jojo_obrien
Member
Headed up to the bird to use day 1 of the Mountain Collective pass last Thursday.
I was a bit dismayed at the flashing 4x4 / chains requirement sign at the bottom of LCC. Seeing as though I rented a Hyundai Accent from Enterprise, I figured taking the $9 RT Ski Bus was in order. However, I didn't see the police at the bottom of the canyon as usual, so I decided to chance it. It was lightly snowing and the LCC is childsplay compared to the switchbacks of Mt. Baldy. If one can make it to the Mt. Baldy parking lot in a 2wd truck on a snowy/icy morning as I've done for years, LCC in an economy car with light snowfall and salted roads is cake.........
Made it to the Gadzoom chair around 9:10 am. There was hardly anybody there, and the snow was falling beautifully. Wasatch Snow Forecast predicted a dust on crust day. I would say that was fairly accurate, however, there were definitely some deep spots that delivered the goods.
I took some warm up runs up Gad 2 -- unfortunately upper Tiger Tail (one of my favorite spots) was closed. Lower was open and skied rather well - 6 to 8 inches on top of a bit of hard pack. It was still a lot of fun. The lower angle slopes tended to ski better and required less exertion than the 6" on top of hard moguls.
The clouds were coming in and out, and partially broke. We headed up to Little Cloud chair lift. Some of the runs skied beautifully, near Goblin Gully, and right underneath the chairlift. The wind did a number blowing the snow around and it skied fairly effortlessly. However, true to the Little Cloud namesake, as soon as the clouds come in......its hard to tell up from down up there. Visibility was ok lower down, but up top .....it was rough.
Decided to head over to Mineral Basin before lunch. It was surprisingly deep and not tracked. I started having some serious goggle fogging issues at this time and decided to warm up in the new lodge at the top of the tram (11 degrees and windy up top). All I can say is : WOW. At $35 MM price tag, this place is impressive. From the paninis to the impressive salad bar, to the beers on draft, they did a nice job. Be sure to check it out next time you're there.
I decided to take a few laps and look for some scraps off of the Peruvian lift in the afternoon. Visibility was sometimes good, sometimes poor. There were some areas of really nice snow -- if you knew where to look. I hit the car around 3:45 pm and called it day.
The Bird never disappoints. It was a good day #1 on the MC Pass for me and a chance for this sea level resident to acclimate to the altitude.
I was a bit dismayed at the flashing 4x4 / chains requirement sign at the bottom of LCC. Seeing as though I rented a Hyundai Accent from Enterprise, I figured taking the $9 RT Ski Bus was in order. However, I didn't see the police at the bottom of the canyon as usual, so I decided to chance it. It was lightly snowing and the LCC is childsplay compared to the switchbacks of Mt. Baldy. If one can make it to the Mt. Baldy parking lot in a 2wd truck on a snowy/icy morning as I've done for years, LCC in an economy car with light snowfall and salted roads is cake.........
Made it to the Gadzoom chair around 9:10 am. There was hardly anybody there, and the snow was falling beautifully. Wasatch Snow Forecast predicted a dust on crust day. I would say that was fairly accurate, however, there were definitely some deep spots that delivered the goods.
I took some warm up runs up Gad 2 -- unfortunately upper Tiger Tail (one of my favorite spots) was closed. Lower was open and skied rather well - 6 to 8 inches on top of a bit of hard pack. It was still a lot of fun. The lower angle slopes tended to ski better and required less exertion than the 6" on top of hard moguls.
The clouds were coming in and out, and partially broke. We headed up to Little Cloud chair lift. Some of the runs skied beautifully, near Goblin Gully, and right underneath the chairlift. The wind did a number blowing the snow around and it skied fairly effortlessly. However, true to the Little Cloud namesake, as soon as the clouds come in......its hard to tell up from down up there. Visibility was ok lower down, but up top .....it was rough.
Decided to head over to Mineral Basin before lunch. It was surprisingly deep and not tracked. I started having some serious goggle fogging issues at this time and decided to warm up in the new lodge at the top of the tram (11 degrees and windy up top). All I can say is : WOW. At $35 MM price tag, this place is impressive. From the paninis to the impressive salad bar, to the beers on draft, they did a nice job. Be sure to check it out next time you're there.
I decided to take a few laps and look for some scraps off of the Peruvian lift in the afternoon. Visibility was sometimes good, sometimes poor. There were some areas of really nice snow -- if you knew where to look. I hit the car around 3:45 pm and called it day.
The Bird never disappoints. It was a good day #1 on the MC Pass for me and a chance for this sea level resident to acclimate to the altitude.
