At the Canyons next week: a few questions

[Acidchrist]

I used to patrol full time at The Canyons for two years. Lived in PC for one year, SLC the other year. El Chubasco on Bonanza Dr. is hands down THE BEST inexpensive, delicious tex mex to be found in all of PC. Wasatch brew pub at the south end of main st. in PC provides great bar food, they serve up a tasty microbrew as well. There is a killer Thai restaraunt in PC too, name eludes me at the moment. I usually did all my shopping at Smiths in Kimbal Junction. Aw Shucks is the best dive bar in town, Smokies is the happnin' apres spot at the hill. There is a Surefoot at The Canyons too. If you want to know more about the resort itself, drop me a line. Oh yeah, Davanza's is a really decent pizza joint: one in PC and another in Kimbal Jct., near the Walmart.

 

[OHski]

Thanks again to everyone for the helpful advice. One look at the seven-day forecast and I can see why the Cottonwoods are the place to be. Time to finish packing. These 6:30 AM departures are tough!

 

[Admin]

Alta was really nice today... I even got some reasonable powder turns (East Castle). I understand why east castle is the last to get tracked out... mainly because it is the worst of all the traverses/hikes at alta.

You'll probably enjoy this short clip that was posted to skivt-l:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="267" data="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=827725&amp;server=www.vimeo.com&amp;fullscreen=1&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color="> <param name="quality" value="best"> <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"> <param name="scale" value="showAll"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=827725&amp;server=www.vimeo.com&amp;fullscreen=1&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color="></object><br><a href="http://www.vimeo.com/827725/l:embed_827725">East Castle Climb at 3x speed.</a> from <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/user414328/l:embed_827725">Dylan Gamache</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/l:embed_827725">Vimeo</a>.

 

[rfarren]

HAHA! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Past the starting traverse it is pretty much a hike. I understand hiking with your skis if you have touring skis, but on standard alpine sticks it seems to me it would be advantageous to take em' off. The worst part of that hike is that if you don't make to the very top you end up in the middle section which isn't steep enough to make the hike worthwhile!

Great video.

 

[Admin]

I understand hiking with your skis if you have touring skis, but on standard alpine sticks it seems to me it would be advantageous to take em' off.

Again, unless it's a bootpack there's a loathing of postholes at Alta and removing skis is thus severely frowned upon.

Besides, I'm not sure that skinning up that route would be terribly pleasant, either. Everyone's sidestepping creates a sidehill track that I suspect would be pretty heinous to skin, too.

 

[Tony Crocker]

I'm with rfarren on this. I wouldn't do something like that unless it was a bootpack.

 

[Admin]

I'm with rfarren on this. I wouldn't do something like that unless it was a bootpack.

And I'm with Marc_C on this: did it once, never again...except perhaps on skins. The reward-to-effort ratio is one of the lowest in Alta. rfarren's right -- although the lines midway up look OK from below, once you're there you realize how painfully short and flat they are, and thus you're driven to complete the entire hike: "Well, I've already come this far, so..."

 

[OHski]

Thanks for all the advice. We're back in Ohio after a good week of Utah skiing. As for the restuarant suggestions.. El Chubasco in PC was perfect. We didn't have a chance to visit others people recommended.

The trip did not go exactly as planned. It's 5:30 AM March 25, we're fifteen minutes from leaving for the airport when junior says he doesn't feel real good. A quick trip to the bathroom (urrrggggh!) and he says he's ready to go. Son #2 is back at college with the flu so we hope it's not that. It's a long trip for him and he sleeps most of the way and crashes at the Park City hotel for an hour before we use our ski-free pass. Four runs later, it's back to the hotel where he crashes until the next morning.

On Wednesday we meet up with friends and head for Snowbird. They've been in the PC area for a few days and say the conditions will be better in the Cottonwoods (no surprise). The warm weather has gotten to the bird as well. Many spots that were nice two days ago are now chopped crust with a dose of powder. Still, we have a great time.

Thursday my friends are skiied out and take a day off. Junior is feeling down again so we head to the Olympic park and catch the Freestyle Ski Jumping competition (right name?). Lots of twists flips and a few crashes. TV can't show how just how high these guys fly. Pretty amazing.

Friday the 28th we head to Alta for the first time. This place is hands down the most scenic I've been to. We make a poor choice in skiing west rustler (no wonder there was no one on it!) as it was sunbaked and crusty from prior days. We chose other exposures for the remainder of the day and vowed to return on the last day, having explored only a portion of Alta. We saw some folks traversing west russler and wondered where they were going. Guess it was Greely and North Rustler (see admins 3/28 Alta post).

Saturday is our mandatory Brighton day and we spend much it on slopes served by the new high speed milliscent lift. Is a section of the lift now closer to the ground? It used to have a vetigo-inducing section about halfway up where the ground fell rapidly away. We spend most of the day there until the sun softens things up, then we head for trees. All in all, a good day.

On Sunday, it's back to Alta. Junior really hits his stride and can't get enough of Catherine's. There's enough new snow to soften the crust. I'm feeling tired (his flu, as it turns out) and pretty soon I'm saying, "I'll meet you at the lift". The hike is too much. We probably ran into admin and his crew at some point as I see they were at Caterines too.

Monday we try to figure a way to extend the trip by a day. Lot's of snow overnight and blue skies. No way though, and we're home by nine. This time it's my turn to feel poorly on the long flight. I think we were lucky to ski in as we did.

Thanks again for all the helpful advice.