I went to The Canyons Saturday with my younger son Andrew after meeting Marc in person for the first time for Friday dinner in SLC.
In 1999 Andrew had an outstanding day in the newly developed terrain here, which was nearly deserted because the base area was then a construction mud pit.
The Canyons now has a base village, with a transport gondola to bring in day skiers from a remote parking lot.
Weather was supposed to be clearing after the last storm Thursday night, but it was foggy in the morning and snowing lightly until about 2PM.
We started on the Saddleback chair and Andrew got a powder initiation on the nearly deserted Pines run that dropped north from Saddleback's ridgeline. It was a bit difficult for him, so I decided to check out the Dreamscape area of north facing intermediate glades, which was developed after my 1999 visit. There are two chairs of about 800 vertical and 3,500 ft. in length, and since the pitch is not consistent most of it is too flat for powder skiing. Many of the runs cross under road bridges, and I suspect the lifts are there mainly to service the high end Colony housing development.
After lunch I did 3 runs on 9990, The Canyons main concentration of expert terrain, and it finally cleared enough for some pics.
Here's the view from the top of 9990. Utah's good year is evidenced by the solid snow cover in the distance in the flats around Park City.
Riding the lift you can see some of the tree shots dropping east near the chair line. This area was fairly tracked out since I didn't get there until 2PM.
The north side of 9990 is a prime powder area because it has a long runout and requires two chair rides to get back. The top of the 9990 is barely visible on the left peak. The right peak is Square Top, which requires a 15-20 minute hike that I did not have time to try. The picture is from the top of Saddleback with Andrew in foreground.
In late afternoon we took 2 runs on Super Condor and one on Lookout. The bowl under the Lookout chair was mostly untracked, but the snow was quite heavy at that lower elevation.
The Canyons remains a vast and interesting area for intermediates. For more advanced skiers there is definitely less powder competition than at the more famous areas. It was a busy Saturday but the only real waiting was for the Flight of the Canyons Gondola in the morning and at the Red Pine Lodge for lunch.
In 1999 Andrew had an outstanding day in the newly developed terrain here, which was nearly deserted because the base area was then a construction mud pit.
The Canyons now has a base village, with a transport gondola to bring in day skiers from a remote parking lot.
Weather was supposed to be clearing after the last storm Thursday night, but it was foggy in the morning and snowing lightly until about 2PM.
We started on the Saddleback chair and Andrew got a powder initiation on the nearly deserted Pines run that dropped north from Saddleback's ridgeline. It was a bit difficult for him, so I decided to check out the Dreamscape area of north facing intermediate glades, which was developed after my 1999 visit. There are two chairs of about 800 vertical and 3,500 ft. in length, and since the pitch is not consistent most of it is too flat for powder skiing. Many of the runs cross under road bridges, and I suspect the lifts are there mainly to service the high end Colony housing development.
After lunch I did 3 runs on 9990, The Canyons main concentration of expert terrain, and it finally cleared enough for some pics.
Here's the view from the top of 9990. Utah's good year is evidenced by the solid snow cover in the distance in the flats around Park City.
Riding the lift you can see some of the tree shots dropping east near the chair line. This area was fairly tracked out since I didn't get there until 2PM.
The north side of 9990 is a prime powder area because it has a long runout and requires two chair rides to get back. The top of the 9990 is barely visible on the left peak. The right peak is Square Top, which requires a 15-20 minute hike that I did not have time to try. The picture is from the top of Saddleback with Andrew in foreground.
In late afternoon we took 2 runs on Super Condor and one on Lookout. The bowl under the Lookout chair was mostly untracked, but the snow was quite heavy at that lower elevation.
The Canyons remains a vast and interesting area for intermediates. For more advanced skiers there is definitely less powder competition than at the more famous areas. It was a busy Saturday but the only real waiting was for the Flight of the Canyons Gondola in the morning and at the Red Pine Lodge for lunch.
