Virgin Power Appreciation Society

Snowbird, UT, USA

Snowbird is an easily accessible place from Salt Lake City. It's a reasonable size and has some great runs. The back bowl (Mineral Basin) provides some short but sweet entertainment, and if you feel like a lengthy traverse there are the double blacks on the far side of the bowl.

Just like Brighton, I didn't get here when there was great snow. That said, I did get some good spring conditions in the back bowl, but the "express" lift kept breaking down and eating into riding time.

I did manage to get a small section of untracked, sun-crusted, melting spring snow over towards the Gad Valley area. However it didn't last long, and soon turned into a chore as I ran out of steam and had to shimmy back to Bassackwards in order to get a nicer route down in the frozen top sheet.

At the end of the day I checked out the park, and it seems to be mostly given over to those that like to jib rails. If that's your thing then you'll love it. It did however have a few nice table tops, and one in particular had a monster (for me) kicker. I reckon it to have been about 20-25ft. Great fun. Any locals know different, please let me know. I'd hate to be accused of gross exageration.

Like Brighton, Snowbird is one place that I will be returning to, in order to explore it more fully and check out it's full potential.