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blackke17

I'd rather be at Alta
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South Side
thanks guys. heading up tomorrow morning. I got the Alta Bird pass, nice having access to both especially when railing groomers all morning.
 

Jim Kenney

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Sounds like a good dump coming Fri into Sat?!?
 

neonorchid

Making fresh tracks
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Mid-Atlantic
Sounds like a good dump coming Fri into Sat?!?
Forecast is looking good for next week too -

OpenSnow: (I only have access to the 1 - 5 day forecast)

Brighton Friday day/night 5-9"/2-4", Sat 1-2"/1", Solititude Fri 4-8"/2-4", Sat 1-2"/0-1", Snowbird Fri 5-9"/2-6" Sat 2-4"/1-2"

TWC: (has Friday #'s reversed)

Brighton Fri day/night 1-3"/3"-5" Sat 1-3"/~1", Sunday night 1-3", Monday day/night 3-5"/1-3", then another shot Thurs day/night 3-5"/1-3" :)
 

dbostedo

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Forecast is looking good for next week too -

OpenSnow: (I only have access to the 1 - 5 day forecast)

Brighton Friday day/night 5-9"/2-4", Sat 1-2"/1", Solititude Fri 4-8"/2-4", Sat 1-2"/0-1", Snowbird Fri 5-9"/2-6" Sat 2-4"/1-2"

TWC: (has Friday #'s reversed)

Brighton Fri day/night 1-3"/3"-5" Sat 1-3"/~1", Sunday night 1-3", Monday day/night 3-5"/1-3", then another shot Thurs day/night 3-5"/1-3" :)

There's a bit more in the 6-10 day forecast too... nothing big, but more. :)
 

Shawn C.

Out on the slopes
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Sep 3, 2017
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403
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Ogden, UT
Snowing sideways (and hard too!) on Hill AFB.
Of course the Powder Mountain snow stake web-cam is not working. :eek:
 
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BobMc

BobMc

In line for the tram
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Nov 12, 2015
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466
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West Jordan, Utah
Winter finally arrived!

Yesterday I went back and forth between going to Snowbird today or using one of my Deer Valley days and avoiding the crowds formed by the first pow storm in a while. I woke up this morning and Snowbird was reporting 6 inches and Deer Valley was reporting 8 inches. My decision was made for me.

My buddy Travis texted me at 6:15 this morning that he was already in the tram line at Snowbird, I left my house at 7:15 and made it to the Jordanelle base area at about 8:15. The ride over Parley's was fairly sketchy, a few cars off in the ditch. It is true, the Sundance crew doesn't ski. My buddy Mike was a few minutes ahead of me and scored a parking spot in the lot of the gondy building, I was one curve up.

We bypassed all the Sundance traffic with this method but unfortunately it left us about three lift rides from any real skiing. It's basically cat tracks from Little Baldy Peak over to the Snow Park area, up the Silver Lake Express and then up Bald Mountain. We made a tactical error the first real run down. My buddy Mike has an area he likes in most usual years, "It's killer down here and nobody goes here!" he tells me. What started out as smooth turns quickly turned into bushwhacking, rocks, brush, and log slides. It quickly became apparent that a lot of the resort was dirt or close to it yesterday.

After that we mostly stayed to the traveled areas, we found the best turns of the day over on Lady Morgan after a bit of a bushwhack through a tree/brush stand to access a decent powder field. I probably got my most vertical of the season today, the snow was good all day and it snowed fairly consistently. We didn't wait in a lift line while we were there, the trails were equally uncluttered. Hollywood don't ski.

Travis said Snowbird got fairly busy but they released the hounds at straight up 9:00 and didn''t have too many terrain delays. He made first tram and hit Great Scott from the top for a first run. His reviews were favorable. My buddy Dibs reported a Summit opening at Solitude about 10:30 and great conditions until the crowds showed up around 11:30.

We got a fair amount of snow in the valley overnight, my car in the the driveway this morning.

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Didn't get many action photos today, my buddy Mike keeps a pretty fast pace.

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We got back down to our car at 2:10, it snowed most of the time we were there.

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My buddy Mike in the lot.

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It was still snowing pretty hard on Parley's on the way back down to the valley.

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3-5 forecasted tonight, I'll be in line for the tram early tomorrow.
 
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BobMc

BobMc

In line for the tram
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466
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West Jordan, Utah
10 inch surprise!

