Utah 2022-2023 Utah Ski Resorts/Conditions/Meetups

[blackke17]

looking dicey up there .

Regulator won't be open.

Road to provo from Birds instagram

 

[Rudi Riet]

You can see how the dust and smoke have contributed to the thaw. And the snow is losing water content from its base at a super quick rate at this point, making the underlying snowpack less stable.

Not shocked that Regulator is done as its exposure is more western, less sheltered from the sun save for early morning. And with the sun's arc in the sky being about as high as it'll get the whole trail roasts.

In other news: anybody see the updates on the opening of Mirror Lake Highway? Still plenty of snow up there - they're looking at a June 30 opening, a whole month later than last year. This Park Record story from Tuesday has some great drone shots of the big snow clearing machine doing its work.

 

[ss20]

You can see how the dust and smoke have contributed to the thaw. And the snow is losing water content from its base at a super quick rate at this point, making the underlying snowpack less stable.

Not shocked that Regulator is done as its exposure is more western, less sheltered from the sun save for early morning. And with the sun's arc in the sky being about as high as it'll get the whole trail roasts.

In other news: anybody see the updates on the opening of Mirror Lake Highway? Still plenty of snow up there - they're looking at a June 30 opening, a whole month later than last year. This Park Record story from Tuesday has some great drone shots of the big snow clearing machine doing its work.

WAIT! It snowed at the high elevations this am! That buys us another week, right?




Part of the fun of this experience has been being a naive kid again.

 

[4ster]

WAIT! It snowed at the high elevations this am! That buys us another week, right?




Part of the fun of this experience has been being a naive kid again.

Yup, what coulda, shoulda been the best spring ever, really wasn’t .

Can’t complain but I’ve seen better May & June skiing many years.

 

[blackke17]

There has also been a not-insubstantial amount of dust and smoke in the air that has settled on the snowpack. That stuff is like throwing a melting enhancer on things.

KSL news brought this up last night as well.

here's a shot little cloud area from their chopper

 

[ss20]

What do we do to get back to the tram in the afternoon? Walk up I'm assuming?

 

[Rudi Riet]

What do we do to get back to the tram in the afternoon? Walk up I'm assuming?

Yup - as has been the case for as long as I've skied Snowbird (now going on 40 years)...

 

[blackke17]

Bird skied much better than expected. Lined up for the tram at 830 saturday morning . got on the 2nd tram.
Road to Provo a bit sketchy but manageable. got 5 quick laps on LIttle Cloud.

the slopes did feel a bit crowded with limited terrain available.


line for Little Cloud wasnt bad at all early. glad we beat the crowds. the line for the tram was out of control by the time we downloaded.
Very nice morning at the Bird

 

[Jim Kenney]

Bird skied much better than expected. Lined up for the tram at 830 saturday morning . got on the 2nd tram.
Road to Provo a bit sketchy but manageable. got 5 quick laps on LIttle Cloud.
View attachment 206069
the slopes did feel a bit crowded with limited terrain available.
View attachment 206070
View attachment 206071
line for Little Cloud wasnt bad at all early. glad we beat the crowds. the line for the tram was out of control by the time we downloaded.
Very nice morning at the Bird

Vince was out there on Father's Day and skied one for the old man ;-)

 

[blackke17]

IKON'T believe Solitude called us a Threat. hahahaha

 

[Wasatchman]

IKON'T believe Solitude called us a Threat. hahahaha

View attachment 206596

Yeah. They understand how much local negative sentiment there is toward the iKon pass.

That said, things could be considerably different next season. Both Brighton and Solitude are going to require parking reservations on weekends. So that could really be a game changer as it did help Alta a lot.

Meanwhile the Bird is going to be the only Cottonwoods resort not requiring weekend parking reservations. Plus the freeloader deal they are offering and the setup is the Bird could get real ugly on weekends. And it could potentially drive more Ikon tourist demand at the Bird I would think as well ..... Of course this dynamo at the Bird could also negatively impacts Alta as well since it is up from the Bird.

 

[blackke17]

Yeah. They understand how much local negative sentiment there is toward the iKon pass.

That said, things could be considerably different next season. Both Brighton and Solitude are going to require parking reservations on weekends. So that could really be a game changer as it did help Alta a lot.

Meanwhile the Bird is going to be the only Cottonwoods resort not requiring weekend parking reservations. Plus the freeloader deal they are offering and the setup is the Bird could get real ugly on weekends. And it could potentially drive more Ikon tourist demand at the Bird I would think as well ..... Of course this dynamo at the Bird could also negatively impacts Alta as well since it is up from the Bird.

Birds lack of a parking policy already jammed up LCC last year . the whole world trying to get into the canyon around 7 to get very limited free spots. Driving past snowbird (EVENTUALLY) and you see the Lot FULL signs everywhere. get up to Alta and half the lots still empty. The thought of things getting even worse really makes me sick.

Imagine a parking reservation system that allows you to sleep in , miss the morning traffic madness, arrive at one the best resorts in the world at 11am and still get a decent parking spot. Good luck trying to ski the Bird on that schedule. Learn from your neighbors dumb dumbs

Hot topic for us Altoids! really irks me , lol

 

[Wasatchman]

Birds lack of a parking policy already jammed up LCC last year . the whole world trying to get into the canyon around 7 to get very limited free spots. Driving past snowbird (EVENTUALLY) and you see the Lot FULL signs everywhere. get up to Alta and half the lots still empty. The thought of things getting even worse really makes me sick.

