Ski conditions in Utah - rethinking our trip

[Anonymous]

To be more clear - We are not expecting "heavy snows over the next 2 weeks", in fact the opposite; our Utah slump is expected to continue until 2018 at the earliest. There are lots of weather sites that make all sorts of predictions out there, and you can look them up easily, instead of relying on "I expect..." predictions. Seriously, y'all should go to Vail. There's lots of young Australian ski instructors there for you to have fun with on and off the mountain. And my snark comes from 17 years of living in the hell hole known as the DC metro area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in SLC and a friend showed me this, and I figure y'all need a little better guidance than the shitty job you're giving each other.

a) Definitely, definitely, reschedule your trip now. For god sakes, it's 3.5 weeks until your trip, how will Utah ever get good enough for YOU to ski there!!

b) Utah averages 500" of snow, and yes, we're off to the worse start in history, but that only means we'll get more later.

c) Because we get 500" average, we are likely to get more snow right before or during your trip, than anywhere else in the rockies. Things turn around quickly here.

d) If you think Snowbird has more to do besides skiing in the winter than PC because you were here during the summer, you're an idiot and should not be allowed to participate in this discussion anymore. PC is a town, with food, and grocery stores, and a mall, and bowling alley, and a movie theater, and an ice rink, or 3. Snowbird has 1 bar, that's it. All that shit you saw in the summer, like hiking trails, they are under 15 feet of snow by January and only backcountry touring skiers go there. Please don't go boot packing in the skin track, it's extremely rude.

e) Stay and ski in PC, most people from the east can't handle Alta/Snowbird and get pissy when it's not groomed over. Yes, there are rocks everywhere, because it's a mountain, not Disneyland.

f) And whatever you do, do not go ski up BCC at Brighton or Solitude. Brighton is full of snowboarders who love nothing more than to knock east coast skiers into the hospital. And Solitude is tiny and rinky-dink and no self-respecting east coast person would ever ski there.

g) In conclusion, you should really consider switching your trip and going to ski Vail. They man-make more snow than the entire east coast and have enough groomers that you'll never ski the same one twice. Plus, I bet you've heard from millions, literally, millions of others how amazing Vail is. It is, it really is, you should definitely reschedule there and tell everyone else you know to do so as well.

Sincerely,

Every local skier who won't bother to ski because the conditions are so bad here, so bad here, so bad here, why would anyone ski here ever.

Why do Utah people need so be so arrogant and pathetic when talking about outdoor recreation? It's pathetic. Grow up.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Our trip is getting closer. Condition have not changed and no snow storms in the forecast. Just wanted to bump this discussion in case anyone went skiing out West over winter break. If so, how were the conditions? Was it worth it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in SLC and a friend showed me this, and I figure y'all need a little better guidance than the shitty job you're giving each other.

a) Definitely, definitely, reschedule your trip now. For god sakes, it's 3.5 weeks until your trip, how will Utah ever get good enough for YOU to ski there!!

b) Utah averages 500" of snow, and yes, we're off to the worse start in history, but that only means we'll get more later.

c) Because we get 500" average, we are likely to get more snow right before or during your trip, than anywhere else in the rockies. Things turn around quickly here.

d) If you think Snowbird has more to do besides skiing in the winter than PC because you were here during the summer, you're an idiot and should not be allowed to participate in this discussion anymore. PC is a town, with food, and grocery stores, and a mall, and bowling alley, and a movie theater, and an ice rink, or 3. Snowbird has 1 bar, that's it. All that shit you saw in the summer, like hiking trails, they are under 15 feet of snow by January and only backcountry touring skiers go there. Please don't go boot packing in the skin track, it's extremely rude.

e) Stay and ski in PC, most people from the east can't handle Alta/Snowbird and get pissy when it's not groomed over. Yes, there are rocks everywhere, because it's a mountain, not Disneyland.

f) And whatever you do, do not go ski up BCC at Brighton or Solitude. Brighton is full of snowboarders who love nothing more than to knock east coast skiers into the hospital. And Solitude is tiny and rinky-dink and no self-respecting east coast person would ever ski there.

g) In conclusion, you should really consider switching your trip and going to ski Vail. They man-make more snow than the entire east coast and have enough groomers that you'll never ski the same one twice. Plus, I bet you've heard from millions, literally, millions of others how amazing Vail is. It is, it really is, you should definitely reschedule there and tell everyone else you know to do so as well.

Sincerely,

Every local skier who won't bother to ski because the conditions are so bad here, so bad here, so bad here, why would anyone ski here ever.

I can't tell if this was snark or not, but we LOVE Solitude because it's a lot less crowded and low key. Often, you ski down a trail, wait for 6 people in front of you, and get right on a lift. On Christmas Week!

I think it was a 1/2 joke post. Agree on Solitude. We enjoyed it. Brighton too.

[Anonymous]

I know Utah poster is the skiiest skier who ever skied, but I live in Colorado and the truth is people are NOT skiing here. The locals aren't bothering, for the most part. A few places are okay, but places like Vail and BC are hurting. Laugh all you want, but when our ski communities have to give out thousands of free meals a week because few lifts are open and no one is coming for ski school etc/ and seasonal workers are flat broke YES, it is a big deal.

You can understand snow averages all you want, but you also have to look at tourist averages.

