Season Wrap-Up 5/19

So, I think I'm finally ready to admit that my 2007-2008 ski season is over! Not that I couldn't ski more if I still wanted to -- Snowbird is still open weekends through June 1 -- but I think I've had enough.


(Powder at Deer Valley.)

What a great season it was! It got off to a slow start with little snow in November. But December and January were huge! So much snow! At one point, we got over 90" or snow in 10 days. Powder day after powder day. Incredible!


(Dual moguls under the lights at the Freestyle World Cup at Deer Valley.)

And the spring skiing was pretty good too. There were a few warm sunny days, but also still a lot of powder days. I was in Colorado at Beaver Creek and they got 2' of snow 2 days before they closed. In fact, I had 9 powder days out there in the two weeks before closing weekend.


(With Bryan at Deer Valley.)

And mother nature is still toying with us. May 1 Snowbird reported 23". Then it was sunny and warm. Then snowed again. So, if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes. It over 80 degrees today yet I hear it might snow on Wednesday. :)


(Me at Deer Valley.)

Anyhow.

As for numbers, I finished up the season with a record 53 days (beating last season by one day)! Most were at the Park City resorts (Deer Valley (19 days), Park City Mountain Resort (15), and a few days at the Canyons). And I did more skiing (34 days) than snowboarding (19 days), as usual.


(Me at Keystone.)

How can I ski that many days at that many different places you ask? Thanks go to the good folks at Ski Utah. I'm lucky enough to have a Ski Utah Silver Pass that allows me to ski up to 30 days at each resort in the state of Utah. Combine that with a flexible job (I'm a REALTOR in Park City) and I'm able to ski a lot.


(Jeff, Kyle, and me at Breckenridge.)

Now, with the skis put away for summer, it's time to focus on selling some houses. If you have any real estate needs in the Park City area, let me know. Otherwise, enjoy the outdoors and we'll talk to you again soon when I get out the mountain bike and trail shoes.

'til later,
- Jeff

Snowbird 5/3

Winter just refuses to go away! Thursday May 1 Snowbird received 23" of snow! That's a lot for May!

Saturday I headed up for one last day of spring skiing. Conditions were awesome. It sounded a little icy on the front side, so we headed straight for the tunnel and Mineral Basin. The snow back there was a little crunchy but softened up quickly.


(Salt Lake City from Snowbird.)

After a bunch of runs on the back side, we stopped for a quick snack, then decided to ski the front. By the afternoon, things were nice and soft everywhere, but not too slow or sticky. Just about perfect.


(The ridge over to the tram.)

Later in the afternoon, we hiked up Baldy but were greeted by a rope telling us the chutes were closed. Shoot! Oh well, I'll have to hike up sometime this summer and ski them then. :)


(Bummer.)

Anyhow. Not bad at all for skiing in May. The coverage was incredible -- no bare spots at all. And most of the mountain was still open. It looks like they will go to weekends only but be open into June if you want to go. Check out www.snowbird.com.

'til later,
- Jeff

Park City Mountain Resort 3/17

After a shaky start -- gotta watch out for that sun-baked powder! -- things turned out pretty ok. Scott and I quickly made a beeline for McConkey's to get away from the crowds. I was surprised how many people were on the hill -- on a Monday no less. But the line at McConkey's wasn't too bad -- it never is.

The Black Forest trees weren't all that great so we decided to hike Jupiter Peak. I'd never been to the top before. I'd hiked up the shoulder a few times and had some great runs, but never gone all the way to the summit. Today it was well worth it. Great view from the top. And some nice snow on the face.

We repeated a few times, dropping in a bit sooner each time. But the snow almost seemed to get better. Maybe it had gotten less wind. Anyhow, the snow was great. The skies were blue. And overall it was a great day.

