Sun Valley Jan. 27-28, 2016

[marzNC]

Spending a couple days skiing at Sun Valley to take advantage of it being added to the Mountain Collective Pass for 2015-16 before skiing Alta and Aspen with several friends. First day was mostly groomers since we did the free mountain tour. Turned out to be hosted by Allan Patzer, who has skied at SV for almost 50 years and is a key member of the management team. He had lunch with the three of us (me, @nopoleskier, Bill). Lots of great stories.

Visibility was very good today for a first look at SV. Because of an inversion is was much warmer on the upper mountain. Perfect temps in the high 20s and low 30s, with no wind at all. Hasn't snowed for a few days, so not too much super soft snow to be found. Next storm is coming is just as we head to Alta so we'll catch the powder there.

View from Tyrolean Best Western in the morning, very close to the River Run base, last bus stop for the Silver Line that runs every 15 min


Bill taking a panorama


Mountain Tour 10:30-1:30, plus lunch and a couple extra runs with Allan

 

[marzNC]

We went to take a look at the Sun Valley Resort, including the newly renovated Lodge after done with skiing. Pretty nice place! Almost missed going upstairs to see the "sun room."

For more about the Lodge renovations:
https://www.theskidiva.com/forums/i...s-renovated-sun-valley-lodge-june-2015.19604/

 

[DeweySki]

Thanks for posting! We are headed there Friday evening after work to ski Saturday and Sunday. Staying at that Best Western too!

What areas would you recommending skiing? Was interested in checking out the Christmas bowl area, but heard that it could be all bumped out if no recent snow. Was also thinking about doing all of the stuff off of the Challenger lift. I can definitely do the blacks if they are groomed, but want to avoid moguls in general. Did the mountain tour offer different levels? I've never taken a mountain tour, so it's an intriguing prospect. Sorry for all the questions, I've never been to SV

 

[ling]

mountain tour only goes to green and blue. just ask them about groomed blacks. Sun Valley is well known for a lot of those.

Oh BTW, Sun Valley is also well known for blues steeper than blacks on many other mountains. So start the day on something easier first to get your legs warmed up first

 

[Christy]

I love the heated swan pond and the little house they have for the swans behind the ice sculpture in your photo. Actually the thing I like best is that the noisy pushy ducks have take up residence there too.

@DeweySki we arrive Saturday evening. I'll pm you my cell number if you want to meet up. We're planning on having dinner at The Pioneer Saturday night, and we'll have breakfast at River Run lodge Sunday morning before skiing. And lunch in the Roundhouse. I might start with a lesson on Sunday because I have been skiing like crap this year. My husband is much better than I.

There are always at least a couple really fun groomed blacks. Limelight to Warm Springs is one of my very favorite ways down the mountain. As for Christmas Bowl, you'll go over it on the Christmas lift, so you can see what it looks like. Christmas Ridge is often groomed and you can start on that and then cut down and just do a bit of Christmas bowl. I think the mellowest bowl area is down at the end--there is a blue called Segi's Bowl. To get there you take the cat track at the top of the mountain (which you either get to by taking Mayday up and heading left, or by taking Christmas up then Lookout across the mt, which puts you at the top of Mayday. The track isn't marked on the map but it runs across the top of the bowls). If Segi's ends up being to bumpy, you have an easy out because Broadway Face, right next to it, is always groomed.

Snow is coming in...

SAWTOOTH MOUNTAINS-BIG AND LITTLE WOOD RIVER REGION-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...STANLEY...CLAYTON...HAILEY...KETCHUM...
BELLEVUE
321 AM MST THU JAN 28 2016

...WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM LATE THIS AFTERNOON
THROUGH SATURDAY MORNING...

* IMPACTS/TIMING... FIRST ROUND OF SNOW BEGINNING LATE THIS
AFTERNOON AND CONTINUING OVERNIGHT WITH A SECOND ROUND FRIDAY
AFTERNOON INTO SATURDAY MORNING...EXPECTED TO BE HEAVIEST
FRIDAY EVENING. EXPECT PERIODS OF HEAVY SNOW...BLOWING SNOW AND
REDUCED VISIBILITY.

* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS...10-14 INCHES WITH POTENTIAL OF 16+ INCHES
DURING THE 36 HOUR PERIOD AT HIGHER ELEVATIONS. VALLEY FLOORS
EXPECT 5-8 INCHES.

 

[santacruz skier]

mountain tour only goes to green and blue. just ask them about groomed blacks. Sun Valley is well known for a lot of those.

Oh BTW, Sun Valley is also well known for blues steeper than blacks on many other mountains. So start the day on something easier first to get your legs warmed up first

I do remember that about Sun Valley.

 

[santacruz skier]

@DeweySki have a blast in Sun Valley.... I do remember that Warm Springs area as super fun.... can't wait to hear as it's been years since I've been there. Like the mid 80's.

 

[marzNC]

Thanks for posting! We are headed there Friday evening after work to ski Saturday and Sunday. Staying at that Best Western too!

What areas would you recommending skiing? Was interested in checking out the Christmas bowl area, but heard that it could be all bumped out if no recent snow. Was also thinking about doing all of the stuff off of the Challenger lift. I can definitely do the blacks if they are groomed, but want to avoid moguls in general. Did the mountain tour offer different levels? I've never taken a mountain tour, so it's an intriguing prospect. Sorry for all the questions, I've never been to SV

Which Best Western? There are two in Ketchum. If you are at the Tyrolean, try to stay in a renovated room. The town bus is very convenient to get to the River Run base, runs every 15 minutes starting at 8:10am.

