February 22-23, 2008 Brighton,UT

After receiving the Wasatch Powder Alert while in Anthony Lakes, OR, we drove 540 miles to Brighton, UT. We pulled into our usual parking spot at 8735’ which is a short walk/shuttle for old people to the lifts. The sky was clear but the forecast was for a winter storm. We woke to 6” new of Utah’s finest. We have a Snoqualmie Unlimited Plus pass and went to Guest Relations on the 3rd floor of the lodge and received our free lift tickets. They create a sheet for each individual and you are entitled to 10 free lift tickets.

Brighton now has high speed quads servicing all their terrain. Besides the ski area terrain, there are a couple of backcountry gates which provide access to terrain that can dampen your diapers. Friday, Feb 22 was a storm day with 6” overnight plus another 6” during the day. The area was deserted and Jill and I kept skiing untracked lines until our legs gave out.

Saturday, Feb 23 was partly sunny with a couple inches of new that fell overnight. We were on chair 2 on the Great Western lift and enjoyed 6 runs before the weekend crowd arrived. We hooked up with a young local who seemed amused by a couple of old folks who seemed to know how to turn. He has a cabin nearby and he showed us a couple of his stashes. By 12:30 the lift lines were increasing and the inbound terrain was exhausted. We had gotten our “powder fix” and found some new terrain that we’ll explore with our backcountry gear on our return trip in March. We just heard about a winter storm heading for the San Juan Mountains in CO, so its time to leave and chase the next storm.

Our 5 member crew was there Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday milking our xtal passes as well! It was fun. Got a few powder turns in on Thursday. Sorry we missed you!

Does anyone know if there's some weather anomaly at Brighton? Tuesday was bluebird and warm but Wednesday and Thursday it was snowing (pretty heavily Thursday) all day but by the time we got to Solitude there was barely evidence of a trace of new. It appeared Brighton was the only place experiencing snowfall in the Wasatch front those two days. Made me very curious as to whether this was something that happened there with any regularity?

...so its time to leave and chase the next storm. 

I like your style Zap & Jill.

Does anyone know if there's some weather anomaly at Brighton? Tuesday was bluebird and warm but Wednesday and Thursday it was snowing (pretty heavily Thursday) all day but by the time we got to Solitude there was barely evidence of a trace of new. It appeared Brighton was the only place experiencing snowfall in the Wasatch front those two days. Made me very curious as to whether this was something that happened there with any regularity?

Not sure about Brighton per say, but I have wondered the same thing about the Wasatch in general. I was there last month between storm cycles, and was a little disappointed when I saw high pressure on the forecast. Yet we managed to ski powder every day by hitting the only resort in the region that got snow (different resort each day), and though it was far from bottomless, 4 inches or so is better than nada. It was sunny and cold (minus 2 to plus 10) the whole time we were there and I never saw a snowflake fall from the sky. The untracked was well preserved though, look at this pic of Dave P. finding a nice line.