I'm learning that the picture quality of the iPhone isn't always so great -- it sometimes gets tripped up by too much bright light and sometimes the color balance seems off. But it's nice just carrying one device - phone, iPod, and camera in one. So you'll just have to deal with it. :) All pictures have been "enhanced" in iPhoto -- i.e. I hit the enhance button instead of tweaking the image manually. I'm just too lazy. But you can still see that it was a really, really nice day.


(Scott.)


(Yours truly resting on the hike up Jupiter.)


(Flagpole at the top of Jupiter.)


(Tree.)


(Scott ripping it up on the east face.)

If you go (and are an expert skier) don't be afraid of the hike from McConkey's. The snow can be well worth it.

'til later,
- Jeff

Sorry! 3/1

Hey! Sorry I've been bad about keeping this updated. I've been out skiing lots that last two months, but have been really bad about blogging. I'm back and I promise to be better!

If you haven't heard, it's been an incredible winter in Utah! So much snow! December and January were absolutely insane. Several storms that brought three feet in three days or so. In one ten-day stretch we had 90" of snow! That's 9" a day! Crazy!

The banks of snow at the end of my driveway were 10 feet tall. My snowblower hated me. (It actually quit for a time, but I got it some rehab and it's doing better.) And my road looked more like a bobsled track that a street -- one car wide with huge banks so you could barely see the houses.

It's warmed up a bit and the sun is out, but we've got so much snow that we'll be able to ski into August. Just kidding on the August part, but seriously, skiing will be great right on through closing weekend. If you haven't made it out to Utah yet, there's still time. Deer Valley is open through April 13 and the Cottonwood resorts will be open later than that.

Here are some of my pics from the last two months. Thanks to all my skiing friends for some great days.


(Scott on Pinyon Ridge at Park City Mountain Resort.)


(Scott dropping into P-Zone.)


(Jeff and Bryan at Deer Valley.)


(A deer at Deer Valley. :) )

Cheers! Enjoy the snow and tune in often.

'til later,
- Jeff

Park City Mountain Resort 1/8

Was on my way to the office this morning, but somewhere in the 8 mile drive I gave up on that idea and ended up at Park City Mountain Resort instead. Strange how that happens. :)

Ran into my dad while I was in the lodge, so spent the morning skiing with him. Dad taught me to ski 30 years ago in upstate New York. The skiing in Utah is so much better that I came out here for college and my folks followed when they retired. It's nice to have everyone so close. Dad works as a safety patrol at PCMR. But today was a day off, so we got to get in a nice morning of skiing.

I usually just head over to McConkey's, but decided to try something different. We enjoyed a couple of nice runs off Thaynes -- Keystone was nicely groomed, Hoist was nice and soft, and Double Jack had some great powder at the top and some friendly bumps further down. Then we moved on to Motherlode and I got my first run through the new glades -- Motherlode Meadows. They really did a nice job this summer opening that up and the snow was great. Up King Con and down First Temptation for a run. Then down High Card before calling it a day -- looked like another storm was blowing in. They say we could see another 8 to 18 inches of snow overnight. If you can go tomorrow, enjoy it! I really *do* have to make it to the office. :(

'til later,
- Jeff

Canyons 12/26

I had other plans for today, but when they fell through I decided to get in a few runs. I grabbed my snowboard and headed to the Canyons for a little bit right around noon.


(Sun over Flight of the Canyons.)

It was *cold* out, definitely a good day for a balaclava (not to be confused with Baklava :)). I started on Saddleback and made runs on Snow Dancer and Kokopelli before heading over to Snow Creek. There I hit Eclipse and Echo before dropping down to Super Condor. Boa was probably the best run of the day - great snow and no one at all on it. Devil's Friend had some great snow to the skiers right. But with temps in the teens and feeling even colder than that, I decided I'd had enough. We're supposed to get 12-18" of snow tonight so we'll try again tomorrow.

'til later,
- Jeff

Park City Mountain Resort 12/20

Yesterday I woke up to 7" of snow in the driveway, but wasn't able to make it up to the slopes. :( Today, I woke up to another 6" of fresh snow. So, after a quick meeting at work, headed over to Park City Mountain Resort to take advantage of all the new powder!

