Destination: Snowbird + A Basin

csteezy

csteezy

Member
so my mountain is closed thanks to bears waking up from hibernation and work is pretty slow so I have some time for a rather spontaneous ski trip. This would all be taking place in early may so take that into consideration. My tentative plan is to cruise down to snowbird and hit it on one of the weekend open days. maybe i'll get lucky and catch a may pow day but I don't mind spring skiing at all. After snowbird I'll head out to colorado and stay with a buddy in golden to shred a basin. I have a few questions:

1. Can I just sleep in my car in the snowbird parking lots/nearby or should I find a cheap hotel room/air bnb?

2. What are the skiing conditions like in both Snowbird and A basin around this time of year?

3. any suggestions for where I should spend most of my time on the respective mtns?

4. bars to hit? things to see? This'll be my first time skiing in both areas.

appreciate any responses stay up
 
I can help a bit for the bird. not sure about car camping in the parking lot, definitely not if theres new snow, probably not any other time but as I said, not sure. we just got 16 inches last night and more coming tonight, so the skiings going to be pretty good for a while. unfortunately, the tram and the whole peruvian side of the mountain are closed because they are replacing the tram cable, which limits terrain. mineral basin is still open which is the most fun for spring skiing, if you get some real sunny days would reccomend spending a lot of time there. you can find lines with at least 5-7 solid jumps+ cliffs per lap. also, you gotta time it. if you get there first thing it will be ice, late afternoon and it'll be total slush. if you have a touring setup I would recommend main chute at Alta and/or a tour up grizzly gulch for the view, depending on your timeframe.

hope that helps a bit!
 
May skiing at the Basin is some of my favorite skiing, very sunny, soft, and fast. People typically recommend skiing the Pali (Pallavicini) Lift but I often find there are more fun hits on Lenawee if you know where to look. Snowpack will be great for all of may so you don't have to worry about skiing conditions. You won't be able to sleep in your car in the lot but I see parked cars and campers along Loveland Pass between A Basin and Keystone (5mi stretch of highway) where people sleep all the time.
 
A-Basin will have the majority of their terrain open through May. I think the first area to close is typically Palli which has steeper trees and moguls. After that would probably be the East Wall and Montezuma Bowl. Again, I think they won't shut down any of these areas until late May at the earliest.

There should be a few rails up all the way through closing day. Some good spots are the East Wall, the gulley just outside the East Wall boundary, the cornice on the western wall, zuma cornice, and Palli if there is new snow. Following a day with decent sunshine and melting/overnight freezing, most of the mountain won't get soft until 11 or so.
 
Plenty of snow at A-Bay right now. What is your home mountain? Never heard of a mountain closing due to bears waking up from hibernation haha.
 
13681143:firecrotch said:
I can help a bit for the bird. not sure about car camping in the parking lot, definitely not if theres new snow, probably not any other time but as I said, not sure. we just got 16 inches last night and more coming tonight, so the skiings going to be pretty good for a while. unfortunately, the tram and the whole peruvian side of the mountain are closed because they are replacing the tram cable, which limits terrain. mineral basin is still open which is the most fun for spring skiing, if you get some real sunny days would reccomend spending a lot of time there. you can find lines with at least 5-7 solid jumps+ cliffs per lap. also, you gotta time it. if you get there first thing it will be ice, late afternoon and it'll be total slush. if you have a touring setup I would recommend main chute at Alta and/or a tour up grizzly gulch for the view, depending on your timeframe.

hope that helps a bit!
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really appreciate it! I'm honestly hoping to get lucky and catch it on a good day, but im totally cool with cruising around and just checking the area out. It'll be a good test drive, as I am thinking about spending a winter in the SLC area.

13681205:gavinrudy said:
May skiing at the Basin is some of my favorite skiing, very sunny, soft, and fast. People typically recommend skiing the Pali (Pallavicini) Lift but I often find there are more fun hits on Lenawee if you know where to look. Snowpack will be great for all of may so you don't have to worry about skiing conditions. You won't be able to sleep in your car in the lot but I see parked cars and campers along Loveland Pass between A Basin and Keystone (5mi stretch of highway) where people sleep all the time.
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Hell yes, im super stoked. Whats the morning commute like into A Basin? I can crash with a buddy in fort collins or golden and google says there is an hour difference. Think there'd be much traffic?

13681223:Z-Juice said:
A-Basin will have the majority of their terrain open through May. I think the first area to close is typically Palli which has steeper trees and moguls. After that would probably be the East Wall and Montezuma Bowl. Again, I think they won't shut down any of these areas until late May at the earliest.

There should be a few rails up all the way through closing day. Some good spots are the East Wall, the gulley just outside the East Wall boundary, the cornice on the western wall, zuma cornice, and Palli if there is new snow. Following a day with decent sunshine and melting/overnight freezing, most of the mountain won't get soft until 11 or so.
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I'll definitely be checking out east wall and the gulley! appreciate the info homie

13681255:FunkmasterFleck said:
Plenty of snow at A-Bay right now. What is your home mountain? Never heard of a mountain closing due to bears waking up from hibernation haha.
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Big mountain haha. Its cause of the lease with the forest service and as the snow melts and bears wake up we gotta leave em be.
 