If you find the mountain tour is not interesting, you can leave at any time. I like to do the free tour for places that I'm likely to return to in the future. Always learn a lot that is hard to figure out just from the trail map. The tour we did included several places where there was the option of doing a run with easy bumps or to stay on a parallel groomer. How fast the tour goes depends on the group. Our group . . . went pretty fast so we covered a lot of ground.

It's supposed to snow on Saturday. A few flurries tonight already. Christmas Bowl needs new a few amount of new snow to be fun. The snow in the trees was still soft in places but everything that was exposed to sun this week was pretty firm. The groomers were pretty slick by the afternoon.

Where do you usually ski? As mentioned already, a green at Sun Valley is not what most people would expect at a destination resort.

I had the most fun in the Seattle Ridge area. We spent very little time over on the Warm Springs side, but that's partially a function of the snow conditions. It was warm enough on the upper mountain for things to soften, while it was firm all day long closer to the base.

 

[nopoleskier]

there's lots of groomed!! and easy to get around.. Snowing now.. more coming tomorrow.. we walked from Best Western Tyrolean to town for dinner. yes the greens are like blues (or blacks at some eastern mts) the blacks are WIDE..lots of natural half pipes. tons to ski.. we skied every lift.. Warm springs run was 3100 vertical.. all groomed.. can take bumps or not.. I can't wait to come back. but off to Alta

 

[nopoleskier]

 

[santacruz skier]

I need to go back to SV....Remember it being so much fun and yes, the Seattle Ridge area (greens) were like easy blacks anywhere else. My sister skied at Dollar Mtn because she thought the runs at SV were too difficult.... @DeweySki you will love it.... yep, I'm thinking there are some places I need to go back to and Sun Valley is one of them..... Also need to go back to Europe to ski but now that I'm retired I have more time and less $$$$$. But enjoying life... Next year, back to Chamonix and Verbier.

 

[nopoleskier]

Green Trails..

 

[Christy]

Too bad the Warm Springs side didn't have good conditions. I think the top to bottom skiing there is an absolute hoot. it just goes and goes and goes. Now that I think of it Sun Valley is the only mountain that I ski top to bottom as a matter of course.

 

[santacruz skier]

Green Trails..

So nice! I had a poster and SV looked like an ice cream sundae....it was quite cool.

 

[nopoleskier]

We skied it this morning.. tad on the dark side but Hemingway was groomed top to bottom I LOVED IT...

 

[DeweySki]

Which Best Western? There are two in Ketchum. If you are at the Tyrolean, try to stay in a renovated room. The town bus is very convenient to get to the River Run base, runs every 15 minutes starting at 8:10am.

Where do you usually ski? As mentioned already, a green at Sun Valley is not what most people would expect at a destination resort.

I had the most fun in the Seattle Ridge area. We spent very little time over on the Warm Springs side, but that's partially a function of the snow conditions. It was warm enough on the upper mountain for things to soften, while it was firm all day long closer to the base.

Thanks for all the beta everyone, I am getting super pumped! Going to a new mountain always gives me some amount of anxiety, but as usual, the Divas come through

I am almost positive we are staying that the Tyrolean. I think we chose it because of the shuttle and its close proximity/walkability to downtown as @nopoleskier mentioned. Have now been recommended the Pioneer by @Christy and someone else, so will definitely hit that up. Does anyone recommend a shop around there? I just got new boots and need to get some bindings adjusted/possibly re-mounted. I think my BSL went down 13 mm! My Look bindings had to be remounted on my Elysians, but I think my Z12s on my TSTs might have enough room in them to just slide up. Want to get it checked out by a shop for sure.

We usually ski Heavenly (flat for Western standards but excellent tree skiing) and Kirkwood (steeper, but have not done the chutes they are known for). Would you say SV is more like Jackson Hole? I've done all the blues there and a handful of blacks. Will definitely check out Seattle Ridge...

 

[marzNC]

We usually ski Heavenly (flat for Western standards but excellent tree skiing) and Kirkwood (steeper, but have not done the chutes they are known for). Would you say SV is more like Jackson Hole? I've done all the blues there and a handful of blacks. Will definitely check out Seattle Ridge...

If you liked the steeper groomers at JH, you are going to love SV. What was a surprise was how many glades exist at SV. We learned during the mountain tour that they added 40 acres of glades for this season. On the trail map, there are "adventure" areas marked that are in small areas of trees. Two of them are over on Seattle Ridge. There is a very mellow tree area off the Olympic Lane heading down to River Run, with a groomer on both sides so very easy to bail.

Having lunch at the Roundhouse is quite fun. Really not much more expensive than the other on-mountain food. If you like tacos, that's the specialty at Lookout. Doesn't look like much from the outside but quite nice inside.

 

[marzNC]

There is a sign for a custom boot fitter at the River Run base. In the building with the ski shop.

I opted to pay for ski storage for the one night. $4 was worth it. The other had their skis tuned so they didn't have to carry them to the bus either. When the bus is empty, you can take skis on with you. When it's busy in the afternoon, there are racks on the side of the bus.

 

[santacruz skier]

@DeweySki I'm surprised you think Heavenly is flat. I think the blues on Nevada side are very easy but the blacks and double blacks such as Gunbarrel, Mott canyon, killebrew runs are pretty steep. Also try east bowl, west bowl and hogs back next to Gunbarrel. Plus trees under sky chair.. We need to meet up at heavenly! Meanwhile enjoy sun valley.. Waiting for trip report!

 

[nopoleskier]

DeweySki.. the boot/tuning shop seemed very good at SV.. they were working w/customers when I took my atomics in for tuning. there are a couple of shops in town too but the mt shop seemed very knowledgeable.