~tb Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 Alright Salt Lake locals and people firmiliar with the area, Looking to take a trip to Salt Lake City in early march with my brother and father (both skiiers, dad's 60th birthday). Looking for a good "4 day of riding" schedule. Could be a sampler of multiple areas or just hang out at one. Love the groom, but get pleanty of that here in the east. a good mix of on and off piste would be ideal. Love mountains where you can jump in a bowl, ride the powder through the trees and then finish up railing some turns on some groom at the bottom. Any good back country easily accessable? Cat Tours? best way to get some fresh tracks on the cheap? Any good ticket deals? Bordy? Dave? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crucible Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 Powder Mountain outside of Ogden- it rules, and the school bus access back up the road is different... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Donnelly Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 Suggest staying in the valley, plenty of options for lodging at lower elevation; either Downtown or Midvale. If You are skiing, I would put Alta at the top of list to spend a day or to combine with Snowbird. Two others not to be missed, non-destination areas and least riders per acre: Snowbasin Powder Mountain http://www.skiutah.com/winter/index.html http://www.visitsaltlake.com/visit/ http://www.powdermountain.com/mtn_snowcat.php http://www.saltlakecityutah.org/ http://www.saltlakecityutah.org/skiutahlifttickets.htm http://www.skinsee.com/tickets.html http://www.liftopia.com/ski-resort-info/state/UT/Utah.htm http://www.canyonsportssandy.com/utah_discount_lift_tickets.php http://www.discountlifttickets.net/liftticketdiscounts-utah.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecshredder Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 Brighton, Solitude, Park City are best for carving. There's good backcountry access at Brighton too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skatha Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 There's a decent Vietnamese food restaurant in Park City. The transportation in Park City is great-a legacy of the Olympics. You can get a shuttle from the airport to the resorts in Park City fairly easily. Of the resorts-I've only been to the Canyons. The nonWolf Creek side is fairly flat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobD Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 If your flight arrives early enough in the day, this makes for a cheap afternoon. http://www.parkcityinfo.com/static/index.cfm?contentID=1047 BobD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fastskiguy Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 The bar at Powder Mountain reminds me of the bars at the little hills in Wisconsin. The bar at Snow Basin reminds me of downtown Chicago. Flying out and doing the first day at Park City is nice because you've got the lights if you're not done at 4PM...BobD's suggestion makes it even better if the dates work out for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tilledog Posted October 5, 2009 Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 Hey Todd, Great to hear you and fam are coming to Salt Lake. Great opportunities await for snow-sliding, depending on conditions. Early march is usually sufficiently cold to uphold great High pressure conditions on snow. Low to mid twenties will provide thousands of acres of carving at a # of world class resorts. For you, a seasoned Western visitor, it will come down to grooming in the conditions mentioned. Park City get's about 150 less inches of snowfall per winter than the Big and Little Cottonwood canyons that house Brighton, Solitude, Alta and Snowbird, respectively so the snow sets up, in my opinion, better east of said canyons. The elevation is lower and it seems a bit more blue-bird over there due to to the higher peaks sucking moisture out of the air. (I write this with you're GD pic up in the right hand corner in a Donek ad... How intrusive!!) That said, Solitude during High Pressure is wonderful. They really seam to give a crap about grooming and there are a hand-full of carvers over there. Silver bullet ( steve ), Zach Lundeen and Jarvis to name a few, would be glad to show you around and it's steep enough for a skier to rally as well. Snowbird grooming is a bit spotty in my opinion and Brighton is too skinny left to right for how you like to open it up. A Salt Lake City proper stay gives you access to every worthy resort in the state and will be cheaper than PC or staying at a resort and will not limit you on travel as 8 resorts are within 45 minutes of the northern half of SL Valley. Hope this helps and look forward to making some turns with you on our turf for once!! Feel free to dump Utah riding q's over on the forum at HB.com/forum. We just got it rolling again after years of being down! