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Powder Mountain beta.

Hoodoo

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First off, apologies as I'm dumping this in the NE thread. Alas, I cannot find any place for it to fit, otherwise.

Does anyone have experience with Powder Mountain? The idea that it is far enough away from the Wasatch front to keep the crowds minimal and the daily ticket sales cap make it intriguing. It reads as a huge mountain, but, much of it is only served by the single ride cat or bus, or so it seems? The layout is a bit confusing (both from a trail map and google maps standpoint).

Am I reading too much into the confusing/tough to get around part? I should mention that I'm a snowboarder, so, if long flat-ish traverses are required, that would be good to know.

I've done the Snowbasin, Solitude, Brighton thing more times that I can count. Looking for something new. I think Park City is gross. Deer Valley and Alta don't like me. Snowbird is a bit to radical for me.

Any info would be appreciated!!
 

1dog

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Oct 2, 2017
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First off, apologies as I'm dumping this in the NE thread. Alas, I cannot find any place for it to fit, otherwise.

Does anyone have experience with Powder Mountain? The idea that it is far enough away from the Wasatch front to keep the crowds minimal and the daily ticket sales cap make it intriguing. It reads as a huge mountain, but, much of it is only served by the single ride cat or bus, or so it seems? The layout is a bit confusing (both from a trail map and google maps standpoint).

Am I reading too much into the confusing/tough to get around part? I should mention that I'm a snowboarder, so, if long flat-ish traverses are required, that would be good to know.

I've done the Snowbasin, Solitude, Brighton thing more times that I can count. Looking for something new. I think Park City is gross. Deer Valley and Alta don't like me. Snowbird is a bit to radical for me.

Any info would be appreciated!!
Great mountain 30-45 mins west of Snow Basin. No real steep steeps, plenty of powder and open terrain, and a Cat ride ( used to be $7 a ride - thats how long I've been going) but plenty of lift served.
Problem is that it has been 'discovered'. Already building Canyons-type housing all around.

Worth the trip especially week days - have chains/4 wheel drive as you land mid-mountain and in snow - impossible to get there without those.
 

thetrailboss

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Get there soon. A group of young rich folks bought it in 2013 for their private playground and, as said, it is slowly changing. Lots of terrain. Great in a good snow year; avoid it if the snow levels are low. So far we are off to (yet another) good start. Hope the pace continues as we need water.
 

KustyTheKlown

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It is very large and has a very strange layout. It just kind of rolls and rolls off in all directions. They limit their day ticket numbers so it’s typically pretty mellow. Been once, had one huge awesome powder day. Going back for 2 days this year on my big Feb trip.
 

jimk

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I'm not a huge fan of it, but I only have one day there and I did not get to see/ski Powder Country. I rode the snowcat twice and that was fun, but most of the lift served terrain is pretty mellow. If you're only going a day or two it might be fine especially if you enjoy quiet, wide, intermediate slopes, but from my limited one-day sample, it was smaller and tamer than the acreage and trail map might imply.
 

crank

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It is mellow but not a lot of traversing or skating, in a boarder's case - walking.

In order to get full use of the 5,200 ( I think ) acres you do need to walk along a flat track that follows the ridge line and from that you can access tons and tons and tons of tree skiing and it all brings you to the same drainage so easy navigation and no worries about getting lost or cliffed out.

Powder Country is the areas on both sides of the canyon that lead you to the access road and the bus stop for a ride back up the the resort. Nice long run with a steeper pitch than most of the hill. Sometimes you might have to wait a bit for the bus to fill up. Sometimes you might get to the stop and there are more folks than the bus can fit and you will have to wait. It's not a long ride.

Lightning Ridge is the area where you can take a cat and they sell it as single runs, so like $20 or $30 or more per ride maybe it's been 5 or 6 years for me, for a ride to the top of a ridge where you will access a large cirque with a lot of terrain and it is somewhat steeper than the main hill as well.

The area is maybe 6 or 7 miles above Eden, UT and access is up steep windy, often snowy road. We've rented SUV's every time. One time we got stuck at the lodge for a few hours at the end of the day while they were clearing the road. That was a good day!

