Snowbird’s Most Iconic Ski Run Is Right Under the Tram

The very first time I skied into Excellent Scott, I did accurately what you really should not do. I popped out of a ski and I fell. Which would have been great, type of, if it hadn’t happened just as the blue Snowbird tram, comprehensive of onlookers, drifted overhead. I could have lived with that, much too, I guess, if the devo team—the most effective 8-year-outdated skiers you’ve ever seen—didn’t fall in right powering me and zip previous while I struggled to stage back again into my binding in a no-slide zone.

Directly less than the tram, Excellent Scott is the steepest, longest line you can see as you ascend to the 11,000-foot summit of Snowbird’s Hidden Peak. But as opposed to Hollywood traces like Corbet’s or the Fingers at Squaw, Excellent Scott isn’t in which you go to be seen—it’s in which you go to ski. That claimed, you can not get to it without the need of everybody watching.

The entrance is technical—a blind wind lip, rocky and rutted out from significant use. You shouldn’t slide right here, lest you chance tomahawking the 1,000 ft of forty-diploma vertical to the Neat Whip traverse.

John Cusack, or his stunt double a lot more probably, makes an excellent display screen of these a tumble in the 1985 movie “Better Off Dead” when he arrogantly makes an attempt to chase a lady close friend down the line. She, on the other hand, executes it accurately how you really should, with style and finesse and no one to impress.

If you get it very first issue on a powder working day, Excellent Scott is the crown jewel of Snowbird. Many thanks to its posture on the mountain, even so, it seems to normally stash away the products, contemporary snow or not. It catches the sunshine, but not much too considerably, and regardless of what snow is blown off the rest of the mountain will get dropped in the chute to develop a chalky, wind-buffed treasure trove of steep, specialized terrain, smooth bumps, and a broad open up run out.

Just watch out for that traverse if you are maching down the line, however. It ruts out, and just when you consider you are property cost-free and let it free, catastrophe strikes and you are on your ass. Once more. Where by everybody can see you.

Upon Arrival:
– Carpooling up Minor Cottonwood Canyon is quick when you download the R.I.D.E. app.
– Like a Vegas on line casino, the windows of The Tram Club are blacked out. Remain as extended as you want. Buy a shot and beer and the buffalo cheese fries.
– Really do not fart in the tram.

This post originally appeared in the December 2019 (48.three) difficulty of POWDER Journal and was republished with permission.

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