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

[BobMc]

Unfortunately I'll be working those days. I'm hoping you don't encounter rain, as the forecast doesn't look favorable. I ended up buying a 4 wheeler today, planning on skiing till 1:00 next Saturday and heading out to the desert to give it a try.

The thing scares me, but my oldest son is enthused.

 

[BobMc]

I decided to take the afternoon off and indulge in some spring skiing. I got to the bypass about 12:30 and was hoping the snow wasn't done at that point. Luckily even though it was pretty warm and sunny there was enough of a breeze to keep the snow from getting too sticky. As expected it was pretty vacant today, maybe 30 people on every tram I rode and empty chairs on Little Cloud. Mineral was open but closed at 2:00, Great Scott is open but the rest of the Cirque is closed. (For the season from what I heard, lotta slide action on that aspect.)

Last tram is now 3:00, I hope they go to 8:00 opening soon, but they haven't said anything about it. I heard a rumor that Memorial day weekend is the end, not sure if it's true but they sure have a lot of "summer activities" on their calendar for June.

Baldy Bowl had a lot of wet slide activity.




Not many people around, I stopped and took this pic and nobody came by me.



The mid and lower Cirque looks lonely.



Sign of spring, muddy skis.



Superior is getting bony.

 

[BobMc]

Today had clouds and cooler temps forecasted. I got to the bypass at about 8:30, geared up and headed down to the plaza. I had parked next to a friend of mine that left literally 2 minutes before I did. When I arrived I found a line reaching the plaza and 30 race kids between me and my buddy that left just before me. It was quite busy, I ended up on second tram and there was close to three trams worth of a line up.

Luckily the mountain still eats up crowds and once the initial line up got up the hill it was smooth sailing. Mineral was good to go from the get go, the groomers were all giving up a good carve. The frontside was pretty stiff all morning long, there were plenty of clouds on hand and a stiff breeze that kept everything pretty firm. The winds shut down the tram around noon, although it wasn't particularly strong it was more about the direction and they were having trouble docking.

They quickly fired up Peruvian but this still made it difficult to do laps. The Gad valley was giving up the corn down low right about the time the tram went down. Shuttle ride to Peruvian to tunnel, to Mineral, to frontside takes a bit of time. I left once the tram went down for West desert fun.

Didn't take many ski pics today, the light was flat and didn't lend itself to photography.

The frontside from the road, still plenty of snow.



West desert 4 wheeler fun.

 

[Jim Kenney]

4 wheeling and skiing on same day, nice late spring Utah double

 

[BobMc]

Another beautiful spring day. Last week another powder storm dropped a fair batch of new snow. This also froze the snowpack and makes for much better riding conditions. Snowbird has moved to spring hours now, the tram opens up at 8:00 and closes at 2:00, Mineral and Little Cloud were spinning at 8:00 as well. We got there at 8:30, walked onto the tram deck and dropped into Mineral.

After a couple runs out Powder Paradise on groomers we started looking for smoothness to harvest corn out under the Baldy lift. We quickly found a nice smooth pitch accessed by a short bit of sidestepping, and proceeded to lap it numerous times. It was nice to look over and see all the ants on Powder Paradise while we had this area pretty much all to ourselves. The line started to build at MBX around 11:00 and we headed to the frontside.

The frontside had softened up nicely, we headed down the Gad side and found great conditions all the way down to Emma. First tram ride up they told us to avoid Emma and head down Fluffy Bunny to get to the plaza. My buddy Mike was out ahead of Travis and I, we stopped at the top of Emma to see him make a right at the bottom of Emma onto the Bass Highway and encounter a moose standing on the run. It stared down Mike and started walking towards him before a couple more people that hadn't noticed him came along which spooked him and made it run up towards Wilbere. We beat feet down Fluffy Bunny and flew down Harpers before he got there.

We took a few more tram rides and skied till 1:30. A high cloud deck came in and kept the snow from getting too sticky. Tomorrow looks like a chance of rain, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays away!

Travis looking at our line in Mineral




Two trams meet at tower 3.





Travis harvesting some corn.



Myself getting in on the action.

 

[BobMc]

Although Snowbird was open this weekend, the ratio of skiing to non-skiing people in my household voted me out of skiing. Instead we headed up to Willard Bay, a fresh water reservoir North of Ogden. Willard is a pretty big body of water, the fishing is usually good when the pleasure boaters aren't buzzing you. We've been going there for a while and know our favorite campsites, we had scored our favorite site a couple months ago. Utah has a rolling six month window for reserving campsites, if you want a decent site for a holiday you've got to be paying attention.

There was a bit of chop on the water Friday evening, I don't have a boat and usually fish from my inflatable pontoon, the chop had me waiting for saturday morning. Dibs, aka Skifishbum came up the following morning and we took my five year old out for a few hours. I was hoping for a repeat of last Memorial day weekend where he caught an 18 inch catfish on a gummie worm. But, it was not meant to be, we all got skunked for the whole day.