13681410:csteezy said:
Hell yes, im super stoked. Whats the morning commute like into A Basin? I can crash with a buddy in fort collins or golden and google says there is an hour difference. Think there'd be much traffic?
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From Golden it's pretty casual, you could make it in about an hour. Fort Collins is pushing it if you're bouncing back and forth, like 2/2.5 hours I think. Definitely not any traffic at this time of year, nor will you run into bad weather. Might get a foot of powder one day, though, there seem to be plenty of freak snowstorms mid May.
 
13681480:gavinrudy said:
From Golden it's pretty casual, you could make it in about an hour. Fort Collins is pushing it if you're bouncing back and forth, like 2/2.5 hours I think. Definitely not any traffic at this time of year, nor will you run into bad weather. Might get a foot of powder one day, though, there seem to be plenty of freak snowstorms mid May.
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13681541:mooseman077 said:
Its dumping at the basin right now. We are supposed to get a foot or two between today and tomorrow!
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yep definitely throwin the pow skis in the car before I head out. just in case. Forecast for a basin looks PRIME
 
I'm sure you can find a really cheap hotel within 20 min of Snowbird. There's really nothing on the road up to it. Not worth sleeping in the car IMO.
 
if youre set on sleeping in the car you could park in/next to the parking structure next to the cliff lodge, poach their hot tubs, and then do shot and beers at the tram club until last call. that would make for a pretty fun night. but SLC is close enough it's probably worth checking out there too.
 
13681816:Outoftowner said:
I'm sure you can find a really cheap hotel within 20 min of Snowbird. There's really nothing on the road up to it. Not worth sleeping in the car IMO.
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Hotels are anywhere between 50-100 for what I'm seeing. If anything I think I will go with an Air BnB room for the night, I'm seeing some for like 30-40ish

13681843:gr4 said:
if youre set on sleeping in the car you could park in/next to the parking structure next to the cliff lodge, poach their hot tubs, and then do shot and beers at the tram club until last call. that would make for a pretty fun night. but SLC is close enough it's probably worth checking out there too.
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That sounds awfully tempting.. I am going to need to stay loose to avoid injury on this trip
 
A Basin is 100% open right now and everything is in great shape. Pali and the the lower east wall have some fun hits, also the chutes on the west side of Zuma bowl are a lot of fun when they soften up. Golden is a pretty easy commute but I definitely wouldn't recommend trying to come from Fort Collins.
 
A Basin is 100% open right now and everything is in great shape. Pali and the the lower east wall have some fun hits, also the chutes on the west side of Zuma bowl are a lot of fun when they soften up. Golden is a pretty easy commute but I definitely wouldn't recommend trying to come from Fort Collins.
 
13681994:adors said:
A Basin is 100% open right now and everything is in great shape. Pali and the the lower east wall have some fun hits, also the chutes on the west side of Zuma bowl are a lot of fun when they soften up. Golden is a pretty easy commute but I definitely wouldn't recommend trying to come from Fort Collins.

Also if you stay in Golden i would recommend doing the Coors Brewery tour.
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Yeah I guess if I stay in fort collins it'd probably just be for a night or two to hit old town/beau jo's/crazy karls.

My homie lives right neer the brewery in golden so that is definitely on the list! fuck I better start training my liver for the altitude
 
13681205:gavinrudy said:
May skiing at the Basin is some of my favorite skiing, very sunny, soft, and fast. People typically recommend skiing the Pali (Pallavicini) Lift but I often find there are more fun hits on Lenawee if you know where to look. Snowpack will be great for all of may so you don't have to worry about skiing conditions. You won't be able to sleep in your car in the lot but I see parked cars and campers along Loveland Pass between A Basin and Keystone (5mi stretch of highway) where people sleep all the time.
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cant ski yet still healing but could deff drink beer with you hahaha
 
made it to slc! saw a crazy crash near the montana border, a car going 80 overcorrected when they were gonna try to pass a car and flew off the road, nosedived into a ditch, then rolled to the foot of a river. it was kinda surreal, looked like they just yanked their wheel the wrong direction or some shit.. hope they are ok! (i pulled over, but by that time multiple people had swarmed the vehicle and i didn't want to add to the chaos)

anyways I had an air bnb lined up, and the host decides to text me (after accepting and everything prior to the trip) when im 500 miles into the drive, "im sorry, the room wont be available till next week." I said then take that shit down you fucking idiot. Luckily I found another one nearby for just a bit more and the dude responded like instantly. $39 for a night 20 mins from snowbird isn't bad!

Snow report has been hit or miss for tomorrow, yesterday it showed 5" and now it shows 1-2". We'll see! i'm stoked just to check out the lodges and the mtn

A basin on tues + onward!
 
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