Brighton, Utah: January 31, 2014

Resort: Brighton Resort, Utah


Date: January 31, 2014


Conditions/Weather: P/PP; Light snow showers after 10-15" of fresh Utah pow.


Trip No.: 14


Trip Report: After now almost three years in Utah, this was my first time to Brighton and it was the last of the Cottonwoods resorts for me to visit. Overall, I was very impressed.

I organized a Bar event and was going to have a training session, dinner, and skiing with other lawyers. We were able to get a good deal for our event with "twilight skiing" from 12:30-9pm. I pulled in at 12:15 expecting an empty parking lot and was instead met with a full lot of cars. Despite that, I pulled into a nice spot right in front of the A-frame lodge that was reminiscent of Pats Peak.


I met my co-organizers, booted up, and set out onto the Crest Express that offered some good variety day and night. We went down Pacific Highway to Wren Hollow and Lost Maid to the Milly Access. We hit some nice snow in the trees on and off the trails:







This is heaven for fans of narrow trails. Most of the terrain on the main mountain was just that—narrow runs snaking through softwoods and hardwoods with good Utah snow. It was very reminiscent of Alta’s wooded trails.


We took Milly Express intent on trying out the open Scree Slope, but it was pretty visibly thin so we went down Back Bone to Devil’s Dip and Chute 2 to Canyon and back to Majestic. This side was tricky because it had just enough snow to cover up those rocks just below the surface and, as anyone who has been to Brighton in the summer can tell you, Millicent is a lot of rock and ledge.





Devil’s Dip:





After a brief stop at the lodge, I headed back up Crest and headed down a bumped up Wintergreen to Snake Creek Express. I disembarked and looked right to see Snake Bowl ready for the taking:





It did not take too long to see that trees was Brighton’s strong suit. I was ready to dive in:



I made my way to Great Western Express keen on trying that side because it would not be available under the lights and there were some good tree lines. Good choice…it was where I spent most of my time exploring with the rockered skis:




Endless Winter to some crazy thin ledge and trees:








Mandatory selfie:




That nasty ledge:








Because I dumped out on Lone Star and at the Snake Creek Express, I hit Hard Coin for some more tree action:





And then fell into Pioneer:





I did three spins on Great Western hitting trees and parts of Elk Park, Wrangler, Aspen Glo, and Golden Needle. Very entertaining:











Our presentation was from 4:00-6:30 and afterwards I had a couple hours to explore the night offerings with one of my presenters who had been a passholder the previous season. We hit Thunder Road, Scout, Wintergreen, Hawkeye, Tantamount, Snow Drift, Pacific Highway, Lower Majestic, Lower Mary, and the other night terrain. Overall I was impressed with the variety and the cover that held up quite well. Though there were lots of folks the trails never felt crowded. The lighting was, overall, very good with only one spot that needed some help. They had groomers, bumps, and some trees.

Overall I was quite impressed….very cool vibe and nice terrain. It lacks the bowl skiing of Alta or Snowbird, but has better trees and trails with the same good snow. Boyne passholders would do well to visit it when out here. It is a lot of fun.

TB, Now do you see why I like to ski Brighton during a storm? Hard Coin is great and even better when each time you enter it it has fresh snow. Glad you had a good time, now you need to get back to Solitude and hit Honeycomb Canyon on a powder day. I'm a huge fan of BCC.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

4aprice said:

TB, Now do you see why I like to ski Brighton during a storm? Hard Coin is great and even better when each time you enter it it has fresh snow. Glad you had a good time, now you need to get back to Solitude and hit Honeycomb Canyon on a powder day. I'm a huge fan of BCC.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

Click to expand...

I can see how, if paired up with Solitude, that BCC would be good. Alta and Snowbird are higher and have more open terrain though. All four together provide good variety.

Honestly I'd say that Canyons has better diversity of glades and better pitch overall, but Brighton has better snow in its trees. I really was surprised how narrow the trails were...you really could not see many "trails" from any one vantage point which was neat. There was some above treeline stuff that could be had, but not much of it. Then again windholds are probably never an issue.

It had a nice layout--lifts fanning out of one base area offering good long runs with some good vertical. It was nice to be able to take one lift and ski the whole mountain instead of skiing the mountain in chunks. And, even though the HSQ's were older, they were all fast and well-maintained. The lodges were odd...three separate buildings...and the A-frame one was getting pretty shopworn (Molly Greens is pretty cool). The night skiing was pretty good...lots of variety and vertical. And, as sad as it is, Brighton has Alta and Snowbird beat on snowmaking. They opened two full weeks before either Alta or Snowbird and their groomed runs have good base...both natural and manmade.

From what I've read and seen it looks like Boyne/CNL owns it, the Doyles still run it. I say that because other Boyne properties have been upgraded/have a higher profile than Brighton. Things are pretty laid back here and it's really a local's place. I doubt that, like Solitude, most folks outside of Utah don't even know of it.

Great Western lift closes a lot for wind, but Snake Creek is very sheltered. Surprisingly some of those days (storm days) that I have seen Great Western shut, Millicent was protected even with the more open summit. Always seemed to me to be a locals mountain, but their prices (not as much now as before Boyne) are the cheapest and as you pointed out great trees and great elevation. BTW did you catch the view of Timpangos off the back of Snake Creek or was the ceiling too low?

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

Looks like a great time. I need to get out there!

been there three times and love the place!
thanks for posting the pictures

Great Pics, the trees look Sweet with the exception of the nasty ledge !
Nice report…ready to move now !