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimo Posted October 5, 2009 Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 I've only been to SLC once and it was in '95. I was in softies as I hadn't started carving yet. I went to Snowbird, Alta (had to ski) and Solitude. Solitude was my favorite by far. There's one run I remember well, Rhapsody. If you get your stuff together, I bet that's one screaming carving run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keenan Posted October 5, 2009 Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 Looks like we'll be in Park City for a few days late February. We will not be basing out of SLC due to daycare options. I was wondering if skis and boards are allowed on the free shuttles? Also do any of you locals have any idea if there is daycare between SLC and Park City if we do end up going that route? She's too young for ski school. - thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobD Posted October 5, 2009 Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 Looks like we'll be in Park City for a few days late February. We will not be basing out of SLC due to daycare options. I was wondering if skis and boards are allowed on the free shuttles? Also do any of you locals have any idea if there is daycare between SLC and Park City if we do end up going that route?She's too young for ski school. - thanks Yes, skis and boards are allowed on the buses. It's a great service, I've used it many times. BobD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~tb Posted October 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2009 Thanks for all the feedback guys, as well as the several e-mails sent my way. Flights are being booked and were figuring out the remaining details! Pray for snow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobD Posted October 6, 2009 Report Share Posted October 6, 2009 Talking of shuttles, my experience is that, to take advantage of the Park City free passes, it's best to rent a car at the airport. A couple of free afternoon passes, more than pays for the cost of the rental. If you do this, then I would recommend going to the Canyons, as it will get you on the slopes faster. PCMR has better carving runs, but it's also a good opportunity to see the Canyons. On the gondola going up, you pass over Doc's Run. This is a great carving run, and being the run back to the base, often stays in good carving condition until later in the day. If the snow is firm, and it's not too crowded, Saddleback is a easy blue to warm up on (right at the top of the gondola). If it's busy, head over to the Super Condor lift, and run Upper/Lower Boa, and Ajax (I'm assuming you are looking for carving runs). BobD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordy Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 I had no idea there are free shuttles between PC and SLC? I used to make money driving cab from the two at 70 bones a trip, I would triple check to make sure. I think PC is the best Carving hill in the area, there is also plenty of trees and bowls, n steeps. Its a shame to miss Snowbasin when your here, smallest crowd biggest space is a great combo. The Bird and alta have the nar steeps, if you think your the man on the east coast big mountain stuff the action there will remind you how tiny the east coast hills are. I also think staying in SLC blows if your going on a ski trip, its like staying in boston and driving to the hill, about 45 minutes to PC, canyons, DV. same if driving to the big or little canyons also. many of my friends live in PC and have psses to the bird and alta since the drive is not bad unless the the canyons are closed. then no one skiis anyhow. You can stay around PC, heber, etc. it feels like you are in the west skiing not in a major city that happens to have skiing around it. If I visit SLC and stay there i would be dissapointed unless I wanted big city living with crappy mormon night life, PC is the real ski town in UT but you pay to stay and play. Shot me a facebook if you have more ?s , Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobD Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 I had no idea there are free shuttles between PC and SLC? I used to make money driving cab from the two at 70 bones a trip, I would triple check to make sure. I assumed Keenan was referring the PC buses, which are free. I think I've paid about $40 one way, for airport shuttles to PC BobD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carvedog Posted October 8, 2009 Report Share Posted October 8, 2009 Its a shame to miss Snowbasin when your here, smallest crowd biggest space is a great combo. I Wildcat Bowl and a lot of other terrain at Snowbasin. I will have to tour PC with Bordy sometime as I have not had the best experience there, but that was as much off the hill as on. Snowbird was fun, had a bit of a powder day there, I have not carved there. At Snowbasin I spent a couple of mornings carving the fresh groom and then grab something for the trees and pseudo OB off the John Paul chair and the steep chutes off the two trams. Had A Ball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egibbons Posted October 22, 2009 