Thursday 27 December 2007

Ski Utah! The greatest snow on earth

Utahns wear their skiing creds on their number plates, and I believe the claim. Utah powder friggin rocks. Alta has been rated the best place in the country for powder and there are some awesome YouTube videos that will give you some idea. We spent two days at Alta and one at Brighton.

At Alta I skied Catherine's area off the supreme lift and Ballroom and West Rustler off Collins. Em skiied the grizzly tow :) At Brighton I mainly skied off Great Western. Alta involved a fair bit of traversing and even some hiking to get to some of the coolest blacks whereas access was easier at Brighton.

Alta has some of the best skiers in the world, and is one of a handful of ski resorts that actually ban snowboarders. This has led Burton to offer $5k for the best video of snowboaders poaching slopes at Alta and other banned resorts!

The snow was amazing, with a big dump on Christmas eve and super cold conditions that kept it good the whole time we were there. Maximums at the lifts were about 10°F (-12°C) on the 25th and 26th, and on the 27th at Brighton the temperature at the bottom of Great Western at 3:30 pm was 0°F (-17.7°C), bearing in mind I was catching the lift to the top of the mountain which was 1995 ft (608 m) higher! Chemical feet and hand warmers kept me cosy, and it was lucky we had brought our own because the ski shop sold their entire supply!

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