Deer Valley
Thursday 12 February 2004

Weather

Conditions

Story of the Day

The day started clear but bitterly cold. We returned to Deer Valley, where we had left out skis overnight to be waxed. Our plan was to go back to some of the terrain we discovered on the previous day. Getting to the lift was difficult. Our skis did not seem to be sliding at all on the very cold snow. So, for our first run, we decided to ski back to the base, so that we could get something done if the waxing was a problem. Actually, as the skis warmed up, they were fine, so we went back to the original plan and headed over towards Empire Canyon.

The old slow Quincy lift had been replaced by an Express Quad, so we took that straight to the summit of Flagstaff Mountain and because there were no clouds, we took a high speed run down Sidewinder. Near the bottom, ski patrol was already busy extricating someone from the trees on a back bowl.

For our first run in the Empire Canyon area, we headed straight towards Daly Chutes, taking the direct path down through Daly Bowl.

Daly Chutes from Empire lift	Daly Chutes from Empire lift
Empire Bowl

For our next run, we turned right at the top of Empire and dropped into Lady Morgan Bowl. That was nowhere near as pleasant as Daly Bowl, with fairly solid moguls at the top, and the rather long bumpy traverse through the trees to return to the main run.

Chris emerging from the runout from Lady Morgan Bowl

One more run through the moguls and glades to the right of the lift (going up) and it was time for a break to get warm.

After our mid-morning stop, we decided to stay in the Empire Canyon area. Our next target was Daly Chutes. The run did not work out quite to plan. After a cruise across the ridge from the lift, we cut off to the traverse across the top of the bowl. Part way across, Chris caught a ski and stopped. His ski came off and slid down the slope to the left in an open area above the trees. Being fully paid up members of the Downhill Only school of skiing, we decided not to climb back to the traverse but to carry on down through Anchor Trees. We started off very carefully, but rapidly gained confidence. It was not too steep and there was plenty of room between the trees to turn.

We tried again to get to Daly Chutes. This time we did succeed in skiing the traverse without mishap to reach the top of the chutes. The top really is respectably steep. For once the photographs do give some idea of the terrain. This time we did a couple of turns and then traversed across a couple of chutes before escaping back to the main trail.

Moguls under Empire Express Chair	Moguls under Empire Express Chair
Moguls under Empire Express	Chris at the top of Empire Bowl Chair
Mike at the top of Empire Bowl	The top of Empire Bowl
Chris above Daly Bowl	Chris above Daly Bowl
Chris on Daly Bowl	Chris on Daly Bowl

For our final run before heading back to base, we turned left from the top of the lift and continued towards the traverse across to the chutes and dropped down into a small glade of trees Anchor Trees.

We had time for one run through Guardsman's Glade to the bottom of Northside.

Having found the way to reach Ontario Bowl we took the difficult route down towards Silver Lake and the route to lunch.

The top of Flagstaff Mountain	The top of Flagstaff Mountain
The top of Flagstaff Mountain	The top of Flagstaff Mountain
The bottom of Ontario Bowl	The bottom of Ontario Bowl

After lunch, we decided to tour the five hills and do at least one run from each.

13:27 The top of Carpenter Lift on Bald Eagle Mountain	13:54 Little Baldy Peak
14:54 Little Baldy Peak	14:06 The top of Bald Eagle Peak looking down towards Silver Lake
14:20 Bald Mountain from Wasatch Express	14:20 Bald Mountain from Wasatch Express
14:29 The top of Flagstaff Mountain

Runs

Last updated: 17th October 2004