What To Do When New England Sucks?

Head west where any fool knows the skiing’s best!

Returning from a late January trip to Alta/Snowbird, Snowbasin and Powder Mountain, Bob Thomas reports that there is no shortage of snow in Utah. 

The Alta/Snowbird segment, which included daughter Nonie Thomas, fellow Hochies Steve Masur and Kim Sceili, Charlie Ford, Patrick Driscoll, Willy Fox and Keith Boivin, and another 25 or so assorted friends and family, featured so much snow that it crushed the fence into the #2 hot tub at the Peruvian. At the time of their visit, almost 40 feet of snow had already fallen at Alta, with a base depth of about 10 feet.  At Alta, the group enjoyed ropes dropping at Backside, Catherine’s Area, and Devil’s Castle, where huge stashes of powder had been carefully preserved several days after the latest storm.  On the Snowbird side, plenty of soft snow remained in the woods, and deeply corduroyed groomies were enjoyed on all parts of the mountain, especially Mineral Basin.

 After a 5 day powder fest at Alta/Snowbird, Bob, Steve, Kim, Patrick and Willy (unfortunately Charlie, who had planned to join this group, sustained an injury at Alta) carried on to Steve and Kim’s house in Ogden to ski Snowbasin and Powder Mountain.  If you’ve been to Snowbasin, you’ll know that the mountain is owned by the same folks who own Sun Valley, and that they have replicated the astoundingly opulent lodges and infrastructure found at Sun Valley.  But unlike Sun Valley, which is served by upmarket lodging and extravagant homes housing the 1%, there is virtually no lodging at Snowbasin.  The result is that the place is largely the province of locals and die-hard weekenders, just like Cannon! -  but with five-star infrastructure covering a massive mountain, all buried in abundant snow.  Serviced by an extensive network of high-speed quads and gondolas, huge amounts of vertical can easily be skied on any given day, both off-piste and on.

Powder Mountain presents an entirely different character. With 6,464 skiable acres, Powder boasts the most skiable acres of any resort in the North America.  But this immense expanse is serviced by only 9 lifts, most of them old and slow, along with an affiliated network of buses and snow cats which appear at key locations across the mountain.  Most of the terrain is unmarked and off-piste.  This setup presents a challenge for the uninitiated, but a bonus for anyone having a local guide like Steve Masur! -  who having grown up skiing the mountain, knows every nook and cranny and was able to guide the party…. one moment to an aspen grove sheltering untouched powder, the next to a steep, treed, knee-deep slope leading to an awaiting return bus, and the next to an idling snow cat providing access to vast expanses of open powder fields.  The scene is decidedly local and appealingly grizzled.  Lunchtime victuals consisted of craft beers, A-plus wings, and banh mi sandwiches consumed in a lively, dark and low-ceilinged tavern crammed with hard-core regulars not unlike some of the folks found noshing at Cannon’s upper tramhouse, or in the Cannonball pub.

Let is snow – Bob Thomas