4/6/10

Day 18

Conditions: Powder

Location: Snowbasin, Utah

The road into Little Cottonwood Canyon was closed today after 7 feet of snow fell in 7 days. But we weren’t too disappointed because we got to check out our new home mountain: Snowbasin, Utah.

The Basin reported 24 inches of snow, so we weren’t too disappointed that we couldn’t make it to the bird. It’s a huge mountain with 3,000 acres of terrain and 500 inches of annual snowfall. But even more impressive than the mountain is the lodge and the food. Vail and Deer Valley have nothing on the lodge at Snowbasin. The bathrooms were so nice they were almost picture-worthy.

We struck up a conversation with a ski instructor, Paul, who talked to us for about a half an hour about the mountain, where to go and why it’s just as good as The Bird. He definitely made believers out of us before we even boarded the gondola.

We got to know the John Paul chair and had some fantastic powder turns all morning. We both finally mastered the exact angles and stance widths to use for powder so that (for once) everything was seamless.

The visibility deteriorated later in the day, so we called it a bit early. And, in case you’re wondering, the Bird never opened.

Highlights:

Discovering the Snowbasin is literally 20 minutes from where we live! We started imagining how awesome it will be to live this close to such a great place to ride and it was almost overwhelming. No more 3+ hour drives to lame ass Boyne Mountain.

Lowlights:

Getting scared off of Strawberry Gondola. We had decent visibility for most of the day, but the Strawberry area was insanely windy. We could not see anything and ended up on a sketchy traverse. We really needed to get to know the mountain better before taking on that area in blinding conditions.

Après Ski:

Errands, errands, errands. There is a lot to do when you move!

Days to go: 32