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Sun Valley Idaho, Review

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  • Sun Valley Idaho, Review

    Just got back from a week at Sun Valley Idaho. We flew from Chicago to San Francisco and took a smaller plane to Haily Idaho. The flight from Chicago was delayed due to an onboard auxiliary generator had to be shutdown so the maintenance crew could add oil due to a slight oil leak. That put behind schedule getting into San Fran which caused us to miss our transfer departure time up to Idaho. But due to our group of 37 people being the majority of the small flights passengers they held that flight till we got there and asked all the other passengers to let us off the plane first so we could make our connection. It was cool seeing the Pacific again and we flew by the Golden Gate Bridge and Lake Tahoe a total of 4 times going out and return flights. Flying into Sun Valley was a freaky visual. We flew across a desert, parallel to a mountain range and not very high maybe 10,000 feet. All of a sudden the plane took a hard left turn and headed right for the mountain range and started dropping altitude. It looked like he was flying right into the side of the mountains. Not being in the cockpit you couldn't see that we were headed into a big valley. A couple of miles up the valley and we hadn't crashed was a feeling. Here's a couple of pictures looking at each other one from the airport looking up at the mountain and one from on top of the mountain looking down at the airport.

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  • #2
    I was a bit confused because the name Sun Valley doesn't really define any one thing, it's a term to describe the whole area. The Sun Valley Lodge and the Sun Valley Inn are 2 different buildings, neither of which are within walking distance of the slopes. But, they do have an excellent free buss system around town that has a bus coming by every half an hour at each stop.

    There's a training hill called Dollar Mountain where they give lots of lessons and has the main terrain park and it's own beautiful lodge. It has a vertical of ~ 625' with the peak at 6,638'. I have skied a lot of Midwest hills and this Dollar training Mountain is still bigger and steeper than anything I've seen in the Midwest.

    Here's a couple of pics looking up to and down from Dollar Mountain.

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    • #3
      The main mountain is called Mount Baldy and have 2 main lift access areas. The town that is nestled up to the mountain lifts is named Ketchum Idaho. At one end of Ketchum is a lift area called Warm Springs which has it's own lodge while the bigger main lift area on the other side of Ketchum is called River Run which which you have to walk over a bridge to cross a little river to get up to that lodge and lifts.

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      • #4
        Mount Baldy is the steepest mountain I've skied. Even their greens are steeper than many places blues. Even some of the cat tracks were fairly steep with switchbacks so radical that they put up mirrors to see around the bend if someone wiped out. I would not recommend this to someone that doesn't already know how to ski. There are fewer gentle green groomers here than Squaw. You can't really relax on any of these runs. These are steeps that slow down a bit once in a while by less steep stuff that fall off to even more steep stuff.

        The good thing is that the runs are impeccably groomed smooth and consistent. Once you slide off a ridge line it's easy to get into a rhythm. This mountain has a 3,400' vertical and about the only you feet and legs get to rest are on the lifts.

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        • #5
          The second day we were there a 70mph wind storm blew through which pelted everyone with ice pellets. They closed down all the lifts and gondolas, but not before one of them sustains mechanical damage that took 3 days to fix. Lots of people were stranded on the top of the mountain and took shelter in the mountain top lodges. During the storm to get down off the ridge lines you had to squat down and minimize your sail surface area to be able to make any progress.

          Taking shelter in any of the Sun Valley mountaintop lodges though is not too tough to take. The massive lodge pole pine structures house massive chandeliers. I counted 7 of them in one ridge top lodge with ~8' diameter brass and hand crafted crystals. The crystals were 3-4" long each one with facets ground into them and edges were fluted or scalloped like they were hand napped, making each one unique.

          The bathroom areas had a huge foryea with fancy chairs, coffee tables and Persian rugs/tapestries on the floor that people walked on in their ski boots. The restrooms themselves were unbelievable with marble everywhere, all polished brass fixtures and individual water closets instead of stalls.

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          The off mountain lodges were even nicer. They spared no expense making this a playground for the rich and famous.

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          • #6
            At the top of one of the runs I ran into a ski patrol guy carrying a live trap with a critter in it that looked just like a brown ferret with long slender body and equally long tail. The guy called it a Pine Marmet that had been getting into the trash cans at the lodge so he was relocating it.