I got up this morning expecting a low snow report and was happy to see Snowbird claiming 10 in 12 hours. I had slept in a bit not expecting much, so I got caught in the red snake. Traffic was pretty harsh this morning, I hit bumper to bumperz just up from the 7-11 on Wasatch blvd. With a little creative navigation I still managed to get to the lot about 9:20. I was skiing with Travis and kiddies today so I parked down at Zoom. Once again the preferred parking was full and they put me in the five minute unloading zone. A couple other preferreds showed up and were parked next to me, everyone pretty much agreed it was the best $250 we've spent to enhance the resort experience.

It was pretty busy in the morning, everyone was stuck to the Gad side of the hill. Peruvian was on delay and Mineral was closed. Some days I can sniff out openings like a rat on a cheeto, today wasn't one of them. We kept an eye on the Peruvian opening and made a pass by the lift on every run. It opened just as we breezed by it and headed down to Zoomer. I had wanted to go up and wait in the Summit for it to open and catch the gate up top but the kiddies weren't into that idea. By the time we got back over to the tram the crowds had had their way with it. I found a host and asked her the chance of Mineral happening, she told me slim, they hadn't even started running routes back there.

We skied till 1:00, as I drove down the canyon I got a twitter notification from @snowbirdalerts, "Mineral is open, enjoy. The 22 inches in the last couple days have gone a long way to making the mountain whole. Most everything is open with the exception of Road to Provo and Baldy. I'd assume one or the other will be open by next weekend as we look to have a bit more snow moving in for the end of next week.

I'm not sure when Lunch Run became Roger's Run?

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The stairs have been taken out of play at the top of the tram, we finally have enough snow to not have to use them.

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They have an IFSA junior comp going on, the Mid Cirque area is roped off for the comp.

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Couple pics of Travis.

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Some people aren't believers in Global Warming, but Snowbird is taking it serious and starting to take note. (Pic lifted from a friend's Facebook page that works there.)

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Jim Kenney

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Love those snowy photos. Mr. T looking natty in his St. Paddy's Day garb!
 
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BobMc

BobMc

In line for the tram
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466
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West Jordan, Utah
Terrain pushed out!

I went to bed pretty early last night and had no problem getting up early this morning. I picked Travis up at 7:30 and we headed up the hill. We encountered light traffic and made it to the bypass a bit after 8. There was a fairly big ticket line when we joined the tram line at 8:20. The ticket windows don't open till 8:30, a cruel trick to those who need tickets and still want first tram. (On powder days, today it wasn't an issue) The pressure for first tram was pretty light today, we were three rows back getting there when we did.

We got to the line at 8:20 and lifted off promptly at 9:00, but I"m pretty sure we stood there for two hours. I always maintain the slowest time can go is when waiting for first tram or first chair. There were two guys together in the row ahead of us. Guy #1 is standing there holding his skis. Guy #2 is standing there holding his skis upside down and all four of their poles. They stand this way for 10-15 minutes. Guy #1 says, "Hey, hold these." and hands his skis to Guy #2 who is now holding two pairs of skis and four poles. Guy #1 proceeds to stand there chilling for 10 minutes until line starts moving to load when he retakes his skis from Guy #2 who dutifully held them the entire time.

Snowbird received about 11 inches Thursday night into Friday, the snow report on Friday showed Powder Paradise hadn't opened. That was my plan this morning, it was dashed when I got to the top and asked a host who told me he thought it'd opened yesterday. We headed out there first thing and sure enough, it was tracked out. The light was pretty flat back in Mineral, the cat track was hard to discern. We went all the way out to the Bookends/Hillary ropeline. We were hoping to find a tongue of wind buff but didn't find anything resembling it. The snow out there was still quite soft and even though tracked still skied very well. It skied so well we hit up a Baldy lap and skied the groomers coming down from there. There wasn't a hint of hardness, it was silky smooth and you could open it up a bit.

We headed back up to the top and went down the frontside. At the bottom of Zoom the board showed the Road to Provo as open. Zoomer to Little Cloud and we were heading out there for the first time this season. Quite crazy considering it's almost February. They hadn't been able to run a groomer out the traverse so it was a bit sporty, most folks were pretty civil though and it was orderly. Of course we went all the way out, Travis set the track past Bonar's, I hit up the depression just before that. It took a bit of rock/scree crossing to get there but that kept the snow from being plundered by the initial crowds. There were plenty of sharks out there, I'm sure there's gonna be a bit of base welding done by participants out there. If you knew how to read terrain and have a quick eye it was ok, I didn't hit but a few small touches. But, we saw a lot of folks get taken out by rock hits.

We bypassed the Little Cloud line and headed down to Gad 2 hoping to find the upper Bassackwards gate open. Sure enough, it had opened. I've got a favorite spot there that is signed as a cliff area, it tends to keep folks from dropping. We hit that up and sure enough were the first people down and didn't touch a thing. Soft, soft turns.