OP honestly I would cancel my trip if I had the option. We have skied and its fine if you've never skied out west, but it is not normal conditions. The shortage of open runs and lifts means waits are longer, the warm temps have hurt snowmaking, and we are dry dry dry.

[Anonymous]

Another Colorado poster here. We were going to ski all this week (school doesn’t start for us until the TENTH, seriously, WTF?) but came home this week because the snow is lousy.

It’s fine if you just want groomers, but DH and DS 13 aren’t happy with it, and we can wait for better snow since it’s just a 2 hour drive for us.

[Anonymous]

We generally ski Colorado but we're going out to Big Sky Montana this year in a few weeks. I checked the big sky website and it says none of the lifts are closed - 42" mid-mountain base, 61" upper mountain base. I don't even know if this is good or bad. Any thoughts? We're not going to cancel, just want to be prepared.

[Anonymous]

Anyone been to park city who can comment on this? We are scheduled to leave on the 13th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We generally ski Colorado but we're going out to Big Sky Montana this year in a few weeks. I checked the big sky website and it says none of the lifts are closed - 42" mid-mountain base, 61" upper mountain base. I don't even know if this is good or bad. Any thoughts? We're not going to cancel, just want to be prepared.

How could 3+ feet of base and all lifts be bad?!

Have fun!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We generally ski Colorado but we're going out to Big Sky Montana this year in a few weeks. I checked the big sky website and it says none of the lifts are closed - 42" mid-mountain base, 61" upper mountain base. I don't even know if this is good or bad. Any thoughts? We're not going to cancel, just want to be prepared.

You've skied before and you don't know if this is good or bad? Huh?

[Anonymous]

Just skied Keystone. Had some east coast kids come and it was fine. Not normal CO conditions, but east coast people can't tell anyway. I weird off the main run once, and ran into slush. Kids had fun, Loveland had better snow, but crazy packed. Montana should be fine. It was iceir and less smooth but for East coast people that is normal, I guess? But, yes, not everything is open, but CO got some snow over Christmas. I was there, so it wasn't that bad. Aspen is much worse than Keystone though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We generally ski Colorado but we're going out to Big Sky Montana this year in a few weeks. I checked the big sky website and it says none of the lifts are closed - 42" mid-mountain base, 61" upper mountain base. I don't even know if this is good or bad. Any thoughts? We're not going to cancel, just want to be prepared.

I am pp who just skied Keystone. It wasn't great powder, but CO people like to have 100" of snow generally. 61" will be fine, they are also making snow non stop. It will still be better than anything around here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in SLC and a friend showed me this, and I figure y'all need a little better guidance than the shitty job you're giving each other.

a) Definitely, definitely, reschedule your trip now. For god sakes, it's 3.5 weeks until your trip, how will Utah ever get good enough for YOU to ski there!!

b) Utah averages 500" of snow, and yes, we're off to the worse start in history, but that only means we'll get more later.

c) Because we get 500" average, we are likely to get more snow right before or during your trip, than anywhere else in the rockies. Things turn around quickly here.

d) If you think Snowbird has more to do besides skiing in the winter than PC because you were here during the summer, you're an idiot and should not be allowed to participate in this discussion anymore. PC is a town, with food, and grocery stores, and a mall, and bowling alley, and a movie theater, and an ice rink, or 3. Snowbird has 1 bar, that's it. All that shit you saw in the summer, like hiking trails, they are under 15 feet of snow by January and only backcountry touring skiers go there. Please don't go boot packing in the skin track, it's extremely rude.

e) Stay and ski in PC, most people from the east can't handle Alta/Snowbird and get pissy when it's not groomed over. Yes, there are rocks everywhere, because it's a mountain, not Disneyland.

f) And whatever you do, do not go ski up BCC at Brighton or Solitude. Brighton is full of snowboarders who love nothing more than to knock east coast skiers into the hospital. And Solitude is tiny and rinky-dink and no self-respecting east coast person would ever ski there.

g) In conclusion, you should really consider switching your trip and going to ski Vail. They man-make more snow than the entire east coast and have enough groomers that you'll never ski the same one twice. Plus, I bet you've heard from millions, literally, millions of others how amazing Vail is. It is, it really is, you should definitely reschedule there and tell everyone else you know to do so as well.

Sincerely,

Every local skier who won't bother to ski because the conditions are so bad here, so bad here, so bad here, why would anyone ski here ever.

So, what you just told us is that snow boarders and skiers from Utah are a**holes? Most CO people, which I am in many ways, immigrated from Europe to Denver, do not ski Vail... ever. Plus, Vail is amazing to so many, because they are nice and not nasty people like you.

[Anonymous]

Consider a switch to Big Sky. Montana was the one place in the Rockies that got pounded with snow in December. Xmas time had better than average conditions. Although it has been sunny with no snow last few days ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To be more clear - We are not expecting "heavy snows over the next 2 weeks", in fact the opposite; our Utah slump is expected to continue until 2018 at the earliest. There are lots of weather sites that make all sorts of predictions out there, and you can look them up easily, instead of relying on "I expect..." predictions. Seriously, y'all should go to Vail. There's lots of young Australian ski instructors there for you to have fun with on and off the mountain. And my snark comes from 17 years of living in the hell hole known as the DC metro area.

Thank you for leaving! Sorry to the people of Utah who have to deal with you. You sound like a joy to be around