            The day that I saw the guys fly fishing in the river at the River Run lift area wound up getting on the same buss I did when I left, and they were all pumped up. They had just seen a full grown moose about 100yds down from the bridge and they got a bunch of pictures of it with their camera phones which they shared with all the fellow bus passengers.

            In the eves rafters of the River Run Lodge were a couple of ravens building a huge nest. I've never seen a nest built out of sticks as thick as my fingers. That thing was big enough and probably strong enough to hold me. I know the workers there were in a moral dilemma whether or not to remove the nest due to the hazard of falling debris.

            At our condo there were Magpie's all over the place. Black and white birds that were not afraid of humans at all. One magpie came up to me and at ~4' away finally flew off when my shutter release clicked.

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            • #7
              In the entire town of Ketchem there is only one franchised chain store, a Starbucks. Everywhere you went the food was world class. The top two resteraunts that I would recommend experiencing are the Pioneer Saloon and the Trail Creek Cabin.

              At the Pioneer saloon I had Brie and local Smoked Trout appetizer with grilled prime rib entree. They took a great big chunk of prime rib and tossed it on an open flame grill to sear it and put grill marks on it. It was fabulous.

              At the Trail Creek Cabin which was built in the 1930's the first course was butternut squash soup with diced jalapenos. I had a bacon wrapped buffalo and lamb apple-wood smoked meatloaf with a side of red cabbage, and for dessert an apple crisp with a local cinnamon ice cream. It was fantastic, absolutely the best meatloaf I've ever had.

              Other places in town very good too and I got to try:
              - Grilled Mahi Mahi Burrito
              - Lobster Bisque
              - Cajun Blackened Bacon & Blue Cheese burger
              - wood fired oven pizza
              - Cioppino, an Italian seafood stew with crab legs, cod, mussels, clams and shrimp in a tomato base.
              - a locally produced root beer called 'MooseSnort'. It had kind of a sharp taste instead of the usual smooth root beer taste.
              - a local Neopolitan with a layer of vanilla bean, a roasted strawberry layer, a chocolate layer with nuts and butter cream layer and topped the chocolate shavings and a raspberry coulis.

              I wrote these down on a 3x5 card so I wouldn't forget them.

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              • #8
                Everyone that I ran into in town and on the slopes were all very nice. I even met a local guy that graduated from the college I did, Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale Illinois. I rode Sherpas almost all week and pretty much every time I shared a lift with someone they would ask questions about them. The lift operators got a kick out of the Sherpas too. Not one negative remark was heard.

                I saw one guy in town that looked homeless the entire time I was there. That's why they chose this location for a resort. You don't just happen to stop by there. It's so remote that you have intentionally plan on how to get there.

                One thing I never saw all week long was anybody ever locking up their skis to a rack, not once. Inside the lodge were open covey holes for people to put their street shoes and extra clothes in.

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                • #9
                  I took Sherpas, RC's and Blunts on this trip, I rode the Sherpas the first day to build confidence. Of course the Sherpas handled the random ice patches from a month of no new snow quit easily.

                  The second day I took out the RC's. The conditions had deteriorated the second day with many more solid ice patches showing. That was the day of the big wind storm. I did not like those RC's at all. On those steep icy runs I could not get an edge to stop myself. Any time I wanted to stop I'd wind up side slipping and chattering 50' further down hill than I wanted. This was my first time on RC's and it was not a very pleasant experience. One lady in our group broke her wrist that day from the steep ice. If there had been fresh powder on these steeps I'm sure it would be glorious.

                  If the RC's wouldn't hold me, I didn't even dare to take the Blunts out.

                  So I rocked the Sherpas the rest of the week and probably averaged 10,000' of vertical a day (that's only 3 runs there).

                  Now, I'm back at work wearing a new Sun Valley ball cap, showing off raccoon eyes, taping up a new trail map to my office wall (I have a wall covered in trail maps that I use as an ice breaker with people) and sharing here some of the great memories that were just created in Sun Valley Idaho.

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                  • #10
                    Thanks for the details and the photos. Sounds like a great trip. I had heard the amenities there were nice - your photos prove it! Sherpas rock! The one photo makes it clear that it is steep terrain for sure.
                    In pursuit of Peace, Harmony and Flow.....
                    Think Like a Mountain

                    Boards ridden, some owned: Sherpas, Spruce 120 "STS", Blunts, DS110 custom prototypes, Rockered Condors, Revolts, DLPs, Summit Custom 110s, Summit Marauders, Head 94s, Raptor prototypes, Osprey prototypes.

