They said the resort has received 148 inches of snowfall so far in January, bringing the season's total to 376 inches.

Here are a few photos from the last week in Utah.

Got to ski with a couple of my adult kids last weekend at Snowbird:

Early in the week my son led me down Great Scott.  This trail was so bony last year I never skied it once.

.Ditto for Elevator Chute:

.The snow coverage is so good making steep stuff more manageable that my son's got me skiing stuff I've never skied before, this is Hanging Bowl:I've gotten to ride the new tram cars numerous times as lines were low midweek:

Wow looks great JimK - Totally jealous  

hotelterp wrote:

Wow looks great JimK - Totally jealous  

 Go Terps, U of MD class of 1976!

 Nice - lets go TERPS

Class of '94

JimK wrote:

hotelterp wrote:

Wow looks great JimK - Totally jealous  

 Go Terps, U of MD class of 1976!

Even paradise has its dark side.  Taking today off, Jan 28, 2023, because there's a foot of new snow, but it's a Saturday and the access roads to Alta, Snowbird, Solitude and Brighton are snarled with traffic, including hours long closures for snow removal and avalanche mitigation work.  Might try again tomorrow, but sometimes it's not worth the trouble when I can rest and ski the next empty weekday.  Although the current storm front is expected to continue through Sunday night, so Monday could be a popular day for Utahns to call in sick.

Here are a few more photos from the past week skiing in Utah:

This shot shows both new tram cars in action about midpoint in the line.  They were installed this offseason at Snowbird:

Another photo of my son skiing Great Scott, a signature black diamond run at Snowbird, Jan 21.

This is the Cirque Traverse, a key route to lots of fine offpiste steeps to the left and right.  The slope to the immediate right of the snowboarder would be Middle Cirque on the trail map.  It leads to the Peruvian Gulch side of the mtn.  To his left would be Restaurant Roll leading to the Gad Valley.

The "backside" of Snowbird consists of a huge bowl called Mineral Basin.  It's a great option for intermediate and advanced skiers and is always very popular on sunny days.  It's not a good place to be on low viz days because you can't see where you are going in the huge treeless expanse.  This was a pretty day!

A pretty view of Mt. Timpanogos from Mineral Basin at Snowbird:

Moving on to Solitude Ski area, all photos from Jan 26, 2023.

This is one of the great views in all of Utah skiing, Fantasy Ridge.  It's hike-to terrain above the Honeycomb Canyon section of Solitude Ski Area and only for strong experts.  I'm told the climb to get up there includes bootpacking a steep, knife-edge ridge line.

Another view of Fantasy Ridge from further away.  Vince is waiting for me at the top of an inbounds slope called Buckeye Jr.

This is the sporty section of the summit chair lift line at Solitude.  This is the lift you'd take to get to views/terrain in above photos.  The impressive cliffs to the right generally don't have so much snow sticking to them.  I saw tracks in that area that were made by people with much larger cojones than I :-)

This is the entrance to Headwall Forrest, a steep treed area that often holds great, soft snow.  You can see the edge of it to the left in above photo.

Vince doing some bumps near the Eagle express chair on the lower, frontside of Solitude:

This is the Last Chance Grill to the left.  The Village of Solitude can partially be seen to the right.  That's the Apex Express chair in center of photo.

Jim,

Related to Mineral Basin, I've include a link to a promotional video for Alta, from the 1940s.  I'm relatively sure they ski Mineral Basin to find Margy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR54O-qLQ4k

Don't think they had 3 hour traffic issues back then.....

What's the best airline for flying to Utah? Who has the cheapest flights from Dulles or BWI? 

I've heard of people just bringing their boots in checked luggage and renting skis when they get there. Does anyone here do that or is it easy enough to check skis? Any other tips for flying with skis? Been many years since I've done that.

Mongo wrote:

What's the best airline for flying to Utah? Who has the cheapest flights from Dulles or BWI? 

I've heard of people just bringing their boots in checked luggage and renting skis when they get there. Does anyone here do that or is it easy enough to check skis? Any other tips for flying with skis? Been many years since I've done that.

 The best to SLC is probably Delta, but the cheapest might be Frontier from WAS DC airports.  From BWI Spirit might be cheapest.  As you may know baggage fees are real tricky these days and can make seemingly cheap flights as pricey as expensive flights.  Some airlines might count skis and boots as one bag, some won't.  So you just have to game it out to see what the bottom line is with each airline.  Using a website like travelocity to plug in your dates and destinations is a good place to start to compare prices among different carriers.  I drive now to ski and bring everything in my car across country, but in the past I always flew with my own skis and boots, checking the skis and boots, or sometimes bringing the boots in a carry-on bag to ensure they didn't get separated from me.  If you're not endeared to your own gear, then renting might be a good option.  I think roundtrip fares from Wash-Balt to SLC are around $400 this winter??  Two advantages Utah has over a lot of ski destinations is that the SLC airport is less than an hour from six top notch ski areas.  Also, there are a lot of cheap motels in the SLC suburbs for $100 or less per night that you can stay at and commute to the various nearby ski areas.  There is bus service up to Alta-Bird and Sol-Bright, but best to have a rental car for that.

