January 12, 2020 Snowbasin Champagne Powder

We spent the evening in SLC.  At 5:30am I read the first ski reports for the Canyon resorts and Snowbasin. The Alta and Snowbird road was closed with no expected opening with 12" of fresh snow overnight. Snowbasin received 6" overnight and it was still snowing and the road was open. The ski report in the morning described "Champagne Powder". We are addicted to Utah powder.  After an hour drive, we had parked in the first row and waited for the lifts to open.  It was crowded, but after the first hour things had quieted down.

The Needles and Strawberry gondolas provided 2500 VF in 12 minutes, plus access to 7 other lifts. There were deep lines and the snowstorm made for constant refills.  We have skied here in the spring sun, but we've not skied in area on a powder day.  When we returned to our campervan we had 5" of fresh powder on the campervan.  After our morning of powder skiing we hit the road as we had to get home to Redmond for an appointment -- and before the Artic Freeze set in making travel even more difficult than driving in a snowstorm.