The snow has been drifting down in larger quantities than usual this winter, and we’ve sampled it plenty. Now, I find myself with the daunting task of summarizing our 31 days of boarding during the 2021-2022 season in a meaningful yet concise way. I will do my best as I wade through a season in which we visited the resorts more frequently than ever before as a couple and, appropriately, also had more injuries than any other year. The augmentation of the quantity of our slope companions was another unusual trend; Jason and I started out on the lifts alone but were ultimately joined by just about everyone. So, without further waxing, let’s glide through the 2021-2022 boarding season.
| Date | Monday, December 27th, 2021 |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Snow | 12 inches in prior 24 hours. Base depth of 61 inches. Most rocks were covered. |
| Terrain | Summit (first time in a couple years) |
| Time | 2:30-4:15 (1.75 hours) |
| Crowds | Few people on the more difficult terrain due to blackout date, but lots of parents teaching children elsewhere. |
| Points of Interest/Notes | Jonesing! |
| Date | Friday, December 31st, 2021 (New Year’s Eve) |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Weather | 5 degrees, -1 with windchill |
| Snow | 23 inches overnight |
| Terrain | Eagle |
| Time | 1:00-4:30 (3.5 hours) |
| Crowds | Busy elsewhere but not on Eagle |
| Points of Interest/Notes | Toes froze! The delicious powder in the untracked areas kept us going. |
| Date | Wednesday, January 5th, 2022 |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Snow | 4 inches overnight, 1 inch every hour throughout the day |
| Terrain | Powderhorn and Eagle |
| Time | Afternoon |
| Points of Interest/Notes | Joined by our long-time boarding buds A.B. and J.R. The snow was heavy and wet. |
| Date | Monday, January 17th, 2022 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Weather | Inversion in the valleys, but blue skies at the resort. Temperatures in the 40s while they only got up to 33 in Salt Lake City due to the inversion. |
| Snow | Nothing new. Soft due to warmth. |
| Time | 2:15-4:15 (2 hours) |
| Crowds | Annoying due to holiday! Parking lot filled at 11:00. |
| Points of Interest/Notes | Two weeks without precipitation |
| Date | Friday, January 28th, 2022 |
| Resort | Brighton, Utah |
| Weather | 33-degree high, blue skies |
| Snow | Non-concrete, even in the shade |
| Terrain | Rachel’s Run, Golden Needle |
| Time | 11:45-4:15 with two short breaks (3.75 hours) |
| Crowds | Great Western and Sunshine were crowded. Golden Needle was packed with speeding idiots. Rachel’s Run’s only idiots were the ones we brought with us. |
| Points of Interest/Notes | Turned out to be Brighton’s 85th anniversary, which was celebrated with fireworks. |
| Date | Saturday, January 29th, 2022 |
| Resort | Brighton, Utah |
| Weather | High 30s |
| Snow | Nothing new |
| Terrain | Majestic for the noobs and Pioneer for the rest |
| Time | 11:00-4:30 (5 hours) |
| Points of Interest/Notes | A niece and two nephews joined us. A couple of them were boarding for their first time. The skier was so excited he rode with Jason before their lessons. |
| Date | Friday, February 4th, 2022 |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Weather | 28 degrees, sunshine |
| Snow | No new snow for a month. Patches of dirt and rock showing through. A few icy spots here and there. |
| Terrain | Apex and Moonbeam |
| Time | 2:15-4:15 (2 hours) |
| Points of Interest/Notes | Our nephew was able to keep up with us on Moonbeam and Apex. Hooray for ski lessons! |
| Date | Friday, February 11th, 2022 |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Weather | Low 40s |
| Snow | No new snow for 5-6 weeks. Some hillsides were bare. |
| Terrain | Apex and Summit. Plus, a few mogully spots prompted, and later regretted, by our nephew. |
