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Sometimes you’re too close to the stage that you’ve got to take a step back to see the play develop. Such could be said of what’s been going on in Ogden over the past couple of years.

Many longtime residents of the Wasatch Front are entrenched in the mindset that Ogden is just that city up north, the last outpost before I-15 weaves its way into Idaho, the city with more train tracks than citizens. So when ski industry giants like Solomon and Atomic came to town along with younger companies like Nidecker, 4FRNT, Goode and others, many people shrugged and said, “so”. Others didn’t take notice.

But stepping back from the stage it seems that the move by Mayor Godfrey and his council is the talk of the ski industry.

Take for example the claim I read today on the Flylow blog that Ogden could be the next Jackson. Well, that might be a hard pill to swallow for many, but it also isn’t too far fetched to say that a few years from now Ogden may not be your fathers Ogden…unless your father was a ski bum.

Powder Mountain is on the brink of a huge transformation, Wolf Creek Utah is fast becoming a great place for families to vacation and Snowbasin might be the biggest secret in all of North America. Ogden a ski town? You’d better believe it.

Since I don’t live in Ogden and have only visited downtown Ogden twice in the past year (where I was surprised by the feeling of how alive it is), I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on if Odgen could truly become a skiers and snowboarders town.

Two recent online articles had some great tips about how to save a lot of money while skiing in Utah this winter.

Here are some of the highlights from the article on smartertravel.com:

-The Canyons in Park City, Utah, are throwing in two adult lift tickets—and discounted tickets for the rest of the gang—per unit booked, for each day you stay. Consider that adult lift tickets cost $79 each this season. Kids six and under always ski free.

-At Powder Mountain in Utah, night lift passes are being rolled back to 2002 rates—just $15 for adults and $12 for kids. And night skiing starts at 3 p.m.!

Here are some of the tips shared on MSNBC:

-Book now

-Aim off-peak

-Go midweek

-Be a tourist

-Get free kids’ lift tickets

-Get free kids’ airfare

-Get your grade-schooler a passport (5th and 6th grade)

-Consult the deal watchdogs

-Save on equipment rental

-Follow the locals

Drumroll please…… the rest!

Beaver Mountain

Recent upgrades to Beaver Mountain’s food service have caused more skiers to gather in the Resort’s traditional A-frame lodge for lunch. As a result, Beaver Mountain will make over $300,000 in improvements to the lodge adding additional seating to better accommodate guests.

Brian Head Resort

Brian Head Resort, in southern Utah, has been busy putting final touches on the major expansion which combined their two separate mountains in the 2007-08 winter season. Details include new rock work on the retaining walls, additional slope grading and mountain landscaping.

Powder Mountain

Powder Mountain has added a new Mountain Adventure Center located near the Timberline Lodge which will house all of Powder Mountain’s adventure programs including Snowcat Powder Safaris, Mountain Adventure Tours and the Snow Sports School. Last season, Powder Mountain started all-day guided snowcat tours called Snowcat Powder Safari. Due to the popularity of the program, the terrain available via the snowcat has been increased 100 percent to 2,000-plus acres.

Restaurants in all three lodges have been renovated to improve guest flow and to allow additional menu options. All changes are designed to minimize the time guests spend off the slopes on a powder day.

Powder Mountain is also taking steps to ensure everyone can enjoy and afford the sport of skiing. The price of a night lift pass will be rolled back to 2002-rates.  An adult night pass will be $15 and a child (7 – 12) will be $12. Night operations will start one hour earlier than previous years, at 3:00pm, so guests can enjoy a few hours of sunlight.

Snowbasin

Snowbasin Resort has replaced the Little Cat lift which services beginner terrain, with a new detachable quad chair lift starting above Earl’s Lodge and ending at the upper parking lot. The new lift will span 1,578 feet in length with a vertical rise of 173.5 feet. A 1,000 foot per minute line speed will yield a carrying capacity of 2,600 people per hour.

The new lift will better accommodate the beginning skier by reducing the intimidation from downhill skier traffic and easing loading and unloading due to the detachable lift’s design.

Sundance Resort

Sundance is continuing to preserve its beautiful protected setting, against a 12,000-foot backdrop of Mount Timpanogos. Sundance offers 41 runs spread over 500 acres of snow-smothered terrain suitable for beginning to expert levels. Experts enjoy the steep and the deep in wide open bowls and narrow gladed chutes, while all can enjoy our immaculately groomed slopes. Sundance prides itself on being a place where families can gather and hospitality is a way of life. Special kids programs and a variety of activities keep the family smiling all day.

