Day 4 - Powder Mountain

Monday, February 4th, 2008 - Just when we thought that this week could not get any more intense, nature threw us another curve ball. We were planning on heading down to Salt Lake City early in the morning, and hitting Snowbird in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Checking the Utah DOT reports the morning before, we were aware of road closures for avalanche control at 6 a.m. With the volume of snow in the forecast, I knew from past experience that there was a possibility the Cottonwood Canyons would not open until 10 or 11 a.m. With a line of cars waiting to head up the canyon to Alta and Snowbird, it would not be worth the 1 and a half hour drive down south from Ogden.

So we made the command decision to head up to Powder Mountain, which was only an hour from Odgen. It was snowing lightly again when we left the hotel, but we did not notice much more accumulation from the night before. We drove up Ogden Canyon again, and turned left to go around the northwest side of Pineview Reservoir. We could see the mountains covered with clouds as we headed up, with blue skies over the valley and the view was incredible. It was obvious that it was going to be one of those days.

We had heard from some other skiers the day before at Snowbasin that Powder Mountain was closed the day before due to wind and avalanche danger. The latest report from Powder Mountain ski resort was that they had received 39 inches in the past 48 hours. Huh? Could that be right? Over 3 feet of untracked snow was waiting for us to drop in.

Powder Mountain is a little strange in that you drive up to the parking lot, which is located mid-mountain. So once you get your lift ticket, you strap on your skis or board and drop into the lifts. It took a while for the mountain open because of avalanche control inbounds. Around 10 a.m. they dropped the rope and over 100 people took off down the hill.

We got to the top of the lift, and dropped into the high-speed quad. The run down was ridiculously deep! It was a sign of things to come. After a few runs down the face under the quad, we went a little too far and ended up getting stuck in a flat area away from other peoples tracks. It took me over 30 minutes to hike out up to my chest in the deep fresh snow. Crap! My goggles were fogged up, totally overheated, and hating it.

It was time to find some steeper terrain. Luckily when we got back to the top of the lift, they had opened Powder Country! We went through the gate, and crossed the road on the other side into the fresh untracked powder. I had heard about this area of the mountain before, and it definitely lived up to its reputation! The trees going down to the road were steep and deep, with lots of vertical. We had to traverse a little down the road to get to the bus stop, where a line of people waited to get a ride back up the hill.

After switching lenses on the goggles, we dropped back into the main mountain to find the Paradise quad was open. It is a fixed quad, which limits the number of skiers accessing this area. Paradise is the steepest part of the mountain, and we were happy to find some extreme terrain. Once again, this area lived up to its name, and we were soon dropping in on steep open fields of waist deep powder!

We spent the rest of the day hitting the faces to the left and right of Paradise ridge. It seemed that everywhere we went it was untracked, and the only challenge was keeping your speed so that you didn’t sink in the deep snow and get stuck. With the steeper terrain, it was easier to keep riding, and only towards the bottom did it flatten out a little so you had to stay on another rider’s track. It ended up being an epic day, one of the most insane of the trip, and if it was any deeper we would have needed a powder specific snowboard to even enjoy it!

After riding Powder Mountain, we called our friends Ari and Chad who were in Park City. We decided to head that way to hook up with them, and Andrew’s friend Jeff who is the Lift Operations Manager at Park City. It is only an hour drive to Park City on I-84, and we found a nice hotel with a hot tub and indoor pool right off the interstate. Time to relax a little after our big day.