Powder for Days at Solitude

Dave, I have to apologize, I didn't realize you were commenting on the Solitude Blog, I thought you were commenting on my most recent blog, called Powder for Days and more on the Way. That being said everything you see in that video was actually shot in bounds at Solitude Resort, the day after a storm. It was a weekday if I remember correctly and the place was totally empty. We actually didn't even venture into Honeycomb until mid day. The morning was spent skiing Evergreen. The best piece of advice I can give to you while chasing fresh tracks is the follow the snow cams and and weather stations at the resorts during a storm and also checking the resort website during the day to see what zones were open during stormy weather. For instance, obviously Honeycomb can close on heavy snow and storm days, but other times it may stay open if it doesn't really dump there. So if it doesn't dump at Solitude and Honeycomb doesn't close then the likelihood of finding those untracked lines is next to none. That being said I"m sure another resort in the Wasatch did get dumped on and opening bell there may look more like what you saw in the video.

The perfect example of this would be today at Park City. While town was getting rained on just above the base the mountain was getting plastered with snow. Temps were very cold at upper elevations today. I skied jupiter lift all day long and no one was up there. The mountain was empty! Patrol closed the lift at 2 pm due to wind. Since then we've received another 4 or 5 inches with probably another 5 or so tonight on the way. I'd guess that Park City will report close to 14" inches tomorrow morning. Maybe more if it really hammers over night. Anyway, you get the idea. And now you know where to ski tomorrow morning. West Face, is where it's at tomorrow my friend! Cheers!

Hey Dave! Yeah, let's keep it real here... I've written well over 200 blogs during my six plus years here at Ski Utah, do you want to know how many times I've been given early access to terrain to write a blog? Try twice! Snowbasin last year and Snowbird 6 years ago. I didn't ask for early ups, Snowbasin asked me to come up early and shoot avalanche control work being done, so I did. I've also been given the privilege of skiing at Deer Valley before the resort opens because I was invited by a guest that pays a tremendous amount of money for the privilege of skiing before the public. Yes, I wrote a blog about that morning at Deer Valley, but no the resort didn't have a hand in that and the guest paid for me to attend that day.
Dave, on average I ski 115 days a year, so that translates to less than 1% of the time I'm given access to terrain before the public and those are marketing decisions the resorts make, as I don't ask for those privileges. If it looks like I'm always skiing untracked powder at the Resorts maybe I'm just really good at what I do. If you put in the same amount of time and effort studying the weather, checking snow cams, and touring in the backcountry as I do then maybe you'd find the same amount of untracked snow out there. Here is a little secret. It's out there, you've just got to go find it.
To comment on your last statement, "I distinctly remember the hoards waiting for honey comb to open last week after last weeks dump and it looked alot more crowded than your video. Lets keep it real." Let me break it down for you this way. I haven't skied Solitude since early February, nor did I mention Solitude in my latest blog. Not sure why you are implying my video was shot at Solitude. The footage you are referring to was shot in the Backcountry behind Park City Mountain Resort in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Good luck on your quest to find the goods! Like I said earlier, It's out there, you just have to find it!