Happy Saint Powders day from Snowbird, Utah

Saint Patrick’s day is often noted as days to kick back relax and enjoy local festivities. For the people of Alta and Snowbird, Utah Saint Patrick’s day means skiing especially when a big storm comes into the canyon.

A storm moves into the Canyon the night before Saint

Patrick's Day, bringing nine inches of fresh snow

Saint Patrick’s Day at Snowbird proved to be a great one. A storm moved into Little Cotton Canyon the night before and put some fresh snow on the ground, nine inches to be exact. The storm called for nine to twelve inches so I could not complain with nine as a happy medium. I had trouble sleeping that night because I knew the skiing was going to be the best out of our time out there.

I awoke at six am ready to find the fresh powder, then had to wait in the tram line to find it

My Dad and I were out the door by 7:15 am ready to catch the first tram up the mountain. After a grueling forty five-minute wait the tram opened to the public at 8:00am. We missed the first tram twenty people but were headed up to the top of Snowbird by 8:30am. 11,000 vertical feet is a great place to find fresh tracks, espeecially at 8:45 am.

Our first run of the day came at The Cirque which had been the best run of the week. With nine inches of snow it was even better. I love The Cirque because of its steep vertical descent and wind blown powder. After a great warmup run we headed over to Gad 2 where we found the best snow of the day.

The trees of Gad 2 are some of my favorite on the mountain

There is something magical about the Gad 2 lift on a powder day. It is one of the oldest and slowest lifts in Snowbird but the skiing is always great there. On a really good powder day usually the game-plan is to head there first.

The video above is me skiing gad 2 early that

morning; conditions were ideal.

We spent a good few hours over at Alta but it ended up that the best snow of the day was at Snowbird. That is one of the great things about these mountains, one side of the mountain might have a few more inches of snow and significantly better skiing.

We headed in after a great day of skiing.

The facts don’t lie.

Duration on the mountain: 7 hours 32 minutes and 22 seconds

Distance Skied 19.5 miles

Statistics from iphone GPS Application ‘Ski Tracks’