EMSC
Well-known member
Went on a LONG drive for an annual gathering with some family & friends on a ‘guys’ trip. I-80 through Wyoming was closed for 100 miles due to blowing snow/ground blizzards (thank goodness for the internet). Changed plans and went out I-70 & then up through SLC – 2 extra hours added to the already long drive (9 total hrs). Only the final push up from SLC had any snow to deal with from the newly arriving storm. As lodging in LCC is frankly crazy high prices, the group booked at the base of The Canyons instead.
What a day! Worth every hour of the drive. Morning TV report had Canyons @ ~24” and Alta at ‘only’ lower teens for new snow (an odd reversal of normal for this storm). We were on the mountain first thing and immediately skied anywhere from knee to hip deep powder with associated face shots. Snowed pretty close to all day. Heavier through the morning and then squalls with very occasional breaks in the afternoon. Canyons seemed a little disorganized in the morning with multiple late lift openings. Even Peak 5 chair didn’t open till very late morning, and due to avi control work, 9990 didn’t open till after 1pm.
Didn’t really matter. Skied Tombstone for multiple fresh tracks laps and then Peak 5 as it opened. Even Saddleback had great lines well into afternoon (advantage to being a weekday and that this area seems to get ignored by many local powder hounds). Our group of 8 had differing abilities so the deep powder group slowly whittled down from 4 to just two of us. By mid-afternoon we were both getting quite tired and hooked back up with another sub-group and hit the Super Condor which by then was heavily cut up, but still very, very soft.
So, despite driving past Loveland, A-Basin, Keystone, Breckenridge, Winter Park, Copper, Vail, Ski Cooper, Beaver Creek, the 4 Aspen areas, Sunlight, Powderhorn, etc… I’d say it was worth it ;-)
My ski partner took a lot of video, but that is with him so a few pics (mostly after the feast) and a couple frames pulled from a video clip I took with my new camera.
What a day! Worth every hour of the drive. Morning TV report had Canyons @ ~24” and Alta at ‘only’ lower teens for new snow (an odd reversal of normal for this storm). We were on the mountain first thing and immediately skied anywhere from knee to hip deep powder with associated face shots. Snowed pretty close to all day. Heavier through the morning and then squalls with very occasional breaks in the afternoon. Canyons seemed a little disorganized in the morning with multiple late lift openings. Even Peak 5 chair didn’t open till very late morning, and due to avi control work, 9990 didn’t open till after 1pm.
Didn’t really matter. Skied Tombstone for multiple fresh tracks laps and then Peak 5 as it opened. Even Saddleback had great lines well into afternoon (advantage to being a weekday and that this area seems to get ignored by many local powder hounds). Our group of 8 had differing abilities so the deep powder group slowly whittled down from 4 to just two of us. By mid-afternoon we were both getting quite tired and hooked back up with another sub-group and hit the Super Condor which by then was heavily cut up, but still very, very soft.
So, despite driving past Loveland, A-Basin, Keystone, Breckenridge, Winter Park, Copper, Vail, Ski Cooper, Beaver Creek, the 4 Aspen areas, Sunlight, Powderhorn, etc… I’d say it was worth it ;-)
My ski partner took a lot of video, but that is with him so a few pics (mostly after the feast) and a couple frames pulled from a video clip I took with my new camera.