| Time | 2 hours |
| Crowds | None on Summit |
| Points of Interest/Notes | An enthusiastic nephew and our friend A.B. joined us. They got along well. Little Dollie Waffles! |
| Date | Friday, February 18th, 2022 |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Weather | High 30s and sunny |
| Snow | Nothing new |
| Terrain | Summit, Apex |
| Time | 2 hours |
| Crowds | Got caught in large swarms of skiers on Summit. What the what! |
| Points of Interest/Notes | Too many people! |
| Date | Sunday, February 20th, 2022 |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Weather | Low 40s, cloudy and windy |
| Snow | Nothing new |
| Terrain | Timberline, Sensation, North Star, and South Star |
| Time | Unknown |
| Crowds | Blackout day, so less people |
| Points of Interest/Notes | Sunrise seemed more protected from the wind. Sunrise’s lift lacks in speed (nine minutes to go 1,000 feet in elevation), but it also lacks in people. |
| Date | Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Weather | Low 40s, sunny and warm |
| Snow | Ground was slightly more covered after a foot of snow the week before. Surface turned icy around 3:30. |
| Terrain | Sunrise, Summit, Apex |
| Time | 1:30-4:15 (2.75 hours) |
| Points of Interest/Notes | My dad and our nephew came with us. Dad got a blister after three runs and spent the rest of the afternoon at the lodge drinking beer. |
| Date | Friday, March 4th, 2022 |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Weather | Low 40s |
| Snow | Snow dumped for about half an hour during the day. |
| Terrain | Sunrise, Summit |
| Time | Unknown |
| Points of Interest/Notes | So much disfunction! J.R. came with us. |
| Date | Sunday, March 6th, 2022 |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Snow | 14 inches with 7 overnight |
| Terrain | Sunrise, Summit, Eagle, Apex, Powderhorn |
| Time | First chair to last chair (6.5 hours) |
| Points of Interest/Notes | We stayed overnight at Solitude, a last-minute arrangement. Our nephew joined us. |
| Date | Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 |
| Resort | Brighton, Utah |
| Weather | Cold! 20 degrees with 16 MPH wind making it feel like 4 degrees. |
| Snow | 13 inches overnight, 24 inches by day’s end |
| Terrain | Rachel’s Run + |
| Time | 2:15-4:45 (2.5 hours) |
| Crowds | None. Maybe many Ikon pass days have been depleted? |
| Points of Interest/Notes | Toes objected! |
| Date | Friday, March 18th, 2022 |
| Resort | Brighton, Utah |
| Weather | Mid 30s and sunny |
| Snow | 89-inch base but no new snow |
| Terrain | Rachel’s Run, Lone Star, Thor |
| Time | 2:00-5:30 (3.5 hours) |
| Crowds | The parking lot was completely full, but we didn’t see many people on the runs. |
| Points of Interest/Notes | We gave a nephew a taste for Rachel’s Run, but then stuck to Thor and Lonestar the rest of the day as they had no one on them. |
| Date | Friday and Saturday, March 25th and 26th, 2022 |
| Resort | Big Sky, Montana |
| Weather | 47 degrees, 53 degrees |
| Snow | Ranged from icy, to slushy, to sloppy |
| Terrain | El Dorado, Southern Comfort, Nile, Pacifier, Swift Current, Calamity Jane, Powder Seeker, Upper Morningstar, Mr. K, Lobo, Lobo Meadows |
| Time | 4.2 hours, 3.5 hours |
| Points of Interest/Notes | See dedicated blog post. |
| Date | Friday, April 1st, 2022 |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Weather | High near 40, a perfect spring day |
| Snow | Nothing new |
| Time | 12:45-3:30 (2.75 hours) |
| Crowds | The deadest we’d seen Solitude. Spring break made it less peopled rather than more. |
| Points of Interest/Notes | I had preproduction meetings right after snowboarding, making for a long day! A nephew and niece joined us. |
| Date | Saturday, April 2nd, 2022 |
| Resort | Brighton, Utah |
| Weather | An ideal spring day with temperatures in the 40s and a little wind |