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                    • #11
                      Thanks for sharing. I have a poster of Roundhouse hanging on at the top of my stairs from when I was there two years ago. I really enjoyed the resort. It took you a long time to get on those RC's.
                      Now: 08 Sherpa's (2), Atomic 120's, 2013 125 Protos, 125 LEs, 2014 Sherpas, Osprey protos, 2015 Blunt XL's, 2016 Ospreys, Ethan Too twintip skis,2017 Shredfest One of kind Spliffs, 2018 Crossbows
                      Bindings: Spruce Risers and Tyrolia LD12's
                      Boots: Full Tilt Booters, Tecnica Agent 110
                      History: Atomic shorty's, Sporten, Groove Taxis, Head 94's, ALPs, Spruce 120 Blue boards, Custom Lacroixs, Rocker Condors, 08 Summit 110's, Hagan offlimits 133's, Rossi 130's, 2011 Summit Marauders

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                      • #12
                        Great report.

                        You didn't take the 125s ? They are gaining a good reputation for handling ice well.
                        Just these, nothing else !

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                        • #13
                          The 125's would not have been used on this trip either. I was pretty much in survival mode all week on the slopes, and needed/wanted maximum gripping power. I would have liked trying a pair of Yeti's.

                          One urban legend that I heard was that Jean-Claude Killy visited Sun Valley and stated that it 'scared him to death'. But he probably took one turn for every 20 of mine.

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Bad Wolf View Post
                            Great report.

                            You didn't take the 125s ? They are gaining a good reputation for handling ice well.
                            The 125s have very good grip on ice underfoot due to the zero camber and decent running length of the non-rockered portion but from my experience they are in no way "ice boards". I can't get them to sideslip consistently, an ice tactic I always want to have in my bag. Also, I find their ride super, super rough on the hard stuff. Hard and chopped up - they are almost uncontrollable at higher speeds - at least for me.
                            In pursuit of Peace, Harmony and Flow.....
                            Think Like a Mountain

                            Boards ridden, some owned: Sherpas, Spruce 120 "STS", Blunts, DS110 custom prototypes, Rockered Condors, Revolts, DLPs, Summit Custom 110s, Summit Marauders, Head 94s, Raptor prototypes, Osprey prototypes.

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                            • #15
                              I thought of a couple more things to share.

                              The peak elevation at Sun Valley is only 9,150' and the lodging is all down at 5750'. The first night there I only slept a half hour at a time and had a slight headache (my normal altitude sickness symptoms). I couldn't find any cans of compressed O2. But, the second night I had acclimated and I slept fine. Two people in our group spent so much time near the summit that they started taking prescription altitude sickness pills on about day 3, of course alcohol may of been a factor too.

                              The best place to start out learning the mountain is in the 'Seattle Ridge' area. At the River Run Plaza there's a gondola and a quad chair, take the gondola up to the Roundhouse Restaurant. Ski West past the lifts and take 'Gun Tower Lane', it's a cat track that will take you over to the base of the Seattle Ridge area where you will find a quad chair that will take you up to 'Seattle Ridge'. From there you have your choice of several green runs the longest and easiest is 'Broadway'. When you get to the bottom of Broadway take the second lift to get back up to Seattle Ridge.

                              If you take the first lift down Broadway you'll go up to the top of Bald Mountain. You have to go up there at least once. It's a fairly good ridge line cat track on the very top of the mountain ridge. So it's a spooky visual to have the cliffs falling off both sides of a cat track. It looks like a GoPro commercial up there. Stay on the cat track and you'll go past 4 or 5 black runs, at the end of the cat track you'll come out on a great big wide blue run called 'Broadway Face' that's not too bad that dumps you onto the top of the Broadway run that you ran earlier.

                              When you wear yourself out and are ready to quit, to get down from Seattle ridge take Broadway down to the third lift which will take you back up to the top of the gondola at the Roundhouse Restaurant. From there you can either ski down or ride the gondola down. If it's icy and no new snow I'd suggest taking the gondola. The icy bottom part is where people tended to get hurt. If there is plenty of fresh powder then I'd say go for the skiing down, it's an interesting cat track with lots of intimate turns and little hidden stash runs.

                              There's a lot more of the mountain to discover. But, this will give you an idea on how to start eating this elephant.

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