3,100 miles of driving, visiting 8 ski areas in 4 states, and skiing 14 of 19 days it was all worth it. Some 20 feet of snow fell the week prior and/or during the time we were skiing.

Flew out of Washington Dulles IAD to Denver DEN. We booked our Southwest Air trip about a month in advance. Two round trip/non stop tickets were had for just under $400.

March 7-8: Wolf Creek, Colorado. After 21" of snow fell on Thursday into early Friday morning. We left Pagosa Springs arriving to a blue bird day with light winds. It snowed another 6" the next morning with partly cloudy conditions on Saturday.

Although Wolf Creek is small compared to many ski areas, it has abundant powder in typical years. No crowds & family owned. It was a gem of a place to ski!

Wolf Creek Valley overlook>

Leaving our isolated bed & breakfast in Pagosa Springs >

Alberta Face at Wolf Creek>

Knife Ridge Staircase>

Alberta Peak>

Back to Pagosa Springs>

March 11, 12 & 13: Mammoth Mountain, CA. Arrived in Mammoth Tuesday afternoon to a warm blue bird day with light winds. Mountain was 100% open. Winds came up and stayed up on Wednesday & Thursday closing the top of the mountain. Light snow on Wednesday evening followed by 2 feet overnight with 6" more during the day on Thursday. 

Looking south/south west from Benton Crossing road. This road took us through the Long Valley Caldera just southeast of Mammoth Lakes. It is one of earth's largest Calderas.>

Chair 23 in foreground toward Philippe's & Kiwi Flats> 

Chair 3 on the left with Hangman's Hollow & Cornice Bowl right>

Chair 2 daughter posing>

Chair 22 Skied a few of the Avalanche Chutes. Skied under the chair on Grizzly, Shaft, & Viva as they were the best accessible runs on Thursday. Great powder & tree skiing.>

Few sunny pics from March, 2024 when we were at Mammoth>

March 15: Palisades, CA. Drove from South Lake Tahoe, CA for a few hours on a Saturday at Palisades. They had 11" just prior with 45" for the storm that week. It was VERY crowded & there was a wind hold on much of the upper mountain. Did little actual skiing waiting in line with many others for the wind hold on Granite Chief lift to open. Upon descent I had planned to go to KT-22 but everyone was there. The line was LONG. Packed it in for a better day next time. Zero pics this day but here are a couple from March 24'>

March 16: Heavenly, CA. Just a couple inches were reported but the storm that crossed the Sierra Nevada's that week added up to 28" total. The winds were up with Sky chair closed not allowing us to go on the Nevada side. It was a significantly windy day with wind blasting us like a sand blaster could. Stopping regularly and skiing switch was the order of the day.

Skied some trees and a few bump runs off Canyon chair>

Mount Tallac>

March 18: Kirkwood, CA. With 21" just prior and 65" for the storm Kirkwood was again just fantastic! Lots of powder, tree, & bump skiing to be had. Blue bird day with no wind to speak of and quality snow only got soft when approaching the 7,800 base elevation.

Starting our family day>

Looking down from The Wall>

Traversed from the top of The Wall to just below The Sisters>

Descending into Notch Chute from The Sisters>

Looking back up at The Sisters>

Couple pics from March 24'>

March 19: Heavenly, NV. With 8" fresh POW and 36" this week the Nevada side of Heavenly was just what the doctor ordered! Always preferred the east side of Heavenly except for the East Bowl Woods off the Tramway on the CA side after a good pow day.

Mott Canyon Bill's run>

March 21: Deer Valley, Utah. Enjoyed my first time here. It did however, feel crowded as I skied mostly blue runs with my wife. Reported 9" fresh but it didn't feel like this as most of the runs were groomed and skied up. They reported a whopping 12" in the week prior so this was the least amount of snow we encountered so far. I guess it wasn't typical as the last 2 years were big snow years.

This was the most organized ski resort I have ever been to. From using their baskets for your boots/shoes (FREE) & ski storage overnight (FREE) to sign boards at the top of lifts detailing the current status of each run it was how all resorts should operate. Tissue boxes in each lift line was a nice touch so you don't need to use paper towels after a bathroom was found. The general helpfulness of the staff was very welcomed. This is a first class resort but not necessarily a skier's mountain or a mountain that I prefer to travel to.