| Snow | Nothing new |
| Terrain | Thor, Lonestar, Thunderhead, Thunder Road, Pioneer |
| Time | 2:45-6:30 (3.75 hours) |
| Crowds | Brighton’s parking lot filled. (Solitude’s only half filled.) All the riders were hanging out at the board park, and there were no lift lines. |
| Points of Interest/Notes | We threw out plans of cleaning to go boarding even though we had gone the day before and were going the day after. |
| Date | Sunday, April 3rd, 2022 |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Weather | Mid-40s |
| Snow | Nothing new |
| Terrain | Apex and Sunrise |
| Time | 12:15-5:15 (4.5 hours) |
| Crowds | None |
| Points of Interest/Notes | We were accompanied by a hefty group of 8 comprised of several first-timers and some old-timers. |
| Date | Saturday, April 9th, 2022 |
| Resort | Brighton, Utah |
| Weather | Almost 40 |
| Snow | Nothing new |
| Terrain | Thor |
| Time | 2:15-4:30 (2.25 hours) |
| Crowds | Nearly full parking lot but no lift lines |
| Points of Interest/Notes | Jason found me some modest jumps, which I managed to get a little air off. |
| Date | Sunday, April 10th, 2022 |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Weather | 30 degrees |
| Snow | Mostly just a sheet of ice. Where traffic was substantial, the ice had been ceaselessly chipped away until it had the texture of drifting sand. |
| Terrain | Main Street, Same Street, Dean’s Dash, Abba’s Alley, and Little Dollie |
| Time | 1:30-5:00 (3.5 hours) |
| Points of Interest/Notes | Little Dollie and Abba’s Alley were a frozen mess. The tops of the lifts also, inconveniently, were slathered with ice. This was easily the worse snow we’d experienced in years. We had my brother’s family and his sister-in-law with us. That brother started figuring out how to toe carve and link carves together, which he was thrilled about. |
| Date | Tuesday, April 12th, 2022 |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Weather | 19-degree high. Winds at Snowbird gusted up to 75 MPH that morning. Solitude was warmer; I even unzipped my pant vents for a few minutes when the sun came out. |
| Snow | 10 inches overnight. Snow was much better than it was on the afternoon of March 6th; the ice was more covered. |
| Terrain | Eagle and Powderhorn. Jason did the Memorial Chutes in Honeycomb Canyon. |
| Time | 1:15-3:45 (2.5 hours) |
| Date | Wednesday, April 13th, 2022 |
| Resort | Brighton, Utah |
| Weather | Low to mid-20s, 14-17 MPH wind |
| Snow | Six more inches in the last 24 hours with 4 overnight. More tracked out than Solitude the day before. |
| Terrain | Rachel’s Run, Thor, Lonestar |
| Time | 12:30-4:15 (3.75 hours) |
| Crowds | More people on the slopes than the Saturday before, but still no lift lines. |
| Points of Interest/Notes | Two friends came with us. We were a raucous group! The boys found a lot of untouched powder off Rachel’s Run and made repeated requests to ride it again. |
| Date | Friday, April 15th, 2022 |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Weather | Mid-30s, sunny |
| Snow | Nothing new |
| Terrain | Memorial Chutes in Honeycomb Canyon, Timberline, Blue Spruce, and North Star |
| Time | Unknown |
| Points of Interest/Notes | Memorial Chutes area had plenty of powder still. I liked it enough to want to try it again soon. The Honeycomb Return was closed even though it was supposed to be open. What a laborious, and hot, traverse back! |
| Date | Saturday, April 16th, 2022 |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Weather | Mid-40s |
| Snow | Exceedingly sticky and too soft to hold carves until later in the afternoon when it started snowing steadily. |
| Terrain | Memorial Chutes in Honeycomb Canyon, Timberline, Abba’s Alley, and Blue Spruce |
| Time | Unknown |
| Points of Interest/Notes | Sixth time boarding in 8 days. Hurt my knee (bursitis) getting off the lift. |
