Brighton
Saturday 31 January 2004

Weather

Conditions

Story of the Day

Brighton is always a good resort for a Saturday, particularly when there has been recent snow, because of the lack of queues.

The drive up Cottonwood Canyon was not pleasant. The road had been salted and the sun was straight ahead in places. It was a good job that the windscreen washer on my car was full when I started.

I got to Brighton at about 8:40. It was brutally cold, about -2°F, but without wind.

Mt. Millicent in the early morning sunlight

Mt. Millicent

As the lifts opened, the sun was just coming up over the ridge at the top of Majestic lift. The full impact of the temperature started to become clear on the lift. The movement of the lift is around 25 mph, so adds a significant windchill.

At the top of the lift, the sun was shining on the snow covered trees, but clouds were beginning to build up.

I started up with 3 cruise runs from the top of Crest Express. Snow conditions were superb, the overnight snow had been groomed early in the morning and the low temperatures meant that there was no crusty surface.

There was a problem. The wind-chill effect as I cruised down the slopes meant that I gradually got colder and colder. This was not a day for skiing at any speed. By the end of the third run, I was thinking about going in to the mountain restaurant to get warm.

Crest Express lift (just before opening)	Crest Express lift
The sun appearing over the top of Majestic lift	Clayton peak
Little hut under Crest Express	The top of Majestic lift
Ski Patrol hut at the top of Crest Express	Early morning sun on the snow covered trees at the top of Crest Express

With legs loosened up, I decide to venture onto something rather more challenging. Wintergreen, descending from the top of Crest Express lift is never groomed. The top was just a little crisp where loose snow had been blown away, but after a couple of turns it was fresh powder all the way down. When I got to the bottom, I realised that I wasn't anywhere near as cold as I was. The answer was to sky more slowly on challenging slopes, and that is what I did for the rest of the morning.

As I started up Snake Creek I was cold and planning to go down to the base to get warm.

Doyle's Dive is a relatively steep run under the line of Snake Creek lift. The runs on either side are graded double-black. It is always a challenging run because of rocks and the need for good snow cover. On this occasion, snow cover was the best I could remember, so there was only one place on the run where rocks were a problem.

The top section is not very steep, but was "wind groomed", frozen moguls with little fresh powder on top. This probably put off most skiers, so the run was deserted. Just a few turns down, the run steepens and at that point, there was fresh powder, in the main unskied. There is one narrow section around one of the lift towers and below that a few rocks.

Below that point, there was sufficient fresh powder to cover up the bumps underneath. At the bottom of the run, I felt warm. The cooling effect of the run out to the bottom of the lift was tolerable, so I went back for another run down the same trail while there was still unskied powder.

Doyle's Dive under Snake Creek Express lift	Pioneer Ridge
Powder on Doyle's Dive	Doyle's Dive
Doyle's Dive

One of my favourite runs at Brighton is Thunderhead, a rocky outcrop that attracts powder and an interesting run-out that is never grooomed.

With fresh snow, this was a really excellent run. A few people had skied the trail before, but it was possible to count the number of tracks. The powder on the face of the rocky outcrop was completely untracked.

I took one more run down Thunderhead before finally giving in to the cold and resorting to the lodge to get warm.

Nicely warm, I moved across to the Great Western lift for the rest of the morning. I was expecting to do just a few runs and then stop because of the cold, but it was very slightly warmer and the sun was beginning to break through, which made a great difference, and I decided to keep on the more difficult sloped to avoid getting cold.

For every run I turned straight down hill into ungroomed snow, rather than taking the easier cat-track to the to top of Elk Park the run along the top of the ridge. It had more snow on that I have ever known, but there was still the occasional rock showing through.

I took Aspen Glo, the first black run from the ridge. This was pleasant enough, but had been pretty well skied. Skiing back towards the lift, there is another area, unnamed, which is normally left ungroomed, which offers an alternative to the skied-out Great Western run. This was in great condition, with lots of powder some of which was still untracked, even at mid morning.

The view from the top of Great Western	The top of Great Western
The top of Wrangler	The view from the top of Great Western

Next time up, I got more adventurous. I headed down Wrangler which is more or less under the lift and then moved over to the left towards the steeper double-black runs, and in particular Endless Winter.

Cutting across involved one narrow traverse through bushes, a couple of turns and then another traverse between trees. I had to wait for a few minutes for a group of Japanese to move from the exit from the traverse. Endless Winter itself is steep but pretty wide. With powder, it demands pretty tight turn and is like skiing on top of small avalanches as the snow slides down hill beneath the skis.

I got down it without mishap and then went backi to the top to do it again.

Next time up, I decided to stay on the ridge and ski as far as possible down towards the bottom of the lift. In the event, I got as far as the top of Desperado, which is a broad ungroomed face. Going any further along the ridge would have meant walking.

I skied about half way down Desperado and then kept right until I came to the "out of bounds" sign. For the rest of the descent, I kept just within bounds until I got to the bottom of the lift.

There was just time for 1 more run (I had only bought a ½ day pass. This was just as well, because my legs were getting very tired. The final run down Wrangler was enough .. in fact I had to stop part way down to let my legs recover.

The lower part of Elk Park Ridge	Powder on Desperado
looking up Great Western	Powder and trees on Wrangler
Looking back up Wrangler

All in all, a great day. I only managed just over 17,000 vertical feet, but almost all of it on blacks and double-blacks. Looks like my knees are OK for skiing.

Runs

Last updated: 06/02/04