Powder Mountain, Utah 2/27/13

My sons Aaron and Kyle and myself recently took a trip to Utah. It seems like most years we end up out there to ski. We usually stay in the SLC area. There are plenty of great housing options and price ranges and its proximity to 8 or 9 great ski areas, plus usually reliable snow make it hard to beat. On the 27th we found ourselves at Powder Mtn which is one of the longer drives from SLC at about 1:20 or so. Once you get off the I-15 the scenery gets much nicer though. On Wednesdays its only $41 to ski, a nice price! Powder has cat skiing available per run for $18. Its a great way to get a taste of cat skiing without spending $400. The cat takes you about 2/3 of the way up James peak where you have plenty of options to descend. You can usually get fresh lines well into the day as access is limited to the round trip cat time which is at least 25min. You can also skin or hike to the top of James peak. Not having skins with us we decided to hike up after talking to a local who said the skiing and the view were well worth it. It took about 45mins of climbing and it got fairly steep and deep but somewhat winded we made it. Was it ever worth it! The view was incredible. My camera wasn't working due to operator error(me!) so I have no photos of Shug'r Bowl, sorry


Aaron and Kyle at the top of James Peak

After a short rest we traversed across the ridge for a ways until we came to the top of Y chute. After looking down it and seeing 2 or 3 tracks we decided to go back to a chute called Shug'r Bowl which was totally untracked. We were rewarded for our efforts with silky smooth powder boot top high. Its always nice to have first tracks anywhere. We then took skiers left under a cliff band to get to the Y chute which we skied for awhile and then cut left into Candy Land


 Kyle ripping it up in Candy Land


Aaron getting loose in Candy Land

After we got back down to the lift we decided to head to the upper part of the lift served area and hit Cobabe Canyon a favorite of mine. While there is a few steep pitches it also has a few more moderate ones which we headed for because in my experience they don't get tracked at all. We weren't disappointed! We skied several laps in the aspen trees between Thimbleberry and Buckshot  and we had it all to ourselves for most of the day. At one point as we were hiking up we got talking to a guy named Charlie. Turns out Charlie was 72 and boy could he rip! It gives me hope that I might still be ripping too when I'm in my 70's! As if we needed any icing on our cake Aaron and Kyle spotted a moose on the return trail from Cobabe. For a last run we did the other side of Cobabe which has a few truly steep pitches which had lightly tracked knee deep. All in all a great day with my boys climbing the peak!

This is a photo taken by my son Kyle at the top of the Cobabe Canyon hike. You can see by the quality of this photo that he knows what he's doing. Unlike me!


Photo by KSHofsass Photography                                          

Powder is a great mountain that is usually left with little traffic. I have been there once about 4 days after a dump, we had fresh lines all day Glad you had a great trip.

I've always wanted to get to Powder Mt - maybe next year. Looks great.

Nice report! Great pix! How did you get so much in in 3 hours? 1:20 is a late start.

Sorry, 1:20 is the drive time not the time we left. That was around 7:30.

great report and pics! nothing beats a pow day with the kids!


... well maybe a deeper pow day with friends... or strangers... or alone! j/k looks great!

Nice

shot of James

Skimore, nice shot! The chute in the center is Y chute. We skied in the trees on the left side of the photo next to the Y chute and cut below the rock band into the Y chute. Well worth the effort to get up there. Next time I'll have my skins with me though!

Nice! Always loved Powder, name is very appropriate as it just last far longer there than at other mountains. While out there hope you tried Snowbasin, another great mountain in the Ogden area.