Sundance’s cross country ski center has a full 26 kilometers of daily groomed trails and are available for skating and classic skiing. Snowshoers can explore Sundance’s terrain on 10 kilometers of dedicated trails through the woods.

Wolf Mountain

Wolf Mountain is an integral part of Wolf Creek Utah’s complete amenity package, offering the best guest experience available. Major improvements for the 2008-09 season include expanded beginner learning terrain, a more convenient skier/guest drop off area and continued improvements to its terrain park. The Wolf Mountain Learning Center offers the best value in ski and snowboard education, with the “Get on Board” pass. For only $200, a new skier or snowboarder can take three lessons with equipment rental and receive a free season pass at the end of their lesson series.

You probably already know that Utah has the Greatest Snow on Earth ®, well once again we’re a the top of the pile in many resort rankings.  Below are Utah resorts ranked according to Ski Magazine

Overall
#1- Deer Valley Resort
#5- Park City Mountain Resort
#13- The Canyons Resort
#22- Solitude Mountain Resort
#25- Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort
#28- Alta Ski Area
#30- Snowbasin

Snow
#1- Alta Ski Area
#2- Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort
#3- Powder Mountain
#5- Brighton Resort
#6- Solitude Mountain Resort
#9- Deer Valley Resort

Grooming
#1- Deer Valley Resort

Terrain/Challenge
#3- Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort
#4- Alta Ski Area

Value
#1- Powder Mountain
#3- Alta Ski Area
#5- Brighton Resort
#7- Solitude Mountain Resort

Lifts
#1- Snowbasin
#4- Deer Valley Resort

Service
#1- Deer Valley Resort
#3- Snowbasin

Weather
#1- Deer Valley Resort
#2- Solitude Mountain Resort
#4- Alta Ski Area
#5- Brighton Resort
#8- Park City Mountain Resort

Access
#1- Park City Mountain Resort
#2- Deer Valley Resort
#4- The Canyons Resort
#5- Solitude Mountain Resort
#6- Alta Ski Area
#7- Brighton Resort
#8- Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort

On-Mountain Food
#1- Deer Valley Resort
#2- Snowbasin

Lodging
#1- Deer Valley Resort
#8- Park City Mountain Resort

Dining
#2- Deer Valley Resort
#9- Park City Mountain Resort

Apres-Ski
#8- Park City Mountain Resort

Off-Hill Activities
#6- Park City Mountain Resort
#9- Deer Valley Resort

Family Programs
#7- Deer Valley Resort

Terrain Parks
#9-Park City Mountain Resort

Overall Satisfaction
#1- Alta Ski Area

#4- Deer Valley Resort

#6- Solitude Mountain Resort

The weather forecasters, news anchors, and well…pretty much every Utah TV personality has been really down on snow lately. I understand their point—I’m sure the incessant shoveling and messy shoes get old. But for us skiers, you can never have too much of a good thing—or can you?

I got a call from a friend on Friday morning, stuck in the line-up of cars waiting for Little Cottonwood Canyon to open from one of its many recent closures. Don’t get me wrong—closing the canyon is absolutely necessary for avalanche control work and maintaining safety. But sometimes you just want to go skiing. “Want to head up to Powder Mountain?” my buddy asked. I didn’t take much convincing.

Within 30 minutes we were on our way north from Salt Lake City to the mellow vibes and fresh snow at Powder Mountain. Recent strong winds made for a double-edged sword: the smooth, buffed out snow was ridiculously fun and fast, but you had to pay attention to the occasional hardpan variable patch which could easily toss the less wary to the ground. The attendees at the SuperFly Open at Powder Mountain were clearly having a great time in the wind, with kites ripping up and down the open ridgelines.

With the biggest base I can remember at Powder Mountain, the skiing was simply off the hook. In typical Pow Mow fashion, we were feasting on fresh right to the last run of the day; something that never ceases to amaze me.

Tomorrow is the start of the SuperFly Open at Powder Mountain.  Don’t know what the SuperFly open is?

I’m talking about kiteboarding!  Still confused?

As an intro, kiteboarding is the generic term for any sport where a colorful kite is strapped to an athlete on surfboard, snowboard, skis, skateboard, etc. It’s a fast growing sport that has found a home here in Utah for those that slide on snow.  But it’s also catching on world wide.  Case in point. 

