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.
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.
