Solitude, UT 1/1/09

S

socal

Member
Got a late start after going out for a little while last night. Spent about 2.5 hrs up there, and to be honest it was plenty. Coverage on Headwall trees, my favorite spot at Solitude was low and made skiing with any sort of rhythm impossible. Tree stumps and rocks all over. Amazing how much less snow there than Alta. After the run down Headwall trees we headed over to Honeycomb, we traversed out pretty far, and well, it just wasn't worth it. between the avalanche debris and the low snow cover it just wasn't very good. Next up was Powderhorn. We skied the area under the lift after avoiding the cliff area. The snow was better, coverage was about the same. Something about the snow. It seems like it really got torn up then melted and setup. Just kinda hard skiing, but with about 6 inches or so (forecast by Saturday) it would be pretty nice. Best skiing was the bump runs under Powderhorn. We lapped that a few times and called it a day to catch the Rose Bowl; unfortunately it was a blow out. Overall it was just ok. Oh, forgot to mention how dead it was. Ski on all the lifts while we were there.

We're headed out to Snowbasin tomorrow and if this storm delivers 8-12 (or more?) we're trying to figure out where to go on Saturday. After the crowds at Alta on Wednesday with no new snow, I don't think that would be our best bet on a powder day when the BC is dangerous and the locals haven't had any new snow in a week. Maybe Solitude or Snowbasin (depending on the storm track and how we like it tomorrow). I'd imagine Snowbird would be the most crowded of them all.

Not many pics, just wasn't in the mood.

Steep area to the lookers left of Powderhorn, coverage is a pretty good indication of what we saw:
DSCN0101.JPG


Sunset on the way home:
DSCN0115.JPG
 
wow! for all of the snow that falls out there, guess it's not enough. good to see yer gettin around. cover does look a bit thin in places. nice to see that solitude remains uncrowded even if a bit less cover and snow quality than upper lcc. brighton may have had better cover/snow, but what do i know? the bc could be a good call on sat in the right places. right across the street from solitude offers pretty darn safe, meaning pretty much never slides up in south facing usa bowl or the aspens off of climbers left ridge of usa bowl. i'd imagine the surfaces over there are pretty crusty, but with 6 or more inches of new, density depending, the lower angle, but steep enough for much fun trees and south facing bowl could be good if covered enough. used to be one of my during storm go-to spots as it's soquick and easy to get to. been some nice pow skiing back east, not that you'd care though. i threw a video from usa bowl from last january when i was there. one good thing about the bc is you can ski for days on end out there without ever crossing a track even with no storms before or during your stay.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs_4wPCLZr0
good luck
rog
 
Thanks for the info, but we'll be staying in bounds. Solitude is a nice break from LCC, but in my experience outside the holiday weekends and after long powder droughts the lines are very reasonable if at all and the people are friendly. In fact, I think the vibe/scene/whatever at Alta is better than anywhere else if you can ignore some of the "hardcore" types, this isn't that hard to do by the way.
 
Mid-December I noted a few times that the disparity in snowfall between LCC and the other resorts was unusually high. Admin expected that the storms the week through Christmas were so massive that the other places would be well covered thereafter. It appears that further improvement is needed. You'll be able to make a similar assessment for Snowbasin today.
 
Tony Crocker":175wr71o said:
Mid-December I noted a few times that the disparity in snowfall between LCC and the other resorts was unusually high.
Click to expand...

A lot of it depends on where those surprisingly narrow lake effect bands set up shop on the cold backside of a storm, especially in the early season when the water in the GSL is still remarkably warm. It can dump a foot in some useless place like Farmington, and not even see a flake in Ogden or SLC.
 
I'll post a TR later but I'm sitting in the nicest lodge I've ever seen and it's been dumping here for about an hour. Coverage was good maybe somewhere betweeen Solitude and Alta. No name peak skied excellent on the top 1/2 or so, kinda nasty below but well worth the effort. Oh and did I mention no one on john Paul or the tram.

Doesn't look like any snow yet in lcc, I know the storm's coming from the north so it'll happen soon. We're thinking of doing a second round here tomorrow if snow totals are close. Figure we'll get much more untracked here than lcc. The terrain off johnpaul and the tram reminds me of snowbird.

Lots of pics to come later tonight.
 
socal":ewqiygf4 said:
Lots of pics to come later tonight.
Click to expand...

Looking forward to it! I know that I've passed this video around a ton already, but it really shows off that terrain -- nearly all of it was filmed in the terrain beyond No Name:

[skimovies=http://www.skimovies.com/flv/Snowbasin_2008-01-22.flv]http://www.skimovies.com/flv/Snowbasin_2008-01-22_thumb.jpg[/skimovies]

22 inches of absolute cold smoke that day. Bobby's the master of that place.
 
Snowbasin is a great mountain, or at least was in february last year. Had some great corn, and fabulous terrain. The bathrooms were worth the price of admission. However, I wasn't too keen on Snowbasin in march. The snow was marginal at best. The lower elevation really does make a difference by mid march, at least compared to LLC.
 
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