Cannonball
New member
Just back from the Wasatch, quick trip report.
Landed at SL late morning 1/29. Drove up to Brighton, bought a 1/2 day pass, on the mountain by 1:00. Stuck to the Milli chair all afternoon. The bowl had been heavily skied, but we found soft stashes here and there, especially in the Aspens on the lower mountain. Half-day was plenty after a long flight and altitude change. Ended the day out of bounds. Found endless untracked and were able to ride virtually to the front door of our place.
1/30 - Brighton. Light snow falling. Headed up Great Western Chair. Everyone was heading right of the chair - we went left. Droppped just outside the boundary rope. Unbelievable....inside the rope was tracked up and crusty, just on the other side was untouched knee deep. Hugged the rope-line along the ridge, until about half way down, then dropped back in-bounds, across the cat-track and into the trees. Unbelievable again! Totally untracked trees all the way to the bottom. They hadn't received any substantial snow for a few weeks, and here we were with all the freshies we could swallow. I'm guessing that when there's no new snow the locals head BC and the tourists stick to the marked trails. Whatever the reason, we weren't complaing...just smiling. We rode variations on this same route most of the day, always finding fresh lines.
1/31 - Snowbird. Bluebird. Cought the second tram. Dropped immediatley into Mineral Basin. First 3 runs were untracked lines along the margins of the bowl. Had to take a break to lose a few layers since the sun was corching. Skier traffic picked up a bit, and most of the freshies were gone. Rode the Baldy chair for a bit finding fresh lines on that side, but the mild pitch got old fast, and we headed back onto the front side. I thought I loved steeps as much as anyone but...holy crap...most of the entries off Cirque Traverse were more than I was up for without a good soft landing. Rode the ridge about half way down, then dropped left into the Chutes. Plenty of fresh to be found here too. Spent the rest of the day bouncing between the Little Cloud and Mineral Basin. Teh afternoon sun turned everything to nice soft bumps and we put our unaclimitized lungs and legs to the test for a few more hours.
2/1 Snowbird. Overcast, light snow. Totally different day. Rode the Gad chair up into an eerie blue-grey cloud. Never seen anything like this before, everything was turned a strange purply color and visibility was very limited. But then about 2/3 up, we broke out of the cloud/fog. Although, it still wasn't clear, with a high thin overcast remaining. We knew the bumps would be rough after the sunny day before, so we snuck over to the little Gad-2 chair. We figured we spend the morning here, while the sun warmed things up higher on the mountain. But intead, we never left. We found fresh-line after fresh-line in the trees. There were a few substantial fracture lines in the steeper sections, but the biggest was right under the lift and easily avoidable. Started considering calling it a day around 2, when the fog bank moved quikly up the mountain. Hadn' really noticed the inversion until the cold wet air crept up on us. Visibility turned to zero in no time. Although we would have still been fine in the trees, our legs had had enough and we felt our way down for coldies at the base.
2/2 Brighton. Cold clear night gave way to cold clear morning. Jumped on the Milli chair and warmed up with a few bombers on the clean corduroy. The thrill of that wore off pretty quick though. Most of the mountain was pretty hard and crusty. The locals were all hiking, so we knew there wasn't going to much of the good stuff within striking distances. But we explored a little and found that the OB valley off the Sol-Bright trail was all untracked, knee-deep, soft and fluffy. We mad laps on this all morning, until we finally had to pull ourselves away to head to the airport.
Amazing 5 days of riding. Even witout new snow, the conditions were spectacular. Exactly what we needed in the middle of this depressing New England season.
Landed at SL late morning 1/29. Drove up to Brighton, bought a 1/2 day pass, on the mountain by 1:00. Stuck to the Milli chair all afternoon. The bowl had been heavily skied, but we found soft stashes here and there, especially in the Aspens on the lower mountain. Half-day was plenty after a long flight and altitude change. Ended the day out of bounds. Found endless untracked and were able to ride virtually to the front door of our place.
1/30 - Brighton. Light snow falling. Headed up Great Western Chair. Everyone was heading right of the chair - we went left. Droppped just outside the boundary rope. Unbelievable....inside the rope was tracked up and crusty, just on the other side was untouched knee deep. Hugged the rope-line along the ridge, until about half way down, then dropped back in-bounds, across the cat-track and into the trees. Unbelievable again! Totally untracked trees all the way to the bottom. They hadn't received any substantial snow for a few weeks, and here we were with all the freshies we could swallow. I'm guessing that when there's no new snow the locals head BC and the tourists stick to the marked trails. Whatever the reason, we weren't complaing...just smiling. We rode variations on this same route most of the day, always finding fresh lines.
1/31 - Snowbird. Bluebird. Cought the second tram. Dropped immediatley into Mineral Basin. First 3 runs were untracked lines along the margins of the bowl. Had to take a break to lose a few layers since the sun was corching. Skier traffic picked up a bit, and most of the freshies were gone. Rode the Baldy chair for a bit finding fresh lines on that side, but the mild pitch got old fast, and we headed back onto the front side. I thought I loved steeps as much as anyone but...holy crap...most of the entries off Cirque Traverse were more than I was up for without a good soft landing. Rode the ridge about half way down, then dropped left into the Chutes. Plenty of fresh to be found here too. Spent the rest of the day bouncing between the Little Cloud and Mineral Basin. Teh afternoon sun turned everything to nice soft bumps and we put our unaclimitized lungs and legs to the test for a few more hours.
2/1 Snowbird. Overcast, light snow. Totally different day. Rode the Gad chair up into an eerie blue-grey cloud. Never seen anything like this before, everything was turned a strange purply color and visibility was very limited. But then about 2/3 up, we broke out of the cloud/fog. Although, it still wasn't clear, with a high thin overcast remaining. We knew the bumps would be rough after the sunny day before, so we snuck over to the little Gad-2 chair. We figured we spend the morning here, while the sun warmed things up higher on the mountain. But intead, we never left. We found fresh-line after fresh-line in the trees. There were a few substantial fracture lines in the steeper sections, but the biggest was right under the lift and easily avoidable. Started considering calling it a day around 2, when the fog bank moved quikly up the mountain. Hadn' really noticed the inversion until the cold wet air crept up on us. Visibility turned to zero in no time. Although we would have still been fine in the trees, our legs had had enough and we felt our way down for coldies at the base.
2/2 Brighton. Cold clear night gave way to cold clear morning. Jumped on the Milli chair and warmed up with a few bombers on the clean corduroy. The thrill of that wore off pretty quick though. Most of the mountain was pretty hard and crusty. The locals were all hiking, so we knew there wasn't going to much of the good stuff within striking distances. But we explored a little and found that the OB valley off the Sol-Bright trail was all untracked, knee-deep, soft and fluffy. We mad laps on this all morning, until we finally had to pull ourselves away to head to the airport.
Amazing 5 days of riding. Even witout new snow, the conditions were spectacular. Exactly what we needed in the middle of this depressing New England season.