Unfortunately, another storm arrived about the same time I did, so there was a little wind and snow to deal with. I tried a few runs off Silverlode but didn't find anything too spectacular there. So I went to McConkey's and, man, what a good move that was. The winds seemed a little lighter even if the visibility was challenging.


(Low visibility at the top of McConkey's.)

Scott and I made a bunch of runs, taking advantage of great snow in the trees. I swear the coverage is better on McConkeys and the powder was definitely awesome.


(Scott rips it up in McConkey's Bowl.)


(Base of McConkey's.)

After Scott took off, I made a quick run down Double Jack (less powder, more bumps), a nice run down Glory Hole, and finished my day on Crescent. All in all, a great day. And the forecast calls for another foot or two of snow tonight! Bring it on!

'til later,
- Jeff

Park City Mountain Resort 12/14

Mother Nature delivered a little fresh snow overnight and it made for a nice day at Park City. The snow report said 3" but it felt like a little more than that. I took my snowboard out for the first time this year and had fun riding McConkey's for a few hours. Sorry no pics - forgot my camera. But I'll get some soon.

'til later,
- Jeff

Solitude 2/28

Again -- still catching up here with some old posts. Bear with me ....

Conditions: Powder
Gear: K2 Recon Riser snowboard

So the dump that gave us 18" on Monday continued into Tuesday. I didn't make it to the slopes on Tuesday, but was lucky enough to get out on Wednesday. What an awesome day! Because the snow was still falling on Tuesday, the patrols weren't able to get all the terrain cleared. This meant that Wednesday there were fresh tracks to be had all over the place.


(Top of Sunrise lift on a beautifully sunny day.)

I headed up to Solitude for the day with my snowboard in tow. What a great decision! The snow on Summit was absolutely incredible and there was no one there. Actually, not many tracks at all. Check out this pic: the only tracks you see are mine! All mine!!!!!


(First track off Summit!)

The snow in Honeycomb was also excellent. Again, very few tracks and great snow. I kinda wish the chairlift back there would take you up to where Summit lets off so you could just make runs in the canyon, but oh well. Maybe someday. :)


(View from Summit towards Brighton.)

What a lucky day. Tons of new snow. Blue skies. And no one else on the mountain. Perfect!

'til next time,
- Jeff

POWDER! 2/26

Sorry -- it's been a while. I'll attempt to get caught up here in the next few days with highlights of the last month of skiing.

Conditions: 18" POWDER
Gear: K2 Recon Riser snowboard

So, this was by far the best day I've had so far this season. 18" of soft, white, fluffy, Utah champagne POWDER! An absolutely awesome day to get out and ride.


(Me over by Dreamcatcher.)

I was on my way to Park City when Pete and Dan sent me a TXT and said they were going to the Canyons. I met them there for a few hours of riding.


(Dan in the trees.)

I met the guys on Tombstone as we waited for them to get Peak 5 and other lifts open. As soon as ski patrol had everything clear, we headed over to Dreamscape. We had a few awesome runs down De Ja Vu and (an aptly named) Bliss before heading over to Dreamcatcher.


(Woops!)

Dreamcatcher is new this year. Last time i skied the Canyons, it wasn't even open yet. So, it was nice to explore this new terrain under such optimal conditions. A few runs through Fool's Paradise quickly confirmed this is some of the best terrain on the mountain. Too bad they only
put a slow quad over there.


(Base of Dreamcatcher.)

'til next time,
- Jeff

Park City Mountain Resort 1/29

Conditions: packed powder
Weather: low 20s
Gear: K2 Recon Riser snowboard

So, after skiing only 3 times in the last three weeks, mostly due to a nasty sinus infection, I decided to get out today even though I knew the snow wouldn't be great. It hasn't really snowed in over two weeks, so what we've got is well packed and even a little thin. Still, the snow here beats that back east any day! (And I can say that 'cause I grew up skiing back east.)

