Posts Tagged Alta
Pre-Thanksgiving Pow Pow
Yes, occasionally the Skids crew travels over to the other side of the Wasatch Mountains for some powder turns. After Opening Day at PCMR, I hitched a ride with a few buddies and sampled some Alta powder. This was shot on November 21st.
Ski Utah Gold Pass
So, let’s say you just won the lottery and you had some money to spend. Forget about that, let’s just say you wanted to take advantage of Utah’s winter bounty, and afford yourself the convenience of skiing where you damn want when you damn want. Ski Utah is once again offering up the Gold Pass for a cool $3,400. Say you plan on skiing 100 days plus this year. Wouldn’t it be great to chase the best snow? Most people struggle with scraping together enough jack just to get a local’s pass at one resort. If you are going to ski a lot, this thing makes sense. Plus, it’s direct-to-lift at the following: PCMR (includes Fast Tracks access), The Canyons, Snowbird, Alta, Solitude, Snowbasin, and Sundance. At the others, you just show it at the window and they give you a ticket. Ski Utah usually sells out of these. They are also transferable, so companies looking to provide ski privileges to employees could buy a couple Gold Passes and let employees sign them out. Get the whole skinny on this fat pass. And if $3,400 is out of your range, there is always the $2,300 Silver Pass, which gets you up to 30 days at all 13 Utah resorts. That’s what I’ll be rolling this season. Only bummer is this one is not transferable.
Backcountry Interconnect Tour
Who would believe the amount of snow we have had here in April in Utah? Unbelievable. On Sunday, April 5th, a group of Skids and non-Skids, hard telling who was who, went on an all-day powder seeking adventure into the Utah backcountry. We didn’t have to look very hard, there was fresh snow everywhere. The problem would be avoiding south and southwest facing aspects. As the sun warmed all the fresh snow from a week’s worth of winter storms, these faces were forecasted to be trouble, with the Utah Avalanche Center forecast calling for Moderate to Considerable danger levels. Armed with Ski Utah Gold Passes (valid at all 13 Utah ski resorts), equipped with all the safety equipment including beacons, probes, and shovels, we departed Park City via the Town Lift. Staying safe and choosing north and northeast facing routes, we used lift power and leg power to get us from PCMR to Solitude to Alta to Snowbird, back to Alta, to Brighton, and back to PCMR. At the end of a long day, we squeezed out some last few long lazy turns to end up back at The Bridge for a few cold ones, after everyone was off the mountain except for a few groomers laying down the next day’s corduroy. If you ever want to experience a tour like this, check out Ski Utah’s Interconnect Tour.
Utah's Wasatch Backcountry
Tight lines near Wolverine Cirque
Dropping into Brighton Resort.
More Unsettled Weather in the Wasatch
Sunday, March 22 was the supposed to be the chosen day for Natoconnect 2009, a slackcountry tour where a few hearty souls equipped with packs, beacons, shovels, probes and the all-important tickets to ride, Ski Utah Gold Passes, would hit Park City Mountain Resort, Solitude, Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, and a whole bunch of sweet lines in between, all in one day. Problem is, the weather looks dicey, and the group is unmotivated. Spring in the Wasatch has been warm the last 10 days, but there is a change coming for Sunday that could bring some big snow. We’re putting the adventure on hold to see what this storm brings, and hopefully we’ll pull it off sometime before April. I was looking forward to getting some sweet photos and video of this tour, but we’ll just have to wait and see what the weather has in store for the next few weeks. The question is, should this count as 5 days of skiing if we hit 5 resorts in one day, or does it just count for 1? I guess it will all depend on how good the snow is when we pull it off.