When the “Google Guys” do anything, the world seems to take notice. It’s a fact - Google’s founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are avid Kite Surfers, which they happen to enjoy mostly in the Pacific ocean of Northern California. 

Can’t relate to the Google Guys?  Ok, so I have a friend who skied powder inbounds and out of bounds every day for years.  After living and skiing in Utah for over a decade he up and moved to the Gulf of Mexico full time solely because he can kiteboard every day. Once in a while he’ll make his way to the mountains but in his words he said, “skiing powder has nothing on kiteboarding”. 

If you’ve ever watched hot air balloons launching, imagine someone on a pair of skis or snowboard ripping across the horizon using a special parachute and you’ll have some inkling of the intrigue of this sport.

Head up to Powder Mountain Friday-Sunday this weekend to catch a glimpse of this new sport.  Powder Mountain is the only ski area in Utah that offers a specific day pass for snow kiters, which provides access to the Sunrise Poma lift that accesses ideal terrain and winds for Snowkiting

There will be introductory kite clinics and you can watch some of the best snow kiters in the world showcase their talent. Powder Mountain’s grooming team has been busy building some fantastic “snow features.” (With over 12 feet of natural snow so far this year, there’s plenty of snow to mold into some EXCITING features!)

Check out www.superflyopen.com for the schedule and other info. 

When I first heard someone mention Powder Mountain I thought that someone was referring to the Magic Mountain attraction at Disney World. When I realized it was actually the name of a ski resort I was surprised that someone would be lame enough to call it that. Then I skied it!

Now that I have experienced the awesomeness that is Powder Mountain I fully understand why they would call it that.

When I hear “Powder Day” I think of floating, faceshots, and the white room. But closed canyons, long tram lines, and a mad dash to beat the crowd to freshies also come to mind.

At Powder Mountain it’s different. With no lift lines and endless powder terrain there is no reason to rush. Here you can enjoy your powder run with complete confidence that if you decide to do the same run again you will get just as many fresh tracks as the first time.

I went to Powder Mountain with the hope of finding powder stashes and letting you, the reader, know about them. The funny thing is, everywhere we looked there was powder and we never resorted to a pow stash hunt.

We spent the morning skiing laps on the Paradise Lift where we were amazed at how much untracked terrain was so easily accessible from the lift. We spent most of our time skiing the open bowl on the straight shot and powder horn runs.

At around mid-day the terrain below the lift was far from tracked out, however we noticed that no one was skiing it anymore. This made us question if there was something we didn’t know about.

We did some investigating and discovered Powder Country. The thing about Powder Mountain is that the base is at the top of a canyon road. This means that the Sunrise and Hidden Lake Express lifts you can access an extra 1,200 acres of terrain which lead down to the canyon road. There you are picked up by a shuttle bus. The bus is free and the terrain is super fun. It is something that every powder skier needs to do in their lifetime!

This video is from our friends at RideUtah.com - looks like another epic day at Powder Mountain.

Now… There is a little known secret about Powder Mountain. Hidden away a little past Pineview Reservoir is a great park with some great skiing. In addition to the resort skiing, Powder Mountain offers cat passes for only $10. For the small fee, you are taken up Lighting Ridge to some of the best untracked pow in northern Utah.

If you are looking for a special day, $300 gets you a full day of riding, lunch, and guided expeditions of this great area. With over 5500 acres of terrain, there is always powder to find at Powder Mountain.

Below is some video that we shot last Saturday. Thanks to Carolyn at Powder Mountain, and Mike Gillespie our Powder Guide for showing us a great time.

I should have clarified the title a bit - Powder Mountain has now opened the Paradise lift. And what a paradise it is.

The Paradise lift runs along an east/west running ridge for 1650′ vertical covering nearly 6000′ in length. Cliffs, spines, and all sorts of terrain features are littered along the ridge for your viewing and hucking pleasure. It’s one of those lift rides that truly gives you front row seats to all the action. But it’s what it doesn’t show you that is the paradise.

Like most ridge skiing the top few runs on both sides get hit the hardest. The pull of the powder is too much to bear for some. Remember when your mom said “patience is a virtue”? If you can manage a bit of patience here you’ll find paradise. Heading down the ridge if you pass up the obvious, maintain speed across the flat, wrap around the cliff feature going skiers left and then drop into the Eureka run area you’ll strike gold, white gold!

Of all the powder days I’ve had in Utah this little area of Powder Mountain has been the most consistent in delivering the goods time after time.

Paradise is now open, so go get yourself some powder.