Solitude 1/31

J

jojo_obrien

Member
Did not get up to the mountain until about 12:30.......obligations.

Was trying to figure out where I might have a chance of getting some untracked (between LCC/BCC). Opted for Solitude.

Thought I might be able to score some untracked in Honeycomb Canyon. Pretty much wishful thinking........

The whole mountain was pretty much tracked....there were some slim pickens....but all in all...........bleh.............reminded me a lot of Mammoth...

The winds came up last night (1/30) and definitely took a toll on the snow. There were some drifts, but nothing like earlier this week........

With high pressure in the forecast and the weekend coming........I think its time I wrap this SLC trip up....

Sorry no pics....you arent missing much.........
 
You must be really spoiled with where and when you get to ski. One day after a 4 foot dump, you describe the skiing as "bleh". As a life long Northeast skier, with occasional trips out west, I would consider the skiing yesterday to be fantastic. For your to describe it as "bleh" both makes me angry and jealous at the same time. Please realize how lucky you are! Hoping for more snow as we are headed out to SLC in mid Feb. Eric
 
jojo_obrien":3ejwj6q5 said:
Did not get up to the mountain until about 12:30.......obligations.

Was trying to figure out where I might have a chance of getting some untracked (between LCC/BCC). Opted for Solitude.

Thought I might be able to score some untracked in Honeycomb Canyon. Pretty much wishful thinking........

The whole mountain was pretty much tracked....there were some slim pickens....but all in all...........bleh.............reminded me a lot of Mammoth...
Click to expand...

Two points to keep in mind for the future:
1. Other than Honeycomb Canyon, pretty much all of Solitude's terrain remains open during and immediately after storms. This is good and bad. Good in that the more numerous trees than the LCC areas enable somewhat better visibility. Bad in that everything does get tracked out (but there are usually far fewer skiers). In contrast, much of Alta and Snowbird remain closed due to avi concerns. For example, Mineral Basin at the Bird was closed all day yesterday. Alta is opening Ballroom/Shoulder and Backside today for the first time since the start of this storm cycle.

2. If you can't get to the mountain till the afternoon, you have no right to complain about everything being tracked out. Sorry. If you want untracked, get there early (or know the mountain and Patrol ops well enough to be able to predict the timing and sequence of rope drops).
 
MarcC":177nqp31 said:
2. If you can't get to the mountain till the afternoon, you have no right to complain about everything being tracked out.
Click to expand...
I don't quite get this either. People spend the time and $ to fly into Utah from some snow starved area, it actually snows and they can't get up to the hill before 11 or noon? It's sort of like guided skiing, pace is dictated by the slowest person in the group to get going in the morning.
 
@midwest blues - it was 6" of new snowfall in the last 24 hours...4' ? i grew up night skiing at snow valley during drought years ( ice + rocks for many years -- tony could surely quote the exact worst years in the 80's.......) and 900+ inches last year at alyeska....i'm just giving my honest opinion of skiing conditions :-D

@ MarcC wrote:2. If you can't get to the mountain till the afternoon, you have no right to complain about everything being tracked out.""

- gentlemen....there is more to life than skiing........a man has only 1 possible excuse for showing up half day and then complaining about it...
 
1983-84 (bone dry) and 1985-86 (much more rain than snow) were the worst SoCal seasons in my records. The current season so far bears an unpleasant resemblance to 1985-86 with ~4 days of all rain in late Nov/early Dec. plus last week was 3 days of rain followed by a measly 4 inches of snow, while Arizona Snowbowl got 4 feet of snow from the same storm.
http://173.193.223.192/~bestsnow/scalhist.htm
Big Bear snowmaking has been beefed up a lot since the mid-80's. Snow Summit was max ~60% open in 1983-84, I don't think they have ever failed to be in full operation from mid-January through February in the past 2 decades. But any season color coded brown or with no blue weekends in that chart means Baldy was never in full operation. Those used to be coincidental, in recent years Big Bear has been getting 3+ months of full operation with minimal natural snow, which has made season that would be brown in the 80's yellow now. Last year and this year have also had a weird weather pattern of the San Gabriels getting the same or slightly less snow than Big Bear while the long term record is for them to get twice as much snow.

My formative years of skiing in SoCal were more fortunate to be the late 70's/early 80's.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top