We went out Sunday morning as well, Dibs scored a few good sized carp on the fly before I got up and then we floated around together to no avail. He decided to head home and take care of dog related stuff while we continued our weekend. I headed out Sunday evening expecting to be skunked again, I didn't see anyone on the water catching fish.

I slow rolled a worm on a bare hook, finally my rod was almost yanked out of the holder. After a decent fight I netted the biggest Wiper I've caught, it measured out at 24 inches. I hooked and lost another at the boat then called it a successful weekend.

The non-skiing portion of the family had a ball as well, s'mores and plenty of good food happened, as well as campfire shenanigans.

Good views.



The dog had fun.



Although I got skunked, the views made up for it.



Scooter crashes are a part of campground life.



Finally caught a fish, this was after four days of cumulative skunking.





Next weekend should be back to skiing, I'm not sure how long they intend on staying open.

 

[UGASkiDawg]

Nice wiper!

 

[crgildart]

It appears you caught the fish that ate all the other fish!

 

[BobMc]

Still skiing! Snowbird is still spinning the tram and Little Cloud, they decided Mineral was getting too melted out and decided it was done after last weekend.

Now that they're running 8:00am trams it takes a bit earlier of an entrance fee to be on the first one. We pulled into entry 2 about 7:30 and figured we'd find a spot in the pond lot. To our amazement we were able to park in the closest strip/lot to the plaza. We easily made first tram, they loaded everyone at eight and we sat there for a moment. After a few minutes they had us all get off, apparently the batteries stored in the floor had gone bad. We sat there for a bit while they fixed things and eventually loaded about 10-15 minutes later.

Once up top we were told they'd be going to 15 minute trams after they lifted the short line out of the plaza. Mineral is closed for the season and it's just the tram and Little Cloud. We ran a few laps out the Road to Provo, Mark Malu was "open" but the majority of it was taken up by race kiddies. Shireen skied well, a bit firm but just soft enough to gain a purchase.

We let it soften a bit, ran a couple Regulator laps and headed out Hoops. Finding soft snow on our first lap we returned and headed out Bomar's pass. There was no sign denying an upper sidestep so we put it in to the top of Come From Behind Gully. It was a bit of a sweat getting there in the blazing sun, but the turns made up for it. It started getting a bit soft mid morning and we headed to car around 11:30.

Getting to the base involves downloading the tram or hiking downhill/dirt skiing for a bit. My buddy Burke claims it's 170 steps from Little Cloud to the tram, I'm always gonna opt for downhill hiking rather than uphill. It really wasn't too bad, the usual hike down the Bass Highway is actually pretty short at this time. Emma and Lunch run ski well enough to justify the short walks.

Travis at the top of the tram looking over at the Road to Provo.




Looking down Shireen.



Travis skiing Come From Behind Gully


Hiking down the Bass Highway at the end of our day.

 

[TonyC]

Can't you ski down at the end of day on the Peruvian side via Great Scott or Silver Fox/Primrose? How low is there still snow on the Peruvian side?

 

[BobMc]

I stayed home and hung out with the kids today. The Peruvian side is open and considered backcountry just like the Gad side. Great Scott and the Cirque are closed. The top of Great Scott is melted out and would require a downclimb to get into it. Either side is just a way to get down at the end of the day, laps are done on Little Cloud. The Gad side involves much less walking and the walking is on mostly level ground.

 

[BobMc]

A bit of poking around on their website tonight showed some interesting things. They now have listed they'll be open Saturday-Sunday through June 18th, subject to change. Season passes for next year are now on sale. Same prices as last season with a few differences. The Wasatch Benefit now gives two days at Deer Valley and two days at Alta instead of three, but they also give two days at Solitude! (Which I of course love) If you buy your pass early the free night at the Cliff Lodge is now good till December 14th, instead of the end of November. I don't see mention of the discount at Papa Murphy's that we've had in years past, which would bear out what the manager of my local Papa Murphy's told me when I wanted the $2.00 off my Friday night pizza. He told me they weren't honoring that anymore, but I still got my $2.00 off when I argued I was still skiing on the pass that claimed it.

 

[BobMc]

The end is here. Sunday will be the closing day for the 2016-2017 season. It's been fun and I'm looking forward to closing day. It's Brewfest weekend and there has been a lot of complaints about paying for parking while skiing, to their credit they've decided to not start charging for parking until noon. Kudos to them.

 

[Jim Kenney]

Thanks Bob for all your reports this season. Seems like they decided somewhat abruptly on closing June 11. I guess there has been a heat wave in Utah in recent weeks? I recognize at this late point the end is always a week by week thing depending on weather and temps.

 

[BobMc]

Breezy country club day! We got to the lot at 7:30, no payment needed. They had the strip closest to the plaza blocked off for valet only and the pond lot gated, so we had to park a bit up from the roundabout. It wasn't too busy in the morning and we easily made first tram, which was a good thing. Riding the first tram up it was pretty apparent the winds were kicking, the boat shimmied around a bit in the middle of the Cirque span.

