Snowbird Closed May 16

[Tony Crocker]

I can't find it, but I thought MarcC heard a rumor than Snowbird was going to cut back spring to the typical late April timeframe of the rest of LCC/BCC.

In that context May 16 was a relief but TR's from May 14-16 make it clear Snowbird could have gone longer if they wanted. Coverage remains excellent on Little Cloud and adequate on at least some of Mineral Basin. The issue as I see it is annual tram maintenance, which Snowbird seems eager to do in May rather than later. That means skiers must be able to ski to the base as they can't download as I did when I skied Snowbird Memorial weekend of 1985.

Mammoth does gondola maintenance starting immediately after Memorial Day. In the better snow years this removes access to Climax and Dave's Run for 2-3 weeks but chair 23 remains open for the rest of the top, and with less vertical it's easy to maintain runs to Main Lodge for skiers to get off the mountain.

 

[jimk]

I skied the final last three days at Snowbird this year, May 14-16. It's true that ongoing tram maintenance was a factor in their relatively early closing date. May 14-16 was great spring skiing in Peruvian, Mineral, and Little Cloud, but a number of important cat-tracks were melting-out quickly. They could have definitely kept the Peruvian Chair going longer, but maybe there was a little season-fatigue going on? I know everybody was happy they got in the season they did given all the complicating factors of the pandemic. I have not heard the rumor that they will abandon late spring skiing in the future. Hope they don't. It definitely sets them apart in Utah. I got a lot of great skiing and perhaps about ten more ski days at the Bird after the other places closed.