Nice pics! It's amazing that Timp looks so close. Mineral Basin is gorgeous!

Usually there's pretty good bumps under the Eagle lift at Solitude.  My best run ever (mogul run) under that chair.

Scree usually had pretty good powder as it was at the end of a long traverse that most people didn't want to bother with. Was called Evergreen back in the day.

Did you use an Ikon pass to ski out there?

superguy wrote:

Nice pics! It's amazing that Timp looks so close. Mineral Basin is gorgeous!

Usually there's pretty good bumps under the Eagle lift at Solitude.  My best run ever (mogul run) under that chair.

Scree usually had pretty good powder as it was at the end of a long traverse that most people didn't want to bother with. Was called Evergreen back in the day.

Did you use an Ikon pass to ski out there?

 Yes, I have a senior Snowbird season pass and an Ikon base pass (it only cost $299 on top of the price of my Snowbird pass).

JohnL at Snowbird, 6 Feb 2023, powder day!

Mongo wrote:

What's the best airline for flying to Utah? Who has the cheapest flights from Dulles or BWI? 

I've heard of people just bringing their boots in checked luggage and renting skis when they get there. Does anyone here do that or is it easy enough to check skis? Any other tips for flying with skis? Been many years since I've done that.

 To check fares for Southwest, you'll have to go to the SW website.  They don't work with any third-party travel websites.  I almost always fly SW from RDU because two checked bags are free.  Not as many other options as exist from DC/NoVA.  I would NEVER check my boots at the start of a ski trip.  Having skis or a suitcase arrive late is not a big deal.  The airlines usually provide money to rent skis.  But I want to have boots that fit, even if I end up having to rent skis because the airline messed up.  I also put basic ski clothing good for a day or two somewhere in my carry-ons.

If you can book non-stop, that's ideal.  Second best is a flight that doesn't require a plane change.  Not only a shorter flight time, no risk of having baggage not get moved over from the first plane to the final plane.

Do you have a ski bag?  I opted to get a hardcase that can hold two pairs of skis if needed.  Most of the time I only have one pair, but then can put other bulky stuff such as snow boots there too.  Have also flown with a soft ski bag with wheels that's designed for one pair of skis.  The advantage is if I'm sharing a car with a friends the soft bag takes up less space in the car.

Denis wrote:

Nice!  Do my eyes deceive me or is John telemarking?

 No, my bindings are fine. 😆

Jim, awesome pics! Thanks and wow you are having the time of your life!  Will you be in Utah late Feb? We are skiing 23-26.  Would be awesome to hook up.

Swoop (Steve)

I was up at Solitude for a while today, 15 Feb 2023.  Chilly day, 15f at base, cooler on the hill.  They have a neat, old patrol shack at the top of their Powderhorn Chairlift:

Took a fun run today called Parachute, you get there thru a gate at the top of the Powderhorn lift.

Snow is still good out here, but it's been over a week since the last big dump :-o

swoop wrote:

Jim, awesome pics! Thanks and wow you are having the time of your life!  Will you be in Utah late Feb? We are skiing 23-26.  Would be awesome to hook up.

Swoop (Steve)

 Hi Steve, see my PM.  Best chance to ski with you would be Feb 26 at Snowbird.  Planning to be on the mtn that day with large group of friends.

PS:  Thanks for the comment Mark!

Thanks Jim,

Just PM'd you back, we will also be at the Bird on 26th.  Let's see if we can make a few turns together.

I left my number on PM.

Steve

Crush wrote:

short but simple reply - damn you 😉

 Tahoe ain’t exactly sucking this year El Crush. 😈

I decided Jim K shouldn’t have all the fun, so I’m out here working remote for 2.5+ months this winter. Hit town Feb 1. 

I skied with Swoop from the DCSki board and his buddy Martin on 2/26/2023 at Snowbird.  We had a fun time and those guys skied great.

Here are a few photos:

Swoop dropping into Great Scott, one of the premier steeps at Snowbird, beware of sharks!

Scoping out his next move:

Then Martin dropped in:

Martin getting his groove on:

Swoop photographing Martin:

Martin photographing Swoop, how cool is that?!?

My postcard shot of Martin.

I took this photo right after they had skied Great Scott, it's part of the large cirque in the distant background behind them.

Me and Swoop after lunch in the summit restaurant:

Jim thanks for posting.  JimK certainly is a hero, an elegant skier and even better person.  Thanks for showing us around The Bird Jim!

Swoop n Martin

JimK on Great Scott at Snowbird - see what I mean by elegant?

