"Board Meeting" at Powder Mountain

What a glorious bluebird day at Powder Mountain! Members of the Ogden Valley Business Association http://ovba.org had their monthly meeting there today.


After some serious business items, the group hit the slopes. Barb (Wolf Creek Utah), Rich (Ogden Weber CVB), and Terry (Wolf Mountain) look great off piste.

National Geographic Studies Avalanches

Our niece, Anna, skied with us today - the little girl we taught how to ski years ago - now married and moving to Japan in July with her husband, a Marine Pilot. She said more than once today, I wish I still lived here!

National Geographic has been spending the last several days at Snowbasin studying avalanche control. This resulted in Mt. Ogden Bowl staying closed during the last several snowfalls. Wouldn't you know it, we were having lunch at the John Paul Lodge when we noticed a few people traversing out to the untouched expanse... could it be true? The public was invited back in? Yee Ha!! Out we went for a little hiking and traversing to unexpectedly soft snow. It was so fun we did it twice!

Traversing to the good stuff!

Another Spring Surprise

Heading up to Snowbasin today, we knew there was another couple of inches of new snow, but figured that everything was pretty much "skied out" yesterday. Much to our surprise we found plenty of untracked from the last three days. Howdy enjoys Mooshine at left.

Above is a picture from the Porky lift to prove that I rode an "outdoor" lift (I am quite attached to those gondolas). Powderhound Bowl looked too good to pass up! Howdy caught a good shot of yours truly below.






After skiing 9 runs of respectable powder, we met up with the gang for a birthday party in the parking lot. Looks like everyone has acclimated from the Mexico trip to enjoy a several more weeks of ski season!

Spring Skiing at its Finest

After a spring tip to Mexico for some kayaking and whale watching with 11 of our closest friends, we came home to no moose in the yard and no expectations of new snow in the mountains. How wrong we were! Yesterday provided plenty of the soft stuff in the Sisters and Moonshine at Snowbasin - skied untracked run until 11:30. It snowed some more last night, providing a treat for our friends, Mike, Barb and Rich, on the Middle Bowl Cirque today. With such a great base, no matter what March brings, the skiing and riding will be AWESOME for the rest of the season!

No Name was calling us

We enjoyed every inch of this 18-inch storm that started Sunday morning. Howdy and I had hosted out-of-town visitors, our old friends Rob (Vashon, WA) and Craig (Bozeman, MT), as well as Curt (Ski Patrol at Brighton). The boys go back to the 70’s – here they are enjoying some après ski the night before.

Skiing primarily the “old Snowbasin” on Sunday, it just kept getting deeper and deeper, right up to 4 PM. What a great time for all! With great anticipation of more slopes opening after avalanche control the next morning, our expectations were met as we ventured to Moonshine and beyond on Monday.

This gorgeous view greeted us on our way to the Mountain on today. We hoped for the chance to ski No Name, which had not opened since the storm began. Loading the John Paul Quad for the very first run of the day, it seemed like wishful thinking. Even during the Tram ride, rumor had it that the gate had not quite opened. So we headed in that direction just in case, and low and behold, it WAS open. Up we hiked to a winter wonderland of untracked fluffy stuff all the way to the lower parking lot. Absolutely wonderful – timing is everything! Here is a clip of Howdy and Rob:

The Moose is Loose!

When my friend Joanne in Salt Lake City heard that we have had two to four moose living in our yard for the past month, she asked me to post a picture. We live on the Valley floor, between Huntsville and Eden, across the highway from Pineview Reservoir. The heavy snowfalls this year (did I mention that the skiing has been great?) have forced deer and moose into the valleys. They spend their time happily trimming our trees and bushes, sleeping under trees and on the sunny deck, and leaving neat little pelletized fertilizer all over the yard, deck, driveway and sidewalk.

The second picture is Mavis walking up to our front door with twigs in her mouth - she comes around often, perhaps to compliment us on the cuisine, looking in our dining room window. It has been interesting to say the least! We hope they make it through the winter!

Last Minute Decision...Showing them Around

I had to catch up on some work today, but that didn't stop my husband, Howdy, from joining some out of town visitors based in Salt Lake City who made a last minute decision to come to Snowbasin today.

Guest post and photos from Howdy:

"Well, I wasn’t going skiing today – but got a call from Pam, a California friend with her Santa Rosa Ski Club – and shot up to Snowbasin at the last minute. That was a really good decision. There were 6+ inches of fresh stuff at the start and it snowed most of the day. The wind filled in the tracks from earlier days and amazingly did not densify the snow very much. Ten runs on Needles Express and fresh, deep powder on each circuit. The Californians were all smiles, all day. The photos show some of the stashes that we found. Hats off to Harry and Dave (Sugar Bowl volunteer patrol) who skied to the end and treated me to a couple of drinks in the No Name Lounge to finish a great day!"