What started out as a crazy day (buses blocking streets, winds closing lifts, etc) turned into one of my best days ever! When I heard the report that we received close to 18 inches of snow overnight I decided it was time that I ski the powder. All of the upper mountain lifts were closed for a couple hours this morning because of high winds and avalanche danger (the heavy snow had 3.5 inches of water) so I began by doing laps on PayDay lift. I took a couple runs on Waterfall, which is my favorite lower mountain run.

Around noon they opened Bonanza, Silverlode and Motherlode lifts so I headed up and tried Motherlode Meadows. I am ashamed to say that it was my first time in this new area and let me just say It was AWESOME! If you haven't skied this new area I highly recommend it. As I was riding Motherlode lift I heard that Thaynes lift was about to open so I cut through the trees over to Thaynes run and got fresh tracks. When I got to the top of Thaynes Lift they were just dropping the ropes into Blue Slip Bowl (my favorite upper mountain run). You can't beat getting fresh tracks at 2 pm! It's days like today that I can't believe what a great job I have!

I'm sure Mark (AKA 406) is going to blog about his crazy day on the mountain today. I think he's got some pretty amazing pictures. But I wanted you to know that in my books we have the best snow safety team in the industry. They do an incredible job of making sure we all have a memorable experience on the mountain. Utah's snow pack has been very unstable lately creating extremely high avalanche dangers. In fact, today our snow safety team triggered the following slides:

· Treasure Hollow – Slid near the Crescent Mine Dump
· Pinyon Ridge – Slid to the ground from Sunrise Ridge to Nordic Nob
· West Face – Slid to the ground with debris sliding all the way down to Shadow Lake
· 1st Bowl and 2nd Bowl – Slid to the ground

The Jupiter lift area, including the Peak and Pinecone Ridge, is going to be closed until Snow Safety conducts further control work. The WeatherBank forecast is calling for up to a foot of snow falling through tomorrow night with ridge top winds between 20-40 mph.

Enjoy the snow and always remember to ski/ride safe!

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