We were actually considering buying a condo in Eden but decided not to based on the new, yuppie owners. Haven't seen the place in 5 or so years but I don't think it looks anything like Deer Valley style development and some of the houses I have seen area actually not huge sprawling mansions. They seem like they are at some level trying to be socially and environmentally conscious.

All in all Pow Mow is one of our favorite hills. We have at least 10 or so days there over the years and my first time there was about 20 years ago. We may do a powder chase trip to SLC late January or early Feb. We have Ikon passes, but, if we do go we will buy tix and ski a day at Pow Mow.

A further note. I find storm totals can be very localized so what LCC is getting may not be what Powder Mtn. is getting.
 

KustyTheKlown

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one thing about powmow to be aware of is that it is lower than most of the other utah resorts. i was in utah for a huge but warm/wet cycle in feb 2020. it was a major interlodge event in LCC. a few days later we went to pow mow and fought a persistent crust layer bc it was too low for snow. the next day it snowed a foot at pow mow and we had a blast but that first day was rough. east coast crust on like 5000 acres of western style terrain.

it is mellow but is perfect for a dial back from alta/bird for a day or two
 

2planks2coasts

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One of my favorite mountains. The snow stays untracked for much longer than at other Utah resorts. A week spent staying in Ogden and using the bus to ski two days at PowMow, two at Snowbasin and even one at little Nordic Valley ranks among my best ski weeks ever.
 

snoseek

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Imo this place is perfect to cherry pick a fresh day, do that and you're in for an incredible time but I would never plan in advance or even set up a full vacation there as it gets weird sun/wind/lower elevation issues.
 

KustyTheKlown

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One of my favorite mountains. The snow stays untracked for much longer than at other Utah resorts. A week spent staying in Ogden and using the bus to ski two days at PowMow, two at Snowbasin and even one at little Nordic Valley ranks among my best ski weeks ever.

I'm stoked to check out Snowbasin this year. my big trip is 4 at jackson, 3 at sun valley, then 2 powmow 2 snowbasin 2 altabird
 

ThatGuy

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crank

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Snowbasin has some really nice terrain. Nothing that's gonna really give you pause but nice steepish pitches all over the hill combined with good top to bottom vertical runs. A few years ago I had a choice - 36" in LCC or 18" at Snowbasin. Big time FOMO but I chose Snowbasin and tracked untracked powder all day! Took some runs with JimK that day and we alos had a local guiding us and that, almost always, is a good thing.
 

2planks2coasts

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Snowbasin has some really nice terrain. Nothing that's gonna really give you pause but nice steepish pitches all over the hill combined with good top to bottom vertical runs. A few years ago I had a choice - 36" in LCC or 18" at Snowbasin. Big time FOMO but I chose Snowbasin and tracked untracked powder all day! Took some runs with JimK that day and we alos had a local guiding us and that, almost always, is a good thing.
Mad respect if those Olympic starts off the Snowbasin tram don't give you pause. Those are steeeep.
 

jimk

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Snowbasin has some really nice terrain. Nothing that's gonna really give you pause but nice steepish pitches all over the hill combined with good top to bottom vertical runs. A few years ago I had a choice - 36" in LCC or 18" at Snowbasin. Big time FOMO but I chose Snowbasin and tracked untracked powder all day! Took some runs with JimK that day and we alos had a local guiding us and that, almost always, is a good thing.
@crank was cranking out some fine turns on March 5, 2018 at Snowbasin, UT! :snow:

Thanks for scratching my memory.

Stoke meter was high riding the Snowbasin tram on a powder day:
crank snowbasin tram.JPG
crank1.JPG
crank2.JPGcrank3.JPGcRANK4.JPGme and crank.JPG
 
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machski

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Snowbasin has some really nice terrain. Nothing that's gonna really give you pause but nice steepish pitches all over the hill combined with good top to bottom vertical runs. A few years ago I had a choice - 36" in LCC or 18" at Snowbasin. Big time FOMO but I chose Snowbasin and tracked untracked powder all day! Took some runs with JimK that day and we alos had a local guiding us and that, almost always, is a good thing.
IDK, did you see the new Warren Miller film this year? They featured a kid that won the ski in WM sweeps there, they were skiing the fingers which are supposedly inbounds. Pretty sure those lines would give me pause.
 
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