thunder Snow! I got up early this morning and checked the weather forecast and snow totals. The snow had started early this morning and hadn't piled up much by the time I got up. The forecast called for 3-7 today so I decided to let it pile up a bit and avoid the morning crunch fest. I ended up getting to the hill about 11, it rained for most of the ride up till about entry 1. By the time I arrived it'd piled up 3 inches. The snow was dense and did a good job of covering the crustiness. I made a few tram laps while waiting for Travis to get there. I made a Cirque run and found it to be quite tasty. The dense snow with the help of the wind had covered most of the troughs of any bumps, you'd only encounter a touch of crunch which was the tops of bumps. The snow kept you from falling into the troughs so it was easy to absorb the small crunch of the tops.

Once Travis got there we made a few Cirque laps and headed over to the Gad side, we rode Wilbere up and were planning on taking some more Cirque laps. But, when we got down to the tram it was redlighted, we made a hasty retreat to Peruvian and it too was closed. Lightening had moved into the area and they shut down all the lifts. It wasn't a whole lot of fun hoofing it from the plaza to the bypass. That's the one bad thing about parking on the bypass, weather or lift closures can leave you a hike away from your car.

They reopened the lifts about 3, but by that time we'd debooted and decided to call it a day. Tomorrow looks like it could be stellar, 10-14 overnight is forecasted. I have a feeling this will draw out the hounds and tomorrow may be a bit busier.

Patches of rain and sun on the way up.




Creamy tracks on the Cirque.



Coming down the canyon into the storm coming up.

 

[BobMc]

The early bird gets the worm! I woke up at 6:00 and checked the report to see 17 inches in the last 12 hours. I knew that would rally the crowds and headed up, I got to the bypass at 7:30. I got to the line a little before 8 and was easily on first tram by line position. My buddy Travis got to the line at 7:15 and was first, he was joined by a few others soon after. I sat there for an hour contemplating what line I was going to ski, only to have all choices taken away 5 minutes before we load. "Regulator only folks, all other ways down are pending." When we loaded it seemed they loaded an inordinate amount of people through the side door, I was a lot closer to not getting on than usual for where I was. A group in the row behind me were split up with one guy not making it, they were bumming. I told them to make sure to tell him how good it was.

We skied Pucker Brush, it was spotty, pockets of good soft snow, pockets of wind affected and a bit of scour here and there. Down low was a bit softer and less wind affected, we put first tracks down Carbonate to Gad 2. The Bananas trees skied very well, we didn't hit another track the whole way down. We hit up an untracked rh side of Lower Bassackwards on the way to Zoom and then found soft untouched snow out Eddie Moe. We waited through a fairly long tram line and lucked out with the ropes to the Peruvian side being pulled just as we got to the top. We beat feet down to the Cirque Traverse and found two patrollers pulling the rope. It was a fairly large crowd but there was plenty of snow for everyone.

It was a fantastic day, a bit busy and a lot more time standing in lines than yesterday, but the smiles made up for it. We skied powder till 2:00, had gotten word from a patroller that Mineral was opening at that time but we were spent by then.

Report at 6:00am



Travis on Blackjack (questionable language,mute)





Tracks

 

[BobMc]

Trapped! Not really, kinda, in a good way. Got up at the usual early time today, lounged around at home and left at 7:50 figuring I didn't need to be there too early to be on first boat. My buddy Mike and I were the first people on the bypass this morning, our choice of where to park. The line up for first tram was pretty meager, when they let us up it was only about 3/4 full. This time of year Mineral is the obvious first run and it didn't disappoint, the Powder Paradise groomer skied pretty nice it was easy to grab an edge. We headed up the Baldy lift intending on taking one run past the Bird Feeder and then heading over to Alta, we instead found such inviting corduroy that we hit it up two times.

After that we headed over to Alta, I hadn't used any of my three free days I receive with my Bird pass. It seemed a bit crisper over there off of Sugarloaf and definitely felt a bit more busier on trail. We spun quite a few Supreme and Sugarloaf laps before venturing over to the Collins side, the Collins side was quite a bit glassier/golf bally. At that point I was ready to head back to the Bird, we rode back up Collins and headed down to Sugarloaf. At the bottom the sign alerted that the connection closed. We headed up and sure enough, neither Baldy nor Mineral were spinning at the Bird.

I was prepared to head back via Blackjack but we decided to spin a few more Supreme laps and see if it'd open back up. Sure enough after a few laps we were back in business, apparently they had some electrical issues on the Mineral lift and now all was well. I headed back to find fantastic corn in Mineral the the frontside just starting to loosen up. I spun a few more laps on the frontside with Travis and his son and hit the lot. The bypass was in fine shape, I hung with friends for a few hours before heading down. Tomorrow I'm going to head to the L.D.S. at Solitude (Last Day at Solitude), should be a good time, the weather looks to be offering great springtime conditions.

First people on the bypass.



I hadn't ever seen them groom this pitch on Cham Bowl, you can see someone on it midway down. It must've been one crazy ass cat driver to make laps on that.



Mike with East Castle in the background.

 

[BobMc]

L.D.S! Last Day at Solitude. Today was the end for most of the Wasatch resorts, most of the resorts except Brighton and Snowbird were celebrating their closing days today. I decided to head to Solitude with old friends and herald in the last day of the season. The lot was fairly full when we got there, most folks basking in the beautiful sun. The hill was pretty vacant, it was a bit stickier than yesterday with the higher temps but still a fantastic day. As usual you had to hit the lh sides of most runs in the morning and then milk the rh sides in the afternoon. I hung it up at 2:30 and took in the parking lot scene catching up with folks I haven't seen in a while. It was a pretty chill scene, lotta kids, not a lot of police presence and a lot of happy smiling people.

