Evren
New member
Here is the relevant picture for this post:
...showing total precip so far today. Darkest blue is where Snowbasin is at. And where I was. Like Woody Allen says, eighty percent of success is showing up.
It almost didn't happen. WasatchSnowForecast called for a last-chair-today / first-chair-tomorrow split and came down on the side of tomorrow morning. But some of my best skiing has been on Thursday afternoons when it snows more and earlier than expected (paging Tony Crocker). You see, Snowbasin not only has a midweek bias, it has a morning bias (like many other places but stronger, I believe). A bunch of its diehards live right nearby in Mountain Green. They take a few turns in the morning, then head off to work, school, what have you. So a storm that develops during the day is a god-send for a relative layabout like me.
I got going late around 11am and it was 53F and cloudy down in SLC. Hardly encouraging. Then, rain started by Weber Canyon and the temp dropped almost 10 degrees. Winding up to Snowbasin, it eked down to 35F and just barely changed over to snow. It was right around noon and people were leaving.
It turned out that there had been a couple of inches maybe three of wet-and-heavy (very wet near the base, quite decent up top) so far but most importantly, the surface underneath had not frozen overnight, nor was it choppy. So it skied like 5 or 6. No scraping. Snow picked up in intensity and accumulated rapidly. And there was no one there. By that I mean I actually did two entire runs on Strawberry without seeing another soul skiing. And only one guy on the third.
Not on the way down and not as I looked down from the gondola -- nothing, no one, except right at the base.
On those two runs, I also did not cross a single track -- nor see a single track. It was smooth as chalk, first tracks, wherever one might decide to go, even right down Main Street, I surmise. I ended up doing mostly John Paul & Strawberry. The tram was open but just sitting there waiting for someone -- anyone -- to show up. Sitting on JP (esp down low) is where I got soaked, to the point that I felt cold drops dripping on my wiener (a first). But it didn't matter. I'll be back tomorrow morning, early. Of course, by that time the numbers will be up on the stake and more people will show up. Still.
It seems like this storm is delivering more than anticipated, at least up North. WasatchSnowForecast alluded to that this morning -- that it wasn't breaking up against the ridge, like initially thought. Something to keep in mind.
...showing total precip so far today. Darkest blue is where Snowbasin is at. And where I was. Like Woody Allen says, eighty percent of success is showing up.
It almost didn't happen. WasatchSnowForecast called for a last-chair-today / first-chair-tomorrow split and came down on the side of tomorrow morning. But some of my best skiing has been on Thursday afternoons when it snows more and earlier than expected (paging Tony Crocker). You see, Snowbasin not only has a midweek bias, it has a morning bias (like many other places but stronger, I believe). A bunch of its diehards live right nearby in Mountain Green. They take a few turns in the morning, then head off to work, school, what have you. So a storm that develops during the day is a god-send for a relative layabout like me.
I got going late around 11am and it was 53F and cloudy down in SLC. Hardly encouraging. Then, rain started by Weber Canyon and the temp dropped almost 10 degrees. Winding up to Snowbasin, it eked down to 35F and just barely changed over to snow. It was right around noon and people were leaving.
It turned out that there had been a couple of inches maybe three of wet-and-heavy (very wet near the base, quite decent up top) so far but most importantly, the surface underneath had not frozen overnight, nor was it choppy. So it skied like 5 or 6. No scraping. Snow picked up in intensity and accumulated rapidly. And there was no one there. By that I mean I actually did two entire runs on Strawberry without seeing another soul skiing. And only one guy on the third.
Not on the way down and not as I looked down from the gondola -- nothing, no one, except right at the base.
On those two runs, I also did not cross a single track -- nor see a single track. It was smooth as chalk, first tracks, wherever one might decide to go, even right down Main Street, I surmise. I ended up doing mostly John Paul & Strawberry. The tram was open but just sitting there waiting for someone -- anyone -- to show up. Sitting on JP (esp down low) is where I got soaked, to the point that I felt cold drops dripping on my wiener (a first). But it didn't matter. I'll be back tomorrow morning, early. Of course, by that time the numbers will be up on the stake and more people will show up. Still.
It seems like this storm is delivering more than anticipated, at least up North. WasatchSnowForecast alluded to that this morning -- that it wasn't breaking up against the ridge, like initially thought. Something to keep in mind.
