Snowbird, Mar. 10-12, 2025

[Tony Crocker]

On Monday 10+ of our Iron Blosam group started with a Gadzoom warmup. Next we moved to Gad 2, a few of us by an interesting line through tight trees to skier’s left of Organ Grinder. Ed Meisner there:

After a couple of Gad 2 laps, I followed Mark Meisner to Great Scott, which he had curated Sunday. The traverse in is over a no fall zone with the final entry not visible from where you start, but once in there is plenty of room to make your first turn. To no surprise I needed a suck wind break halfway down so I took view pics down and up from there.

We had lunch in the plaza. Then Adam, Alexa, Mark, Steph, Liz and I took a couple of Peruvian cruiser runs. Liz and I moved over to Little Cloud and skied Regulator about 3:30 when it had maximum sun.

It was still slightly on the former side of ideal.

I Skied Slot 11(?) in the Cirque for my last run. This was the entry:

The run below was wide but quite mogulled. The skier at right dropped into the next chute and I followed. View from below:

The chute I skied is at center, narrower but less bumpy that the one below the entry, where a skier is looking in.

I skied to the Cliff Lodge path, because I had parked the Tesla in the garage which has 3 level 2 chargers while I was skiing. Vertical Monday was 17,000.

Sunday through Tuesday were similar with highs in the 40’s, so lower elevations and sunny exposures had spring conditions. On Tuesday Liz and I started with Stefan and a couple of his Plattekill friends Eric and Chris. After a Gadzoom warmup we concentrated on Little Cloud for the winter snow. We skied Mark Malu and a couple of traverses out to the Hoops sector. Liz on some smooth chalk there:

Eric and Chris were hard chargers so we connected with Eddy, Adam and Tseeb and took a run through Rasta trees. Then we traversed to the Cirque, Eddy, Adam, Chris and Eric hitting Great Scott while Tseeb and I skied Middle Cirque.

I was wearing down some, so I returned to Little Cloud for a couple of runs with Liz and Stefan before calling it a day with 14,900 vertical.

Wednesday had similar temperatures but was windy on top. There were windsift pockets on Little Cloud which JimK documented below.

 

[jimk]

Tony, I am going to mess up your timeline with this post, but feel free to rearrange it.

12 Mar 2025 with the two Tonys at Snowbird, UT.
I got to spend about three hours with @Tony Crocker today. Tony S (@tseeb) and his wife Lucia joined us for the second 90 mins of that time.

Tony C and I did a few groomers in Little Cloud bowl and then went to the Rasta Chutes area nearby. It had slightly stale winter snow, but the sun was out.

Tony C. a little wider view, same area.

We went back up there for a high line I'd call Upper Rasta Chutes. It was a little sketchy, but Tony C. handled it well.

Then we met Tony S. and his wife Lucia for a couple of groomers.

I think both Mrs and Mr @tseeb are in this photo:

Tony S. in the area of Mark Malu trail

Back to Tony C, standing in a spot along the Upper Cirque. We skied a line here shortly after photo was taken.

Happy trails until we meet again! Hopefully, there is a one foot dump coming tomorrow in the Cottonwoods. Things are a little firm at the Bird right now.

 

[tseeb]

Latest news I could find about Mineral Basin. No updates found on Snowbird's website although did find they plan to replace it and Gadzoom with six-packs but no date given.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Update 08/03/25: The repairs for Mineral Basin are taking longer than anticipated due to poor weather conditions. Snowbird now aims to reopen Mineral Basin next week. With heavy snowfall in the forecast.......

That's a bunch of . 3/8-11 couldn't have had better weather. If it takes more than 4 calm and sunny days to do that repair, it could be a month before they get around to it at this time of year.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

What would the density be like there on a busy or powder day without MB to help distribute people? Or do people start moving to warm-weather pursuits by mid-March?

 

[jimk]

What would the density be like there on a busy or powder day without MB to help distribute people? Or do people start moving to warm-weather pursuits by mid-March?

The density would be intensity
Bulk of new Snow coming later today, so I would expect tomorrow to be a freaky Friday. Visitor numbers start dropping in late March or early April, and are somewhat conditions-driven. The huge number of local snowriders will keep coming if the snow does. But usually by the first or second week of April it's pretty dead. I love April out here for that reason.

 

[Tony Crocker]

I'm sure JimK's assessment is correct. But big powder dumps bring out the locals in force even in late April/May. I know because I've read numerous reports of those days from former admin. And we know there are lots more of those locals now that during the time of those reports 10-15 years ago.

Mineral Basin did not exist until 2000, but Snowbird skier visits have at least doubled since then. We heard that Snowbird liftlines Saturday were excessive. Sunday skier density was definitely higher at Snowbird than Alta.

We really love the full Ikon benefit of the combined ticket. Sunday (crowds) and today (start of storm, low angle powder) it was better to be at Alta. Monday-Wednesday were better at Snowbird with more accessible north facing terrain that retained winter snow in the warm weather.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Tony, I am going to mess up your timeline with this post, but feel free to rearrange it.

I greatly appreciate the post and pics, will save me time while I'm busy on this trip. Moving posts to a new topic is very easy for me. Mar. 10-12 were all at Snowbird on sunny days with winter snow on high and north facing sectors and more spring elsewhere, so I'm grouping them together and will get around to adding some details from Mar. 10 and 11 later.

 

[tseeb]

Some photos of @Tony Crocker in mid-Cirque on Tuesday

This is not Tony Crocker. I tried to catch him when he was getting close to me, but mostly missed and caught someone else.

I was very lucky catching up with group after using points to stay at Springville Best Western Monday night. I spotted @Tony Crocker from one of our first chairs at Snowbird, then ran into and skied with his son Adam, whose Iron Blosam unit my wife and I took over for rest of week, Ed Cooke and his wife, Stephanie, and others from our group. Ed, after tiring his wife out, gave good tour of some of the challenging runs at Snowbird to group that included Eric, who is assistant ski patrol director at Plattekill, Chris, a snowboarder, and me.

We stayed in Moab Sunday night before doing two hikes at Arches on Monday, then in Springville about an hour away from Snowbird that night. It was our first time at any Utah National Park. There was a 10-15 minute line of cars entering park where timed entry reservations are required starting April 1. Temps got into the 60s, warm enough that I only wore thin t-shirt on 2nd hike. Many people were in shorts.

Above is Delicate Arch that is on Utah license plates. La Sal mountains to left. Hike was a little over 3 miles roundtrip with over 500' of elevation gain and very busy. Next photo is Landscape Arch. We waited about 15 minutes for sun to move behind arch so it would not ruin photo. When it did not, I walked next to fence that said do not go past to get this photo. As it was, with only a quick stop at Park Avenue viewpoint before leaving Park, for gas in Price, UT and In N Out in Spanish Fork, it was dark before we got to motel.

 

[jasoncapecod]

Arches is one of my fav parks
I love Moab cool town and the Mtb is fire

 

[Sbooker]

It was our first time at any Utah National Park.

That is surprising. I hope you correct that fact and check out Zion and Canyonlands and Bruce soon.

 

[Tony Crocker]

I just belatedly posted Mar. 10-11 and put it at the top of this thread to be sequential with JimK's report from Mar. 12. The area he called Upper Rasta Chutes we said was the first time for both of us. It is reached staying high on the Lizard Tail traverse. It's only few turns but they were steep and deep windsift on Wednesday.

The two people in front of us took a sporting line through a narrow choke.

First I and then JimK skied the next opening that was much wider.