The Trailboss Utah Drive By Series. Stop # 2: Brighton

[thetrailboss]

Well, as suggested in the Solitude write-up, the next logical stop was of course at the end of the road; Brighton.

Brighton was the first ski area in Utah, founded by the Wasatch Club only a year or so before Alta.

Up here they had not gotten the memo that it was July and winter was over.

The base area is pretty cool with a collection of buildings from different eras:

The new Milly Express:

Mount Millicent:

I hiked across the parking lot, up under the Great Northern Express, and over to Snake Creek Express. The snow depth was amazing:

Looking toward the summit of Great Northern Express:

Edge-to-edge, and Brighton had been closed for almost three months:

I hiked down to towards Powder Alley and the base area:

The old 1950's lodge and old school HSQ:

And heading away from the mountain:

I was surprised by the amount of maintenance/work being done at the area, with several guys working on groomers, chairs, landscaping, etc.

For some reason, I compare this place to Bolton Valley, probably because of the trail layout with a central base and lifts going in three different directions with the central part of the mountain being flat. The trees did look good and the upper reaches of the mountain (too much snow for my day hikers to get through) looked fun. The night skiing would be interesting to try.

An interesting stop. Next stop: Olympic Park.

 

[4aprice]

I can see the comparison to Bolton. I think Brighton is a little healthier financially. Brighton is where I like to go if its storming. Like someone said in your Solitude thread it has some excellent tree skiing and its trails (like off Snake Creek) are narrower then typical western skiing. Snake Creek is a pretty protected lift too. Night skiiing is pretty limited there (I think off Crest and the fixed quad with the park and the little triple). They definately had use for that beast snowthrower this year. The wall of snow was about 15 feet high when I was ther in April.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[ski220]

Haven't been there since the new Milly express went in but, the old lift was one of the scariest lifts I've been on. It was a center post double with virtually no railings. When you went over the chasm ....... Long way down!

And Clayton peak was fun before they put a lift up there.

Ah, progress.