I'm going to take next weekend off, heading up to Fontenelle on Wednesday to float the Green for a few days with some folks from the tgrrrrzzz.

I'm getting slower as I get older, I could only nut up to a 2/3 straight line on Postcard to end the day. I used to come in with speed and break 60.




What's up Bro?



The Easter Bunny had an attitude.



One of these years I'd like this powder hunting tool. (In the case of the gold so would all my friends). Keep calling the Ski Utah snow report and allowing my buddy to get one of these.



The lot never filled up, but it was full of people.

 

[BobMc]

A little bird (aka Facebook notification) told me the Pugs are in town. If poultry is on the menu tomorrow the early Bird will get the worm. I predict a rather busy day tomorrow, 4 feet of snow this week and everyone trapped at work watching it. Luckily they'll have Peruvian running to pick up the slack.

Get there early if you want on that first tram...

 

[BobMc]

The early worm gets the Bird. I woke up early to a report of 3 overnight on top of a lot in the last 24 and a crap ton in the last week. We're now sitting at a 155 inch base and 586 inches for the season. I figured it 'd be a junk show today and I was right, I got to the bypass about 7:40 and geared up and headed down to the tram. I was about three rows back from the front at that time, easily on first tram.

I kept hoping they'd let us up early, but it wasn't to be. We lifted off at 9:00, the ride up it became apparent it'd be good. Although it was only 3 inches overnight the wind had done it's work and it looked like there was plenty of unskied snow from the week. Other than Mineral and High Baldy the rest of the hill was good to go from the first tram. I headed out the Cirque and found great soft not like end of April snow. I can't say it was blower, but definitely not anything to scoff at. Anderson's to Blackjack to Who Cares provided fantastic turns if not the occasional face shot.

I got back down to find the tram line backed up and Peruvian even worse. I probably should've lapped Peruvian today but it didn't give me access to where I wanted to be. The tram line was full maze around the building single maze for most of the morning. It started to wane after Mineral opened, most of the line moved back there. I never even glanced back at Mineral today, figured it'd be crazy lines. The Road to Provo popped around noon and was quickly eaten up. We got there late and was hoping the Knucklehead was open, to no avail We did watch several people duck the rope and risk their pass for some wind packed turns just beyond the rope.

I skied from first boat till 2, didn't see the Pugs, but I did see @VinceK. Not a lot of people partying on the bypass today, but there's supposed to be a rager tomorrow.

We did catch a few fish last weekend.



Then things got weird.



Tracks on the Cirque



Peruvian line

 

[BobMc]

Sunshine and standing around, again... With the chance of new snow at nil I slept in a bit this morning, getting to the bypass at 10. I was heartened to be able to find a parking spot at the bottom of Who Cares and thought the day would be less crowded. Little did I know a groomer last night caught the haul rope of Peruvian and pulled it off the sheaves. This will probably be the end of Peruvian for the season. They did say that if they can't get Peruvian up and running by next weekend they'll open Zoomer back up again.

With the lack of Peruvian spinning the tram line backed up horribly. For the second time this season when I've been there I saw the dreaded triple maze around the building. Even with the extra maze the line still reached the plaza. I joked with my buddies they were going to install a new maze out on the plaza soon. It's pretty obvious they either sold a lot more spring passes or the tourists are still coming. It was quite busy today, the snow was great but the problem was getting to it. It sure would've been nice to have had Gad 2 spinning, especially since there is plenty of snow out there.

Didn't take many pics today, hurry down to get in line again.

Couple views of tower 23 on Peruvian, the haul rope is over the top of the tower. It looks like a chair is missing from the mark on the rope.

 

[Philpug]

We were up this AM with ********* testing 2019 skis. Condiitons were is mid season form with nice chalky snow. Hope to hit the Bird on the way home. It is some mountain for sure, cannot wat to come back here next year for the Utah Gathering.

 

[BobMc]

Back to vacancy... I got to the bypass at about 8:15 this morning, not too many cars were there. It was me and the regulars. A quick walk across the street showed it didn't freeze hard last, at that time I was hoping for the cloud cover to continue. We headed up first tram of the day and dropped into Mineral, it was already starting to get a bit soft over there and we only made a few laps before heading to the frontside. At first we were thinking of a lap out into Hoops, but when heading down the Road to Provo it became apparent that the frontside still had a bit of crisp to it. We hit up Mark Malu instead and headed over to the Peruvian side knowing we'd encounter a bit softer conditions.

Luckily the Peruvian lift was up and running today, I heard it took them pretty much all week to fix the sheaves and get the haul rope back on again. But, they really didn't need it, there were no lift lines whatsoever. We walked onto every lift we boarded today. Mineral shut down around 10:30 as they had some wet slide activity happening back there. The frontside was in prime condition all the way up till the early afternoon, the high clouds kept it from softening up too much. The terrain was somewhat limited today but with the lack of crowds it really didn't matter. The Cirque never opened and Wilbere is done which limits the lower mountain on the Gad side.

Skied till 1:30, it got a lot mushier soon afterwards. The bypass was festive as usual, The sun came out and springtime was in effect. I'm headed up Logan tomorrow morning to look at a 4 wheeler to plow my lot with, I'm hoping I can make it back in time to ski tomorrow. Although, a bit more rain is forecasted tomorrow and I may beg off If I make a deal on the machine.

Things look a lot greener on the way up.



The dinosaur in the hole under Mineral has been gone for a week or so, someone put a new one and a deterrent on the theft of the current one.



Views were nice this morning.



Plenty of snow, a little vid of Exit Gully.

 

[dean_spirito]

I'll be in Park City from Wednesday-Friday for the USSA Congress. Hoping to sneak away to make some turns at Snowbird. I'd love to link up with some people if anyone is planning on skiing. Let me know!