Park City was nice. The Sundance crowds are gone (though they don't ski much anyhow) and the mountain was pretty quiet. Snow on trails where they made snow is pretty good. So I mostly stuck to groomers. Nothing exciting, but better than being inside all day.

Hopefully we'll get a storm soon. Come on, Mother Nature! Hit us with your best shot! I'm talking feet of snow. I've got plenty of gas in my snow blower, so bring it on! :)

'til next time,
- Jeff

BRRRRR! Park City Mountain Resort 1/12

Conditions: powder
Weather: COLD - low single digits, clear skies
Gear: K2 Recon Riser snowboard

Damn it's cold! So this latest storm (9" or so) was followed by an impressive cold front. Temps at the resort today were in the low single digits. And that's before the wind shill factor. It made for a cold nose, but the powder was definitely worth getting out in.


(Top of Bonanza/Motherlode.)

I had a decent run down Double Jack. There was some nice powder on the edge of the trail. But things were still a little scraped out between the moguls. Same on Hoist. I'm glad we got this last storm, but another 3 or 4 feet would help. :)


(Top of Thaynes.)

The trees off Hawkeye weren't quite as nice as I had hoped -- still too many little branches poking up through the snow. But there were a few nice turns to be had. I continued to McConkeys where I made a few runs before calling it a day.


(Aspens off Hawkeye.)

If you go, remember to bundle up! The Freestyle World Cup is also going on at Deer Valley this weekend. If you get a chance, go check it out.

'til next time,
- Jeff

Snow at Solitude 1/5

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

After the dump yesterday we decided to head up to Solitude first thing this morning to see if there was any powder left! And, man, was there! What an awesome day.



Even though the snow stopped around 5pm last night, there was still plenty to be found at Solitude. This place really earns its name. We did a couple of runs off the high-speed quad before heading up to Summit. We had one run up there where there were absolutely no other tracks to be seen. Incredible!



Then we had an awesome run down Honeycomb before calling it a day. It would have been fun to stay longer, but gotta work sometime. :)

'til next time,
- Jeff

Three in a Row 1/3

Conditions: lousy
Weather: thirties, overcast
Gear: K2 Recon Riser snowboard

Third day of 2007, third day in a row on snow. We'll see how long I can keep this up! My record is seven days in a row (last season).

I went up to the Canyons for a few runs this afternoon. The snow was thin and soft. Temps in the upper 30s weren't helping anything. We really, really need some snow out of this storm! Let's all do a snow dance tonight!

'til next time,
- Jeff

Back to Brighton 12/21

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

Today I made it back to Brighton for the first time since opening day. There were a lot fewer people there (go figure!) and so it was pretty nice. The snow has definitely improved -- that last storm really helped.



I spent most of my day riding off Snake Creek and Great Western. There is some really great terrain off both those lifts. The groomers were nice but the stuff in the trees was the best. Runs like Lone Star and Thor are really fun.


(Top of Great Western; Timpanogos and American Fork in the background.)

My pet-peeve-of-the-day: people who smoke on the lift! I'm pretty sure it's not allowed to begin with, but don't invited yourself to ride up with someone else, then light up! Rude!



I hear we may get a little snow tomorrow. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

'til next time,
- Jeff

Snowbird 12/5

Conditions: packed powder
Weather: sunny, pleasant (20s)
Gear: K2 Recon Riser snowboard

Today I made it to Snowbird for the first time in years. The weather was nice, the conditions were decent, and the crowds were non-existant.

(Two views of Mineral Basin.)

I spent most of my time on the Gad Valley side of the mountain, making runs off GadZoom and Gad2. But I did venture over to the tram for a run down Regulator.


(Salt Lake City from Hidden Peak.)

There's definitely some great terrain on this mountain, but they could use a little more snow to cover some of the rocks. I think I'll wait to go back until they get the new Peruvian Quad open.

'til next time.
- Jeff

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

"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