Snowbird
Thursday 17 February 1994

Weather

Some fresh snow overnight. Snowing on and off all day, especially at high altitudes. The was a great deal of wind at the summit and visibility was very poor.

Overall

A great days skiing, with few lift lines and lots of runs. Conditions were pretty variable. At the top, visibility was so bad that it was impossible to follow the easy-way-down cones and "experts only" was the advice on the tram. Other runs gradually collected more surface powder during the day. On lower runs, the day started with sleet so the runs were uncharacteristically heavy.

Chris and John flew out to Utah with me a few days before Sue and the girls, to get a few extra days skiing in. It worked pretty well.

On day 1 we went to Snowbird. The start was not particulary good. I booked the boys into lessons to make sure that they started the holiday correctly. The lesson was at 10:00 am, so we decided to take a couple of runs to warm up. John immediately had problems. He remembered being very good and when he started to fall over on the first run, he lost confidence and everything fell apart. It took the whole of the hour to complete one run and get back to the plaza for the lesson.

After a couple of runs in the Gad Valley, I ventured to the Summit in the tram. This was interesting to say the least. At the bottom, there was a sign which said "Experts only". At the top, I soon realised why .. There was snow and wind and a complete white-out. Visibility was so poor that it wasn't possible to see the cones marking the easy way down. I missed the first traverse and ended up in a steep ungroomed slope.

Visibility improved a little and in the afternoon, I did several more runs from the tram with a variety of runs.

(Chris: 13058, John: 11109)

Vertical (feet)

19113

 

Easy Runs

Chickadee
Ski School Lane
Bass Highway
Big Emma

Advanced Runs

Primrose Path
Silver Fox
Adager
Phone 3 Shot
Chip's Face

 

Intermediate Runs

Bananas
Bassackwards
Lower Bassackwards
Lunch Run
Wilbere Ridge
Wilbere Cutoff
Chip's Run

 

Last updated: 12/12/98