Posts Tagged pcmr
Presidents Day Powder In Park City
Posted by admin in Mountains, Nordic Skids on February 23rd, 2011
This past weekend was a wild one here in Park City, Utah. We had the Mountain Trails Round Valley Roundup skate ski race in the worst conditions imaginable. 40 kilometers (2 laps) in blowing wind and driving snow, and the whole time I was thinking I was robbing myself of a powder day. Well that’s not exactly true, it couldn’t have been the whole time, because at least half the time I was delirious and thought I was going to die. I had some serious Jack London moments out there. The following Monday, the observed President’s Day holiday made up for missing that powder day. I got to the mountain early enough to claim front row parking, and my skiing buddy and I were only 5 or 6 chairs back at Crescent. We opted for a quick shot over to the Pioneer lift for a run through 10th Mountain Trees, then we overheard a ski patrol talking into his radio that Pine Cone had just opened up. There were hardly any lines at the Jupiter lift, and we swiftly made our way up to Scott’s Peak, then down the shoulder, then took our places in the line to hike up Pine Cone. We bagged second and third tracks in Full Moon Bowl, which was the highlight of the day. See for yourself:
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.
Opening Day Video From PCMR
I love Opening Day. Saturday, November 20th was the first day of the ski season here for us Park City folks. I made a few runs with some staffers from the mountain who were happy to get the season rockin’.
It felt good to be back on the snow, and I was amazed how good the conditions were for the first day of the season. The weather was a mixed bag; a little bit of snow, a lot of wind. As the day went on, the cold front moved in, and by evening, we had a full-on blizzard on our hands. Forget about a white Christmas, we’re going to have a white-out Thanksgiving. Looking forward to some powder turns on Thanksgiving day. Be thankful for what we got.
Snow Is Back To PC
This morning, May 24th, I woke up to snow covered rooftops in the hood, and a good 4 or 5 inches on the car. The drive up and over Parleys Summit was just like a midwinter commute. UDOT trucks were out plowing the road, semis with their flashers on, single file all the way down to Mountain Dell. Rumor has it, last Saturday was a legit powder day at The Bird, and no doubt today would be great, but they are only open on weekends from here on out. Below is a video from an early April powder day at PCMR, not previously shared for some odd reason.
Locals Links
Here are 2 new sites for you to check out: Yellow Snow Ice Cream, and Park City Crash Pads. These are 2 locally-owned Park City businesses, and we want to give them a shout out.
Yellow Snow is an ice cream and coffee house located in Prospector, next to another locals’ fave, Fuego (right next to the old Prospector liquor-teria, which is no longer open to the public, but serves as a booze dispensary for the town’s restaurants). Yellow Snow is open crazy hours, something like 6 am to 11 pm. Kids love the ice cream, it’s all homemade, and they come up with some original flavors.
Park City Crash Pads is a new take on resort property management, started by an industry veteran who lost his job when one of the other outfits in town sucked all the money from their condo owners last season, and then blamed the misfortune on the economy (even though Utah skier visits were down only 3% from the prior year, what the hell). Crash Pads is not the same old same old. Their angle is to take on properties that are “mature”, a nice way of saying older and not Deer Valley, but still cozy, and reinvent the ski trip experience. Their new website tells the story way better than we can here, so check them out. They are also building up a nice little following on Facebook.
Day 1 Is In The Books
What’s up, Skids? Are you ready for the ski season? I am. I didn’t make it to opening day of the season at PCMR on Saturday, but went up on Sunday. Felt good to be back on snow. I took my 5 year old up for her first turns of the season. We parked down in the lower lot, and the little ticket booth was closed. Damn. Didn’t want to hike all the way up to the Plaza to get a free ticket for the little one, that would have been a bad start. The ticket checker folks solved the problem, as a nice young lady named Steph had some tickets with her (they are free for the little ones, under 6, I believe). She even offered to clip off the bouquet of last year’s tickets that were dangling from my daughter’s jacket. It made her smile, and that’s why we do it, isn’t it? The conditions were what you should expect for a pre-Thanksgiving opening, so no complaints. After a few runs on First Time, my daughter was starting to pick up where she left off from last season. Worth it. What about you? Did you get out there this weekend?
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.