Skiing In June

Typically, every ski season I'm done by April; then my focus turns into hiking and backpacking and getting down to southern Utah. That was the same situation this year, by early/mid April all my ski gear was stowed away in the reckless fashion it usually is. Even though I'm done by April, skiing in Utah goes on much longer; thanks to the greatest snow on earth. Snowbird usually stays open as long as they can, which is typically into June (sometimes even July); but both years I've been here they closed in May (one year due to low snow year, the other due to a very HOT Spring).

This year is ideal for late skiing. We've had a bitchin snow pack (Alta got over 700" this season) and it's been an atypically cool Spring. Thursday at work Clint and Betsy were talking about going up to Snowbird since they received 8" of new snow the previous day. Even though I said I was done with skiing for the year, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to say I've been skiing in June! Fuck, I've never even been skiing in May.

This morning I checked online and saw that Snowbird was only one of two ski resorts in the U.S. still open, the other being A-basin in Colorado (although Snowbird's 104" base depth looked quite impressive compared to A-basin's 33" base). Pulling up to Snowbird I was amazed by all the snow still there in June.

It was a great morning but felt very surreal to be skiing in June! We took the tram up to 11,000 ft Hidden Peak and had our choice of either skiing in Little Cloud Bowl or Mineral Basin Bowl (the only two lifts operating... but my favorite two lifts in the resort). The snow was very different than the waist deep Utah powder I'm used to skiing, but it was soft and really fun to ski in; although south facing Mineral Bowl became a bit sticky as the day wore on.

At the end of the day we had the option of riding the tram back down to 7,000 ft (which is what Snowbird recommends), or skiing to the base ourselves (considered "backcountry" conditions by the resort). We skied down the Gad Valley and it was so surreal as we were the only people in that section of the mountain. In some sections it looked as if they drove a truck through the snow, but there was definitely still plenty of snow for us to get down to the car.

Shit... It looks like this year I'll be able to say that I've been skiing in July, if this keeps up!