Tours in UT

[MikeK]

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[Sheik Yerbouti]

Western Uinta's off of the Mirror lake Highway (about an hour plus drive from SLC) usually have some decent touring around xmas, Lily Lake area yurts are a bit further driving through Wyo to get there. The Uinta's are more suitable for light gear than most of the Wasatch. There are also a few yurts near Logan UT which has good touring terrain, though early season snow pack can be iffy. I can't recall any guide books for the areas. PM me when it gets close and i can give some suggestions then. There is plenty of other touring around here, but late December is hit and miss year to year.

[Greg]

As the Booty Shaker said, the Unitas are good for mellow touring terrain. But, snow pack can be iffy some years in late Dec. Below is a link to a website of the yurts of Utah. Yurt 5 is not currently in operation. Some more info on Yurt 4 is at the other link below. It tends to get booked up early. There is some nice mellow touring around there. I stayed at the Tushar yurt many years ago; that was a nice area. We were mostly hunting to turns and steep terrain, but I seem to recall some more mellow terrain as well.

http://www.yurtsofutah.com/the-yurts.html

http://www.utahnordic.com/yurt

[Greg]

Here is a link to a thread on this site about Yurt 4. I see we had decent snow in early Dec of this year; I would not have remembered that. Must be getting old.

http://www.backcountrytalk.earnyourturns.com/vb/showthread.php?488-Norway-Flats-Yurt

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Almost anywhere in the West xmas is not dependable, 2 out of three years it's probably fairly good. Mid April there is plenty of snow, just not powder except right after a storm. April is when a lot of people ski the big long approach peaks in the Uinta'a due to good snow cover and long days. Our snow pack usually peaks about April 1, but what has been the trend in recent years is that low elevation snow i.e below 8000' has been melting out earlier. I did do some touring around new years off the Mirror lake HWY this season it was ok just not great.

[Greg]

Re guidebooks: for the Wasatch (not Unitas) check out Wasatch Tours books (there are three; the first one, called just Wasatch Tours, is for the Central Wasatch). They are old, which means that the tours are mellow. No Andrew McLean Chuting Gallery type of routes. If you have an Amazon Prime account and free shipping, these books can be had used for almost nothing.

http://www.amazon.com/Wasatch-Tours-Alexis-Kelner/dp/0915272067

[Baaahb]

kickandglide.com

[Baaahb]

that guide is by Marcus Libkind, one of the old salts of the Sierra. I used his Tahoe book 30 years ago.

There is still snow mid April, even in this very low snow year. Usually, in the high country around Yosemite, the spring skiing season gets up to speed in late May, when the roads open.

F^&%$ this "next year" stuff, get yer a$$ out to La$$en in ten days.

[Quadzilla]

http://www.backcountryskitours.com/index.htm

Found this too. Looks like Tahoe might be a good destination for what I'm after.

How long is the ski season out there? Still snow mid-April?

Tahoe is good in April even in a year like this with record drought there is good BC touring right now. So, even if there is a below average next year I would bet that there will be plenty of choice in April. I would bet on April here as opposed to Dec. Of course Dec can be great but still considered early season and some risk as to coverage. I think one big plus is that Tahoe is very easy as too access, getting to TH's and chances of sunny weather. Maybe a downside is the lack of decent XCD rentals but I have loaner gear as well as others like Baaahb. Anyway, a lot to do around here in April.

[Sheik Yerbouti]

For the type of skiing you want to do rentals may be hard to find in most western areas, it's either heavy tele/alpine or skinny track skis in most places. Another advantage to April, lodging deals are easy to be had in most western ski destinations. since the Wasps have gone home by then. (that was for Willy's sake).