If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Galena Lodge/Sun Valley trip report
I Went to Sun Valley at the end of March 2004 (a great 50th birthday
present from my wonderful wife!) and had a great time. Here are some comments and observations: We flew in, which took 3 flights, ending up at the Hailey airport (about 15 miles South of Ketchum and Sun Valley). Car rentals at this rural airport seemed kind of expensive. I heard that a drive in from Boise might be 2 hours, and that should have eliminated one flight, so maybe next time (oh yeah, I'm going back!) we will do it that way. http://www.sunvalleycentral.com/ (lots of info!) Just landing in the plane and then driving up to Ketchum, you get breathtaking views of the mountains. Now maybe you guys out west are used to this, but in Rochester, NY all we have is hills of maybe 2000 ft (well... and a lot of other smaller hills, but that is just rolling landscape and not MOUNTAINS.) so I was impressed. I had originally planned on skiing at Sun Valley Nordic center, but as March rolled on, the whole area had unusually hot weather, so by March 23 they closed the Nordic center. The downhill ski mountain (Baldy) for Sun Valley is still going strong however (more altitude and a huge amount of snow making equipment make for a deep base) for downhill conditions: http://www.sunvalley.com/mountain/ba...ain_report.cfm Dollar Mountain is also still open (beginners). What can I say about Sun Valley: it is everything I expected in an old time, movie star haunted, classy, Alps of America resort! I read a book on the history of Sun Valley a couple of years ago, and thought the 30's and 40's and 50's sounded just great and like all the fancy millionaire stuff in the old movies. I was not disapointed. BTW: they are not shy about charging for things (not as bad as most hotels in NYC I think though), so plan on telling yourself " this is not something I will be doing often" and spend the dough. I opted to stay at the Original building, the Sun Valley Lodge. The room itself was ok, and a bit more luxurious that the holiday inn type, but remember that the place was built in 1937, so things like air conditioning are not in place (no big deal in the cooler times anyway). But the rest of the room was modern enough not to miss anything. The hallways are covered with photos of the famous movie stars,Olympians, etc that have lived and stayed there. I ate at a few of the Sun Valley restaurants and was pleased. ***Gretchens (named for Gretchen Fraser, a very early gold medal Olympian that trained at Sun Valley) has fairly fancy food at good prices, and is open a lot of hours. Next door at Sun Valley Village (a couple of minute walk) the Konditorie (sp?) has breakfast and lunch things, which are very good, inexpensive, and served up by cute girls with exotic accents and wearing swiss alp type dresses (drinidls? sp?) BTW the staff at Sun Valley is purposely very international. They all have name tags which also note their country of origin. This means you may not get good answers when asking about local things (like that XC ski lodge up the hill); but the concierge knew everything about everything. ***Books I read said do not miss the Sun Valley Sunday Brunch. I mostly agree. It is served on the 2nd floor main Sun Valley dining room, and was by far the most elegant meal we had. The choices were large, varied, tasty, but many of the items were not hot as they should have been. (this work with my definition of good pizza; "If you can enjoy it cold, it is then good pizza") This food was still very good warm. Some was hot. They had 2 French chefs standing there to make omelets and crepes to your order and carve lamb. I asked the Crepe chef which type of crepe was his specialty and which he liked best (they had various fillings (apple, peach, etc) and he said he liked plain. So I gave it a try (he also served this with a small scoop of ice cream!) and it was great. You could taste the vanilla sweetness of the crepe which would have been overpowered by the filling. ***Ate one evening at the Sun Valley Baldy Pizza and Pasta place (in Sun Valley Village, not on Baldy); It was only OK, not worth spending the calories with so many better places around. ***Ate one evening in Ketchum at a Pizza/Italian place; Ricos; very good What you want to hear more about Sun Valley.... well OK; after a hard day of Skiing, the Lodge has a heated outdoor pool (102 degrees F!), so snow on the ground is no problem with using the pool, and it feels great on the legs. Be sure to pick up the newspaper type weeklies they have around both Ketchum and Sun Valley (I saw two different ones). They