TR - SLC late Jan 2015, Diva meet up

[marzNC]

Late January 2015 turned out to be a good time for a few Divas to plan trips to SLC. This is a general trip report thread for pics and comments from everyone. Skiing started Jan. 24 and continues until at least Jan. 31.

First weekend there were Divas and friends at Solitude and Alta. After that, plans include but are not limited to Snowbasin, Powder Mountain, Snowbird, and Deer Valley.

 

[marzNC]

Solitude on Sat, Jan. lived up to it's name. No lift lines at all. Mainly a groomer day. @dloveski and Mr. dloveski joined MarzNC and ski buddy Bill, @Olesya Chornoguz, and @veritasliberat (drove from Jackson).

Mr. dloveski, Olesya, dloveski, Bill (didn't know about picture taking)


Sunrise Bowl, looking towards Solitude Village


Olesya, veritasliberat at top of Summit lift. Honeycomb Canyon too thin to be worth checking out at all.


MarzNC, Olesya


The sign says it all!

 

[marzNC]

My crew went to Snowbird today. Pretty warm, it was 30 in the morning and got up to the mid-40s even at the top. Down right hot in Mineral Basin standing in the sun. Did a few runs in Mineral before sticking to groomers on the frontside, mostly Regulator (black) and Banana (blue) off Gad2 in the afternoon. Mineral lines got long by lunch time according to ski buddies JC and Bill who stayed over there longer. Snow that stays in the shade on the front side was pretty good up high.

Near top of Little Cloud, overlooking Mineral Basin before going down the cat track. Olesya in her shell jacket and pants.


Blue sky day. I wore my synthetic down mid-layer as a jacket.


Peruvian tunnel


Had a very good Chinese dinner at Mama's Kitchen. Had seen a recommendation last spring. Turned out to be just a couple hours from the little 4-BR house we rented.

 

[marzNC]

It's Tuesday, must be Snowbasin. Olesya, JC, and I had a lesson in the morning with Stew that was fantastic. Snow conditions have to be considered "spring conditions." Ran into the other Divas around the mountain a few times. Everyone had a good day, even it was mostly on groomers.

A little graupel and sleet at the top in around 3:30pm. Rainbow off in the valley.


MarzNC and ski buddy Bill


Ski buddy JC and MarzNC

 

[marzNC]

My crew ended up skiing at Alta starting Wed, Jan. , so didn't meet up with the other Divas again at Snowbasin. There was enough new snow on Wed to make conditions quite fun, especially in the trees. We all took a semi-private lessons with very good instructors (PSIA Level 3, 30+ years experience). Olesya and JC had a lesson with Connie. Bill and I ended up doing two lessons with JW, which made a big difference for both of us when it came to playing in steep trees with less effort.

I was supposed to go home on Tue, meaning tomorrow. With a snowstorm that may total 15 inches before it ends on Wed, I decided to extend my stay at Alta Lodge. It's a slow week, so Bill and I asked on Fri if we could get rooms starting Sat night. The answer was "yes." I'm in a dorm room (up to 4) with no roommates. We have to move on Wed into original lodge rooms, which is what I like to stay in for late season trips.

Hope to catch up on pics at some point. Here are a couple from today.

Fun after going in the gate at the bottom of Rock-N-Roll off the Supreme lift


Finally went out far enough to find the "basin" in Catherine's. Using the Mountain Goat to carry my skis makes the little 5-min hike much easier for me. Easy to make fresh tracks this afternoon. Powder was at least 4 inches, more in spots. That's Bill to the right of the smaller trees near the middle of the pic.

 

[marzNC]

The Mountain Goat is one of those ski-related gadgets that I discovered in a online forum. For an idea of how it works, here's a video from 2011 when it was pretty new on the market. Was invented for use at Telluride as I understand it.

The first time I used the Mountain Goat was when I demo'd skis from Lone Mountain Sports at Big Sky. The shop is more or less ski in/out but you have to carry the skis up a short, relatively steep slope, plus a flight of stairs (outdoors).

Also came in handy to get my skis from the parking lot to the base of the lifts at Bridger. That's another uphill walk with a couple flights of outdoor stairs.

 

[marzNC]

Didn't take any pics on Jan. 30. The new snow was quite fun. As long as you stayed in the trees, it was both easier to see and soft snow to be found. Not quite enough to cover the hard stuff on steeper slopes or places that had bumped up.

@Olesya Chornoguz had a good time following Bill into the easy trees that are called the Yellow Bear trail (entry from the Supreme cut off after riding Sugarloaf lift). @litterbug and I had a good last chair off Supreme on Rock-N-Roll.

