BigKahuna13 wrote:Since we're only talking 3-4 days, first priority is travel convienence. Want to spend as little time travelling as possible. Snow quality, cost and ambience all follow in that order. Gather from the comments so far that UT is the most convienent destination from NYC. Given that, where would you go?
Storm chasing probably isn't an option. Given that, what UT ski areas would be good bets for decent snow in most year?
If you aren't towing and snowboarders, I think the Alta/Bird combination would be very hard to beat. Park City/Deer Valley/Canyons certainly offers more civilization than Little Cottonwood Canyon...but you would miss out on this:
BigKahuna13 wrote:
Since we're only talking 3-4 days, first priority is travel convienence. Want to spend as little time travelling as possible. Snow quality, cost and ambience all follow in that order. Gather from the comments so far that UT is the most convienent destination from NYC. Given that, where would you go?
Storm chasing probably isn't an option. Given that, what UT ski areas would be good bets for decent snow in most year?
The best skiing surface calls for high elevation and minimal skier traffic. AltaBird has the elevation but the *cough* improvements *cough* have added substantial uphill capacity. When conditions are excellent, The Canyons, Deer Valley, and Powder Mountain are places to consider. When conditions are less than excellent, you want to be higher (10,000 feet) so stick to AltaBird and Solitude.
BigKahuna13 wrote:
Since we're only talking 3-4 days, first priority is travel convienence. Want to spend as little time travelling as possible. Snow quality, cost and ambience all follow in that order. Gather from the comments so far that UT is the most convienent destination from NYC. Given that, where would you go?
Storm chasing probably isn't an option. Given that, what UT ski areas would be good bets for decent snow in most year?
The best skiing surface calls for high elevation and minimal skier traffic. AltaBird has the elevation but the *cough* improvements *cough* have added substantial uphill capacity. When conditions are excellent, The Canyons, Deer Valley, and Powder Mountain are places to consider. When conditions are less than excellent, you want to be higher (10,000 feet) so stick to AltaBird and Solitude.
That's why you go to Solitude and Brighton....although Solitude no longer seems to be so solitude.....especially since they put that freakin chair out of honeycomb in....and now they're building out moonbeam base....
BigKahuna13 wrote:
Since we're only talking 3-4 days, first priority is travel convienence. Want to spend as little time travelling as possible. Snow quality, cost and ambience all follow in that order. Gather from the comments so far that UT is the most convienent destination from NYC. Given that, where would you go?
Storm chasing probably isn't an option. Given that, what UT ski areas would be good bets for decent snow in most year?
The best skiing surface calls for high elevation and minimal skier traffic. AltaBird has the elevation but the *cough* improvements *cough* have added substantial uphill capacity. When conditions are excellent, The Canyons, Deer Valley, and Powder Mountain are places to consider. When conditions are less than excellent, you want to be higher (10,000 feet) so stick to AltaBird and Solitude.
That's why you go to Solitude and Brighton....although Solitude no longer seems to be so solitude.....especially since they put that freakin chair out of honeycomb in....and now they're building out moonbeam base....
Brighton was awesome when we were out there. Alta scared the sh*t out of me at times (which was great!), but I had the most fun at Brighton. Nice trees...real nice!
BigKahuna13 wrote:If you only had a single 3 or 4 day weekend in mid/late February to ski out west or in Canada, where would you go and why?
i guess stormchase but i think the popular consensus would be snowbird/alta given the proximity to the airport. early morning flight and you can be making tracks by lunchtime. ski the morning you leave and fly home in the afternoon. odds are usually pretty good that you'll have some fresh. canada's way too far.
Having few choices, you da man and that would be the plan !
Of course, Colorado in prime conditions would be good too, plus shorter flights vs. West coast and Canada .
BigKahuna13 wrote:If you only had a single 3 or 4 day weekend in mid/late February to ski out west or in Canada, where would you go and why?
Utah, without a doubt. Especially if you haven't been there much. Lots of choices within a short drive of SLC for you to pick and choose what suits you. Brighton for easy groomers and family skiing, Alta/Snowbird for something more challenging. It's all there and a quick/cheap flight away from the east coast. Can't beat it. And no need for silly stormchasin when late feb and all of march is one continuous storm, especially at snowbird.
BigKahuna13 wrote:If you only had a single 3 or 4 day weekend in mid/late February to ski out west or in Canada, where would you go and why?
Utah, without a doubt. Especially if you haven't been there much. Lots of choices within a short drive of SLC for you to pick and choose what suits you. Brighton for easy groomers and family skiing, Alta/Snowbird for something more challenging. It's all there and a quick/cheap flight away from the east coast. Can't beat it. And no need for silly stormchasin when late feb and all of march is one continuous storm, especially at snowbird.
Beg to differ. Thats the exact reasoning I used to plan my trip this year (Feb 25- Mar 4)...and found 3 solid weeks without a single flake (the 2 weeks before we arrived and the week we were there). Even thought, hey it hasn't snowed for two weeks, so Utah is due for a big one. Thought we'd be in our glory. We seriously had to hunt for fresh snow. Anything in the sun was sun baked and crunchy till noon or later. Stayed in the trees and on north facing slopes that didnt get any sun to find softer snow.
Don't get me wrong, they had a lot of snow out there...just not a lot of fresh, and until the crunchy stuff started to soften up, it was like heading out to ski spring bumps at 8 am - firm, very firm.
Stormchaser wrote:Beg to differ. Thats the exact reasoning I used to plan my trip this year (Feb 25- Mar 4)...and found 3 solid weeks without a single flake (the 2 weeks before we arrived and the week we were there).
You're right. I should have used the word "typically" when describing late feb early march. March is typically the heaviest snowfall month and it usually starts early.
You hit some really bad luck in an extrordinary year. It didn't snow again till March 13, but then snowed 14 of the 19 remaining days in March for a total of 165 inches.
Stormchaser wrote:
Beg to differ. Thats the exact reasoning I used to plan my trip this year (Feb 25- Mar 4)...and found 3 solid weeks without a single flake (the 2 weeks before we arrived and the week we were there). Even thought, hey it hasn't snowed for two weeks, so Utah is due for a big one. Thought we'd be in our glory. We seriously had to hunt for fresh snow. Anything in the sun was sun baked and crunchy till noon or later. Stayed in the trees and on north facing slopes that didnt get any sun to find softer snow.
Don't get me wrong, they had a lot of snow out there...just not a lot of fresh, and until the crunchy stuff started to soften up, it was like heading out to ski spring bumps at 8 am - firm, very firm.
Stormchaser wrote:Beg to differ. Thats the exact reasoning I used to plan my trip this year (Feb 25- Mar 4)...and found 3 solid weeks without a single flake (the 2 weeks before we arrived and the week we were there).
You're right. I should have used the word "typically" when describing late feb early march. March is typically the heaviest snowfall month and it usually starts early.
You hit some really bad luck in an extrordinary year. It didn't snow again till March 13, but then snowed 14 of the 19 remaining days in March for a total of 165 inches.
Looks like I've passed on the curse to Stormy, woohoo!
I'm sick of going out west with no dumpage. Guess we need more fiber...
