“73 with a chance of rain” the weatherman says from my friend’s basement T.V. in Utah. That is not what a powder seeker from Iowa is wanting to hear. We knew that planning our yearly snowboard trip to Utah for the third week of March might bring some mild, spring-like conditions, but I didn’t realize that instead of base layers and wool socks that I should have packed jean shorts and a rain jacket.
For the past four years, three of us have made the 17 hour trek from Eastern Iowa to Sandy, Utah to chase the spring Utah powder and visit our Iowa turned Utahn friend. We have had good luck with the powder, first trip bringing us two 15 inch powder days, and bad luck – second trip bring us NO powder days. While it has become a game of guessing when the great dump will happen (months in advance), we have had the best luck with fresh lines the first few weeks of March.
After tossing some Irish Cream in our coffee and deeming the weatherman a liar, we pack up our gear, do a mental list check: boots – check, board – check, base layer – check, helmet – check, beer – …, beer? We forgot the beer! Run back in, throw a few in the Yeti, and jump back in the truck. We’re locked and loaded!
Night boarding at Brighton isn’t a powder chaser, it’s more of a – get the legs moving and see if we can remember how to ride the board – type of outing. It’s hard to beat their Monday night special of four lift tickets and large pizza for $100.00. While many of the runs are closed, it’s a great way to get warmed up for the thigh burning runs at Snowbird. After several runs, legs fresh, board warmed up, lungs burning from the altitude change (I’m not out of shape, I swear :)), we grabbed our pizza and headed down the canyon.
Temperatures have dropped down to 45 degrees at the base of the canyon, with the feel of a front on the move. Being next to the Great Salt Lake, fronts can come out of nowhere. Tonight’s front should bring in at least of a few inches of fluffy stuff for tomorrow’s outing. We all head to bed, with snowflakes and deep runs dancing above our heads.
Beep! Beep! BEEEEEPP!!! I grab my phone wanting to chuck it across the room so it stops yelling at me, but jump up off the air mattress realizing it could be a POWDER DAY! I pull up the snow report on my OnTheSnow app – “15 inches! We got 15 inches! GET UP! TIME TO GO!” Everyone groggily wipes their eyes, stumbles around, forgoing the mental check list for a strong cup of joe, and out the door we go.
Snowflakes get bigger and bigger as we drive up Little Cotton Wood Canyon. More coverage on the trees than the previous day, and then we pull into the parking lot. Obviously EVERYONE read the snow report this morning. We quickly throw on our gear, ride the bunny hill run down to the ticket office, grab the tickets and run for the Tram line.
Fresh stuff everywhere! This is what dreams are made of! Strapping in and heading to our favorite run, I quickly realize it has been over a year since I have ridden in powder, my thighs are burning, I can’t see my friends ten feet in front of me, and the lens in my goggles makes it hard to see the definition of the snow, but I don’t care, because I am free-riding the snow, feeling my board float below me.
Run after run, we kept chasing the new flakes throughout the day, fighting through cramped calves and sore – everything, we push through for our favorite thing. The weatherman tried crushing our trip with his spring time conditions, but Mother Nature threw one right back and said, “To my faithful Iowa friends – here you go!”
The Great Dump of March was a success! Until next year, Snowbird!
Limitless Breeze 