Today, RFA and I drove to Snow Basin, UT - north of SLC and about 70 miles from Park City - to ski. Snow Basin is a Sun Valley resort and was the site of the 2002 SLC Olympic men's and women's downhill. It is billed as being "rustic chic." We were enamored when we first skiied Snow Basin several years ago. It is serviced mainly by gondolas and the ski lodges are akin to the Ritz Carlton - oriental carpets, wooden lockers. The runs are long & almist 2500 vertical feet. Three years ago, on a perfect day, RFA and I took the tram to the top of the men's downhill and had a perfect run - so good never to be repeated. I checked that off my list and rank that in the top five exhilarating events in my life to date. Each time we go back we become less and less enamored. On the Strawberry Express side of the mountain, if the weather isn't perfectly clear, the lighting is flat and you need to rely on the markers to get down the chutes. We ensured the best we could that today would be clear -and it was. Very warm too - about 40 degrees. None of the runs were groomed and the snow was rutty. The service was marginal - long lines at the Strawberry Express gondola, no singles line, and the lift operators could seem to get it together - letting 8-people gondolas go with 2 people. And the food was no where near the caliber of Deer Valley. I guess we are jsut spoiled. We did about 5 long runs and called it quits. We needed a light day anyway.
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