We just returned from an EPIC!!! trip to Utah covering 4 mountains in 4 days!  This first day is very special at Snowbasin.  First time there and did we hit it right!

First Martin showing how DEEP the POW is!

Martin is Sister's Bowl... "Hey Swoop, the just opened that gate... let's go!"

Martin "Banno" gettin after it... deep too!

... Banno pow'd out!

Swoop is Sister's Bowl, yeah!

...POW baby POW! ...

Snowbasin is the real deal an up and coming power house ok powder house!  We even met GM Davey Ratchford out greeting us as we arrived earlier.  Super guy.

Snowbird is next...

IF Martin took this photo he is my new hero!! beautiful, sensational,, poster worthy.

I was up at Solitude today, 5 March 2023.  There was a foot of new snow last night and another foot is expected tonight!  Vince and I ate some pizza in the Solitude Village, look at the snowbanks there!!

Ski conditions are off the charts:

JimK wrote:

I was up at Solitude today, 5 March 2023.  There was a foot of new snow last night and another foot is expected tonight!  Vince and I ate some pizza in the Solitude Village, look at the snowbanks there!!

Ski conditions are off the charts:

 We stayed at the Solitude base (just steps from your photo) during President's week and enjoyed something like 50" of freshies during the week!  Solitude was surprisingly uncrowded even on President's Day and after the 28" pow day.  Honeycomb Canyon was really cool as were the other "Expert" gated areas.  Nice tree skiing too!  Very glad we stayed on-mountain instead of commuting to LCC/BCC from the valley.  We hit Alta on Thursday and the hours-long drive was ridiculous but the skiing was also ridiculous(ly good) so it was worth it for a day. 

BTW, the lodge on the mountain had the best food I've ever had at an on-mountain eatery (outside of France that is).  They offer pretty decent Indian food, think butter chicken, saag paneer etc).  Nice little mountain!

We skied Snowbird on Day 2 and 4.  Day 2 was a pow day as well! On Day 4 we caught up with the SkiTalk group including JimK Enjoy.

This one is Pearly Gates

Martin "Banno" slayin the pow

Swoop under Little Cloud chair

Wind was blowing over the ridge from Mineral Basin making visibility poor over their, meanwhile snow blowing over into Regulator Johnson bowl, free refills of packed powder and Bluebird!

Prior to that, visibility was pretty rough with wind blowing, somehow Martin got us out on the ridge to the Cirque, and while we couldn't see, we had a great pow run down the Cirque!  Later that afternoon with the visibility improved we hit it again and captured this-conditions still really good!

We ran into JimK and SkiTalk Gang and Jim led is around the Bird.  I think this one was taken following one of his crazy lines! (I believe this was a detour to avoid an even crazier line.  Thanks Jim!)

Kevin, Jim, Swoop n Martin getting a few runs in at the Bird.  Thanks again for showing us Great Scott Jim!

Jim showed us the goods on Great Scott

Mineral Basin

Swoop set to plant on late afternoon run off the Tram called Silver Fox

Swoop and Banno going for it!  Not so easy when flying in for a short term visit.  I'm old, but I have the luxury of exploring Snowbird and some of the other Utah ski areas slowly and carefully, acclimating, and learning to conserve energy while staying out of trouble.

Here's a photo I took on 9 March 2023 of a friend in Ski Patrol Gully, Mineral Basin, Snowbird, UT:

Another friend, 1 March 2023 at Sundance, age 75!

Get Serious chute, Snowbird, 11 March, lower section of Gadzoom chair in background:

Above is Brighton, top of Great Western chair, 2 March.  Directly between me and my friends on top of the small and most distant white mountaintop is the black glass structure of Snowbird's summit restaurant.

 That terrain looks seriously steep and photos do NOT show how steep something is. Gopros are worse for that.  

JimK wrote:

Swoop and Banno going for it!  Not so easy when flying in for a short term visit.  I'm old, but I have the luxury of exploring Snowbird and some of the other Utah ski areas slowly and carefully, acclimating, and learning to conserve energy while staying out of trouble.

Here's a photo I took on 9 March 2023 of a friend in Ski Patrol Gully, Mineral Basin, Snowbird, UT:

Another friend, 1 March 2023 at Sundance, age 75!

Get Serious chute, Snowbird, 11 March, lower section of Gadzoom chair in background:

Above is Brighton, top of Great Western chair, 2 March.  Directly between me and my friends on top of the small and most distant white mountaintop is the black glass structure of Snowbird's summit restaurant.

Had the pleasure to ski with Lucas Catania from YouTube at Canyons and Solitude!  Enjoy!  Now back to the Mid-A to finish the season at Timberline this weekend.  I'll see you all there!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SGrWXE3T2k&t=1s

I'll leave his link here as well.

