SLC Area to Snowbasin Carpool Thread 12/13 Season

[hikeswithdogs]

Originally Posted by snowklinger

Our drives aren't that long unless you're going over Vail pass. Loveland, Abasin, WinterPark, Copper, Breck and Keystone are all 50-75minutes from the bottom of the mountains in Denver.

Maybe on a Tue-Thur afternoon or evening, I'd rather shoot myself then head west on I-70 during rush hour , snow storms or on weekends.........and then the drive home Sunday evening uggggg....love Colorado but it's not really an apples to apples comparison to SLC resorts. I can be at Snowbird in 20 minutes from where I work in the CottonWood Heights, enjoy a perfect 2 foot pow day and then be back in the Valley , long boarding\disc golfing or sitting on a deck soaking up sun 60F temps and drinkin beers....lots of stuff I don't like about Utah but convenience and weather is not one of them.

You not riding every day if you live in Denver and actually have a full time job


I actually really enjoy Powder Mountain and to slightly lesser extent Snowbasin but when you have 3 world class resorts(and nearly endless backcountry) with 20-35 minutes of work\home and a season pass it's a no brainer.

[killclimbz]

I've sat in Little Cottonwood canyon for over 45 minutes, probably an hour on a weekend because of traffic. Don't say it doesn't happen. It certainly does on weekends. Of course that same traffic jam on I70 translates to an extra hour or two.

Of course I wasn't doing an early bird start either...

[hikeswithdogs]

Originally Posted by killclimbz

I've sat in Little Cottonwood canyon for over 45 minutes, probably an hour on a weekend because of traffic. Don't say it doesn't happen. It certainly does on weekends. Of course that same traffic jam on I70 translates to an extra hour or two.

Of course I wasn't doing an early bird start either...

Absolutely it happens probably 1 day a week during normal snow years as that traffic stoppage is caused by DOT clearing snow from the roads........I personally won't even ride little cottonwood on weekends as I hate crowds more than anything.

Never sat in traffic in big cottonwood Canyon unless there was kind of traffic accident OR little CottonWood was gonna be closed all day due to crazy avalanches and the "cool kids" had no choice but to buy day passes and slum it with the rest of us dirtbags @ Solitude\Brighton.

I actually prefer Colorado terrain\culture\people\beer stuff like that but I like the snowpack and convenience of SLC better.....if you have to live next to a major metro area for work it doesn't matter where you live it's always something.

[killclimbz]

It wasn't avalanche control, it was just traffic and parking. Really, I am grasping at straws here, the access is pretty killer. For my money, if I was going out of this state, I'd probably have to take a good long hard look at the Seattle area myself.

I70 is starting to get a face lift. The areas will never be as close as the Salt Lake spots, but they are going to be making progress on the traffic thing. The tunnel expansion at Idaho Springs will make a big difference. Both when they are doing it (going to suck) and once it's finished (yay!). That project has been delayed until this coming spring which I am okay with.

[hikeswithdogs]

Originally Posted by killclimbz

It wasn't avalanche control, it was just traffic and parking. Really, I am grasping at straws here, the access is pretty killer. For my money, if I was going out of this state, I'd probably have to take a good long hard look at the Seattle area myself.

I70 is starting to get a face lift. The areas will never be as close as the Salt Lake spots, but they are going to be making progress on the traffic thing. The tunnel expansion at Idaho Springs will make a big difference. Both when they are doing it (going to suck) and once it's finished (yay!). That project has been delayed until this coming spring which I am okay with.

Yea and I bet that was a weekend too

Such a bummer they(CO) never expanded on the ski train thing, imagine hopping on a cumfy high speed rail to get to vail\breck\copper\ABASE in like 30 minutes from Denver?

Good to hear they are working on the roads but honestly I always thought I-70 was a pretty awesome road just subject to Denver metro traffic and weather outages, are they adding MORE lanes\tunnels ect?

If work wasn't an issue I'd probably live in Montana somewhere out in the boonies near whitefish or better yet BC

[killclimbz]

It was definitely a Saturday.

I70 is fine for what it is, but the fact is during peak times there are just too many people using it. Weather closures are pretty rare actually. CDOT is pretty great at keeping the road open.

They are expanding the East Bound Idaho Springs Tunnel by one lane all the way to Floyd Hill. I believe the third lane is to start a mile before the tunnel. All of the problems on 70 basically start where the lanes condense from three to two, and they end when goes from two to three. The traffic is actually worse in Summer if you can believe that.

A rail line would be great. I know there is yet another push for the Winter Olympics to be held here. Which I am not really for. Though if they do it, I70 will have to be dealt with or it won't be pulled off. So in that regard, maybe it should happen. The metro highways were vastly improved for the SLC Olympics. A fully widened I70 and rail solution would be awesome.

[hikeswithdogs]

Originally Posted by killclimbz

The metro highways were vastly improved for the SLC Olympics. A fully widened I70 and rail solution would be awesome.

That is ONE thing I have to say they did right in SLC, we don't drive on the hiways much since well there isn't any between the place we stay big\little CC but coming from the midwest where traffic always seems to suck I'm amazed by the 7 lane wide hiways for what seems to be less traffic than we have back home in St.Paul\Minneapolis.

Now if someone could teach the Mormans how to drive..............

[snowklinger]

Originally Posted by hikeswithdogs

You not riding every day if you live in Denver and actually have a full time job

I do sorta. I don't ride weekends. I work 50-60hrs/week and have the option to ride m-f all 5 days.

I do understand that there is no comparison however, sorry for suggesting there is lol.

As much as I drive i70, on the weekends I only have to do the first 10 miles of it to work in Evergreen, so while I'm aware of the traffic, I really don't have to put up with it.

[hikeswithdogs]

Originally Posted by snowklinger

I do sorta. I don't ride weekends. I work 50-60hrs/week and have the option to ride m-f all 5 days.

I do understand that there is no comparison however, sorry for suggesting there is lol.

As much as I drive i70, on the weekends I only have to do the first 10 miles of it to work in Evergreen, so while I'm aware of the traffic, I really don't have to put up with it.

Sounds like you have the right idea\plan, why would you want to fight all the weekend warriors, tourists and idiots on the weekends anyways?

What I should have said was there's no way you can work a 9-5 Mon-Fri and still ride every day my bad

Also did I mention season passes for a single unlimited resort pass in Utah START at 800-900$ you can probably ride 10 resorts in Col for that kind of money.

[marcg]

Well, since I'm downtown SLC and Snowbasin has been WEAK as far as snowpack I ended up grabbing a M-F Brighton pass on Monday, pretty good conditions.....Cottonwood Canyons reign supreme always I guess LOL.