Solitude, UT 3/7/15

Day 40: April sunshine.

I went up to Solitude yesterday for a media day ahead of Deer Valley's closing on purchasing the resort May 1. Bobby Danger, AmyZ, Telejon, Tony Crocker and Liz all opted to follow, plus I planned to meet up with Braveskimom and her family, who were also in town.



It felt like an April day in early March, with bright, hot sunshine, bluebird skies and rapidly softening snow.



Following breakfast I tooled around the mountain with Sara of Solitude, Emily of Deer Valley, several other journos and Dave DeSeelhorst, current GM and member of the family selling the resort.



These TRs are about conditions, so that's what I'll focus on here. Morning highlights included the groomers, which were all fast and soft, as well as a lap through Honeycomb where Prince of Wales was already getting a bit manky.



Our group gathered for lunch at the sit-down Honeycomb Grill, but with slow service I ducked out after appetizers to get back on the hill and hook up with AmyZ, Tony, Liz and Braveskimom & family. Black Forest was fun but you had to watch your step in places and keep a light ski. I tried to get out the Highway to Heaven gate to ski down to Twin Lakes Reservoir but the gate had already closed by the time we got there, so I opted for dry, chalky snow in the well-protected Corner Pocket instead.



We finished the day basking in the sunshine with cocktails on the patio of Honeycomb Grill.



I really need to visit Solitude more often.

I met up with BraveSkiMom and family at 1:30, before admin could get away. We skied 3 runs on Powderhorn, 2 of then near the chair line in the moguls. Snow was excellent but those are some serious moguls skiers and I was working hard to keep them in sight.

Admin led us into Navarone near the Honeycomb return chair ~2:30. This area was well sun-softened by then with large scattered trees, reminded me a lot of Mt. Baldy (remember eons ago when there was actually snow there?).

We ran into a few more Epic Forum skiers passing through Utah after the week in Jackson. After admin & company retired to apres-ski, one of them spotted me in Headwall forest, flailing along trying to keep up with BraveSkiMom. He skied up to us and complimented her on her form.

Tony Crocker":3jzowgtk said:

Admin led us into Navarone near the Honeycomb return chair ~2:30.

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No, that was Black Forest behind Powderhorn. Navarone is much further down the ridgeline.

Tony Crocker":f1omkokc said:

Admin led us into Navarone near the Honeycomb return chair ~2:30. This area was well sun-softened by then with large scattered trees, reminded me a lot of Mt. Baldy (remember eons ago when there was actually snow there?).

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Navarone and Blackforrest both remind me of the terrain off chair 3 at Baldy, when it actually snows. I really enjoyed a day of lapping Navarone in untracked. Too bad that gate's not always open.

FYI that first photo was taken from the Black Forest gate, but it shows the view and not the run.

I expect Solitude's new owners to announce forthcoming upgrades within the next few weeks, but the first thing - which may happen this summer - would be to replace the Summit double with a detachable quad. The base station would be moved downhill to make it accessible from the top of Apex, and fewer chairs on the line would keep uphill capacity from getting out of hand.

Admin":3e54g2tn said:

...would be to replace the Summit double with a detachable quad. The base station would be moved downhill to make it accessible from the top of Apex,...

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Wow, that's pretty far down the hill from the current bottom terminal.

Marc_C":19bafoiy said:

Admin":19bafoiy said:

...would be to replace the Summit double with a detachable quad. The base station would be moved downhill to make it accessible from the top of Apex,...

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Wow, that's pretty far down the hill from the current bottom terminal.

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You're right, but only horizontally and unfortunately not vertically. That area is pretty damned flat.

I was also at Solitude on 3/7, but did not run into Admin until after I was done skiing. Since I had friends skiing at both Brighton and Solitude, I opted for the $84 Solbright ticket, the most expensive ticket of my trip. It did not work out very well as it took until almost 11 AM for me to connect with Bobby D, Amy Z, Tony C and Liz. Before that, I rode lift with ski patrol director who did not know what I meant when I said best lifts (I.E. Powderhorn, Summit) are slow and that it is hard to connect between lifts. Then after a too-slow for me pace into Honeycomb with the group, I decided to skip lunch and go to Brighton to join friends at Brighton that I had stayed with Friday night in Holloday. But they had already quit for the day to go mountain biking. They said Brighton was only groomers and when I asked about Millicent they stayed there was not enough snow to ski steeps lines there. To move towards Brighton, I skied a steep route from top of Powderhorn to base of Summit. Snow was thin in places and getting sun affected and they were a couple of cliffs areas that were fenced off and forced everyone to left or right.

Since I had already paid to go to Brighton, I continued there. I took four laps on Millicent, taking a break after the first two to see what was going on at base. They were giving awards for race held that morning, but I could not get an Epic Brewing beer as it was only for racers. I did get a Subaru beanie and two bags of chips to go with my fun size bags of M&Ms. I did two more laps on Millicent, first staying closer to chair to warm up, then staying far skiers and cutting through un-patrolled area to traverse to Great Western without having to go up crowded Crest Express. I took three laps on much less crowded Great Western, which was signed expert only to keep beginners away. For my first and last lap, I skied the top of Wrangler into double-diamond Endless Winter. Snow was good although some of it was too W-facing and getting sun affected. My second lap I skied the boundary to Elk Park Ridge where snow was thin in places, but less sun affected.

On my way back towards Solitude, I took Snake Creek Express twice and skied double-diamond Sawbuck, then Hard Coin and found good snow in N-facing trees on both. I talked to guy I rode lift with about hiking higher on Millicent for better return to Solitude, but he discouraged me due to avalanche danger and need to hike out of lake. The long Solbright trail back was very shady by this time and getting icy. There is snow E-facing well above Solbright trail that looks like it would be interesting in powder. I took yet another lap up slow and flat Sunrise lift to get to Summit to ski chute that was still getting some sun past Corner Chute. Again, I had trouble connected with friends and quit about 3:45 with over 26K vertical.

A couple of pictures taken from near top of Great Western. First is the top of Snowbird.

hope you enjoyed it. the guy you rode the lift late with was right though. nw facing off the summit of millicent is rather bony this year and you would need skins to get back to solitude.