Luca's Channel :  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEWWYrkFiaIOF25WjpvCfWA

ShredDMV wrote:

Had the pleasure to ski with Lucas Catania from YouTube at Canyons and Solitude!  Enjoy!  Now back to the Mid-A to finish the season at Timberline this weekend.  I'll see you all there!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SGrWXE3T2k&t=1s

I'll leave his link here as well.

Luca's Channel :  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEWWYrkFiaIOF25WjpvCfWA

 Awesome, I've been following Lucas this season and look forward to his racing.  Good job working your way down the double.

Crush wrote:

totally weak - I know 9990 quite well. You took the easy line for tourists and skied it crappy. JimK and friends are the real thing not posers. 

 Patiently awaiting your 360 off the cornice footage 

Crush wrote:

totally weak - I know 9990 quite well. You took the easy line for tourists and skied it crappy. JimK and friends are the real thing not posers. 

Skied with Rudi from DC on 14 March 2023 at Solitude:

Got my photo taken with a friendly stranger on St. Patrick's Day at Snowbird:

The trees at Brighton are one of the best places to ski in Utah on a storm day.  JohnL and friend at Brighton, 20 March 2023:

JohnL hogging all the powder, Solitude Ut 22 MARCH 2023

This is getting ridiculous.  Some of the ski resorts in UT have received about four feet of snow in the last few days.  I tried to go skiing today, 24 March 2023, but both Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons access roads were closed at various times during the day.  I decided not to go.  I'm told skiing featured whiteout conditions and lift closures. At one point mid-day it dumped 5" in one hour at Alta. There was a rare lengthy mid-day "interlodge" today at Alta/Bird, meaning no driving and no skiing, just sitting around in a damp and crowded lodge for several hours while crews performed avalanche mitigation efforts.

Many Utah ski areas are on pace to set all-time seasonal snowfall records.  Next to the Ski Utah office in Salt Lake City they've erected a 700" banner to mark that several resorts have exceeded that amount for snow totals already.

Here's a related article with numerous photos.

Coverage of today's interlodge situation.

Nice! (was responding to JohnL & "friend" pics)

Made the long drive back - got home 3/12. Made it out of SLC before the storm 3/10, but they decided to close I-80 in WY while I was en route (wind blown snow is my guess, I was ahead of the incoming storm). Changed route & managed to get back in 3 very long days.

Jim,

Are you still there?  Seems like it's getting even crazier... Love to get any local insights into LCC and BCC.

Hi Dean,

Dean from March 3, 2023, entering Great Scott at Snwobird:

A month later, 4/4/23 I trade skis and chairlifts for snowblower and snowplow, even SLC suburbs getting bombed today. Three feet of snow at ski resorts in last 48 hours.  Alta/Bird closed/interlodge all day.  Snowbird broke snow total record 783" today, Alta at 847".

Snowbanks huge on Apr 2 at base of Snowbird

cant track up snow fast enough, apr 2

Vince skiing Broom Closet at Snowbird Apr 2

news story from 7 apr 23, addresses the somewhat extreme situation in Little Cottonwwod Canyon after a week (and winter) of heavy snow. Ppl have been stuck/interlodged since Mon except for a few hours Thurs bc of avalanches.

more

video

The avi danger is off the charts out here in Utah. 

--------------------------

Report from UDOT for 9 Apr 2023:

Road Closure Alert   Little Cottonwood Canyon (SR-210) will temporarily re-open tonight from 7-10PM for downhill travel, close overnight, then re-open for all travel from 6AM - 9AM tomorrow (4/9) morning. The canyon will be closed after this travel period until approximately 7PM. The potential exists for large, destructive avalanches that could affect infrastructure and/or damage buildings. Travelers should be prepared for prolonged closures of multiple days starting Monday and adjust plans accordingly. There is NO estimated time for a full road opening. Follow @UDOTCottonwoods Twitter or Instagram stories for updates.

----------------------

I was at solitude on 6 apr 23, it was a beautiful day, #41 for me, but at 3pm i caught an edge trying to speed along the flats below headwall forest. went down hard on left shoulder, xrays showed no break, but sprained acl. i was in a sling for a couple days.  I'm still sore and probably out for a little while.  May try skiing groomer later this week, depends on how it heals. i was skiing with some friends and they were a big help during and after the incident. Conked my head pretty good too.

Huge snowpack on Solitude's Moonbeam Lodge

Two ski Patrollers high above Honeycomb Canyon

Jim,

I feel like it being locked up at the top of the canyon would be magic for about 24 hours.  It would then get real old, real quick....

JNF

jn_freedman wrote:

Jim,

I feel like it being locked up at the top of the canyon would be magic for about 24 hours.  It would then get real old, real quick....

JNF

 Except that for good portions of the last 9 days the folks vacationing up in LCC have been "interlodged", meaning no driving, no skiing, no leaving the lodges!  Complete loss, although it's possible the resorts/lodges are giving them some kind of compensation (future discounts?) for the disruption of their visit??

