Park City Mountain Resort 11/29

Conditions: packed powder
Weather: teens, sunny
Gear: K2 Recon Riser snowboard

So Utah got hit by a huge snowstorm the beginning of this week. It snowed much of Monday and Tuesday and the mountains picked up a few feet of snow. This morning I blew the 10" of snow out of my driveway and headed to Park City for a little riding.



What a different 12 days can make! The conditions were much improved over my last visit. Park City still didn't have a whole lot of terrain open, but they are working on it. They were making tons of snow on Payday and the cats were smoothing out Silver Queen to get it open tomorrow. Check out the details on their blog available on http://www.pcmr.com.



I made most of my runs off Payday, sticking to the lower mountain. I had the whole place to myself and took advantage to find little stashes of powder off the side of the trails.



The only drawback was the temperature! It was 12 degrees when I left the car and my face was frozen much of the day. But it was a good excuse to stop in the Legacy Lodge and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate. With skies this blue, you can't complain.


'til next time,
- Jeff

Alta 11/19

Conditions: packed powder
Weather: 40s, sunny
Gear: Volkl 7 24 Pro skis

Sunday we headed up to Alta for a beautiful day of skiing. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the snow wasn't too bad either!


(Top of Sugarloaf.)

Alta had about half their terrain open, which was better than most of the Utah resorts. While it was a little thin off the beaten track, it really wasn't bad. I didn't do any damage to my skis which is a good thing -- they've got to last a few more weeks until the new ones show up.


(Bill.)

I hadn't been to Alta in years. Since my last visit, they have made Sugarloaf and Collins into quads and rebuilt the Watson Shelter. It was nice to get back and all the improvements make this an even better place to ski. I have many, many fond memories of skiing here during college and grad school. The half day AM ticket is such a great deal -- ski Sunday morning while everyone is still in church and still have time to get your homework done in the afternoon! Patrick, Kevin, Brian, Greg, John -- if you're reading this, drop me a line.

'til next time,
- Jeff

PS Remember, Alta is for skiers! No snowboarders allowed.

Park City Mountain Resort 11/17

Conditions: almost spring-like
Weather: warm, forties
Gear: Volkl 7 24 Pro skis

Park City Mountain Resort opened for the season today with Payday and First Time lifts and a few trails. Home Run and Treasure Hollow were open off Payday. And Turtle Trail was open off First Time.

I mostly skied off of Payday. The weather was beautifully warm, even if the snow was a little soft. It was a great day to be out.



Hopefully the weather will cool off a bit and a nice big storm will blow itself in. Still waiting for that first big powder day ...

'til next time,
- Jeff

"It's the most wonderful time of the year!"

Conditions: Powder/man-made
Weather: upper twenties and sunny
Gear: K2 Recon Riser snowboard

OK, ok. It may be a littler early for the kids to be jingle-belling, but that time will be here soon enough. No, right now it's time for the resorts to open!



Brighton kicked off the 2006-07 Utah ski season today opening two lifts at 9am. They added another lift (Crest) at noon. I headed up to make a few runs.

The snow wasn't too bad at all. Generally better where they had made snow, but you could still find a little powder off to the side. No complaints for this early in the season.


((My) first chair of the year.)

I'm betting most of the classrooms in SLC were empty today -- all the students were up on the hill! But I'm not gonna tell -- I probably shoulda been at work myself.

The snow guns were running all day along side the half-pipe and they were setting up even more. Hopefully they will have that open soon.



Keep your fingers crossed that we get more snow! Santa needs someplace to land his sleigh.

'til next time (Alta tomorrow),
- Jeff