Liz and I arrived late Friday in Salt Lake City, this time staying with her friends Andy and Lisa, who were also hosting 5 other eastern visitors. Andy had been president of the NYC Diamond Dogs ski club for several years before moving to SLC a couple of years ago, so like admin he's been running a hotel for eastern skiers during ski season after moving west.
They wanted to check out the Dew Tour at Snowbasin this weekend and Liz was up for that since she had never been there before. 4 of the guests opted for Brighton instead as they feared the Dew Tour would make Snowbasin too crowded. I wasn't concerned and I was correct with respect to the lifts, but not the parking as the event attracted lots of spectators. We arrived just before 10AM and barely made it into Snowbasin's 2nd lot, and the 3rd lot was in use before too long.
The first Needles gondola line was 6 minutes, and I figured it best to get away from the crowd by skiing Strawberry. We were very pleasantly surprised by conditions over there, as we knew it had not snowed for awhile and been warm. It was still warm, in the 40's, though overcast on Saturday. Down low on Strawberry north-facing Carnahan's under the gondola had good snow though a bit more vegetation than with a normal snowpack.
First Strawberry gondola we headed skier's left to The Walrus, which had steep chalk with quite a bit of loose windsift on top.
Next time up we went the other way, first to check out the view over Ogden and the Great Salt Lake.
As we were about to ski off Andy, Lisa and guest Gloria arrived. Both Andy and I intended to ski far right into Sister's Bowl, where BobbyD had showed me around a couple of years ago. Snow was soft and carvable out there.
Lower down we did not push into the farthest bowl but were able to link partially north facing shots of smooth and soft snow almost to the cat track. Light was a bit flat and Gloria fell on her face and temporarily displaced a contact lens.
By now it was nearly 1PM so we headed back to the main area via Lone Pine. Andy and I descended skier's left, one turn at a time for a few turns of the narrow upper part. But it was excellent snow and comfortably skied for the lower 3/4 or so. Lisa took the even narrower but not quite as steep line skier's right of the rocks here.
Liz is somewhat disguised by the gray skies at the top of the skier's left entry here. None of us saw her there and after waiting a few minutes assumed she and Gloria had gone around to Strawberry Fields or The Walrus. It turns out they had a slow survival descent skier's left and we waited quite a while for them to catch up at John Paul where we were going for lunch.
After lunch we went up the short tram, then skied under the John Paul lift with nice snow up high but bumpier and more variable near the base. It was after 3PM by now and we went to check out the events for a while. Liz and I went up Needles first, with a nice ski under the gondola.
We skied into the middle of the slopestyle and watched a few snowboarders there.
Then we went to the bottom of the halfpipe where a larger crowd had gathered to watch skier training runs.
Only 15,300 today, but a nice overview of the area in some of the most interesting terrain and mostly very good snow. We were quite pleased with the weekend choices, a good day here and then catching the powder Sunday at Alta.
They wanted to check out the Dew Tour at Snowbasin this weekend and Liz was up for that since she had never been there before. 4 of the guests opted for Brighton instead as they feared the Dew Tour would make Snowbasin too crowded. I wasn't concerned and I was correct with respect to the lifts, but not the parking as the event attracted lots of spectators. We arrived just before 10AM and barely made it into Snowbasin's 2nd lot, and the 3rd lot was in use before too long.
The first Needles gondola line was 6 minutes, and I figured it best to get away from the crowd by skiing Strawberry. We were very pleasantly surprised by conditions over there, as we knew it had not snowed for awhile and been warm. It was still warm, in the 40's, though overcast on Saturday. Down low on Strawberry north-facing Carnahan's under the gondola had good snow though a bit more vegetation than with a normal snowpack.
First Strawberry gondola we headed skier's left to The Walrus, which had steep chalk with quite a bit of loose windsift on top.
Next time up we went the other way, first to check out the view over Ogden and the Great Salt Lake.
As we were about to ski off Andy, Lisa and guest Gloria arrived. Both Andy and I intended to ski far right into Sister's Bowl, where BobbyD had showed me around a couple of years ago. Snow was soft and carvable out there.
Lower down we did not push into the farthest bowl but were able to link partially north facing shots of smooth and soft snow almost to the cat track. Light was a bit flat and Gloria fell on her face and temporarily displaced a contact lens.
By now it was nearly 1PM so we headed back to the main area via Lone Pine. Andy and I descended skier's left, one turn at a time for a few turns of the narrow upper part. But it was excellent snow and comfortably skied for the lower 3/4 or so. Lisa took the even narrower but not quite as steep line skier's right of the rocks here.
Liz is somewhat disguised by the gray skies at the top of the skier's left entry here. None of us saw her there and after waiting a few minutes assumed she and Gloria had gone around to Strawberry Fields or The Walrus. It turns out they had a slow survival descent skier's left and we waited quite a while for them to catch up at John Paul where we were going for lunch.
After lunch we went up the short tram, then skied under the John Paul lift with nice snow up high but bumpier and more variable near the base. It was after 3PM by now and we went to check out the events for a while. Liz and I went up Needles first, with a nice ski under the gondola.
We skied into the middle of the slopestyle and watched a few snowboarders there.
Then we went to the bottom of the halfpipe where a larger crowd had gathered to watch skier training runs.
Only 15,300 today, but a nice overview of the area in some of the most interesting terrain and mostly very good snow. We were quite pleased with the weekend choices, a good day here and then catching the powder Sunday at Alta.