Brighton groomers 24 Mar 08

[itbeme]

Mr. Brighton,

You sit among your regal brothers and sisters, share the same majestic mountains and views, receive more snow than most of your siblings, are blessed with four high speed lifts to the top and plenty of all types of terrain for all who visit, are well cared for by quality grooming equipment and talented operators, and are visited by some of the most talented boarders and skiiers in the world. Pay no attention to those who call you small. I know small resorts. I have skied small resorts. Some of my best friends are small resorts. You, sir, are no small resort. Thank you for a wonderful day of skiing.

 

[Marc_C]

Brighton isn't small by acreage. However it "skis small" 'cause of that big low angle area at mid-mountain. Pretty much all the terrain feels like a very short steepish pitch followed by a long meandering run-out through the woods. The exception is the terrain off the Millicent lift. In 8 seasons of living in Utah with an average of 65 ski days per year, I've skied Brighton only 2.5 days - the half day was the first time, friends were visiting, and we were curious. The other 2 were simply because other visitors were interested.

However for lift accessed side country....... :wink:

 

[Tony Crocker]

A classic example of an area that is decent enough on an absolute scale (and far better than that in terms of snow) but an also-ran relative to its stiff regional competition. Something ASC should have thought about when they spent the big bucks developing the Canyons. And why it would be idiotic to put a ski area in the snow-sparse Oquirrhs.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Something ASC should have thought about when they spent the big bucks developing the Canyons.

All things being equal (and ignoring the fact that the company was ready to implode), where should ASC have blown its wad?

 

[rfarren]

I drove up there monday evening, not to ski it, but just to check out the terrain from the base area. There was a ton of snow both at Brighton and Solitude, but both mountains seemed short for some reason. They might ski larger than they are, but I wouldn't know. The next time I come into SLC the first day I'm gonna head up there. Although choosing between Solitude and Brighton will be a tough decision. Then entrance into the BCC road is fun to say the least. Nice switch backs. Its funny IMO that LCC closes more often in bad snow than BCC.

 

[Admin]

Unlike Brighton, there's a huge swath of Solitude's terrain that you can't see from the road.

Road closures in the Cottonwoods have little to do with the nature of the road, and nearly everything to do with the slide paths that cross it. That's why LCC is closed far more often.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Unlike Brighton, there's a huge swath of Solitude's terrain that you can't see from the road.

Admin can correct me, but Solitude is basically two sections (summit and front side) separated by a reallllly long flat, so you're skiing two 1,000-foot vert hills. Like icelantic, I always head to Solitude when I'm out there because you can't beat the lack of people, and if you've got locals to show you around the Summit chair and Honeycomb, you'll like it, despite the chopped-up vert.

 

[rfarren]

Unlike Brighton, there's a huge swath of Solitude's terrain that you can't see from the road.

Road closures in the Cottonwoods have little to do with the nature of the road, and nearly everything to do with the slide paths that cross it. That's why LCC is closed far more often.

It seems that the mountains are much steeper leading directly to the road from LCC, whereas, in the BCC the mountains seem further set back from the road, and not as steep.

A funny anecdote: On the drive back my father decided to save fuel by putting the car, which was an automatic, in neutral. He accidently put it in reverse :roll:. The engine stopped working, and momentarily we both thought he had killed the rental car. While coasting down, I had visions of "to build a fire," with my father being the dog of course. After about 2 miles of coasting, I told him to turn the car off and on. At that point the car restarted. He didn't kill the car but stalled the engine out.

 

[Admin]

Admin can correct me, but Solitude is basically two sections (summit and front side) separated by a reallllly long flat, so you're skiing two 1,000-foot vert hills.

I have to disagree with that assessment in that there really is no truly long flat. You're in essence skiing three drainages: the one formed by Big Cottonwood Canyon, the one formed by Honeycomb Canyon that's parallel to and behind BCC, and the one perpendicular to those two that's drained by Solitude Lake (a drainage up which the Summit Lift rises).

On the drive back my father decided to save fuel by putting the car, which was an automatic, in neutral.

Fer chrissakes, don't ever do that! :shock: Your engine is a critical portion of your braking system on a long downgrade like that -- coasting like that not only jeapordizes yourselves but others as well.

 

[rfarren]

On the drive back my father decided to save fuel by putting the car, which was an automatic, in neutral.

Fer chrissakes, don't ever do that! :shock: Your engine is a critical portion of your braking system on a long downgrade like that -- coasting like that not only jeapordizes yourselves but others as well.

No kidding, I prefer to put it in a low gear when I go down grades like those. He was trying to switch from neutral to low, but got confused because it was a rental. He does the neutral thing all the time in his own car while driving on highways. It drives me insane! It would be one thing if it were a manual, but an automatic. :roll:

 

[jamesdeluxe]

I have to disagree with that assessment in that there really is no truly long flat.

I'm talking about "Deer Trail" from the bottom of the Summit lift to the bottom of the Powderhorn chair. You don't call that a long flat?

 

[Marc_C]

I have to disagree with that assessment in that there really is no truly long flat.

I'm talking about "Deer Trail" from the bottom of the Summit lift to the bottom of the Powderhorn chair. You don't call that a long flat?

Yes, but it's totally artificial in the sense that you're following a winding drainage.