Around noon we were headed up the tram and saw a few tracks on Cheater Baldy. We didn't see but a few folks on the traverse and were hopeful by the time we could get there we'd still find unmolested snow. The traverse over there was a bit beat out in spots but sure enough by the time we got there we were able to traverse far enough out into Palm Springs and get some tasty lines. After getting skunked on rope drops last weekend it was nice to be back like that bum on a bologna sandwich thing again.

We skied till a bit after 1:00, it looked like they were working the Bookends pretty hard, even though the trail report shows they didn't open I'd bet they did. High Baldy and Tiger Tail/Thunder are about the only areas still closed. Baby Thunder opened the other day, letting them claim 11 of 11 lifts open.

"Can you hold my shred sticks while I chill? Thanks."

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JohnL

Working and turning
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NOVA - Home of Amazon HQ 2.5
Wouldn't surprise me that much P-Tex and base weld epoxy was used after skiing Friday and Saturday at Little Cloud lift.

Top of Little Cloud lift on Thursday, the day before the 11 inch storm.
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I have pictures of The Road to Provo and beyond, but in the new Apple iPhone HEIC format which Pugski appears to not support. Worse looking than the above picture.
 

Jim Kenney

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Guess who, Alta 1/27/18?
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This guy gets around!
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Jim Kenney

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I was at Snowbird today, 1/28/18. It was quite foggy on the upper mtn at times today. My pics are mostly from clear periods. I spent a lot of time in Mineral Basin.

I got together with @Michael R. We are under the Mineral Basin chair and I told him to ski past me and I would take some pictures.



He's looking good and I tell him to ski close to the camera.



I steered him right toward a two foot rock, probably much bigger underneath. It's just below his ski tips in this pic.



I almost get him splattered.



but he scrambles and recovers.



What did JimK just try to do to me?



Later we make up and are all smiles looking off the back of the saddle above Bookends area. That's 11,749 Mt Timpanogos in background.



Michael recovers to ski a gnarly chute in the Bookends area of Mineral Basin.



finishing up bookends. Very variable, but fun day.

 
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BobMc

BobMc

In line for the tram
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Nov 12, 2015
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466
Location
West Jordan, Utah
I took the day off to help the wife get ready for our Cancun trip this week. Travis and Mike both went up and reported poor visibility conditions. Wednesday afternoon I'll be sipping drinks by the beach/poolside. It looks like I'm not going to be missing much while I'm away, hopefully the hose turns back on after I get back the weekend after next.
 
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BobMc

BobMc

In line for the tram
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Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
466
Location
West Jordan, Utah
Skiing is FUN! Spent five days in Cancun last week, sitting by a pool sipping fruity drinks is fun and all, but it ain't skiing.

Unfortunately after spending five days in Mexico and accidently drinking the tap water one night Montezuma indeed got his revenge on me. I came home with the flu/cold, I was miserable Friday and Saturday and had to beg off skiing yesterday. I still didn't feel 100% but knew I wasn't going to go three weeks without skiing so this morning I peeled myself out of bed and headed up. I got there in time for normal first tram but this weekend was "customer appreciation weekend" and they'd lifted off at 8:30. I made 3rd public tram and wasn't disappointed. They claimed 5 inches yesterday and probably lied a bit, it was easily 8 inches in spots. There was a bit of dust on crust here and there and also spots that were legit boot top.

I spun a lap on the frontside waiting for Travis and family to arrive. Primrose was nice and soft, Silver Fox was a bit blown off. After Trav and family got there we headed up and dropped into Mineral. The kiddies took Lupine Loop and Travis and I headed to Cham Bowl. I didn't explore around a whole lot today being still on the sick side, but I'd bet it'd be hard to beat the snow in Cham. They had the far gate open as well and I headed over there to get the unmolested. It was easily 8 inches if not more. We milked the Baldy lift for a few freshies and got out of there as the crowds grew. The line was about 13 minutes according to my plot on ski tracks.

It was a lot quieter on the frontside, we didn't wait in lift lines for the rest of the day. Ended the day with a Sign Line, the high traverse off of Peruvian is put in perfectly, it's gravity all the way across West Baldy. The sun was shining, the snow was good, the hill is in good shape. We could still use a bit more snow, but the only thing not in play is Tiger Tail and Thunder.

Dylanb801 tears it up tele style.

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A few of @travieb801 coming by me.

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The Cirque from Sign Line Gully

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Shot taken from the Bypass, kinda weird effect with the clouds and sun.

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Little bit of video of Travis in Sign Line

 

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