I admit that given my skiing level (intermediate/advanced), these resorts terrain is mostly wasted on me. Given my preferences for groomed, I know I should probably go elsewhere etc... BUT I will be there and given the deteriorating conditions, extreme spring weather, lack of snow, could use any reccomendations on trails and preferred corresponding time of day for both resorts.Thanks for the help.
Alta/Snowbird next 7-10 days
- Thread starter Ski Lover
- Start date
As most of you know, I am a fan of spring skiing. Good rules of thumb:
1) If it's hard, stay on the groomed
2) Follow the sun. Start with east facing. South is good late morning if it's smooth enough. Stay off the west until after 2PM, and that might mean 3PM with the time change. North facing may, if steep and sheltered enough, still have winter snow and be good anytime. Snowbird has lots of this: Silver Fox, Upper Cirque, Little Cloud/Rasta Bowl/Knucklehead, lots of the tree skiing on Gad 2. Most of this is 35+ degrees steep. Follow rule 3 below before trying any of these.
3) When riding the lifts, watch and learn from the guinea pigs (or as Craig Morris calls them, sacrificial lambs). If you hear loud scraping or see people in zigzag survival mode, don't go there. If they are fluidly ripping the corn, follow suit.
You have Brighton and Solitude in the area to consider also.
1) If it's hard, stay on the groomed
2) Follow the sun. Start with east facing. South is good late morning if it's smooth enough. Stay off the west until after 2PM, and that might mean 3PM with the time change. North facing may, if steep and sheltered enough, still have winter snow and be good anytime. Snowbird has lots of this: Silver Fox, Upper Cirque, Little Cloud/Rasta Bowl/Knucklehead, lots of the tree skiing on Gad 2. Most of this is 35+ degrees steep. Follow rule 3 below before trying any of these.
3) When riding the lifts, watch and learn from the guinea pigs (or as Craig Morris calls them, sacrificial lambs). If you hear loud scraping or see people in zigzag survival mode, don't go there. If they are fluidly ripping the corn, follow suit.
You have Brighton and Solitude in the area to consider also.
Tony Crocker":1vr3tz51 said:
It does.
Tony Crocker":1vr3tz51 said:
Not here after last weekend. Everything softened...everything. They picked up about 5" of 8-10% last night/this morning, but I didn't even bother going up today as the base underneath surely froze up solid. Lipstick on a pig. Another storm is forecast for Tuesday after another warmup this weekend, although not as dramatic as the last one.
FYI, Alta is on average much less steep than Snowbird and has the best cover right now. At Alta, start your morning on Sugarloaf (Devil's Elbow, Razorback, Rollercoaster, etc.), then by 11 am Backside (East Greeley) should be OK. Yellow Trail and Greeley Hill will soften early. Then move to the runs in the gully of Collins Gulch -- Main Street, Mambo, Spring Valley, etc. - around lunchtime. Don't even think of the easier runs on Supreme (Challenger, No. 9 Express, Rock 'n Roll, etc.) or the Spiny Chutes on Supreme until mid-afternoon, and ditto for anything on West Rustler.
At Snowbird, start the day in Mineral Basin, but take note and stick to southeast aspects and avoid southwest. Thereafter, as Tony said, follow the sun.
johnnash
New member
I've only skied Snowbird once, so I'm certwinly no expert, but speaking as one intermediate/advanced to another, I do have one piece of advice. The first run I did in Mineral Basin, I stuck to the "Lupine Loop" trail, which is the only supposed blue (or maybe they call it green) in the basin. It was downright terrifying in places :shock: -- very narrow, heavily traveled, so the snow was icy, and crowded with skiers who didn't really know what they were doing. Subsequently, I figured out that since this whole basin is a big bowl (they show trails on the trail map, but I couldn't even see where they were -- it's all basically open), even though it looks pretty steep, you can make traverses as wide as you like. Now that kind of skiing was a LOT of fun! 
Enjoy!
Enjoy!