Snowbird
Saturday 12 December 1998

Weather

Conditions

Overall

Early season skiing across the West of the USA were excellent, so the decision to go to Salt Lake City was based on flight schedules rather than anything else. Early in the week before I arrived, there was a storm which left 12" of fresh snow giving a base of about 40" at mid-mountain at Snowbird.

Friday night was cold and Saturday dawned clear. Obviously I was not the only person trying to take advantage of the conditions and by the time I arrived at Snowbird, there were plenty of cars in the car park and quite a long walk to the center.

I took the first Tram to Hidden Peak and we unloaded at exactly 9am. The temperature was just below 20º and the summit was shrouded in mist which took another hour or so to burn off. I set off down Chip's Run and immediately tried to cut off onto the more difficult Primrose Path. This was a mistake .. a combination of cold legs and strange skis drove me back onto the easier track to warm-up. Seeing proved to be a problem with icing on my goggles, so I had to stop and change to sunglasses. With a little crusing behind me, I switched back to Primrose Path, which was much narrower than usual because of the poor snow coverage. As I approached the bottom, I used the Rothman Way traverse to get across to the Gad lifts.

The relatively new Gadzoom express quad halves the time needed to get up the mountain. From the top I took the Bassackwards run intending to cruise all the way to the bottom, only to find the lower part of the trail closed in preparation for a televised moguls competition. So, I took Gad-2 back up the mountain.

From the lift, Gadzooks looked fine, soft powder just beginning to form into moguls. The reality was a little different. At the top, there was a combination of rocks and "wind groomed" bumps. At one point I found myself with nowhere to go other than into the trees because of rocks. The snow in the trees was in much better condition and I was reluctant to cut back onto the trail, but did so because it is silly to ski alone out of sight of the main trails. Bananas took me back to the lift.

Back up Gad-2 and a relatively easy cruise down to the base for a cup of coffee.

Crowds were beginning to build up and the advertosed 10 minute wait for the Tram was in fact 25. From the top, this time I headed down Regulator Johnson. This broad bowl was a combination of a skied out groomed strip with rocks showing, and mixed packed powder, with some moguls. There was good skiing to be had, but it meant looking for the right line and switching sides several times.

The queue for Little Cloud looked daunting, but in fact moved quite quickly and was probably no more than about 8 minutes. By this time, the bowl served by Little Cloud was probably the best skiing on the mountain, because it was in the sun. I intended to come down Regulator Johnson under the lift but missed the only possible entry and ended up taking the Road to Provo across the bowl into the shade. I finally took the well named Last Choice run, which was probably the best run I got all day.

Back up Little Cloud and this time I did find the entry to Regulator Johnson. It was difficult at the top because of the rocks but again an excellent run. This time I carried on down Bassackwards to get in one more before lunch. Part of the lower section of the run was now open, so I carried on down. Most of Lower Bassackwards was closed for the mogul competition. Getting past the top closed section meant side-slipping down a narrow hard-packed section, which caused a bit of a traffic jam. The rest of the run was a combination of rocks and moguls, rather more difficult than its blue rating would suggest.

After lunch, I set off down towards the bottom to take a few more runs off the Gad chairs, but on the way decided that the snow was getting skied out and I wasn't having much fun and my legs were too tired for moguls, so I gave up for the day.

Runs

Last updated: 12/12/98