JimK wrote:

jn_freedman wrote:

Jim,

I feel like it being locked up at the top of the canyon would be magic for about 24 hours.  It would then get real old, real quick....

JNF

 Except that for good portions of the last 9 days the folks vacationing up in LCC have been "interlodged", meaning no driving, no skiing, no leaving the lodges!  Complete loss, although it's possible the resorts/lodges are giving them some kind of compensation (future discounts?) for the disruption of their visit??

There haven't been that many days with no skiing at all in the last 9 days for those staying in LCC.

 I know a family who was at Alta Lodge with two young kids last week.  That meant a few hours of skiing on Monday and Thursday, with full Interlodge on Tuesday and Wednesday.  They extended their stay and took a red-eye back to DC on Saturday night.  Bottom line is that they had a very good time.  Interlodge that starts in the evening and ends in the morning has little impact on people staying in one of the five private lodges in the Town of Alta.

I have another friend who is at Alta Lodge skiing Alta for the first time.  His stay was planned for two weeks.  He's been having a good time.  He's part of an annual alumni gathering that was supposed to start on Wed, April 13.  Part of the group made it to Alta Lodge before the road closed on Monday, April 10 at 9am.  Another part is in SLC and making the best of it.  They plan to ski together at another resort.

Note that the lodges at Alta provide breakfast and dinner.  Lunch is available a la carte to lodge guests and the public under normal circumstances.  People at Alta lodges tend to use common areas, as opposed to just staying in their rooms.  People make new friends, watch a movie together, do jigsaw puzzles, play games, etc.

What I wonder about are the people in condos at Snowbird.  They have to provide their own food during Interlodge.  Snowbird closed a lot of their food service this week, meaning places that normally would stay open during late season.

I arrived at Alta Lodge with my daughter and ski buddy, Bill on Sunday, April 9, as planned.  We were in SLC for a few days beforehand, as planned months ago.  We were happy that there was an uphill travel window early in the morning, 6am-9am.  No traffic and we made it to Alta Lodge by 8am.  We are here for a couple weeks that includes a school alumni gathering.  A few other alumni made it and others are in SLC and plan to get to Alta when they can.

Sunday, April 9 was a pretty normal late season ski day with warm weather in terms of snow conditions.  It was the last day of the season for Supreme.  Not sure when the decision was made to close Supreme for the season.  There was a short window of time when Devil's Castle opened for the first time since mid-March.  What I heard was the the top third was fun, the middle third was heavy, and the bottom third was hard work in mashed potatoes.

Monday and Tuesday only Sunnyside and Sugarloaf were running.  I had a good time skiing groomers with my daughter and our friends.  Off-piste was either frozen or mashed potatoes except for a few small spots. 

Not running Collins seems to be a staffing issue given that there is limited staff who could get a bed in Alta for an extended road closure (Mon-Thu, maybe longer).  The lodges are helping put up some critical staff.  Temps have been in the 50s even mid-mountain by lunch time.  So by 1:30 or 2:00 not many people are interested in skiing more.

My crew of three was planning on skiing Alta on April 8 with friends who were supposed to be at Alta Lodge for a long weekend.  I bought a day ticket for my daughter and made a parking reservation.  I cancelled the parking reservation the evening before.  We decided that driving up before 9am and staying until 7pm wasn't worth it.  Especially since her friend and his father (from DC) opted to shift to Park City.  Alta refunded the ticket no questions asked.

We skied Park City with the DC friends on April 8.  Bill has an Epic pass and still had 2 Buddy Passes.  Had a good time checking out PC/Canyons for the first time.  Plus there was a very fun pond skim.

 Damn - I miss the pond skimming! I love how the best of the best look like they are from the PC Nordic Ski Jumping team.

marzNC wrote:

My crew of three was planning on skiing Alta on April 8 with friends who were supposed to be at Alta Lodge for a long weekend.  I bought a day ticket for my daughter and made a parking reservation.  I cancelled the parking reservation the evening before.  We decided that driving up before 9am and staying until 7pm wasn't worth it.  Especially since her friend and his father (from DC) opted to shift to Park City.  Alta refunded the ticket no questions asked.

We skied Park City with the DC friends on April 8.  Bill has an Epic pass and still had 2 Buddy Passes.  Had a good time checking out PC/Canyons for the first time.  Plus there was a very fun pond skim.

Today, April 12, Alta opted to run Collins and Sunnyside.  Could ski from the top of Collins on the open terrain on the Sugarloaf side, then take the transfer tow back to Wildcat.  Loading at Collins mid-mountain made the most sense after lunch.  The wind felt cold but the air temp was high enough to make the snow soft even at the top of Collins.  The terrain off the High T, Ballroom, and the lower Saddle traverses were all closed.  Could see big snow boulders that had rolled down onto the section of Saddle that was groomed.

