Snowbird

Spent the 2008/2009 season in Salt Lake City and Snowbird (SB). Little Cottonwood Canyon with Alta and SB is commonly known as legendary pillow hole. But do they live up to expectations then? The answer is YES but .. and one not so small 'but' either, this is absolutely no secret and competition is rock hard. If you do not have a big look at the system and you have a dump you will get a few but certainly sick days. Would not recommend SB for a shorter period (tourist week), but you should know how things work to get you get out of SB and avoid the worst congestion. A really entertaining sight is the marathon starters to look for a rope drop (various ropes / gates that open after avalanches have been secured), the word "shit show" has become a bit depressing but striking term that described this in a good way: )

The SB has really fun and varied terrain, large open spaces, steep triangular gutters, drops of all levels of difficulty and lots of forests. The snow is completely unpalatable, large amounts and mostly dry. Have had my absolute best ride ever here in SB. It's a pretty uncomfortable feeling to ski in the snow up to the waist even though you have 120mm waists and rocks, 3-4% of oats make you sink deeper regardless of skiing :) Sometimes it's getting too dry snow and it's not that fun when you sink through and hit a hard bottom. The snow is a bit hard to get on cliffs and so it's not only positive with snowy snow :)
It seems like it's "either or" in SB, either it's dumped or it's sunny. The season when we were there was apparently unusually mild (very hot southwest winds as opposed to normal cold northwest), which was labeled with 3 high pressure periods which lasted 7-10 days each. Nevertheless, we managed to scrape a good bit over 300 inches or around 8 meters between January 1st to the end of March when we were there. That's what the Alps get during a whole "good" season, which tells you how it's snowing. Utah, by the way, is the clean desert so it tends to get a little warmer than in Colorado and Wyoming. So when the high pressure slips it can get really hot (we had a few days of + 8C in January). In spite of this it rains very rarely, because when the rain is coming in, it is usually in the form of cold fronts, I think we might have 2 days of rain / snow blending even though it was a relatively mild winter. One thing that is sure is to stay one season, you will most likely experience the best ride of your life, because the monsters will come, it's just a matter of when and how often.

Weather, snow and avalanche reporting by UAC / NOAA is the best I've ever seen. Absolutely incredible data and details, clean the kingdom of heaven for the statistics store and the one who wants to find out about things. The fact that in other ski areas so often you choose to throw a number (1-5) to show such an extremely complex thing as low-risk is a bad mischief. There are so many different details that record and UAC is in a class by itself when it comes to reporting this!

Had SB been a tired little hole in the middle of nowhere without any people, it would have been heaven's kingdom on earth. Now it's not so unfortunate and then I can not score higher than 4. With a million people within a couple of hours from SB, all people are the absolute biggest problem with SB (and Alta) and that will always be. But with little local knowledge it will be manageable. If you also have good hiking trips then there are all the conditions in the world to get really good riding, very often.

Conclusion:
+ Snow length
+ Snow quality
+ Terrain
+ Smooth lift system
+ Fun atmosphere with many skilled riders
- At the ski resort, a little to do in addition to skiing (no nightlife right away)
- Queues
- Pudding
- Relatively short yard

Tip:
* SLC is definitely cheaper to live in, but SLC is quite sad so, in my opinion, one can at least try to find something up there so the problem with the roadblocks will be avoided. Should you be bored you can as well do it near the lifts ..
* Get up early if it snows. At the cabin absolutely no later than 45 minutes before opening to arrive first. At worst, they close the road between 6-8 in the morning to blow up and sometimes they can not open the road to 9 (when the lifts open). Then you want to be on the right side of the shutdown for then you share an epic ride with the few who live on the hotels in Snowbird. If there are a couple of dumps and a roadblock is planned, fix the breakfast the day before and go up before 6:00, take a nice breakfast and peppa is facing a cruel day :)
* Because of all people, it may be worth buying a midweek card in SB (weekdays are a little bit funer than weekends ..) and then buy a weekend card in Solitude or Brighton. Fixed tour equipment, you can drive sidecountry in Big Cottonwood Canyon (BCC) via Solitude / Brighton when all is broken in Snowbird. Lots of good hiking opportunities in BCC (better than in LCC).
* Liedholm has some good tips with (see his review of SB)

Cruising rides, quick lifts, sluggish off piste, lots of dry, wonderful, beautiful snow. However, Snowbird is just next to a million city so what I just mentioned should be shared with the type of 100,000 people. In any case, it feels like that. I really have nothing negative to say but just positive things, except that with all the people. The secret lies in learning in which order the different parts of the mountain are opened after a dump and then sacrifice a field lr two to instead queue at the next lift to be opened.
One tip is to stay away from the Mineral Basin, though sick cruel ride, but it seems to everyone else and you are most likely to get stuck on the bottom of a sick lift queue.

