Park City
Sunday 25 January 2009

Weather

Conditions

Story of the Day

The first day of a six day trip to Salt Lake accompanied by Chris and Sue. Neither Chris nor I are as fit as we have been in previous years. It is bitterly cold and there is a lot of fresh snow.

For the first day, we decided to go to Park City, somewhere exceedingly  familiar. After stopping at Breeze down in the valley to rent skis we arrived at Park City just after 9am. It was not exactly crowded. We decided that Chris would take the lead and decide where we would ski. Just one ground rule, no walking uphill. That meant that the only option to start the day was to ski down to First Time.

09:33 Chris skiing down towards First Time

Actually, plan A failed. The entrance to First Time had been changed to the uphill end of the lift queue area, so we carried on to Three Kings, where we enjoyed a leisurely lift ride before a short run down Treasure Hollow. As the pictures show, visibility was not too bad early in the day and we weren't as cold as we thought. 

09:36 Three Kings Liftont>

09:36 Looking towards the race hill from Three Kings

09:09:36 Three Kings Lift

We skied down to Pay Day. The pictures make it look a little bit brighter than it actually was. A run down Pay Day proved that our legs still know how to ski.

09:45 Pay Day liftt>	09:45 From Pay Day Lift	09:46 The Alpine Coaster under Pay Day lift
09:53 Chris at the top of Pay Day	09:53 Chris at the top of Pay Day	09:5309:53 Pay Day run

Crescent is a new lift, designed to share the load up the mountain. We planned to ski down to Bonanza, but with a lot of fresh snow, it was obvious that we would need a lot of poling to get there. In common with almost everyone else we took  1/4 Load and Claimjumper.

10:04 Ski Team lift not running

No queues at Silverlode lift. We decided to ski all the way down to the bottom of KIng Consolidated via Parleys Park, Prospector ,   Broadway and Hot Spot. Ski conditions were pretty good with a few inches of fresh snow on a groomed base. Unusually for Park City, the new snow was wet, heavy and hard on the legs.

10:11 Silverlode Lift	10:12 Prospector Face from Silverlode Lift	10:13 Prospector Face from Silverlode Lift
	10:20 Chris at the top of Prospector

There was only 1 run groomed under King Consolidated, Shamus, so that was our choice for the first run. By now it was snowing more heavily .. we were getting cold and wet. After a run along King Con Ridge, Temptation and Silver Star, it was time to head back to the base area to meet Sue and get coffee.  

10:30 King Con lift

10:33 Shamus run from King Con lift

10:38 Chris on Shamus run

King Con run and Silverlode lift took us back to Summit House and the it was a straight run down to the bottom via Homerun, Silver Queen and Treasure Hollow. By the time we go to the bottom we were wet and cold.

11:01 Silverlode lift

11:19 Chris at the base

We had breakfast very early and decided that 11:30 was a good time for lunch. Forty minutes later, we were warmer and ready for more skiing. This time we did make it to the right end of First Time lift and it back up Crescent and Silverlode to get to higher elevations. 

12:10 First Time lift

12:22 Crescent lift

12:25 The top of Crescent Lift

For the afternoon, we headed across to McConkeys, where the sun broke through occasionally, between snow flurries. Georgeanna  is a new run in McKonkey's Bowl, but proved to be little more than a cat-track.

13:04 The top of McConkeys lift

13:04 The ridge along the top of McConkeys Bowl

During our second run from McConkeys, I started to get hints of cramp in my legs, so we decided to make our way back to the base and call it a day.

We skied for around 3½ hours in very heavy conditions. So, overall a good day, even if the weather was not very good.

Vertical (feet)

Runs

Last updated: 10/03/2010