have a lot of local events and news. I was very luck to be there when SolFest was going on (not because of the big air board guys (well... I would have watched them if I had time) but because Saturday night they had a 70's Warren Miller dress up/movie night. Being a big Warren Miller fan, I enjoyed a 1978 movie I had never seen, the give-a-ways, and the costumes. Galena Lodge got into the 70's spirit and had a loppet in which most people dressed up in 70's ski outfits. Ahhhhh...... Galena lodge.... you knew I would get to XC skiing eventually didn't you? http://www.xcskisv.com/galena.html http://www.choice1.com/galena_lodge.htm?CID=13584 http://www.svguide.com/w02/w02nvtrails.htm http://www.sunvalleycentral.com/ The lack of snow in Sun Valley worried me, but I rented a car (was planning to use the shuttle, but that got to the lodge at 11am and left to go back at 2pm, so I rented a car, since I wasn't skiing at SV) and was happy to see that just 10 miles out of SV, there was a foot of snow on the ground. At 27 miles at Galena Lodge, there was 3 feet of snow whenever I went off the trail and stuck my pole down, it went in 3 feet!(this being at the end of March, after a warm spell!) I got there at about 8am each morning, just when they were finishing grooming. I skied around for an hour or so, then went to the lodge to buy my trail pass ($9, good for all North Valley Trail system) (they open at 9am) and have some breakfast. I asked what the closest thing they had to breakfast food was, and the nice girls pointed out the granola. This was unlike the dry nasty stuff I have had in boxes, and had a lot of soft tasty fruit in it (in a bowl with milk, was good). Then went out for more skiing, then back for lunch to Galena Lodge. They are known for their good food. The grooming was impeccable, the trails wide and smooth. Each night brought at least a dusting of powder , but mostly 2-4" the days I was there. At 7:30am the trails are pretty hard, good for skaters I guess, but a little ice like for me and classic. The classic grooves were nice, but my 3 pin, telemark bindings were just a little too wide, and dragged on the top edge of the groove a bit. Later in the day when they softened, this was not noticeable. Some trails are not groomed every day. This was nice because I went up one of the expert trails (not usually for me!!) that was not groomed, which had 4" of powder on it, and found the descent very manageable (and fun!) I did hear someone mention that they will still continue grooming, though not as often, even after the lodge closes for the season. I need to mention that the views are spectacular from all trails. The trail pass is also good on any North Valley trail (which are located along rt 75 as you drive up to Galena). gr |
Ads |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Galena Lodge/Sun Valley trip report
gr wrote in message ...
I Went to Sun Valley at the end of March 2004 (a great 50th birthday present from my wonderful wife!) and had a great time. Here are some comments and observations: We flew in, which took 3 flights, ending up at the Hailey airport (about 15 miles South of Ketchum and Sun Valley). Car rentals at this rural airport seemed kind of expensive. I heard that a drive in from Boise might be 2 hours, and that should have eliminated one flight, so maybe next time (oh yeah, I'm going back!) we will do it that way. Great report! I've been to Galena and the SV area three or four times in the past 10 years or so, (asked my wife to marry me on one of the XC ski trails) and by far think that Galena Lodge has some of the best scenery, snow and terrain in the U.S. My wife and I made a return trip in December, and were also worried about the snow...actually very little in SV at the time. But only a few miles up the road the conditions were awesome. We spent one day skiing the Boulder Mountain course backwards. Not the preferred way, due to the elevation change, but very scenic nonetheless. And, I will have to say that the Psycho trail at Galena Lodge is aptly named! Mark Moore |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Galena Lodge/Sun Valley trip report
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Prelim report on Galena Lodge/Sun Vlalley | gr | Nordic Skiing | 2 | March 30th 04 11:43 PM |
Near fatal ski incident | Me | Nordic Skiing | 22 | February 27th 04 01:47 PM |
cee-2's big BIG week in Sun Valley | Chris Cline | Nordic Skiing | 1 | January 21st 04 12:29 PM |
trip report on Methow Valley WA | Mark Eastman | Nordic Skiing | 1 | January 13th 04 04:06 PM |
Trip Report - Mt. Baker / Mt. Bachelor | toddjb | Snowboarding | 10 | January 5th 04 11:34 PM |