Snowbird was running the Tram, Wilbere, and Gadzoom from 9:00-2:00.  Most of the food service at Snowbird is shut down this week, presumably due to lack of staff.

Road is expected to be open some time on Friday, April 14.

marzNC wrote:

Today, April 12, Alta opted to run Collins and Sunnyside.  Could ski from the top of Collins on the open terrain on the Sugarloaf side, then take the transfer tow back to Wildcat.  Loading at Collins mid-mountain made the most sense after lunch.  The wind felt cold but the air temp was high enough to make the snow soft even at the top of Collins.  The terrain off the High T, Ballroom, and the lower Saddle traverses were all closed.  Could see big snow boulders that had rolled down onto the section of Saddle that was groomed.

Snowbird was running the Tram, Wilbere, and Gadzoom from 9:00-2:00.  Most of the food service at Snowbird is shut down this week, presumably due to lack of staff.

Road is expected to be open some time on Friday, April 14.

 Glad your visit is working out.  You have the legendary country club experience!  Looks to be some fresh snow up there today!

Well, it did snow a bit in the morning on April 13.  But the temps dived from the 30s the evening before to the 20s by lunch time.  Everything froze up solid.  There was no visibility in the morning due to fog and snow, so Alta opted to not open at all after first announcing a late opening at 10:30.  Snowbird attempted to open but also gave up around 12:30.  Would only have been the same few lifts as April 12 due to low staff numbers with the road still closed.

SR210 in LCC re-opened at 6:30pm on April 13.  That meant folks who were stuck in SLC the last few days made it up to Alta Lodge in time for dinner last night.  Also meant a few people who need to get home know they can make their re-scheduled flights in the next day or three.

Turns out a family with a couple kids who came to Alta Lodge for the first time area also from North Carolina.  Had a good time working together working on a jigsaw puzzle, playing games, and taking a walk around to the Powder Ridge condos.

Alta plans to have Sunnyside, Sugarloaf, and Collins running on April 14.  Will need sharp edges. ;-)

Apr 16, 2023:  Finally got back up to Snowbird.  First visit since Apr 2.

In the meantime they built a huge terrain park in Mineral Basin near the Baldy Chair:

The evidence of avalanches along the access road (rt 210) is mind blowing.  This is the aftermath of 5.5 feet April 2-5 storm.  Almost every possible slide path had avi debris in it and some across the canyon.

Do It!

Mongo wrote:

I'm thinking about Snowbird weekend of April 29/30 - what do you think, worth coming if I can get plane tickets that aren't too insane?

Mongo wrote:

I'm thinking about Snowbird weekend of April 29/30 - what do you think, worth coming if I can get plane tickets that aren't too insane?

 Decent chance it will be fine spring skiing.  There certainly will be no lack of snow. 

You just might catch something like this, Apr 27, 2021:

Skiing with the Laurel Hill Crazie family at Park City, UT, 18 April 2023:

Notice the attire of the LHC family.  It's still pretty freakin wintry out here.  I bought a new light weight spring jacket last fall.  I have worn it twice in 45 ski days in the Rockies this year.

Jim,

You've inspired me and I now have 2 refundable tickets (one for myself and one for my son) for a Snowbird June 9-11 trip...  Won't be dropping the cirque but should be memorable.

JNF

 Yay! Smart! They will so be skiing in July.

jn_freedman wrote:

Jim,

You've inspired me and I now have 2 refundable tickets (one for myself and one for my son) for a Snowbird June 9-11 trip...  Won't be dropping the circle but should be memorable.

JNF

jn_freedman wrote:

Jim,

You've inspired me and I now have 2 refundable tickets (one for myself and one for my son) for a Snowbird June 9-11 trip...  Won't be dropping the circle but should be memorable.

JNF

 You've inspired me!  I've actually never skied Snowbird in June, but I might this year.  Kind of depends on some home improvement projects/schedules and other family factors that could delay when I head back east.

Took an accidental selfie at Brighton, UT today, actually caught some of the great scenery there:

Boarders and Brighton go together like peanut butter and jelly:

Vince and I:

Please tell me Snyder no longer owns the WFT?!?

JimK wrote:

Took an accidental selfie at Brighton, UT today, actually caught some of the great scenery there:

Boarders and Brighton go together like peanut butter and jelly:

Vince and I:

Please tell me Snyder no longer owns the WFT?!?

 He's on his way out, apparently!

I got back up to Snowbird today 4 May 2023 for the first time since 16 April.  The access road has been closed more than open in the last two weeks.  Meanwhile, they've built a huge terrain park in Mineral Basin and world class athletes have gathered for a big competition over the next couple of days.

View of the terrain park for the Woodward Peace Park Championships from the Snowbird summit.  The features are much bigger closeup:-)

View from the park towards the summit:

I tried to capture some of the training runs while riding the Baldy chair beside the park.

