Trip Leader: Brice Crossley
Utah is known for its power skiing and our trip to Snowbird did not disappoint. On what I believe was Space Coast’s first group trip to Snowbird, we had a group of 20 enjoy a week of skiing fun in Little Cottonwood Canyon’s ski resorts of Snowbird and Alta. The two ski resorts are interconnected and many of us often spent part of a day in one and switching over to the other. The week started with 3 days of sunny spring skiing conditions making it easy to explore and get oriented with so much area to cover. Midweek brought an unusual transition day with rain, sleet, and thunder storms, so most of us took advantage of the bad weather by taking the day off to let our legs recover. Much to our delight that rain and sleet later turned into an overnight snow storm. Thursday started with almost a foot of powder to play in and that afternoon the storm returned dumping more snow giving us a fresh restart on Friday with another 9 inches with clear skies: a true blue bird ski day. And a second wave arrived Friday night so once again Saturday morning we were able to ski the same runs again with a fresh covering of another 9 inches. The last 3 days were a true powder hound’s delight making it hard to leave for home.
This trip was a bit different from others in that the group travel was in the evening both ways meaning no pre-dawn alarms set and actually getting things done at home on Saturday before our departure and skiing until noon before going back to the room to shower and pack for the return trip. Our Snowbird accommodations were in the beautiful Cliff Lodge with its easy ski-in and ski-out access, great ski lockers with heated boot racks, and large heated pool deck with 3 large hot tubs. Many also took advantage of the 9th floor spa. Due to our group’s late arrival Saturday, the resort held a nice welcome reception for us at the lodge’s Mexican restaurant El Chanate were most of us stayed for dinner. On Monday, the group fill 2 vans to head over to Alta’s Rustler’s Lodge for a wonderfully delicious dinner. Being seated at 2 large round tables made it easy for the group to get to know each other. During the week many enjoyed the gourmet breakfast buffet at the Cliff Lodge’s 10th floor Aerie restaurant or the Atrium café with its 8 story tall view of the mountain. Our group finished off our trip’s party funds with a fun Thirsty Thursday gathering again at El Chanate, no need to order dinner this time with all the delicious different appetizers. Again Space Coast provided a great trip making many fans of group travel.