Observation: Salt Lake

This looked to be a 1-2 day window for skiing the foothills in northern Salt Lake County and southern Davis County. The KSL story must have attracted many people to the convenience of "out my backyard" skiing opportunities as a result of this last storm, which boasted inverted snow totals (more 24-hour snow totals in the upper Salt Lake Avenues than at Snowbird, a rarity indeed). We saw many skin tracks, dog tracks, snow shoe tracks, and descending ski tracks in the popular gulley east of Ensign Peak and along the summer hiking trail, not to mention the stunning views of the entire Salt Lake Valley at dawn on a cold winter morning and probably 15 deer making their way down slope for foraging. But for skiing powder, we were late to the party. That was evidenced by a couple of core shots to our ski bottoms. Lesson: get first tracks when snow dumps in the foothills to get the best snow before the sun thaws it, the cold temps immediately freeze it, and wind transports it to artificially load up sheltered areas. KSL advertising this foothill powder ski phenomenon surely attracted many skiers as well. As one skier put it: "I left Snowbird to go ski powder near downtown Salt Lake City."

Predictable wind-affected ridge tops. South aspect had light crust on top few inches due to yesterday's sun exposure since the big storm over the weekend. Sheltered hanging valleys and gulleys for the north aspect still held decent fluffy powder. The challenge was finding these sheltered areas that were open enough to ski in, as most of the north aspects behind Ensign Peak are full of scrub oak.