johnnash
New member
Had a great time at Brighton today, and not just because of the skiing. But first the ski report: Started out on the Snake Creek and was surprised to find that they had groomed almost everything – even runs that in my limited experience at least they've always left as bump runs (like Ziggy, Lower Pioneer, Thor, Thunderhead, Lone Star). That was OK with me, since I had vowed to make this day as bump-less as possible, since I had kind of gotten carried away on the bumps yesterday and torqued one knee a bit. So I spent a couple of hours doing cruisers before moving over to the Great Western. The cruisers off Snake Creek were in nice enough condition, although there were a few areas of real hardpack on runs that are steep and heavily skied (e.g., Lower Pioneer). Conditions on the runs off the Great Western were pretty good – some groomed (AspenGlow) and some not (Wrangler, Rockin R), but mostly with nice packed powder. Still, a few iffy spots; they can definitely use a refresher coat. I moved over to Milly after lunch, planning to spend the afternoon on that side, and when I dropped into Little Milly on my first run, I thought I had made a BIG mistake. I felt right at home (as in, DC area skiing) as I slid the first 5 or 10 meters vertical on crud, but then hit some beautiful soft powder – not deep, but underlain with chalk. And that pretty much summed up the Milly side – wind scoured up top, nice down below. I did a couple of runs in Milly Bowl and it was perhaps a bit more edgeable on top than Mill. (Have top say, though, that I never found as much really soft powder in the bowl as there was on lower Little Milly.) The area to skier’s left of Milly (Exhibition, Spaghetti, the bowls) seemed to have been protected from wind, since I didn’t find any scapey spots there. Hopefully the snow tonight will re-surface the areas that have been scoured.
On a non-skiing note, we’ve always enjoyed the wildlife out here. (Saw a moose on a drive up BCC once, and numerous other little critters.) But today I saw something I thought was really special – a porcupine ambling across a trail. I threw on the brakes, clicked out and took some pix and vids. Maybe this isn’t so unusual for you SLCers, but it made my day! \
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwQzBYp07YQ[/youtube]
On a non-skiing note, we’ve always enjoyed the wildlife out here. (Saw a moose on a drive up BCC once, and numerous other little critters.) But today I saw something I thought was really special – a porcupine ambling across a trail. I threw on the brakes, clicked out and took some pix and vids. Maybe this isn’t so unusual for you SLCers, but it made my day! \
/ [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwQzBYp07YQ[/youtube]