Skiing in Utah
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Hi Terje-
As a Utah resident (and frequent Alta skiier), I feel moved to "defend my honor" regarding skiing at both Alta and Solitude.
Your information about XC at Alta is a little dated: they now set about 15 km of track through the meadows at the bottom of Rustler and into Albion Basin. In addition, you can skate up the Albion Basin road. True, it's not 10's to 100's of kms of skiing (you have to go to Norway for that!), but it's a beautiful 20-30 k of skiing. For a local, one of the attributes of Alta is that, at 8,500 - 9,000 feet, they get and keep snow earlier than anywhere else in Utah. For racers living in the Salt Lake valley at about 4,300 ft, Alta (and Solitude, also) is a great way to "sleep low and train high."
From your description of Solitude, I'm wondering if you were there in the early season. They tend to groom only a small portion of their trails in the early season because many of their others have big rocks-- it takes a little bit more snow before they can get the groomer in there. The best thing about Solitude is that you really feel like you're in the mountains, with big pine trees and peaks surrounding you, instead of the condos and highways surrounding most of the other ski locales in Northern Utah (Mountain Dell and White Pine, both on golf courses). While the length and design of Soldier Hollow's trails far outpace anything else in Utah, I think that Solitude has 'em all beat for pure aesthetics. And after skiing their 30k of terrain that lies between 8,000 - 8,500 ft and varies from "hilly" to "really hilly", that's usually enough for me!
Other "beautiful" xc areas in Utah:
Sundance-- really nice trail layout, mostly in the scrub oak zone below Mt. Timpanogos. Because of their lower elevation and strong southwest to southeast aspect, the snow doesn't stick around much, so it can be pretty sketchy in marginal snow years.
Bryce Canyon (Ruby's Inn) -- trail quality not that great because the groomers aren't really skiiers, and the snow is pretty transient, but when there's snow down there, skiing along the rim of Bryce Canyon, looking at the pastel pinks and yellows of the rocks highlighted by white snow and green pine trees-- world class eye-candy
Brian Head - Cedar Breaks-- This is a new area that I haven't tried out yet on skis, but am familiar with from mountain biking. The area has geology similar to Bryce, with altitude higher than Solitude. You're basically already on top of the mountain, so the terrain is rolling and more forgiving-- assuming that your lungs can milk enough oxygen out of the air at 9,500 - 10,000 ft above sea level. I'm not sure how many k's they groom, but there are miles of roads up there that are groomed for snowmobiles (so it's a skating kind of place). There's almost always snow, especially in a year when the storms track south, and when your legs and lungs need a day off, Zion National Park is 2 hours away and 5,000 feet downhill.
For miles and miles (k's and k's) of skating, we Utahns head for the snowmobile roads (I hope by saying that word I'm not invoking the evil spirit of "Mel", who plagued this NG a few years back!). These roads are groomed by the State Parks department on a regular schedule, and there's a phone hot-line you can call to find out what has been manicured most recently. These roads generally are found on any of the high plateau areas go through some beautiful places throughout the state. Some of my favorites a the Daniels' Pass and Strawberry Basin area (east of Soldier Hollow),
So there!
;-D
Chris Cline
SLC, UT
Ken Roberts wrote:
Funny, I read a book by a guy on the US National cross country ski racing
team who lived in Salt Lake City, and remember it saying that one of his
favorite places to ski during training season was Alta.
Terje Mathisen wrote
. . . neither Alta nor Snowbird have any xc skiing worth mentioning!
I seem to remember that XC ski racer book mentioned the Baldy Chute at Alta.
I took my XC skis to Alta, and it has some nice steep trails, but I could
never figure out what lift went to that one. Has anybody tried it?
The powder in Utah otoh is very nice, even though
it does require lifts to get any serious amount of skiing. :-(
Yes, it's better if the Norwegians skiing in Utah use the required lifts.
