For the first of 10 ski days Richard and I started with a mellow day at Deer Valley. It was sunny, fairly warm (40's with just a slight breeze on the peaks) and it was full on spring mode. Supposedly it had not been that warm earlier in the week, so I thought there might be some winter snow up high. So we started with direct north facing Wizard, not a good choice as its corduroy was solidly frozen. Next run on Tycoon in the sun was already mostly soft by 10AM. I decided to give Richard the area tour I had with admin last season. First we skied past the new St. Regis, then down to Jordanelle. St. Regis and funicular above the Deer Park base.
Then back across the area to Empire. View from the top.
I noticed far better coverage than I've seen before at Deer Valley, so I skied a Daly Chute for the first time. Looking down Daly 4:
This was about noon and even here it was spring snow, good in the steeps but unconsolidated crud in the apron below. View of all the Daly Chutes from below.
Next we headed for Lady Morgan. This area faces directly east and had heavy spring snow like you might expect a couple of months later at Mammoth or in LCC. Lady Morgan Bowl was empty and had been little skied even when snow was fresh.
Richard headed back to Silver Lake while I skied one more run on Argus.
Argus was all soft bumps. joegm would enjoy most of the Lady Morgan runs.
I made it back to Silver Lake 1PM to meet Rob and Nikki, who were just arriving due to a delay in their flight from New York. By the time we got out at 2PM the snow in full spring mode everywhere. We took several runs on Flagstaff to get Nikki warmed up. Here she's following Richard:
And here Rob is filming her:
I figured that the Wizard area that had been hard in the morning would be the least slushy late in the day and that was true. It had sustained steeper pitches but Nikki had no problem with those. Rob and Nikki near the bottom of Wizard.
I finished with 24,700 vertical, with Richard just 2 runs less. Rob and Nikki skied close to 10K despite the 2PM start. We hung around a while, then went into Park City for a nice dinner at 350 Main.
Then back across the area to Empire. View from the top.
I noticed far better coverage than I've seen before at Deer Valley, so I skied a Daly Chute for the first time. Looking down Daly 4:
This was about noon and even here it was spring snow, good in the steeps but unconsolidated crud in the apron below. View of all the Daly Chutes from below.
Next we headed for Lady Morgan. This area faces directly east and had heavy spring snow like you might expect a couple of months later at Mammoth or in LCC. Lady Morgan Bowl was empty and had been little skied even when snow was fresh.
Richard headed back to Silver Lake while I skied one more run on Argus.
Argus was all soft bumps. joegm would enjoy most of the Lady Morgan runs.
I made it back to Silver Lake 1PM to meet Rob and Nikki, who were just arriving due to a delay in their flight from New York. By the time we got out at 2PM the snow in full spring mode everywhere. We took several runs on Flagstaff to get Nikki warmed up. Here she's following Richard:
And here Rob is filming her:
I figured that the Wizard area that had been hard in the morning would be the least slushy late in the day and that was true. It had sustained steeper pitches but Nikki had no problem with those. Rob and Nikki near the bottom of Wizard.
I finished with 24,700 vertical, with Richard just 2 runs less. Rob and Nikki skied close to 10K despite the 2PM start. We hung around a while, then went into Park City for a nice dinner at 350 Main.
