Utah the past 10 days

[jtran10]

Cross-posted from another unnamed website. It was fun skiing and hanging with a lot of you guys that post on here!


Who: Jtran10, Salida, Grizzly Adams (Salida's brother), Jtran10's parents

What: Aggressive Alpine Skiing

Where: Alta, Snowbasin, Snowbird, UT

When: March 7-15, 2009

I arrived on Friday night from soon-to-be rainy VT and Salida kindly picked me up from the airport before chauffeuring me off to a friends house for beers and margaritas, a great way to start the week. Later that night we drove back to the airport to pick up Grizzly Adams, and then the fun began.

A few days before our arrival Alta received 11 inches or so, and then a couple more on Friday night. Our first day was fun.

Grizz

Jtran, showing that a Utah foot is indeed deeper than a VT foot

We timed the rope drop on Devil's Castle quite well, and had hero snow all the way down.

Grizz

Jtran

Salida

That afternoon we booted up some mountain and then skied Patsy Marley. It seemed like a great way to get our lungs quickly adjusted to 10000 feet! Pictures are a bit washed out, apologies.

Grizz

Jtran

And then the fun started...

My parents arrived on Saturday night, and on Monday and Tuesday we headed to Snowbasin for deep snow and no crowds. Picture light was generally non existent.

My dad

John, my parent's friend

My mom

Jtran

It did clear up eventually. My dad

Jtran

On Wednesday we were at Alta and got Backside and Devil's Castle openings. No pictures, too much competition with the hoards.

Then the snow stopped falling, but the last several days were full of sunshine and good times.

On Friday Salida took myself and Grizz out to White Pine. The top half was great, but the bottom half was coral reef so we cut out of it pretty high.

Jtran

Grizz

That afternoon we just decided to take it easy and watch the huckfest, definitely some pretty impressive skiing. We were too far away for me to get any great pictures with my camera, but here's one of soul_skier on the bottom cliff band

All and all it was a great week in Utah. Thanks to Salida for putting me up for a night and showing myself and Grizz around, and thanks to my parents for bringing me to Spring Break: Utah :yourock:

A parting shot, Monday at Snowbasin

Thanks for reading.

 

[ski-the-face]

sick

 

[jtran10]

Some words from my mom:

“I’m the only college kid who goes on spring break every year with my parents”. That’s how our trip planning began but it quickly turned into a week of friends, powder and bluebird skies. Our first ski day at Alta, Kay (Jtran’s mom),Arnie (his dad) and John H. skied with Pat since most of her boys were off with Bob Dangerous at White Pine. Jtran joined Salida and his brother while they were testing his home-built Rumplestiltskis.

Monday the snow storm started and we headed to Snow Basin where the trails allow for easily meeting up. Caitlin (Jtran’s girlfriend), was skiing groomers after a ski lesson with Franz, AKA, Arnie. Tuesday was a difficult decision; not really it was win/win. The Little Cottonwood Canyon was closed early due to avalanche control and Bob Dangerous advised us to get an early start to Snow Basin. Tuesday morning was poor visibility but we did see seven wolves in Wildcat Bowl getting acclimated for the filming of the movie Frozen. Tuesday afternoon the sun came out and we were still getting first tracks. Storm totals ranged from 16-26”.

Wednesday we ventured to Alta and nailed the opening of Backside and Cecret Saddle. Kay learned not to get greedy just for a few extra turns and some good footage on film. No friends on a powder day; we all lost each other and met back on Collins after a few runs. Caitlin and Kay met up with Patty Mack and enjoyed an afternoon tour just for the girls.

Thursday and Friday took us to Snow Bird where again we needed to follow the warming pattern and found delightful snow off Little Cloud and the Lower Cirque. Silver Fox was closed for the huckfest but it surely provided good entertainment. Saturday and Sunday were back to Alta to rejoin Admin and his crew Pat, Amy, TeleJon, Marc C and SkiDog, (it was Baby Hailey’s first day at Alta). Last run of the day Saturday took one hour when Ken, AKA the Reverend, lost a ski over a cliff on North Rustler. The cheers at GMD were such a welcome when we finally arrived back on the patio.

When Abby, Colin, Larry and Lauren arrived on Sunday we were a group of 16 people combining the Bob Dangerous and the First Tracks crews. Another absolutely wonderful week in Utah. Skiing with the locals makes the trip much more enjoyable and we truly appreciate the insider tips and snowy fun! Sincere thanks to the locals from First Tracks who guided us as we followed the sun and warming patterns of the day to the perfect mountain aspects.

 

[baldyskier]

Great pictures. You all hit some great conditions. Utah has the goods! I enjoyed my trip there in early February, alhough nobody from First Tracks was able to ski with me. I did ski with locals on a couple of days, though. That certainly makes a difference.

 

[Marc_C]

Caitlin and Kay met up with Patty Mack and enjoyed an afternoon tour just for the girls.

PattiMac. Minor point, no worries.