Smith Exploits: Glorious Groomers and Blue Sky at Sun Valley

Wow! Best bluebird day of the year! What a place. The facts; base at 5,750 ft. top at 9,150 ft. 14 lifts. Two base areas River Run and Warm Springs, interesting that they both will get you to the top of the mountain. River Run has an 8 person gondola that takes you 2/3 of the way up, while Warm Springs has a 4 person quad (Challenger) that rise 3,142 ft in 10 minutes to the top of the Mountain. Amazing!

We had a great dinner at our boutique hotel Knob Hill Inn. I would highly recommend this place, more details tomorrow. The town of Ketchum and Sun Valley definitely have an upscale vibe to them. We did not see a terrain park or any park rats. Back to skiing!

Conditions today were blue sky 20 degrees at 9 am but quickly warming up to 30 plus and spring skiing. We started skiing the south (sunny) side of the Mountain. With spring conditions groomers are the way to start and SV is known for its grooming. We skied 4-5 great groomer runs including "Muffy's Medals" Muffy is a friend of ours, originally from Idaho and now in Park City. She has medaled in the alpine Paralympics and in the bicycling Paralympics.

We worked our way to the Warm Springs (north) side of the mountain as the day progressed. There are some good mogul runs and more super groomers. What makes the groomers so good is the steady pitch and wide area. A unique thing at SV, their Green Runs would be Blue runs at any other ski area. After blazing down one Green Run I told Kelley "that is the fastest Green run I have ever been on." Under the Challenger lift is the Warm Springs Run, this is the best Cruising run I have ever skied. We non-stopped it, the entire 3,142 of vertical, what a rush. Not to be outdone is another great run "Picabo Street", which currently is steep and full of moguls and we had fun on it.

We had a great on mountain lunch at the Roundhouse, a legendary place with good reasonably priced food and super views. More details tomorrow.