Two days in Little Cottonwood

I had a business trip that took me to the left coast so I packed my gear and decided to break up the flight and go through SLC. My buds who live there said not to waist my time/money but this was to be my only shot at Utah this season. There was 13" of new snow the previous Tuesday so there was hope. Alta reported a 116" base, which usually means really good conditions. When I got there it was cool temps and blue bird skies.  I went for a day at Alta and a day at the bird (liftopia deal was great). Although Alta reported a 116" base, the mountain looked like it had less than 80". The trail sign at the top of supreme was high in the air, the snow fence was exposed and the bottom of supreme bowl was a rock garden. The easily accessable off piste terrain was crusty and never really softened up, powder was damn hard to find. Baldy chute was open but I did not feel like the hike, seeing as I had no time to adjust to altitude. True north facing slopes were soft with only a slight crust, had to use the taboo little hops to keep the tails from catching on the steep crusty terrain. NE exposure softened some in the late afternoon and the bumps were fun. Some tree runs were nice but not long enough. Any powder that was left was usually mainky. I did find some lesser skied terrain at the bird in the tiger tail area that was really nice that came close to freshies. Mineral basin had some good open N facing terrain that stayed nice but wind loaded. I had about 5 better days skiing in NYS than these two days, but these two days were better than the rest of the NYS days this year.

I have had short trips to Utah where I have had run after run of those famous face shots, where it was snowing so hard you could ski the same line twice and each time it was fresh. I have had marvelous spring skiing trips out west under blue bird skies where you could ski in a T-shirt. These two days were neither. Not that they were bad days at all, they were not what you hope for on a western ski vacation. Luckily I only had to pony up an extra night in a hotel, a few meals and my lift tickets. It was well worth that.

Maybe next year my luck will return. It seems like every 5th time I get out there I have a few days where the skiing is not fantastic. BTW - the lifts were ski on all the time, there were no locals in sight. The parking lots were virtually empty.

You came three days early! Was skiing thigh deep snow today and yesterday, and the lifts were still ski-on!
It's weird how much a few days, either way of the storm, will make a difference. I was for a tour Monday afternoon across the road on some N facing stuff, and it still skied really well. Corn skiing coming back down the SW facing stuff around 3:30 wa primo, too!

tBatt wrote

You came three days early! Was skiing thigh deep snow today and yesterday, and the lifts were still ski-on!
It's weird how much a few days, either way of the storm, will make a difference. I was for a tour Monday afternoon across the road on some N facing stuff, and it still skied really well. Corn skiing coming back down the SW facing stuff around 3:30 wa primo, too!

After several years of good luck I was due for trip where I missed the pow. There are a few guys I know that live in the SW and can hop a plane to SLC for a powder day on a moments notice but I don't have quite that flexibility yet. You were lucky to be in the right place at the right time.