Dad and I skiied Snowbasin today. I've been reading about this place for several years--in the 2002 Olympics they ran the Downhill, Super-G and Combined events at Snowbasin. We didn't ski on any of those runs, though.We started out by taking a quick run to the gondola, where we rode up with Gary Nate, who has been the principal cameraman in some of the Warren Miller movies. We accidentally ended up at the top of some black diamond runs, which were pretty steep and had ten inches of new snow over moguls. We made it down, and eventually found some blue runs more to our liking. The terrain was as steep as some sections of A-Basin, and very open. Most ski areas have heavy forest on both sides of the runs, but Snowbasin only has sparse tree coverage, so the place feels more like an above-tree line area. Really fun.
The resort doesn't have much easy terrain--it is definitely suited for advanced intermediate like Dad and me. The ten inches of new snow made the trails soft enough to recover from sloppy turns, and kept us on our toes. Snowbasin is pretty big, and there were only a couple of trails where we saw many other people. It was a great place to spend time.
The resort reminded me of Oregon resorts--not much at the base, just a couple buildings. The buildings are really swank, though--new, with beautiful wood paneling, rugs,
marble bathrooms. The lodge at the top of the gondola felt like a luxury hotel lobby. It was amazing...not sure how they pay for it since lift tickets are the cheapest of the four resorts we’re going to ski in Utah.
Tomorrow we are going to ski at Deer Valley, the home of huge amounts of corduroy and one of the few places left where snow boarders are not welcome.
Here is one more picture from the crappy camera on my phone:
