Snowbasin, Powder Mountain and Alta 1/14/07 - 1/19/07

[RISkier]

Date(s) Skied: 1/14/07 through 1/19/07

Resort or Ski Area: Powder Mountain, Snowbasin, and Alta

Conditions: See below

Trip Report:

A little background: My wife and I are intermediates who are comfortable on most groomers. We aspire to increase the range of conditions and terrain that we can comfortably ski. So we’re dabbling a little in off piste terrain. Utah has not had an epic snow year and local were complaining about the lack of snow. That said, we generally found the groomers to be excellent. The off piste into which we ventured was somewhat thin though some expert skiers in our group were managing to have a fantastic time off piste. Temps were cold which was good for snow preservation. Days were sunny.

We skied Powder Mountain on Sunday 1/14/07 and Wednesday 1/17/07. It’s very retro with a very friendly vibe and we felt like we were almost alone on the mountain. Other than the Hidden Lake Express, all of the lifts are slow and we got to ride our first button Poma. The groomed terrain was soft and there is a ton of off piste terrain on which venture without getting into any trouble. What we saw was mostly relatively low angle. Higher level skiers would probably be happier with the snowcat and/or heli served terrain, though we were told that stuff was in need of more snow. Powder Mountain is an almost perfect place for folks looking to venture off the groomed. Lodges were old school and food choices very limited, though we found the burgers excellent.

We skied Snowbasin on Monday 1/15/07, Thursday 1/18/07 and Friday /19/07. In some ways, Snowbasin is the antithesis of Powder Mountain. Almost all of the terrain can be accessed from three modern lifts. These are the Needles and Strawberry Gondolas or the John/Paul High Speed Quad. A tram serves the start of the mens’ and womens’ downhill race courses. We spent very little time on any other lift. The lodges have to be seen to be believed. You feel like you’re in a 5* hotel. The lodges have beautiful carpeting, amazing dark woodwork, leather chairs, etc. The stalls in the restrooms have heavy wooden doors, the counters are marble, etc. And there is classical music in the background. Truly unbelievable! We had lunch in Earls Lodge twice and the John/Paul lodge once. Food was outstanding and the goofy thing is the cost was about what you’d spend at a normal cafeteria. Even though the infrastructure was very high end, the vibe was not at all snooty and we found the folks working there to be very friendly. Conditions were similar to Powder Mountain. Groomers were very good to excellent and long (2500+ feet of continuous vertical). Off piste needed more snow but our high level friends reported some very interesting adventures. We skied part of the downhill course and I can’t really believe that anyone would point them straight down and let them run; probably the steepest terrain onto which I’ve ventured. Snowbasin probably would not be great for novices or early intermediates. There’s not much green terrain away from the beginner area, and the greens that exist carry lots of traffic back down to the Earls lodge area.

We drove to Alta on Tuesday 1/16/07. We had skied our legs off on Monday so we took it pretty easy at Alta though we managed to ski off every running lift (except the beginner lift and little transfer lifts). Snow depths were greater and the snow was softer than at either Powder Mountain or Snowbasin. But again snow was not epic by Alta standards. Though we loved both Powder Mountain and Snowbasin, Alta is really a special place that is still our favorite.

[kingslug]

Try Solitude next time. Some of the best grooming in Utah and great tree sking and some bowls. Always empty too.

[jct]

Thanks so much for the trip report. We have been doing some research for a trip out west and your report supplied great info.