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marzski
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My Alta ski instructor is from NC. He's been teaching at Alta for almost 20 years. Said that Alta normally has about 6000 skiers on a busy day. The goal is to limit to about 4000. Presumably mainly by limiting sales of day tickets during a holiday period or on weekends. No reservations required for season passholders, which includes Ikon and MCP.

Once parking lots and roadside parking is full at Alta, taking the UTA bus is the only option. Unless know someone willing to drop you off and then drive back down to SLC. There will be someone actively monitoring uphill traffic at the base of the canyon. Have been a couple days that parking was full by 9:30am, with social media warnings by 8:00am that parking was "limited" and expected to be full by 10:00am.
2023-24: Wolf Creek in Dec, Massanutten in Jan, Feb; GT, Big Sky; Crested Butte; Alta/Snowbird in April.
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Looks like we picked the wrong weekend to go to Cataloochee. Ms. MSDOG and I will be up there the 31st with the Daughter and 4 grands and plan on skiing Saturday. Hope the rain does not do to much damage so we can get at least some slope time in.
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marzski
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Cancelled Taos. Going to Colorado in Feb instead. Going to use Ikon at ABasin and Copper. Plan is to spend a long weekend checking out Monarch and Wolf Creek. Other nights we're staying in Dillon.
2023-24: Wolf Creek in Dec, Massanutten in Jan, Feb; GT, Big Sky; Crested Butte; Alta/Snowbird in April.
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Got back from Cat yesterday, long drive. Got a good day of skiing in Saturday. Conditions were a lot better than I thought they would be. We drove up to look at conditions after we checked in Friday and it was raining buckets around noon. Did not know if we would even get a day in but conditions were pretty nice Saturday. All the grands skied great(had to work with the 5 y/o a little longer than thought but she finally picked it up early afternoon). My bionic knee held up great with no pain. Everything else hurt. Large crowds, lift lines got long late afternoon but overall a great day on the slopes.
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Skied Mt. Madison this morning. 3 inches of wet Mississippi snow. But beautiful anyway. Funny I had to drive 10 hours New Years weekend to see snow and did not see a single flake, then drive home and we get a blizzard. Quarter to half dollar size flakes and very heavy. Will be gone by this afternoon. Just the way it is down here.
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marzski
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Had a good time in Jackson and Alta in December. Stayed at Snowbird Iron Blosam and took the UTA bus up to Alta for skiing. Caught a 15+ inch powder storm towards the end of the stay. :-)

Did my usual week at Massanutten in early Jan. Fewer people than usual on the weekend but more in the late afternoons. The wait for the base lifts was never more than 10 min and usually less than 5. Heading back for MLK weekend with friends. We formed a "pod" back in the spring.
2023-24: Wolf Creek in Dec, Massanutten in Jan, Feb; GT, Big Sky; Crested Butte; Alta/Snowbird in April.
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dj
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I'll be at Park City and Deer Valley February 2 - 9. Last data I saw, hotel occupancy is projected to be less than 25% even though that's the week Sundance was scheduled. Same article mentioned that it's usually around 94% that week.

I bought my tickets a while back (and scheduled my days for Park City).
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marzski
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Had a very good time checking out some Colorado locations in the past couple weeks. Liked Copper, Monarch, and Wolf Creek a lot. Enjoyed Loveland, especially off Lift 8 where there were deep powder turns to be found. But the extra high altitude of Loveland and ABasin is still a bit of a deterrent that keeps them lower on the list of places for return visits. The Beavers terrain is great for those who like steep trees. Snow was best there since it's still pretty low coverage in general.

The bonus for Wolf Creek was getting a great deal on a full day lesson/tour for me and my three ski buddies on a Saturday. Under $200 each. The instructor was recommended by a friend who lives in Hendersonville. I skied with her at Cat just as I was ready to call to book the lesson. Turned out that her family took advantage of online school to spend almost all of December in South Fork, skiing WC every day! The instructor's name is Sumiko. She's from Chapel Hill and grew up skiing at Beech and Sugar. Taught at Beech for several years before deciding to move to Colorado.

We skied at Wolf Creek Saturday, Superbowl Sunday, and Monday. Definitely plan to go back in the future.
2023-24: Wolf Creek in Dec, Massanutten in Jan, Feb; GT, Big Sky; Crested Butte; Alta/Snowbird in April.
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