Ski Conditions Report for Park City Canyons Utah
Day 33- December 26,2014
Quite an exciting day today. Premium deep powder, clear visibility and good friends made for a perfect start to the day. We skied Soul Patch in near perfect powder, then moved on to the far side of Dutch's Draw. Micah, Toby, Skylar, Wes, and I moved further up the ridge each run. Finally, we strayed into the middle, just to right of the Goal Posts. Toby went further left between the Goal Posts and triggered a large slab avalanche that buried him to his neck. Scary. Our party dug him out and other than a lost ski, poles, hat and goggles, he is doing fine.
Powder can also be your enemy.
Day 32- December 25,2014
A great powder day on Christmas! We received a foot of new snow. The powder was low density, classic northwest flow. The inbounds terrain was decent, but the undersurface was very hard and thin. Lots of rocks and stumps. But the surrounding backcountry terrain was spectacular good. Pure cream and deep in spots. Skied with Toby, Micah, Jamie and Skylar. We skied Movie Line in Dutch's Draw 2 times, Easy Street 2 times and finished off big with Square Top LOFT. We did not get real aggressive as we are waiting for the new snow to settle out. Good times!
Day 31- December 24,2014
On the merry Christmas eve, the Can opened Peak 5 and 9990. That is good. To all of us long time locals, the ski area is 9990 and the backcountry access. It was the thinnest opening I have seen. Rocks and stumps and all things not snow were the rule. The snow quality was ok. Some re-crystalized low density snow on top of mostly unbreakable wind crust. It was a weird mixture, of who-knows-what under your feet. Did two hikes into the backcountry and skied Movie Line twice. It was just great to get back to my stomping grounds. I am the Tarzan of this jungle...
Day 30- December 23,2014
The first nice bluebird day after the storms. It was great to see everything white. The Can opened Tombstone with limited terrain and it got crazy crowded. Supposedly 9990 was going to open but there was some kind of maintenance issue with the lift. I'm thinking it may have had more to do with the unstable backcountry conditions, the perfect visibility and the clueless nature of tourists in regards to avalanche awareness. Soon all of the good will open and easy with the lift.
Day 29- December 22,2014
Big, wet storm continues. Not a lot of snow, but a whole lot of water. 6 inches new and 1-2 inches of water. Great for the base. So we got there, Cutter, Adam, Nina and I, and went to the Gondola because the Orange Bubble Express chair was down due to the wind. Finally got up the mountain after wind delays and skied 5 really nice dense, wind buff powder runs. The dense new snow and wind was magical, but alas, no terrain open and wind-holds soon created a monumental lift line from hell. Oh well, it's starting to look like winter...
Day 28- December 21,2014
Weird wet and fun as the first big piece of a raging pineapple express train descended on the Wasatch of Utah. 5 inches overnight of very wet snow got the snowblower out. I headed up to Meet Toby and Cutter, and allegedly we poached into the Canyons backcountry. It was nuking windy and really wet. We skied wet, dense Homerun, then headed into the storm to ski Driveway. We saw, then accompanied Little Jeff to Driveway, the double fall line run of Gaper superstardom. That was ok, a little dense, then Toby and I headed back up to ski the Cinder Chutes Shoulder, which can collect some deep wind deposit if the conditions and wind direction are right. Not often. It was real nice.
Did I say it was super wet, as in wettest day ever. When we got back to ski area, the whole place was shutting down at 2 pm due to wind. It was very windy and raining hard. Brutal fun stuff only Oregon boys, like me, could love!
Day 27- December 20,2014
Skied the Canyons with Cutter and Nina. It was overcast and pretty cold, with the beginning of a multi-day storm on our doorstep. Wow, they finally got another run open, Docs. You can ski to the bottom now. Vail Resorts and the Canyons have been advertising and touting their expanded snow-making all off-season but so far this season it has proven to be just another marketing line of bullshit. They use the excuse, "temperatures have been too warm" , but that excuse doesn't fly due to the fact Park City and Deer Valley are making plenty of snow to open more terrain. Frankly, I do not care about snow-making, -let's all wait for Mother Nature I say- but if these Mega resorts are going to make the claims and put it in their marketing, they follow through!
On a broader note, this is one of the primary motivators for why I started Free the Powder Gloves: the ski industry has evolved into an over-priced bullshit machine. Just be fair and honest...
Skiing today was ok, but we are desperate for lots of snow...
Day 26- December 19,2014
Headed up for a late session at the Canyons. Cloudy and cold. Saw lots of my amigos, including several Team Free the Powder members. They spent the day in the Canyons backcountry, using the stealth gate. There has been a tolerance among most ski patrollers for several years about accessing the backcountry from Saddleback before the official gates are open on 9990 and Peak 5. Still really thin out there, so I'm happy to get work done and ski inbounds on the limited terrain. I have all season to hike and once that easy-access terrain is open I get really spoiled.
Day 25- December 17,2014
Skied both Park City and Canyons today with my highly convenient Epic Pass. It was pretty cold, mostly overcast and a bit bleak with very little snow. Skied the groomers over at PC, looking for Ski Patrol to give away free glove test samples. Found a nice kid with some not-so-good gloves. He was very happy to get some shiny new Free the Powder long cuff gloves. I got bored after a few runs and headed to the Canyons for some steep, carvy north faces. It continues to be pretty good on the shady north face, but really thin. Gave more gloves away. Ski Patrol very appreciative.
Day 24- December 15,2014
The first good day of the 2014-15 season. With a foot of new snow on thin, but stable base Micah, Cutter and I headed up to Little Cottonwood Canyon to ski in the backcountry. We started from the Alta Guard Station and hiked up in brilliant sunshine up to Cardiff Pass, then dropped into little Cardiff Bowl and finally traversed to Cardiac Bowl and Cardiac Ridge. The scenery was spectacular and the snow skied about 6 inches hero powder deep. I was in much better physical shape despite my four months off rehabing my arm from mountain biking accident. But I was totally burned out by the end.
Day 23- December 14,2014
The splitting storm brought about 4 inches to the Wasatch Back and as much as 12 inches to LCC (Alta), but thankfully much colder temps. The body never reacts well to the cold after a couple of weeks of too warm conditions. The whole body and circulation seemed very bad today. I shredded the Canyons today for a few hours. The steep north face trees The Pines skied pretty well with the re-fresher snow.
Day 22 December 13, 2014
Went up early to Park City after the huge dusting of new snow. The bottom of the mountain was very hard and icy, the parking lot was full and visibility was not so good. Did I mention it was crowded. It was all around shitty. I skied a few runs in my new, expensive goggles that were fogging. It was really a test though as I am a firm believer that the more expensive a ski goggle, the worse they work. (So, thankfully I have a big supply of older, inexpensive goggles that work great. After a few runs of not seeing anyone I recognize (which is extremely rare in PC) I headed home.
And it starting snowing late in the afternoon so perhaps a mystery storm?