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Nov 05
Oct 15
There was a great article written yesterday on thestreet.com about ways to save some money while still enjoying the legendary fresh powder which the Utah ski resorts have to offer.
Why Utah? The best reason to go is the snow. The ski resorts closest to Salt Lake City average 430 inches per year — many received 700 last year (58 feet!) — and it’s almost always light, fluffy powder. Colorado, the Sierra Nevadas and even the Pacific Northwest get plenty of powder, too, but Utah’s dry climate and the effect of Great Salt Lake means exceptionally dry snowflakes, containing as little as 4% water. The result? Ice, a staple for East Coast and Midwestern snow riders, is virtually nonexistent. And in February, the sun shines about 60% of days.
Access and variety also separate Utah from the rest of the country. Seven ski areas lie within 38 miles of Salt Lake City International Airport, a major hub with 800 nonstop arrivals every day. There’s also the Utah Transit Authority, or UTA, a public transit system that can get you from the airport, downtown or just about anywhere else in the metro area to the lodge quickly and cheaply.
Alta, Brighton, The Canyons, Deer Valley, Park City Mountain Resort, Snowbird and Solitude, each with its own character (and price range), offer a combined 14,000 skiable acres, compared to 5,800 for the combined membership of Ski Vermont.
Here are some of the articles suggestions to save some money:
Plan ahead. From lodging to lift tickets and equipment rentals, everything is cheaper if you book early in the season, often before early December. Once you’re on the ground, remember that buying lift tickets and renting equipment before you get to the mountain can also save you money.
Stay in town. Try hotels and condos in Midvale, Cottonwood Heights or Sandy for easy access to the Cottonwoods. Downtown Salt Lake also works well, offering a short trip to Park City and a slightly longer one to the canyons. Check rates at the Residence Inn Salt Lake City Cottonwood or the Best Western Cottontree Inn. If you’re focused on Park City, poke around The Canyons resort and the town’s outskirts, because the town has a fabulous, free shuttle system that runs morning, noon and night.
Take the shuttle or city buses. Loading yourself, your equipment and your ski clothes onto a bus doesn’t sound like fun, but it’s cheap ($2.25 each way). Besides, even with a rental car, you may have to take public transportation to the Cottonwood resorts. Avalanches and avalanche prevention often shut down the roads, or restrict them to buses or four-wheel drive. If it snows overnight, call the resorts’ ski conditions hotlines for road information before you decide where to ski. If you do rent a car, consider your winter driving skills or an all-wheel/four-wheel-drive rental if you’re planning to drive up the canyons.
Scout out discounts. Deals abound, online and on the ground. Wherever you stay, they’ll likely offer discounted lift tickets for nearby resorts. Many offer the Salt Lake Super Pass, with discounts on one to six days of skiing at Alta, Brighton, Snowbird and Solitude (with a free day if you buy three days or more by Dec. 1). It’s also available from Ski-SaltLake.com, CheapTickets.com and other travel Web sites. The vouchers include rides on the UTA buses to the resorts. For the Cottonwoods and the Park City resorts (The Canyons, Deer Valley, Park City Mountain Resort), you can also buy tickets at area ski shops such as Canyon Sports or Ski ‘N See in Salt Lake (but not at Park City stores). You can save up to $18 — provided you buy before you head up.
Parks, pipe, and powder. Three words starting with the letter P for which Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) is well know for. It’s been awhile since I’ve skied over at PCMR and my excitement only multiplied when I arrived a little after opening in the parking lot to find hardly anyone else present. How can this be I thought? Then it dawned on me- Sundance Film Festival. Probably one of the most popular times of the year to be in Park City, UT is obviously one of the least popular times to be skiing or snowboarding in Park City, UT. Fine by me. As I collected turn after turn, my satisfaction grew. During my full day of skiing rarely did I have a traveling companion on the myriad of quads and six-seaters which PCMR has to offer.
It had been a few days since the last storm, but I was still able to find secret stashes of powder. Secret is a very lose term here as I did not have to look too hard to find the powder. That secret stash of powder might just be off one of PCMR’s Signature Runs waiting to be found by you. If powder isn’t your thing and you’d rather head into the parks and pipes, PCMR is the best place in America for that. 
