Day 34: Another change of scenery.
I ventured north to Snowbasin on Tuesday to meet with some media colleagues and spend a day skiing with my good friend Colleen. At one time an AltaBird passholder, Colleen now lives near Snowbasin, and this year has both Snowbasin and Epic Pass season passes, so we don't get to ski together that often anymore.
An ice sculpture commemorating Snowbasin's 75th Anniversary season has been erected at the resort's entrance.
Earl's Plaza
After a hearty breakfast courtesy of Snowbasin, I met up with Colleen and we headed straight to the opposite end of the resort to ski Sisters Bowl and the sidecountry immediately beyond.
Sisters Bowl
What we found there was lightly-tracked snow that alternated between wind sift and sastrugi. By finding the right line, however, it was a hoot! Once at the bottom of the bowl we worked our way left to keep skiing lightly tracked fluff on the north-facing aspects of successive ridgelines and traversing across the south-facing sides, all the way down to Last Chance at Gordon's Gully -- a strategy that we'd repeat often throughout the day. By staying skier's right of Hohmann's Hollow we also even found genuine, honest-to-goodness untracked snow amongst the scrub oak.
From the top of the Needles Gondola, looking at Lone Tree and Demoisey Bowl.
Yes, it's the typical mid-January inversion season.
One ill-advised foray into the John Paul area revealed nothing but stiff moguls, but otherwise we found smooth, chalky, carveable snow everywhere all day. Everything in-bounds was open, save for the upper part of Mt. Ogden Bowl. One by one, more of my favorite Snowbasin lines fell by the wayside, including Moonshine Bowl trees, Demoisey Bowl, Philpot Ridge, Wildcat Bowl, 3 Skis, Cirque, The Walrus and Carnahan's, to name just a few. The groomers were impeccable, but Colleen couldn't be coaxed onto a groomer with a winning Powerball ticket. Nor would she stop for a breather -- she was like the Energizer bunny, and as we caught the last uphill chair on Middle Bowl at close to 4 p.m. I had all I could do to keep up with her and still keep my food down.
The Energizer bunny.
We capped it off with a couple of drafts in Cinnabar to close a fun and tiring day in the Northern Wasatch. Snowbasin is in mighty fine shape right now, but I'm apparently not. :lol:
Colleen hoists a cold one at Cinnabar.
I ventured north to Snowbasin on Tuesday to meet with some media colleagues and spend a day skiing with my good friend Colleen. At one time an AltaBird passholder, Colleen now lives near Snowbasin, and this year has both Snowbasin and Epic Pass season passes, so we don't get to ski together that often anymore.
An ice sculpture commemorating Snowbasin's 75th Anniversary season has been erected at the resort's entrance.
Earl's Plaza
After a hearty breakfast courtesy of Snowbasin, I met up with Colleen and we headed straight to the opposite end of the resort to ski Sisters Bowl and the sidecountry immediately beyond.
Sisters Bowl
What we found there was lightly-tracked snow that alternated between wind sift and sastrugi. By finding the right line, however, it was a hoot! Once at the bottom of the bowl we worked our way left to keep skiing lightly tracked fluff on the north-facing aspects of successive ridgelines and traversing across the south-facing sides, all the way down to Last Chance at Gordon's Gully -- a strategy that we'd repeat often throughout the day. By staying skier's right of Hohmann's Hollow we also even found genuine, honest-to-goodness untracked snow amongst the scrub oak.
From the top of the Needles Gondola, looking at Lone Tree and Demoisey Bowl.
Yes, it's the typical mid-January inversion season.
One ill-advised foray into the John Paul area revealed nothing but stiff moguls, but otherwise we found smooth, chalky, carveable snow everywhere all day. Everything in-bounds was open, save for the upper part of Mt. Ogden Bowl. One by one, more of my favorite Snowbasin lines fell by the wayside, including Moonshine Bowl trees, Demoisey Bowl, Philpot Ridge, Wildcat Bowl, 3 Skis, Cirque, The Walrus and Carnahan's, to name just a few. The groomers were impeccable, but Colleen couldn't be coaxed onto a groomer with a winning Powerball ticket. Nor would she stop for a breather -- she was like the Energizer bunny, and as we caught the last uphill chair on Middle Bowl at close to 4 p.m. I had all I could do to keep up with her and still keep my food down.
The Energizer bunny.
We capped it off with a couple of drafts in Cinnabar to close a fun and tiring day in the Northern Wasatch. Snowbasin is in mighty fine shape right now, but I'm apparently not. :lol:
Colleen hoists a cold one at Cinnabar.