Access road still has evidence of tremendous avalanche activity during this monster winter:

Photos from skiing at Snowbird the last four days.
4 May 2023, view from above the Woodward terrain park in Mineral Basin:

5 May, early morning, exiting the Peruvian tunnel (magic carpet lift):

6 May, On the cat track known as Road to Provo in Little Cloud Bowl, still an immense amount of snow on the mountains out here:

7 May, view from the summit restaurant, hard to tell, but there is partial sunshine while a snow squall is underway:

Jim,

I realize it's a month away but do you think early June will be worth it?  Understanding that we won't be hitting waist deep powder but enjoying what may be a unique and rare experience.

JNF

jn_freedman wrote:

Jim,

I realize it's a month away but do you think early June will be worth it?  Understanding that we won't be hitting waist deep powder but enjoying what may be a unique and rare experience.

JNF

 Are you thinking of lift served skiing?  Only a few lifts remain open at Snowbird.  Haven't seen any indication yet that lifts will keep running after late May.

jn_freedman wrote:

Jim,

I realize it's a month away but do you think early June will be worth it?  Understanding that we won't be hitting waist deep powder but enjoying what may be a unique and rare experience.

JNF

Good info from MarzNC.  Obviously, you'd need the resort to commit to remaining open after Memorial Day.  I would expect they'd make an announcement on that in another week or two, perhaps by May 20?  If they remain open into June, they will very likely operate at least the tram and little cloud chairlift.  It's hard to say what happens to the Mineral and Peruvian chairlifts after this Sunday, May 14 and into June.  If they also keep them running after Memorial Day you'd really have some extensive terrain to enjoy and it would be worth the trip. 

If only the tram and little cloud chair are open in June there are a few possibilities for what terrain will remain open.  My son has experience with skiing Snowbird in June about five years ago.  What has happened in the past is they will operate the tram and little cloud chair only.  Folks take the tram from the base to the summit and from there all skiing takes place in Little Cloud Bowl, which is served by the Little Cloud chair with a vertical of 1300'.  There's a lot of acreage, but it's all open and of similar moderately steep pitch (black diamond to dark blue square), no beginner terrain.  At the end of the day (2pm), folks ride up Little Cloud chair and must down load on the tram to get back to the base. 

In this record breaking snowy year, however, it is possible that in June skiing will still be allowed down Peruvian Gulch or Gad Valley where you'd end up at the tram base and could repeatedly return to the summit.  They could also possibly keep the Mineral Basin chair open.  If any of those three sections remain open in June, you'd have a nice amount of additional terrain to ski beyond little cloud bowl.  You just have to watch and wait to see what they keep open.  Perhaps if you emailed the resort and tell them your plans they'd give you a clue as to what they are thinking??

Here are some photos of Little Cloud Bowl from this winter.

This photo from mid-winter 2023 shows most of Little Cloud Bowl.  The Little Cloud chairlift goes diagonally up from left to right.  The black structure in the center, highest background is the summit of the tram.  Almost everything in this photo is accessible/skiable from those two lifts and would be the most likely terrain to remain open in June

This is a panoramic view from the summit looking down into Little Cloud Bowl. The upper terminal of the Little Cloud chair is to the far left.

This photo was taken from the far side of Little Cloud Bowl, approximately in the distant center of above photo.  The base of the Little Cloud lift is in the center of the photo below.  The other lift terminal visible towards the upper right of this photo is the upper terminus of the Gadzoom chairlift (closed for the year).  The tram base is out of sight to the left.

These two views depict parts of Little Cloud Bowl off to the passenger's right while riding up the Little Cloud chair.  As you can see, there are usually a few groomed routes down to the base of the lift, but much of the acreage is left ungroomed.  Ideally in late spring/early summer Little Cloud Bowl could start a little firm for the first hour of the ski session from 8-9 AM, soften nicely for three or four hours of fine spring skiing, then turn a bit slushy for the last hour of operations from 1-2 PM.

Here's a photo from 2022 showing much less snow in Little Cloud Bowl, this perspective is from the cat track in above two photos and looking back at the lift line and summit.

Final photo, from a few years ago at the base of Little Cloud lift, looking up.  Likely to be very small lines for June unless there is a surprise powder day (not unheard of):

Definitely need to call the resort to verify hours/days of operation for remainder of season at Snowbird.  Scuttlebutt is that snowbird will close after memorial day (may 29), then reopen for Father's day weekend (june 16-18), then possibly a few more weekends after that.

I hit ski day #55 today. Hoping to top last year's 61 total, but it could be close. I've got to the end of May and will also be busy contributing to a bathroom remodeling project. Likely to return East in early June.