With four different parks and one super pipe, feel free to display all the tricks that you have up your sleeve.
I learned my lesson. Next year I’ll be back at PCMR and just maybe it’ll be during the Sundance Film Festival.
I’ve had a few turns in Snowbird’s Mineral Basin over the years, but they’ve been of the sun-crusted, mogul-covered type. I’ve heard of the face shots and bottomless untracked powder that can be had in Mineral Basin, but to me, it was always just a dream. Could it ever be as good as people have told me? Could I ever time it just right to be there when the rope drops and the frenzy starts?
Snowbird, like Alta, gets tracked out pretty fast on a powder day. And, they both have their share of traverses that weed out the undetermined and reward the stalwart. This was a day of persistence, powder and payoff.
I dropped in with top-to-bottom face shots, then continued for lap after lap of waist-deep powder. I now know how good Mineral Basin can be.
The following shot was taken on the way up Mineral Express lift at 1:30 pm–still plenty of pow to be had!
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!
Today was another AMAZING day of Utah skiing. I came out west a few weeks ago to spend a month skiing the famous Wasatch
Mountains of Utah. It was Christmas Eve and I had only one thing on my Christmas wish list; Powder.
Well, Santa has been extra good the last two weeks. Since I got here it has snowed over 70 inches. During last weekend’s storm we drove the 23 miles from Salt Lake City to Solitude Mountain Resort. As more and more terrain opened up throughout the day there were constantly new powder lines to ride.
Today at Snowbird it was the same story. It was a day of continual freshies as new parts of the mountain were cleared and opened by ski patrol. My time out here has been great thus far and I know it is going to be another great year to ski Utah!
Hidden Lake Express. Powder Mountain. New Year’s Day. The two skiers next to me are discussing their Utah vacation during the holiday week. “I couldn’t believe how fast Solitude got tracked out yesterday!” I smile, and look happily at the acres of untracked pow spilling away beneath my skis…at about 1PM on a holiday. It was exactly why I was skiing Powder Mountain two days after the last big storm. I wanted to find out how well the lesser-known mountain to the north was living up to its name.
PowMow is a bit over an hour north of Salt Lake City. Which means that there are a lot of resorts tempting skiers to abandon the long drive…which means more pow for the few who make it all the way up.New Year’s was a cold, bluebird powder day—as good as it gets. While temps read -2 down in Huntsville, they warmed to a balmy 10 degrees at Powder Mountain’s base area. But the winds were calm, the sun was warm, and the snow was epic.
After a few laps off Paradise and Hidden Lake, it was time to sample the real goods: Powder Country and Lightning Ridge. These backcountry-style areas are the soul of Powder Mountain: sustained pitches, endless options for wide-open bowls or perfectly-spaced trees, and of course heaps of powder. The snow was a perfect creamy density; a bit heavier than the usual Utah blower underneath, with a light 5-6” skiff of fluff on top.
Lightning Ridge is accessed via snowcat at $10/ride. In years past, this involved grabbing a long tow rope behind the cat and being hauled up the mountain. To my surprise, this year they upgraded the cat to a huge cabin cruiser that can hold up to 18 skiers and snowboarders. Pure luxury.
A quick 10-minute ride lets you access nearly endless options – from shorter runs right back to the lifts, to hike-accessed descents from nearby James Peak. I couldn’t resist the easy shot from the top – a huge alpine face that runs straight back to the main lodge and parking lot. About seven high-speed turns through completely untracked pow, and I had the biggest smile I’d had all season plastered to my face. A perfect run to end the day with.
Lightning Ridge:
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.
This clip is from local backcountry skier Derek Wiess of Piton Productions who continually captures stunning video images from Utah’s backcountry. Most of the footage is from this past week which was a little pre-Christmas gift from the snow gods. With two storms on tap for next week it’ll be a white Christmas for sure.
Stay tuned and I’ll be posting a recap of the Lady Morgan opener today at Deer Valley. That lift is one not to miss if you’re headed to Utah! (that is if you’re into powder, gladed pines and steeps)
