Ski season has literally hit the rocks as precipitation in Utah has reached an all-time low.
Steve May, a senior from Valencia, Calif., majoring in Portuguese, said the snow is the worst he has seen in his eight years of snowboarding.
“The snow was pretty much man-made, and it was easy to tell the difference between man-made and natural snow,” May said. “It definitely wasn’t as fun as fresh powder. I had to be more cautious of not running over rocks and tree stumps.”
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Ricardo Nazario, a senior vice president with the bank Morgan Stanley, from Houston, was in the Park City area with his family for a skiing vacation. Nazario and his family still enjoyed their experience, especially when they tried out the Park City Resort.
“When we went to the Canyons, only 20 percent of the mountain was open.” Nazario said. “Park City had significantly more snow, we never felt that there was not enough terrain, there were plenty of lifts open, and we didn’t feel like we missed out on a lot.”
The Canyons’ website showed that only 47 of 182 trails were open.
Ezra Silva, a sophomore majoring in neuroscience, teaches snowboarding at a local ski resort. He said snow conditions have not been ideal.
“Because there hasn’t been ideal snow conditions, there has been limited terrain, leading to overcrowded beginner runs, so it’s more difficult to keep track of the kids,” Silva said.
Lucy Ridolthi, marketing and public relations manager at Sundance Resort, located up Provo Canyon, said while the conditions haven’t been as favorable, the snow that has come down over the weekend has helped. While blowing snow wasn’t an option last week, they have been able to do that over the past couple of days.
“We actually got some snow cover over the weekend, and have 18 inches right now,” Ridolthi said. “We’ve been pleased and have been blowing snow. The snow over the weekend really improved the conditions, and we have a good product now.”