Report Share Posted October 22, 2009 I have been carving at PC for the past several years with my brothers. In my opinion, I think it might be the best option for carving for the price. When I was in junior high I had Canyons passes and I'll still get up there once a season and I never really felt it was a great carving location. Maybe I am wrong. I always felt it was overran by the honor roll pass high school kids (the first year it was the Canyons they offered free season passes if you were on the honor roll) that would head over to the shopping mall and buy the cheapest soft-boot set up they can find and mom and dad would drop them off for a Saturday of skidding. However, in the last few years more and more resorts have dropped their pass prices for local students and this trend has spread to PC, Brighton, etc. If I had the money, I would go to Solitude in a heart beat. I think their grooming was decent and the the runs weren't like PC's in the sense that most of it is flat with a little bit of drop midway through. It had a more consistent pitch. Plus, they have better off-piste than PC. PC can be good on a good dump day if you are willing to hike Scott's bowl, but other than that everything else gets touristed out. Solitude, in my limited experience, seemed less-touristy than PC, which I liked. Plus, Big Cottonwood Canyon is a lot more scenic than the PC area, in my opinion. I live 20 minutes from Snowbasin, and every time I make my hour pilgrimage to PC I wonder why I am doing this. There are two reasons: price. They haven't figured out student pricing ($375 for PC for college students). They also have those stupid snow makers in the middle of every groomed run. If you are into running gates, that could be fun, but I always found it to be annoying. If there was a good dump though, I would recommend Snowbasin. It still is a local's resort so the skiing caliber is better and it is big enough to have some steep stuff. Snowbird gets tracked out FAST. Powder Mountain could be fun. I don't think carving would be the best there, but the night skiing is my favorite and the shuttle off the back of the mountain can be epic. So I hear. This is a true local's resort down to the ghetto lodges. Is fun though... Anyway, sorry about the tourist comments. No offense meant. I was talking mainly about the folks from Texas with more money than brains and think they are going to tackle every "black diamond" but end up ruining moguls and scraping away the snow to ice. You know the type...On the flip side the tax dollars generated from their expenses pay my college education (scholarship). Sorry about my rant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philw Posted October 24, 2009 Report Share Posted October 24, 2009 Well I've been a handful of times but never bothered with Park City, which as far as I know is a destination resort. That's where the UK tour companies ship people. I thought Alta was still "no boarding". Snowbird has to be the place, but it's hard to find your way around if you don't know it, pounded by the locals when it dumps, and not particularly interesting if it's hardpack. Powder Mountain's interesting and takes much longer to get the **** ridden out of it. Brighton is amusing and has some fair runs you can rip down, nothing particularly memorable though. As above, stay in the town and use the bus service. You can find the maps on line and it works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARCrider Posted October 25, 2009 Report Share Posted October 25, 2009 I hear there's good places for snowkiting. wish I was going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirk Posted October 28, 2009 Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 I Wildcat Bowl and a lot of other terrain at Snowbasin. +1 on Wildcat...but typically only groomed during weekends/holidays. Additionally, The Wildcat chair (triple) only operates on weekends and holidays (unless something's changed). Didn't spend much time up there last season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carvedog Posted October 28, 2009 Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 +1 on Wildcat...but typically only groomed during weekends/holidays. Additionally, The Wildcat chair (triple) only operates on weekends and holidays (unless something's changed). Didn't spend much time up there last season. It was groomed mid week both times i was there last year. The reason it's good is cause that lift wasn't running. IMO. I'll try to remember to give you a shout if I am coming down. Been fun to leave a couple of grooves in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMK Posted November 17, 2009 Report Share Posted November 17, 2009 Suggest staying in the valley, plenty of options for lodging at lower elevation; either Downtown or Midvale.If You are skiing, I would put Alta at the top of list to spend a day or to combine with Snowbird. it's all I need. You put all info out there can't ask for more. Thanks Pat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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