For five days it hadn’t stopped snowing. On day six we finally saw the sun, and it was a welcomed sight. But now, on the morning of the seventh and final day of our trip — and some 36 hours since the last gift from above — we were lamenting the fact that there might not be any more powder skiing on this epic tour of Utah.
Damn that blue sky.
“Maybe,” I asked Eagle Point regular Tracy McMullin, “if we promise not to tell anyone else, could you take us to your secret stashes?”
Tracy just laughed.
“You don’t need that,” she said. “You can go to the main runs today and still find plenty of powder.”
If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Utah’s smaller resorts, it’s that what they lack in acres they more than make up for in acres per person. And as we head out with Tracy and operations manager Lane Tucker, it’s clear that Eagle Point’s 650 acres shine in this regard. Aside from a few folks congregated around the bottom of the Lookout quad chair, I can’t remember seeing anyone other than the motley gang of skiers and boarders in our party — and it was like that all morning long.
But still. On the main runs?
To prove it, Tracy and Lane take us to Donner’s Descent. And yeah, there’s still powder here, but it’s chopped up pretty good. I’m about to call bull.
But as we cross over Country Road into Lower Donner, everything changes, and we are — as promised — carving uncrossed lines down long stretches of a wide open main run, two days after the last snow.
It’s a little surreal. And it feels almost like a sin. The only penance, we learn, is a short hike out on a well-groomed cat track.
I’d do that all day for runs like that. All day long. And, as it turns out, I actually could.
Final stop: Brian Head
Matthew D. LaPlante skied or snowboarded at all of Utah’s 14 ski resorts—in seven days—with fellow powderhounds Jared “JJ” Jones and Erik “Swede” Price. Follow their trip on Twitter: @SkiAllOfUtah.
