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Galena Lodge/Sun Valley trip report



 
 
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  #1  
Old March 31st 04, 03:21 AM
gr
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Default 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

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  #2  
Old March 31st 04, 10:28 PM
Mark Moore
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Default 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  
Old April 5th 04, 01:57 PM
Doug Taylor
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Default Galena Lodge/Sun Valley trip report

(Mark Moore) wrote:

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.


Just returned from a long weekend. Yes, there was still plenty of
snow at the Galena summit, but of the soft and soggy variety as temps
in the area are definitely turning spring like. Thursday was in the
40's; by Saturday more like 50's and 60's. The bikes - both road and
off-road - were out in droves enjoying the sunshine. The dry air
soaks up the moisture off the trails quickly, so the bikes follow
where skiers had tread only days previously.

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!


Speaking of backwards, I made the classic rookie (and male) error of
heading out onto the trails first day without studying the map in
great detail. After skating the Western Home and Horse Creek Loops,
second time around I took a left on what looked like a nice climb. No
trail sign saying "Psycho" and no sign evident saying "wrong way."
Whoops. Well , I stalled out completely on this wacky grade with about
10 or so m. to go to the summit. It might be doable if you are used
to the altitude and on hard snow with good wax. Not just in from the
flatlands in soft spring snow. After huffing and puffing and catching
my breath, I thought, no real shame in herring bone up and over.
Except it was too steep even for that. Had to side step the last
meters and was very glad there was no one coming down to say "what is
it you THINK you are doing?" I really didn't know I was going the
wrong way until I completed the loop and saw the sign at the real
trail head. Tell you what though, I wasn't about to reverse, do the
climb on the proper side and then descend that monstrosity. Maybe
next year.
--dt
 




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