MattB,

Thanks for the suggestion.
No problem viewing the video. Great job.
JS

MattB wrote:

"John Smith" wrote in message
. com...

The replies to my "Advice for Father/Son Alta..." were great, but created
more questions!

The reason I chose Alta was because last winter I received an overwhelming
response to take my family to Alta for a great powder experience.

Maybe Alta is not the best place to go with high hopes of experiencing
powder skiing on a budget with a limited window of time.



Here's a suggestion. I live near a small ski area called Monarch
(www.skimonarch.com). It's on the continental divide and usually gets the
second highest snowfall int he state (Wolf Creek is typically #1). Monarch
is not fancy and there's not much to do there after the lifts close. They
only have old double chairlifts and the total elevation gain is about 1000'.

So what's the attraction you might ask?

They get a lot of very dry and light powder. They have a snowcat operation
that is inexpensive (compared to other snowcat operations) that would get
you and your boy into the fluff. The cat skiing is right near the ski area,
so you can even ski a half day inbounds and a half day out. Cat runs
actually sometimes finish back at the chairlift which takes you back up to
the waiting cat.

Like anywhere else, for the best experience you have to hit it right, but
when it's good, it's REALLY good. Here's a little video some friends and I
shot last year on a good day (we've had better days, but I don't take the
time to film on those days). This was only about an 8" day. On bigger days
I've skied 30"+ that fell overnight. The Cat skiing is usually lots of
really nice freshies even if the area is tracked out.

http://64.74.186.223/mattb/Video/monarch1_big.wmv

(note, this video is large - 38 Mb or so so you'll need broadband)

Matt