Solitude, UT 11/7/09

Day 1: The white ribbon

But not a WROD. That wouldn't be fair as there really was enough elbow room.

I went up to Solitude late morning and took 10 runs on Moonbeam to start the season and to do some final new product testing for our upcoming annual gear gift guide. And I had fun.

There's not much left on the lower mountain, with little more higher up on the front side:



but a one-run combination of Same Street to Tude-Dudes had seamless manmade cover -- no rocks, no thin spots:









Aside from the occasional flow of people skiing in a group there was more than enough room to let 'em run and carve arcs side to side. Maybe every other chair on average had a body in it. Link was also running, providing beginner terrain on Easy Street.

Work continues on the final steps of the Powderhorn II lift installation -- I rode the lift once with one of the techs from Skywalk, who are installing the new lift and ripped out the old Powderhorn chair, which I learned is going to The Colony to act as an access lift to carry homeowners into The Canyons.





All in all, your faithful snow reporter is very happy to get the season underway.

it is really weird to see skiing utah with a strip. the riv looked more wintery over 3 weeks ago. surprised that solitude is the early opener. something new?

rog

icelanticskier":1cm0v7ae said:

surprised that solitude is the early opener. something new?

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2nd year.

I agree with Icelantic - my first reaction was how Eastern it looks. I have never been up in the canyons outside of winter.

Nice to see that Solitude's rep for solitude is intact even in WROD season. Being slaves of the school schedule, we have to do our annual pilgrimage to SLC between Christmas and New Year, and in that time period, Solitude -- God bless'em -- is the only one of the nearby resorts (incl the PC group and Snowbasin) where there are almost never lines for the lifts, save a short one for Moonbeam at peak hours. As an impatient type-A, who absolutely hates liftlines, I love Soli Although I know there are different perspectives on the new lift, the logic they have on their website -- basically that it allows black skiers to stay segregated (hmmm .. that came out strangely -- seems pretty reasonable to me.

I'm hoping that this year the weather gods bestow on SLC a bit more early season snow than last year. I was worried right up until about a week before we were scheduled to come out there, when really some major dumps occurred -- includng one that closed SLC airport for a while Christmas night and diverted our flight to Boise!!! I think though that was pretty unusual.

johnnash":1p9adies said:

closed SLC airport for a while Christmas night and diverted our flight to Boise!!! I think though that was pretty unusual.

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Extremely.

BTW, does it look like the new Powderhorn lift will be ready for Christmas? That would be nice.

One other thing I should add to my previous post's unqualifed praise for Solitude, just in case any of the management is reading this. As much as I like the place, our family will never spend more than one day per trip there because the the terrain park is such a joke. No problem at all for me, but big problem for my boarder son!!

johnnash":31qvvl52 said:

BTW, does it look like the new Powderhorn lift will be ready for Christmas? That would be nice.

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Most assuredly it will be. It's nearly done now.

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the terrain park is such a joke. No problem at all for me, but big problem for my boarder son!!

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I assume that kid has improved a lot in the last 2 years. From what I saw in 2006 he was challenged enough on the snow without taking to the air.

Admin":3ckbq8de said:

Work continues on the final steps of the Powderhorn II lift installation -- I rode the lift once with one of the techs from Skywalk, who are installing the new lift and ripped out the old Powderhorn chair, which I learned is going to The Colony to act as an access lift to carry homeowners into The Canyons.

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Marc -

Is this not potentially big news. I read in the recent SKI magazine that they had identified adding more uphill capacity from the lower elevations to supplement the gondi as being a key priority. Of course, you need not read SKI to figure that out, but one wonders if they are going to make this lift accessible to the general public as an alternative access point. Or does that have to wait until they get to the Iron Mtn expansion?

I was there on Saturday and today, one of these days I really should tune my skis. It was a bit "crispy" on the lower pitch just before the lodges. I'll be there every Saturday and Sunday this season. If you're around when we have a bit more snow let me know, I'd be happy to make some turns and perhaps show you around a bit.

BobMc":qs1pynym said:

perhaps show you around a bit.

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{Bob's Trees}

No opinion on this discussion?
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8268&start=15

Mike Bernstein":2n6dd8nb said:

one wonders if they are going to make this lift accessible to the general public as an alternative access point. Or does that have to wait until they get to the Iron Mtn expansion?

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From my conversation I believe that the lift itself will be accessible to the public, but knowing the exclusivity of The Colony it will almost assuredly be only from above, not below.

It looks like I'm not missing too much hanging out in Arizona in 85 degrees. But still, snow would be nice (so I can become employed!).

Great to see your first report Marc. I just got in from Beijing tonight , after 23 days in the far east. I want to report that a UT inversion can't compare to the air in Beijing. We literally couldn't see beyond 100 yards in DAYLIGHT! I can't wait to breath some air at altitude.

Supposedly tirolerpeter was in China at the right time of year, as opposed to my steamy July visits. Fall is supposed to be better for Beijing air quality too, but perhaps not. The summer rain does clean it out temporarily.