Ken
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DIVHi Terje-/DIV
DIVAs a Utah resident (and frequent Alta skiier), I feel moved to "defend my honor" regarding skiing at both Alta and Solitude./DIV
DIV /DIV
DIVYour information about XC at Alta is a little dated: they now set about 15 km of track through the meadows at the bottom of Rustler and into Albion Basin. In addition, you can skate up the Albion Basin road. True, it's not 10's to 100's of kms of skiing (you have to go to Norway for that!), but it's a beautiful 20-30 k of skiing. For a local, one of the attributes of Alta is that, at 8,500 - 9,000 feet, they get and keep snow earlier than anywhere else in Utah. For racers living in the Salt Lake valley at about 4,300 ft, Alta (and Solitude, also) is a great way to "sleep low and train high." /DIV
DIV /DIV
DIVFrom your description of Solitude, I'm wondering if you were there in the early season. They tend to groom only a small portion of their trails in the early season because many of their others have big rocks-- it takes a little bit more snow before they can get the groomer in there. The best thing about Solitude is that you really feel like you're in the mountains, with big pine trees and peaks surrounding you, instead of the condos and highways surrounding most of the other ski locales in Northern Utah (Mountain Dell and White Pine, both on golf courses). While the length and design of Soldier Hollow's trails far outpace anything else in Utah, I think that Solitude has 'em all beat for pure aesthetics. And after skiing their 30k of terrain that lies between 8,000 - 8,500 ft and varies from "hilly" to "really hilly", that's usually enough for me!/DIV
DIV /DIV
DIVOther "beautiful" xc areas in Utah: /DIV
DIVSundance-- really nice trail layout, mostly in the scrub oak zone below Mt. Timpanogos. Because of their lower elevation and strong southwest to southeast aspect, the snow doesn't stick around much, so it can be pretty sketchy in marginal snow years./DIV
DIV /DIV
DIVBryce Canyon (Ruby's Inn) -- trail quality not that great because the groomers aren't really skiiers, and the snow is pretty transient, but when there's snow down there, skiing along the rim of Bryce Canyon, looking at the pastel pinks and yellows of the rocks highlighted by white snow and green pine trees-- world class eye-candy/DIV
DIV /DIV
DIVBrian Head - Cedar Breaks-- This is a new area that I haven't tried out yet on skis, but am familiar with from mountain biking. The area has geology similar to Bryce, with altitude higher than Solitude. You're basically already on top of the mountain, so the terrain is rolling and more forgiving-- assuming that your lungs can milk enough oxygen out of the air at 9,500 - 10,000 ft above sea level. I'm not sure how many k's they groom, but there are miles of roads up there that are groomed for snowmobiles (so it's a skating kind of place). There's almost always snow, especially in a year when the storms track south, and when your legs and lungs need a day off, Zion National Park is 2 hours away and 5,000 feet downhill./DIV
DIV /DIV
DIVFor miles and miles (k's and k's) of skating, we Utahns head for the snowmobile roads (I hope by saying that word I'm not invoking the evil spirit of "Mel", who plagued this NG a few years back!). These roads are groomed by the State Parks department on a regular schedule, and there's a phone hot-line you can call to find out what has been manicured most recently. These roads generally are found on any of the high plateau areas go through some beautiful places throughout the state. Some of my favorites a the Daniels' Pass and Strawberry Basin area (east of Soldier Hollow), /DIV
DIV /DIV
DIVSo there!/DIV
DIV;-D/DIV
DIV /DIV
DIVChris Cline/DIV
DIVSLC, UT/DIV
DIV /DIV
DIVBIKen Roberts >/I/B wrote:/DIV
BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid"Funny, I read a book by a guy on the US National cross country ski racingBRteam who lived in Salt Lake City, and remember it saying that one of hisBRfavorite places to ski during training season was Alta.BRBRTerje Mathisen wroteBR> . . . neither Alta nor Snowbird have any xc skiing worth mentioning!BRBRI seem to remember that XC ski racer book mentioned the Baldy Chute at Alta.BRI took my XC skis to Alta, and it has some nice steep trails, but I couldBRnever figure out what lift went to that one. Has anybody tried it?BRBR> The powder in Utah otoh is very nice, even thoughBR> it does require lifts to get any serious amount of skiing. :-(BRBRYes, it's better if the Norwegians skiing in Utah use the required lifts.BRBRKenBRBRBRBRBRBR/BLOCKQUOTEphr SIZE=1
Do you Yahoo!?br
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