Full-on spring, and by this I mean comparable to Mt. Baldy or May at Mammoth.
Richard and I arrived 10AM, and first Middle Bowl run was already a pleasing spring consistency, so I knew to head for Strawberry right away. Strawberry's upper slopes were windy, sometimes the usual west over the ridgeline but more often from the south. Thus some upper areas were firm, but by mid-mountain it was soft enough, and the lower half of the Strawberry groomers were ego corn until noon. I can carve and angulate like Ben and Adam on that stuff and in my enthusiasm attempted to instruct Richard. But he's still doing the windshield wipers and will need a better teacher than I to break 30 year old habits. ](*,)
Last Strawberry run I ventured far skier's right through the gate into the vast off-piste BobbyD showed me in January. The upper bowl was dry chalk with soft sift and occasional sastrugi mixed in from the wind, mostly pretty good. By the time I traversed under Cathedral it was back to spring. I was out there at 12:15 and the timing was right. There was still a subsurface yet the snow on top was no longer crusty. However it was irregular from when it had been churned on the powder days and still needed to be skied carefully. As the locals have noted, it takes a while to produce smooth off-piste corn in Utah.
I left Strawberry via the Lone Tree Chute, which had nice chalky snow but also a line of jagged rocks down the middle to focus one's attention. As Richard and I independently returned to the base area for lunch ~1:30 we noticed very sticky snow down there.
After lunch we went up John Paul and skied the Wildflower Downhill, which we heard was bulletproof in early morning. It was all soft now, and gravity usually overcame the spring snow. but the lower 1/4 of the hill was as grabby as our lunch run. Last run we went up John Paul and the tram. I skied alternating traverses and fall lines under John Paul between the trees, which very much reminded me of Baldy in terms of both terrain and spring snow. The lowest 1/4 of vertical was again a sloppy PITA at 3PM, so we called it a day with 20,200 vertical.
With the prevailing east exposure I advise hitting Snowbasin early in the day despite the Utah hours. Morning skiing is excellent, but there's no avoiding lower mountain slop after 1PM or so.
Richard and I arrived 10AM, and first Middle Bowl run was already a pleasing spring consistency, so I knew to head for Strawberry right away. Strawberry's upper slopes were windy, sometimes the usual west over the ridgeline but more often from the south. Thus some upper areas were firm, but by mid-mountain it was soft enough, and the lower half of the Strawberry groomers were ego corn until noon. I can carve and angulate like Ben and Adam on that stuff and in my enthusiasm attempted to instruct Richard. But he's still doing the windshield wipers and will need a better teacher than I to break 30 year old habits. ](*,)
Last Strawberry run I ventured far skier's right through the gate into the vast off-piste BobbyD showed me in January. The upper bowl was dry chalk with soft sift and occasional sastrugi mixed in from the wind, mostly pretty good. By the time I traversed under Cathedral it was back to spring. I was out there at 12:15 and the timing was right. There was still a subsurface yet the snow on top was no longer crusty. However it was irregular from when it had been churned on the powder days and still needed to be skied carefully. As the locals have noted, it takes a while to produce smooth off-piste corn in Utah.
I left Strawberry via the Lone Tree Chute, which had nice chalky snow but also a line of jagged rocks down the middle to focus one's attention. As Richard and I independently returned to the base area for lunch ~1:30 we noticed very sticky snow down there.
After lunch we went up John Paul and skied the Wildflower Downhill, which we heard was bulletproof in early morning. It was all soft now, and gravity usually overcame the spring snow. but the lower 1/4 of the hill was as grabby as our lunch run. Last run we went up John Paul and the tram. I skied alternating traverses and fall lines under John Paul between the trees, which very much reminded me of Baldy in terms of both terrain and spring snow. The lowest 1/4 of vertical was again a sloppy PITA at 3PM, so we called it a day with 20,200 vertical.
With the prevailing east exposure I advise hitting Snowbasin early in the day despite the Utah hours. Morning skiing is excellent, but there's no avoiding lower mountain slop after 1PM or so.