 

[Marc_C]

On the drive back my father decided to save fuel by putting the car, which was an automatic, in neutral.

So those are the kind of jackass stunts that create the stench of burning brakes and cars on the side of the road with smoke coming from the wheel wells. I always wondered about that.
<sarcasm>
How much gas did that save - 0.025 of a gallon? I'm sure that combined with the airfare, rental, lodging, and food, it made a major impact on your budget.
</sarcasm>
:wink:

 

[ChrisC]

On the drive back my father decided to save fuel by putting the car, which was an automatic, in neutral.

Fer chrissakes, don't ever do that! :shock: Your engine is a critical portion of your braking system on a long downgrade like that -- coasting like that not only jeapordizes yourselves but others as well.

No kidding, I prefer to put it in a low gear when I go down grades like those. He was trying to switch from neutral to low, but got confused because it was a rental. He does the neutral thing all the time in his own car while driving on highways. It drives me insane! It would be one thing if it were a manual, but an automatic. :roll:

How much does your Dad think he is saving?

$4 = 15 miles at the worse...

lawsuit/death/major injury = $1M+...accident

And let me build a risk model into it....what are the chances of accident when in unfamiliar car with unfamilair gears -

enough

penny-wise, but...

 

[ChrisC]

Unlike Brighton, there's a huge swath of Solitude's terrain that you can't see from the road.

Admin can correct me, but Solitude is basically two sections (summit and front side) separated by a reallllly long flat, so you're skiing two 1,000-foot vert hills. Like icelantic, I always head to Solitude when I'm out there because you can't beat the lack of people, and if you've got locals to show you around the Summit chair and Honeycomb, you'll like it, despite the chopped-up vert.

Both mountains are weak in my opinion. In case I am not clear, both Solitude and Brighton are easily in the bottom 25-33% of Western mountains - saved only by their snowfall. But snowfall can not inflate minor 400-500 ft. vertical segments into great terrain.

Sure, I powder shot by a 5'-7" male skiing 6-10" new will say Brighton/Solitude is great with face shots. But not really. The terrain just massively sucks.

My rank
1. Alta/Bird
2. Snowbasin/Powder
3. Deer Valley/Canyons
4. Park City
5. Brighton/Solitude...Brian Head...any other Utah resort



My one friend is fashion model photographer...think Gisele Bundchen...but exotic places suck overall. And he's up at 4am to catch that one ray of beauty before heavy edits and air brushing.

Another friend is TGR photographer. (No, I will not give handle names). Same stuff. Everything for shot.

Brighton and Solitude suck beyond the shot. At their most optimum - a Midwest vertical fest - they are great.

But I like to ski more than 500 vert ft chunks

 

[rfarren]

On the drive back my father decided to save fuel by putting the car, which was an automatic, in neutral.

Fer chrissakes, don't ever do that! :shock: Your engine is a critical portion of your braking system on a long downgrade like that -- coasting like that not only jeapordizes yourselves but others as well.

No kidding, I prefer to put it in a low gear when I go down grades like those. He was trying to switch from neutral to low, but got confused because it was a rental. He does the neutral thing all the time in his own car while driving on highways. It drives me insane! It would be one thing if it were a manual, but an automatic. :roll:

How much does your Dad think he is saving?

$4 = 15 miles at the worse...

lawsuit/death/major injury = $1M+...

penny-wise, but...

I couldn't agree more with you. You should have heard me yell at him directly afterwards. He's normally a good driver, and uses his gears properly, but every now and then he does some moronic stuff. I feel more comfortable when I drive under normal conditions. However, under bad weather conditions such as snow, I prefer his driving as he was raised in rochester, and becomes very focused on safety.

 

[tirolerpeter]

One of the reasons that I always own Manual Transmission vehicles is the safety and control that I feel when I run down the canyon roads (or any mountain roads for that matter) using the appropriate gear coupled with engine braking. My 08 Outback goes from Alta all the way down to Wasatch Blvd in third gear with barely a touch on the brakes (assuming no traffic ahead of me) and only a few drops into second gear on some of the very tight turns. Combined with AWD, using the gears for engine braking makes for a very controlled descent. NEVER run a vehicle down a mountain in neutral. It is bad enough to do so with a manual transmission, it is practically suicide to do it with an automatic.

 

[Tony Crocker]

All of Brighton's continuous fall lines are under 1000 vertical. Front side of Solitude the Eagle quad is 1400 and Powderhorn is 1600. Not super steep but good enough for continuous powder runs. Though I've only had the one big powder day there, Solitude seems like a pretty worthwhile place when there's fresh snow. Honeycomb is only 500 vert at a time, but when it's waist-deep...

Not sure I go along with ChrisC's rankings, and we usually agree. Where are the 1000+ continuous fall lines at Deer Valley and the Canyons? Not many that I saw. Are they better than Park City? Without Jupiter Bowl, probably. But Jupiter is more like the Cottonwoods in terms of both snow and terrain than anything at the other 2 areas, so I think that moves PCMR ahead.

Just the ranking doesn't tell the whole story. There's a huge gap between 1 and 2 on that list. Best in North America vs. probably nothing else in the top 20.

On the drive back my father decided to save fuel by putting the car, which was an automatic, in neutral.

I don't need to pile on here; others have said it all. And a lot more politely than if that post were on TGR :lol: .