February Picture Challenge

The Picture Challenge is back! Send us an e-mail and tell us where this is, and any other pertinent info. Remember, a more detailed answer always trumps a non-specific answer (i.e. "its at the pond!") so give us some details. Best answer gets a $25 Mud Creek gift card. Woo-hoo! Winner will be announced in the March newsletter, so sign up for the newsletter if you haven't already.

I Got to Ski Snowbasin on my Birthday

(neener-neener!)

This week we managed to get out of the store and out of town for a few days. We headed down to Salt Lake City to attend the Outdoor Retailer trade show, which is held twice a year. We haven't gone to the winter show before, so we were looking forward to seeing new things. The day before the show starts they have a demo day, to try out the hard goods you will be seeing later in the show. In the summer you get to crawl in all the tents and paddle all the kayaks around. Since this is the winter show, it was skis, boots, sleds and snowshoes available for us to play with.

We drove down the day before and stayed in Ogden. Every time we go to SLC I am absolutely horrified by the amount of smog, and this trip was no exception. You have these beautiful, just incredible mountains running alongside the interstate, but they are barely visible through the haze. The entire 4 days were spent in a nasty grey mist. We were so relieved to arrive at Snowbasin the next morning for Demo Day and find blue skies. The rock-star parking right next to the vendor area was a nice surprise as well!

Snowbasin is a really nice hill. Lots of chairs/gondolas to ride, lodges to dine, and outdoor patios all over the mountain perfect for basking in the sun.

As attending retailers we had a free pass for the Jean Paul express, or could upgrade to the whole hill for $15. We opted to upgrade. Gordy went and got some SickBirds from the Rossi booth, and then we took the needles gondola to mid mountain. Gondola's are nice when the weather is bad, but rather toasty on sunny days. Plus, you feel obliged to make polite conversation with the strangers you are jammed knee-to-knee next to and across from.

There was lots of people, lots of sunshine, but not much snow. It wasn't bad, but we may be just a teeny bit spoiled skiing at Brundage, where fresh corduroy and/or powder can always be found mid-week. I just checked Snowbasin's website and they have gotten 10 inches today.
It took me awhile to figure out what all those metal poles with no lights were. Ah, not for night-skiing, they are snow guns. Spaced evenly the whole way down the mountain.

After getting a feel for the snow & hill I tried out some Rossi backcountry skis. They would be lots of fun with a bit more snow. Gordy liked the Sickbirds. Although, they do read Bird Sick if you aren't paying attention while booting in.

It really was a beautiful day. The regulars we chatted with claimed Snowbasin was very crowd-free from mid-January on. Never a line to get on the gondola or chair, etc. etc.

Below is the view from the patio of the upper lodge. Everyone was watching the skiers coming down the chutes. If you click on the photo it should take you to a larger version. 20 feet or so down the middle chute you will see a skier, and at the top you will see three more waiting their turn.

Below is the view from the Mt Allen Tram. The smoggy haze doesn't look so bad from a distance.

Around 3:30 or so the sun suddenly disapears behind those tall slopes and you can hear the beer calling from the sunny patios.

It's Beautiful at Brundage

We haven't been doing anything lately except working and skiing. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying. So here for your enjoyment are some sunny day pictures from Brundage: Looking up 45th Parallel

The Lakeview Bra tree really needs some new donations!

Looking down from the Centenial Chair

And looking up