Off of Empire Express lift>

March, 22: Steamboat Springs, CO. With 12" overnight and 17" storm total Steamboat felt like there was plenty of pow to satisfy. The upper mountain was shrouded with clouds which made it difficult to see but as you descended things improved. The base resort is exceptional with plenty of places to eat and drink or listen to music. The gondola is smooth as butter. It didn't even feel like you were moving.

3 o'clock tree run>

Kuus' Cruise trees off Sundown Express Chair>

Back to the base>

March 23, 24, & 25: Winter Park, CO. For the 3rd time in the last 4 years we find ourselves going to Winter Park. This is a great resort and one of my favorite resorts! We have friends who live close by. We enjoy spending time and skiing with them while there. Storm total prior dropped 26" of snow but some of that was skied out or heavy. It offers the best bump skiing at pretty much any resort in the US (period). Sunday & Monday had wind holds which closed Pano lift but Mary Jane offered some nice terrain. The sweet spot was after the crust softened and before it became too heavy. Tuesday we made it to The Cirque so that was a fitting way to end our ski vacation.

Mother and baby moose in Corona Siding parking lot. This was the 3rd time seeing them. They are fast and by the time you try to capture an image they are gone.>

VW bug bumps on Trestle>

Runaway>

Chutes by Runaway>

Parry Peak>

Cirque closed at Cowboy's so that is where we went down>

GOOD BYE!

JimK wrote:

Great report. 

Thank you Jim and everyone who replied!

Would you do anything different?

My wife and I have made the trip out west the past 4 years. The first & second year we spent about 2-1/2 weeks alternating between Grand & Summit counties. Our daughter was an instructor at Breckenridge so we stayed there while skiing at Breck and Vail in addition to Steamboat & Winter Park with our friends.

The past 2 years our daughter worked for Heavenly. Last year we flew in & out of Las Vegas. Our driving loop was about 1/3 of this year's trip. For some reason the driving miles took more of a toll on me.

I am a planner and would have liked to include more stops and venture to more ski areas but the wear on the body takes its toll. Including this trip, I get roughly 50 days a year on snow. At 67 with arthritic knees that's a maximum for now.

So to answer your question: I plan on getting in great shape entering this next ski season so I can better keep up with my daughter and friends. They kept pointing to "your not use to the elevation" as a reason for my stopping more frequently. I believe it's more loss of muscle and my age to some degree. I just can't get in the type of shape, skiing in the mid-Atlantic, required to do a black mogul run of 500-1,000 feet without stopping.

What were a couple of your best lessons learned on the trip?

Pack less. We have used Southwest to fly as their bag policy has met our needs. Although we did wash things a couple of times you just don't need/use as much stuff as you bring. We bought a couple of the long Dakine bags but getting that in and out of a vehicle is cumbersome.

You go around very extensively.  You must have had good weather on your driving days??

I'm a stick and move kinda guy. Not sure I could base myself for more than a week in one place and be satisfied. I watch the weather carefully so there is some flexibility to adjust ski/travel days so we don't get stuck somewhere. We optioned to go on a day trip to Durango on the day that Wolf Creek had a blizzard (Thursday 3.6) knowing that Friday would be epic.

We changed our reservations to 2 nights in Mammoth from one when the forecast predicted that driving from Bishop in the a.m. would have been a problem or significantly delayed us from getting there.

Coming into Tahoe was tricky as it was snowing with black ice in places so we crept along to avoid an accident. The next morning I left later in the a.m. for Palisades as the warm up started to melt the icy roads. The rest of the trip went great as much of the snow was elevation dependent and roads were relatively clear.

Just thought I would post a few pics of our side trip to Moab & Arches National Park. If you find yourself in the Colorado or Utah in March it's definitely worth a stop as temperatures are cooler (60's). We were told it gets above 100+ in the summer and can become very dangerous to those not prepared.

We were able to take a couple 1/2 days on Sunday & Monday to explore the park.

Balanced Rock>

South Window>

North & South Window>

Looking through Turret Arch to the North & South Arches>

Delicate Arch>

Landscape Arch (this spans a football field across)>

Wow, you've explored more of Arches in one visit than I have in 7 winters out here.  Beautiful photos.  It is much more quiet in the winter and no reservations needed to enter.

Yeah, the age thing is catching up to me too.  My ratio of groomers to offpiste is trending toward more groomers.  Also, more partial days and fewer full days.  Every day on the slopes is a precious gift.  Life is good!