One day it dumped properly, but not so much that everything is closed closed, I suggest the following order:

1.Wake up dormant, ie at least 1.5h before opening, so you get up with the first cabin. From there, you are aiming for West Cirque, which has some bad cruises. However, will be quickly recovered. With a little luck, you'll get up again with the cabin before it's gone. If it's queue at the cabin, jump it and take the seatlift up instead.

2. After you have received 1 lr 2 sick yoke at Cirque, you will drive to GadZoom and then down to Gad2. If you are lucky, they have not opened yet, but you will be among the first up to the sick of fine woods. Do not drop in under the lifts, but instead look for a little longer skiers right then you will find a large open, steep surface that is quite sick to make the first track. Here you will have at least 2-3 acres before it is broken.

3. If everything goes according to plans, Little Cloud is now open and you will go there. If you are lucky, either Road to Provo and / or North Baldy are open. Should NB just opened, I recommend a quick walk up there because the road from there, according to me, is longer, steeper and better. Have Road to Provo just opened when you get up with Little Cloud, but you should drive there. In Provo you get 1 really good ride, if you are stressed and do not have to have first tracks, you can get another 1-2 nice yard before it is slaughtered and you will not be there. The combination lots of people and upbringing is not fun. Especially not as the crossover is a press in itself =)

4. Now it's time to go to Gad2 again. When you get up with the elevator you slide into Liftwaffe Cure and look at the dog and snack a bit with Ski Patrol. This is the best way to find out when Tiger Tail opens. Do you meet Björn so be sure to invite the guy on a sneeze and make a little Swedish. Then just go to Tiger Tail and drive there until it's time to go home.

Day 2

1. Stick fast like Satan up with Gad2 and take the top of the rope. Then follow the traverse at the far end and hold the thumbs until the last rope has been lifted. Outside, Snowbirds absolute best ride. Long, nice, steep and with a forest where you can drive untouched lots of times if you just dare to drive tight. There is no snack that this is the best place. Important, however, to keep an eye out, do not miss the "ultimate lift" because then it's far to the car.

Day 3 -> next dump

Hike, hike, hike, hike ....... Eat LCC to BCC for full bags. The system sucks so badly now because everything is run down and generally worthless.

Coffee is bought in the box under the cabin
Exit should be at least a few times at the Canyon Inn, people may say what they want about the place but it is a must for all skiers / fighters to have partyed on the canyon. Clockwise place if you want to get rid of cougars plus that it's one of skiing USAA's most notorious places.

Snowbird without all people = 6 of 5 possible
Snowbird in reality = 3 out of 5 because of all people
Compared grade 4 of 5

Really nice place with easily accessible offpiste. In my opinion, a better place than the more famous neighbor Alta. We lived down in Salt Lake City, which worked well, but you have to have snow chains or 4x4 on the car days after snowfall. Little Canyon road and big canyon road often close when it's snowy, information gets on a local AM radio channel. Updated frequently, very good. Good food can be enjoyed at the brew pub's downstairs in SLC, simple places with soft jaws and often brewed beer. Alcohol is strictly regulated in Utah. The nightlife is stendött, but skiing and snow is GRYM.

Next to the mythical Alta. In my opinion, a more complete ski resort with more variety and significantly better lift system and capacity. Incredibly good wooded trails, nice offpiste fields, cross-country skiing along the mountain walls of hissed double diamonds. Well-groomed pistes. Nothing for beginners for the most part is steep and black.
Anders

Ski resort located about 40 min drive away from downtown Salt Lake City. Brant skiing is very easy to access once you have taken the "tram" to the top. Two larger "bowls " are available without having to "hesitate " where there are often cushions left if you feel like screaming a bit. When it's dumped, it's about to be early due to the great accessibility. But, first of all, you have a lot of cruel rides in front of them. It is steep and open with some rocks on its side.

Snowbird also organizes once a year a big jumping contest where Jon Olsson has been competing in full.