 

[marzNC]

Pics from Wed, Jan. 29.

@Olesya Chornoguz having fun at Alta in spite of low visibility


First lesson with JW. Bill working on opening his stance.


DPS Nina 99 are fun! Used the 158cm in the afternoon during the lesson. Already knew I like them after a couple demo runs in April 2014. First time using them on soft snow.


Looking up towards the return from Catherine's (on the right) from the restroom near the base of Supreme.


Alta Lodge rope tow. Great place for a relaxing lunch.

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

Fun after going in the gate at the bottom of Rock-N-Roll off the Supreme lift
View attachment 3467

I loved the area off that gate, I skied there with JC a couple of times on Wednesday. That powder looks awesome! I am and I love Alta! Hope to come back there at some point!

 

[badger]

Pics from Wed, Jan. 29.



Alta Lodge rope tow. Great place for a relaxing lunch.
View attachment 3473

Well, I don't know about the Lodge for lunch, but I will agree that The Rope Tow was where I spent a frustrating several minutes trying to stay on (or with) the darn thing, that Lunch could have been eaten under that rope right there on the snow! I never got the hang of it.

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

LOL the first time I rode the rope tow was somewhat inconvenient, but I got a hang of it in the the next couple of days. I actually don't mind the rope tows at Alta, I think they add to the unique character of Alta, but I agree that transfer rope tow is much easier than rope tow to Alta Lodge. I think Alta Lodge has fabulous food and is probably a great place to stay and I can say that after I have seen one of the dorm rooms, Sitzmark apres ski bar and hot tub/sauna there.

 

[marzNC]

Since I started skiing way back when on a hill that only had a rope tow, it's not as big a deal. Does help to know that the rubber stops make it easier. One hand behind the back is the way I was taught, but usually can only do that about half way before I switch to the two-handed method.

One advantage of having lunch at the Rustler Lodge is that it's served by a chair lift. May do that tomorrow.

 

[marzNC]

Got on the DPS Nina 99 again today. At 158cm, that's fine for powder and trees, but too short for hard packed groomers or cut off heavy powder. There was 3-4 inches of fresh snow from last night but it got a bit warm by late morning today. Storm total was 8 inches since Monday.

In the afternoon, I tried to Dynastar Cham 97 at 166cm. Looked really long. But once I got used to the extra length, they worked well in the deeper snow (>4 inches) even in the trees. These are the longest skis I've tried in quite a while.

The last run I took out the Dynastar Cham 87 at 158cm. I like them, but don't seem that much different from my Blizzard Black Pearls 159cm.

 

[marzNC]

Discovered another Wasatch weather blog. Tomorrow is going to be spring skiing conditions, with temps in the 40s. I found some snow that stayed cold even in the afternoon. Should be interesting in the morning when Ballroom opens. It's been closed since the snow started on Monday night.

https://www.wasatchsnowforecast.com

 

[Magnatude]

It was indeed very warm on Friday in LCC as per WSF's predictions. What we weren't expecting was the wind, which halted most of the lifts at Snowbird over the course of the day. First the tram, then Peruvian and Mineral Basin lifts shut down, then Little Cloud, and by afternoon only the Gad chairs and Baby Thunder were running. The bonus, at least before most of the chairlifts stopped running, was the abundance of windblown powder in various leeward spots, including parts of Cirque and off the traverse around Mineral Basin. Somewhat scoured on the windward slopes including the track to Middle Cirque. Friends skiing at Alta on Friday reported similar windy conditions.

The wind stuck around for Saturday morning but died out eventually and the tram was running by around lunchtime. The freeride comps being held there were nevertheless cancelled for Saturday (I guess they had to make an early call on conditions).

Sunday (our course took us to Alta) was pretty much a glorious calm "spring" day with a couple of bonus fresh inches of snow. The morning we spent in some fairly hairy spots around Eagles Nest beside High Rustler (including an extended tree-hugging episode by me on a nasty goat track overlooking a cliff area. Full credit to a very patient coach for coaxing me out of my semi- paralyzed state). The snow, once I resumed actually skiing, was reassuringly nice, however.

Meanwhile ski patrol were blasting away, and by late morning Main Chute opened. We were all set to go up after lunch until we worked out that we'd be late for our daughter's ski school pick-up. Another guy in the group also had an early plane to catch. So we did a quick run off the Devil's Castle traverse (minus the additional hike at the end) instead, and then left. By then what there was of new snow was somewhat tracked but still fun skiing. Would love to know if the others did ski Main Chute after we'd left. Or maybe I'd rather not.

Sadly our last day skiing in the US (until next time, hopefully). But a good day to end the trip on.