Park City
Monday 9 February 2004

Weather

Conditions

Story of the Day

With Sue with us, this was the first day at Park City. As we prepared to leave Powderwood, the sun was just coming up over the mountains to the East, but the rest of the sky was overcast. It was pretty cold. First stop was ski rental at the Park City Resort Center and then to the ticket office to recharge our Fast Track cards purchased the previous season. We were equipped and ready as the majority of the lifts opened at 9am.

Sunrise at Powderwood

Early morning at Powderwood .. already clouding over

There was more snow than any of us could remember. For the first time ever, it was possible to see the run from the top of King Con to the top of Willy's Run from the resort center. Chris and I started the week with the intent of skiing every run of the mountain and we feared that conditions would deteriorate, so as we rode up Eagle, we decided to take advantage of the good snow to "tick-off" a number of the more difficult runs to reach. After a cruise down Temptation, we took King Con and immediately set off towards the top of Willy's Run. The top of the run is pretty steep, but the traverse was comfortable. The last section was a run through the trees that sent out careering out onto the top of Willy's Run, no problem when there are now people coming from the top of Ski Team.

Chris cutting across to the top pf Willy's Run	View from the top of Willy's Run
Chris on Willy's Run

Next, we headed for the Summit area and a run down Lower Single Jack one of the blacks on the backside of the ridge. Snow conditions were excellent and we finished with an exhillerating high speed run down a deserted Thaynes Canyon, to be followed by one of the runs from King Con. On a very quiet day, with recent snow, the short steep Combusion run to the bottom of King Con, often icy, was in excellent condition.

Crescent Ridge from Payday chair	Crescent Ridge from Payday chair
An almost deserted Broadway from King Con chair

We had agreed to meet Sue for coffee down at the Resort Center. We just had time to knock off Climax, one of the parallel runs from King Con, before a run down Erika's Gold which runs parallel to Willy's Run. This time we did nor traverse across the steep section at the top. A couple of careful turns and the slope flattened out slightly. Slightly crisp moguls all of the way down left as ready for a break.

After a break, we decided to head over to the McConkey's Bowl area. From the Summit we took the easy way down to the Mid Mountain area and McConkey's lift straight to the top of the bowl. The bowl was not in great condition. The recent fresh snow had been pretty well skied, revealing rather hard moguls from underneath in places. At the bottom, we decided to take the two cruises from the top of the lift. First of all we took Sunrise to the right of the lift. As usual, the top 50m was heavily mogulled, so we turned right from the lift and dropped into the softer looking snow in the glade. The top section took us completely by surprise. Instead of soft snow it was large lumps of ice, broken by the grooming machine that flattened the ridge. The rest of the run was fine.

Home Run near the Summit House	Chris at the top of McConkey's Bowl
Mike at the top of McConkey's Bowl	Chris in McConkey's Bowl
Mike in McConkey's Bowl	The run out from McConkey's Bowl

Next, we turned left from the lift and took the long cruising Tycoon run along the top of the ridge and then the slow Pioneer for the run down to lunch. Keeping up the pattern of challenging runs, we traversed across to Crescent and continued on to Waterfall. The former was a comfortable mogul run; the latter had some bare spots showing.

Woodside from McConkey's Chair	McConkey's Bowl
The ridge that forms the start of Tycoon run	Looking towards McConkey's Bowl from the top of Pioneer Lift

After lunch, we took one run with Sue before heading off for the afternoon. Before going up to higher altitudes, we took a quick run down Quit'n Time and back up Town lift.

Race Hill from First Time lift	The bottom of Home Run alonside the Resort Center
Three Kings	First Time Lift
The top of Three Kings run

From the Summit, we did a couple more of the blacks down the back side, Double Jack and Thaynes and then cruises down Prospector and Assessment.

1/4 Load is extremely difficult to reach, now that the old Crescent chair has been removed. The only way to get to it is to take a high speed run down Home Run for the slightly uphill King Con Access. This is complicated because Home Run is a slow skiing area! In mid-afternoon, there were few people around, so we risked the wrath of the patrols and got up sufficient speed. 1/4 Load is a strange run. It is shown on the trail map as green, but is no longer groomed, so is rather more difficult.

After knocking off Eureka, another of the runs off King Con Ridge it was back to the top of the lift and the traverse across to the top of Willy's Run again. This time we carried on across to Silver King which bears off to the right and is slightly steeper. Silver King had a bare patch on the left that we had to avoid but was otherwise a comfortable cruise.

The traverse to the top of Silver King	Chris traversing towards Silver King
Mike on Silver King	Mike on Silver King
Looking down Silver King run

To round off the day, we took three runs off Payday lift, including the two black runs which cross under the lift and Payday run itself.

We finished just after 4pm, meeting Sue for a welcome warm drink. Almost 29000 vertical feet represented a good day, particularly with the high proportion of blacks and double-blacks.

Sue in the coffee shop at the Resort Center

Sue and Mike in the coffee shop at the Resort Center

Runs

Last updated: 19th September 2004