EOY Trip Report

First, thanks for the suggestions from folks for my kids (all
boarders)spring break trip to UT two weeks ago. What a difference a year
makes. Last year at the same time most all of the PC resorts had closed due
to lack of snow and even the BC and LC resorts were only partially open.

We arrived on 4/8 with snow falling in the mountains. Started off with first
Chair at Brighton (18" that night and parking lot almost empty) off Snake
Creek Express and headed down a groomer we like, Lone Star, to find that it
was ungroomed and almost untouched - Whoohooo! . Tracked a few more runs on
it and then headed down to Great Western and just kept dropping off the
ridge into anything with trees that was still not too tracked out.
Incredible conditions and lack of crowds let us stay on that and work down
the ridge until a late lunch. Finished the day with a few runs off the Milly
quad. My kds (13 and 11) were feeling it by then and we decided to not try
and overdo too much for the first day.

Second day we headed over to Powder Mountain. They had about 8-10" of fresh.
Most all of the right side of the Sunrise lift area was untouched. Ran off
about 5 runs, but my boys were slobbering over seeing the people doing
Webber Bowl from the Lightning Ridge Cat. Decided it was our last rip of the
year so I bought two runs a piece ($10 a pop) for the Cat - cheap price for
getting the Father of the Year award. Boys loved it - dropped both runs down
Webber Bowl. Great experience for the boys. Spend the rest of the day
lapping off of Timberline and Paradise through the trees. Amazed at what you
could still find in the trees towards the end of the day.

Last day - off to Snowbird . No fresh snow and pretty tracked up but I
hadn't been since they installed the tunnel off of Peruvian chair. Pretty
cool. Warmed up with Chips Run (slightly icy) then dropped across to pick up
Gadzoom and spent time off Gad 2. Baby Thunder was closed but we didn't head
over as far to that side as we could but Tiger Tail area was fun. Played
around that area until lunch at Mid Gad. Spent the afternoon in Mineral
Basin. Again - tracked but still not too bumped out. Would love to try it on
a powder daywith them. Finished the day down Primrose Path as that side had
warmed significantly.

Overall as good as almost any midwinter trip I could hope for with fresh
snow. Amazing for this late in the year and much better than last year.

Back to the midwest - waxed and stored the boards til next year.

Clay tennis courts have all opened up back home - time to pick up my sticks
and head to the courts.

Have a great summer