We got off to stiff winds and headed down the Road to Provo. Quite a bit of snow is gone compared to last weekend. The traverse has good coverage but a lot of stray rocks, even though there wasn't a solid refreeze it was still pretty crisp first thing. We made a few runs off Little Cloud and noticed it seemed kinda quiet, not many people out. Eventually we noticed the sign at the bottom of Little Cloud advising that the tram was shut down from the high winds.

I picked up my buddy Burke hitching this morning, I saw him on the hill and he told me two trams got off before they closed it down. So there was about 150 people on the hill from 8am to 11. My buddy Mike took advantage of the lack of closures of any kind and hiked up come from behind gully, bootered up to the ridgeline and hiked to the top of Baldy's Bowl. He reported fantastic conditions with a minimum of sun cups and sluffages. He left a nice set of tracks up there for folks to see.

It's pretty apparent why they're closing, the snow is going fast, the bare patches on Little Cloud bowl are rather large and infringe on a big portion of Regulator. Rocks are starting to show up in the middle of runs and grooming is getting difficult on most slopes given the snow depth. We skied till noon and headed down the Gad side. The snow lasts all the way to the bottom of Emma where the Bass Highway branches off. You're ribbon skiing here and there and walking the entire Bass Highway. I put my skis back on for about 20 yards after unclicking at the bottom of Emma, Travis walked even those 20 yards.

Once back at the lot we hung at the car for a few hours soaking in the Brewfest scene, it was pretty busy up there this afternoon. Rather than spend $15 for a tasting mug and three tokens I brought up a bottle of wine + snacks and regaled in my cheapness.

Tomorrow is the end, but I'm kinda worried that today was the end. They had difficulties running the tram today, tomorrow is supposed to be even windier. I"m going up regardless and hoping to get up to Little Cloud.

Travis skiing Exit Gully, just skiers right of Goblin Gully.


Travis heading down Shireen



Looking over at Candelabra Tree through a gap in the trees at the bottom of Goblin Gully



View of the "Snake", a channel cut in down near the Wave. They did a good job with it, pretty fun once you commit to the speed and turns.



Looking up at Baldy's Bowl, Mike's tracks went down the left center of the pic.



Looking over at Little Cloud Bowl/Regulator, you can see the bare patches have grown



Hanging with Travis in the trees remembering a great season that is close to ending

 

[BobMc]

Thanks Bob for all your reports this season. Seems like they decided somewhat abruptly on closing June 11. I guess there has been a heat wave in Utah in recent weeks? I recognize at this late point the end is always a week by week thing depending on weather and temps.

Howdy Jim, yeah, it's gotten a lot thinner after last weekend. I was rather surprised, I was holding out hope for a Fourth of July ski day. But, there's pretty much no way that's happening on a full resort open scale. I saw Vince a couple times today, he was working an event, I'd imagine I'll see him up there tomorrow as long as they can run the tram.

 

[Jim Kenney]

Last day at Snowbird, June 11, 2017. VinceK, day #92 of season:

 

[BobMc]

The End! Thankfully today the wind that was forecasted never happened. It was a bit busier first thing this morning, I think people were gun shy after yesterday and wanted to make sure they were there before the winds came on. We got there about 7:40 and easily made first tram. There had been a bit harder of a refreeze last night, it was much crisper first thing out of the gate. With Mineral off-line the only sun kissed early slope is Mark Malu, but that has been where the race kiddies have been holding their event. Yesterday they gave us about 10 yards of groomed to work with outside their event ropes. Today they took the whole pitch, even though they didn't have gates within 15 yards of their ropes.

Most folks were traversing back to Shireen but I went fall line a bit and found the frozen suncupped gave me a bit more purchase than frozen corduroy. The entire hill was frozen, Goblin Gully was not only frozen but frozen into bumps with rocks in the troughs. We negotiated it and ducked off into the trees adjacent to the run at the bottom and watched the carnage until the skis stopped making noise we didn't like. It was much like a Warren Miller movie, we saw at least 4 take off skis and walkers (which only worked on one occasion, every other time it was a bad idea), several good slides, and an overall oh shit I'm not going this way again!

It took about a 1/2 hour before the loudness of the pow became bearable. The sun came on pretty strong today and the wind didn't materialize. Once again they had Bomar's pass open as a backcountry gate. Even though it was pretty busy today we seemed to be the only people going out there and leaving tracks. It involved a minimal of traversing and sidestepping but gave up the reward of smooth corn without suncups. The Bass Benches also gave up the corn, you just had to work the aspects a bit.to find the smoothness without suncups or runnels.

It was a great morning, we even ran into Vince K and made a run with him. The crowds showed up around noon and we decided to call it a day and watch the scenery in the parking lot. Once again downloading wasn't going to happen, the walk off was the same length as yesterday. I timed it today, it took 20 minutes from the start of the Bass Highway to my car in the lot.

It was a great season, the 493 total inches gave plenty of pow storms to play in. I didn't count this season but I'd assume I was around 60 days. Now it's time to move onto camping, golf, and fishing.

Looking down from the top of Regulator




Heading down for the last time of the season.




Looking back at Bassackwards



All of this stuff is out of my car for the first time since November.