Imagine a parking reservation system that allows you to sleep in , miss the morning traffic madness, arrive at one the best resorts in the world at 11am and still get a decent parking spot. Good luck trying to ski the Bird on that schedule. Learn from your neighbors dumb dumbs

Hot topic for us Altoids! really irks me , lol

Yep. a lot of people are speculating that an apparent rift between Alta and Snowbird is over the parking policy. Unfortunately I think LCC is in real danger of becoming considerably worse than this past season because of Snowbird's unwillingness to shift to reservation system when everyone else has.

If it gets bad enough (and I think there is a high chance it could) then you would think Snowbird would eventually come around to adjusting. But it might take a season of huge pain to get there.

I can easily see how Snowbird could easily draw the bulk of the iKon tourist traffic (free parking, no reservations required and not on the premium iKon pass) plus social media constantly reminding us that if you want to be rad that is the place to go. I also think it's not a stretch that the Bird is going to take more share among the local market with the new freeloader program they are introducing.

 

[blackke17]

Freeloader program. love it!

Spend almost 3K on my passes and I can see myself buying day passes up North!

 

[ss20]

Yep. a lot of people are speculating that an apparent rift between Alta and Snowbird is over the parking policy. Unfortunately I think LCC is in real danger of becoming considerably worse than this past season because of Snowbird's unwillingness to shift to reservation system when everyone else has.

If it gets bad enough (and I think there is a high chance it could) then you would think Snowbird would eventually come around to adjusting. But it might take a season of huge pain to get there.

I can easily see how Snowbird could easily draw the bulk of the iKon tourist traffic (free parking, no reservations required and not on the premium iKon pass) plus social media constantly reminding us that if you want to be rad that is the place to go. I also think it's not a stretch that the Bird is going to take more share among the local market with the new freeloader program they are introducing.

I agree with pretty much everything here.

Yes, the "rift" between Snowbird and Alta is growing. Alta had been told that Snowbird would implement parking reservations this coming season. Obviously, for whatever reason, this did not happen (my assumption is that that would be very difficult to do with the number of lots, nooks/crannies to park in, and very blurred line between roadside parking and a resort parking space, and that a 3rd party to enforce parking came back with a ridiculous price quote... but this part is all my ASSumption not from my reliable sources). Alta is carrying most of the weight on improving canyon transportation. While at the same time, they get the most shit for raising prices trying to curb demand. Currently being explored is shortening seasonal ski school programs to try and get more people down/out of the canyon before 3pm. Meanwhile you have Snowbird GIVING freaking passes away to kids of families. That's just ridiculous, I'm sorry. As for the division between resort managements... there's quite a number of small issues that have come up between the neighbors. Most recent, I asked about a Snowbird add-on pass for my Alta emp pass this coming season... was told nothing is final but expect a very large price increase... and the potential for no discount at all. I just went with a Mountain Collective instead.

What I don't understand is why the resorts wouldn't want to better manage parking/canyon congestion. Why make the situation so bad that UDOT implements tolling and the resorts see no revenue... when you can manage it yourself, charge for parking, and make a shitload of money.

Last year was certainly an outlier with the snow. Also something to consider is the economy being on fire for anyone upper-middle class and above for the past 2 seasons. I want to see the economy cool and a normal snow year before we judge the effects of everything implemented the past few years. And there has been a LOT of changes.

 

[Wasatchman]

What I don't understand is why the resorts wouldn't want to better manage parking/canyon congestion. Why make the situation so bad that UDOT implements tolling and the resorts see no revenue... when you can manage it yourself, charge for parking, and make a shitload of money.

Last year was certainly an outlier with the snow. Also something to consider is the economy being on fire for anyone upper-middle class and above for the past 2 seasons. I want to see the economy cool and a normal snow year before we judge the effects of everything implemented the past few years. And there has been a LOT of changes.

Brighton and Solitude's plan is to try and manage it so that UDOT doesn't need to implement a toll up BCC. Unlike Alta and Snowbird, Solitude and Brighton have a good working relationship with each other. Whether their plans work well enough to eliminate the need for a toll is yet to be seen, but they will try as hard as they can in a coordinated fashion to try and prevent it. Plus UDOT is promising bus improvements as well.

This summer the canyons continue to get busier. So I do think irrespective of the economy and snow quality we should expect a continued upward trend in demand unfortunately. The only solution seems to be these kind of draconian changes such as required parking reservations and higher costs to marginally curb some of the demand growth.

 

[raisingarizona]

IKON'T believe Solitude called us a Threat. hahahaha

View attachment 206596

I can. Local support is no longer necessary. Local traffic is more of a "problem" now with the mega pass affect. I think we should all expect to pay much more $ to continue access to our local ski mountains that are popular on these passes or be phased out from them.

If climate science is right in another 10-20 years this affect will be 10 fold and skiing at these places will only be accessible for the most wealthy people.

 

[Tricia]

Here's a fun celebration to thank the snow gods.

 

[Wasatchman]

You can see how the dust and smoke have contributed to the thaw.

U of U study suggeste the snow pack melted 2 weeks earlier than it otherwise would have because of the dust. Low Great Salt level was a factor contributing to the dust.

 

[blackke17]

Brighton yesterday . 7-2-23 just about all the snows gone. Milly bowl still holding some