| Date | Wednesday, April 27th, 2022 |
| Resort | Snowbird, Utah |
| Weather | 50s |
| Snow | Snow was gluey on lower half of the mountain and too melted to hold a carve. |
| Terrain | Mineral Basin, Chip’s Run |
| Time | 1:30-4:00 (2.5 hours) |
| Points of Interest/Notes | Last operational Wednesday of the season at Snowbird and a week and a half after I hurt my knee. |
| Date | Friday, April 29th, 2022 |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Weather | Mid-30s with an insistent breeze |
| Snow | A few inches of powder on top of ice until the surface softened the last hour |
| Terrain | Alta Bird and Blue Spruce, plus some time on Moonbeam to teach a nephew |
| Time | 2:00-5:00 (3 hours) |
| Points of Interest/Notes | Helped a nephew link his carves. |
| Date | Saturday, April 30th, 2022 |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Weather | Low 50s |
| Snow | Slushy and slow. All the powder from the previous day was gone. |
| Terrain | Summit and Apex |
| Time | 2:00-5:15 (3.25 hours) |
| Points of Interest/Notes | We were joined by nieces and nephews from two families. One niece tried Summit for the first time. |
| Date | Sunday, May 1st, 2022 |
| Resort | Solitude, Utah |
| Weather | Low 40s and cloudy. Forecast predicted rain, but instead there was snow. (Thankfully!) |
| Snow | Slushy but not as slow as the day before |
| Terrain | Apex and Sunrise. North Star was a favorite. |
| Time | 12:30-5:00 (4 hours with break considered) |
| Points of Interest/Notes | Closing day at Solitude. We were joined by a large group of nieces and nephews. Many of us ate Himalayan food and giant cookies at the Roundhouse. This was the last of four days we spent on the slopes during a week with highly variable conditions. We jumped on Apex seconds before the lift closed for the season. |
| Date | Friday, May 13th, 2022 |
| Resort | Snowbird, Utah |
| Weather | High 40s and low 50s, beautifully sunny |
| Snow | Snowbird received 18 inches over the week but was only open on the weekend. Snow was better than our last time at the resort. The hardness was perfect on all but the lower third of the mountain. |
| Terrain | Chip’s Run with chutes off West Baldy |
| Time | 12:00-2:15 (2.25 hours) |
| Crowds | Only a small section of the resort was open, so it felt crowded in sections. |
| Points of Interest/Notes | My knee didn’t love the West Baldy Chutes as it was still swollen and hurting. |
Now that I’ve given you more than too many details, let’s talk about the trends of the 21-22 season. What does all the information show, besides that I keep track of too many specifics? We snowboarded 93 hours in total. Toward the end of the season, we managed to go to the resorts 13 times in 31 days. I’m not sure we got anything else done during that month.
Some skill improvements would be expected with that many hours on the slopes, right? My seasonal progress peaked right before I injured my knee and then dropped sharply. I didn’t challenge myself as much or carve as smoothly afterward. Months later, I learned I had also fractured my talus (ankle) bone sometime while snowboarding. I ended up in a boot for two months due to that mysterious break.
And the new participants? We never would have guessed we’d have so many family members intrigued by winter sports suddenly. It was particularly a shock considering the previous interest levels of some. Many of them bought passes for the 22-23 season they enjoyed themselves so much, also a surprise.
Although Jason and I went snowboarding more times in the 21-22 season than ever before in our married life, it didn’t get dull. Why is that? Snowboarding gives you something marvelous to look forward to during the dreariest part of the year. Plus, the whole slope stretch only lasts about four months. It’s fleeting, and that’s a substantial piece of its magic. If only this post was as brief.