Snowbird:
12 May, this is part of the bowl served by the Little Cloud chairlift. The high ridge is OOB. In bounds terrain is lower down and accessed by the cat track to left. There are two guys skiing the huge chute (Pipeline) in right center of photo. One is the black spec halfway down, the other is the black spec waiting on side of trail where chute opens up. So much snow here still! Haven't seen many skiing Pipeline this winter. I assume due to high avi risk.

Mr JimK and et alia re: 2024 March skiing madness per your DM. Welcome welcome to all couch surfers ! Ohh totally reminded me of this excellence

youtube.com

=~~Damnit - I remember I had hair like that in the day - now trying to rock a Jason Statham look which is quite the fail grrr ....

Haven't posted in this thread in a couple weeks.  I'm still logging some ski days.  I've alternated among the three ski areas that were still open in through much of May 2023 in Utah; Snowbird, Solitude, and Brighton.  I wrap up most of my May skiing by noon.  I've gone until 2PM a couple of times, but there is a threat of afternoon thunder showers almost every day.  The incredibly moist pattern that brought so much snow in winter has continued into late spring.

17 May, With friends at Solitude, UT:

20 May, at Snowbird, UT, the smoke from the massive fires in Western Canada made the Wasatch look like the Great Smokies of NC.  It cleared up a day or two later.

21 May, Vince in the Woodward Peace Park at Snowbird, UT:

Same day, we went for a run at Solitude, UT and then tailgated on their closing day.

25 May with a friend at Brighton, UT:

Expect to log another couple of days this weekend at Snowbird, including maybe Memorial Day skiing.  This is the latest lift served spring skiing I've had in my life.  Then I prepare for the return drive to VA. 

Jim,

Just canceled the Snowbird trip for early June....  Unfortunate but sounds like they need time for Tram upgrades.  Silver lining is all tickets were refundable.

Hope you had a great season!

I wrapped up my ski season in Utah last weekend with three straight days at Snowbird.  My final day was Memorial Day, 29 May 2023. It was ski day number 64 for me this season, a personal record.

Here are a few photos from Memorial Day weekend at Snowbird:

With friends, my son on left, me on right:

Memorial Day, heading up for last ski day, very grateful!

I came across an article in the Salt Lake Tribune by Julie Jag, dated 1 June 2023. It had some really good stats about Utah snow and crowds for the winter of 2022-23. I'll list a few facts from the article here for posterity.

- Ski Utah estimates visitation to the state's resorts during 22-23 season will reach 7.1 million (Snowbird is likely to reopen for a few weekends later in June and July). This is a record and a 22% increase over last year's record! (Visitation is different from visitors. One person like myself going to ski 62 times in Utah boosts visitation, but only counts as one visitor.)
- Nationally, visitation jumped 6.6% in 22-23 for a record of 64.7 million visits.
- The big visitation numbers are attributed to big snowfall numbers, especially in the West and Rocky Mountain regions, which accounted for 40% of the visitation.
- More than half of Utah's 15 resorts claimed their longest season on record, including Brian Head, Solitude (192 days of lift served access), Deer Valley, Brighton, Snowbasin, Nordic Valley, and Woodward Park City.
- Alta saw a record 903" of snow, topping its previous record by more than 150". Alta received 229" of snow in March alone (244% above its average for March). In fact, Alta averaged 5.1" of snowfall each day during its ski season (halting lift operations on April 21).
- Sundance received 10 more feet of snow than it had ever seen.
- Brighton, Solitude, Snowbird, Snowbasin, Nordic Valley, Woodward Park City, Park City Mountain, and Deer Valley also set snowfall records. Most saw record snowpack as well.
- Ski Utah issued 44 powder alerts (at least 12" new snow in a 24 hour span). The average alerts of this type for a season is 19.

Personally, I calculated that during my first 70 days in Utah this winter (from 20 January to the end of March) Snowbird averaged over six inches of snow per day during those 70 days! And that didn't include the Snowmageddon that would occur on April 2-5, 2023, when some resorts received approximately 60" of snow in 60 hours. As of 3 June 2023 Snowbird has recorded 838" of snow, a seasonal record for the resort.  Also, I spoke to a relatively high level Snowbird employee on 20 May 2023 who told me there were 39 snow-related interlodges/road closures this season at Snowbird and that didn't include at least one additional road closure situation for a mudslide.  At the end of the season party the Snowbird employees were issued a commemorative t-shirt with the number 39 on it :-)

Plan to drive back to Wash DC area in about one week.  May visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and other scenic spots.  If I get some good photos I'll post a few here.

Kule! Glad you caught that! Who is this?!??! Nice angulation for sure

 Hopefullly catch you all in 2024 !

Thanks Jim! Have a safe trip back!

Morgan

The Colonel wrote:

Thanks Jim! Have a safe trip back!

Morgan

 Thanks Morgan.  Great to hear from you!  Been thinking about you.

One of my last sunrises in Utah, 6 June 2023: