Utah
Ski Utah
The profile of Utah ski resorts has certainly increased since the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in
Salt Lake City. Many ski resorts in Utah are now considered world class resorts as they continue to develop their infrastructure.
Utah claims to have the “Greatest Snow on Earth”. With characteristically light dry powder, and at least four resorts renowned for huge snowfalls with an average of 12.7 metres (500 inches) per season, Utah is certainly up there as a superb powderhound skiing destination.
Where are the Utah Ski Resorts?
Many of the resorts are within close vicinity of each other so it’s possible to get a taste of multiple ski areas during your holiday. Ease of access is also a feature of many of the resorts considering that Salt Lake International airport is not far away.
Some of the resorts are grouped together.
There are three resorts in the
Park City area which are
Park City Mountain Resort,
Deer Valley (no snowboarding) &
The Canyons.
The
Cottonwood Canyons receive more snowfall than the Eastern slope of the Wasatch range. In
Little Cottonwood Canyon which is the southeast corner of the Salt Lake Valley are
Alta (snowboard free) and the interconnected
Snowbird, which has some very challenging terrain.
Big Cottonwood Canyon is also in the southeast corner of the Salt Lake Valley to the north of Little Cottonwood Canyon, and has
Solitude Ski Resort and
Brighton Ski Resort.
There are also resorts in the
Ogden Valley including
Powder Mountain and
Snowbasin.
The
Provo area features the
Sundance Resort.
Furthest north in Utah is Beaver Mountain, and Brian Head is in southern Utah just 2.5 hours from Las Vegas.
Click on the table below for distances and times between Salt Lake City, the SLC airport and between Utah ski resorts. Also see the Utah ski resorts map in the top right hand corner of this page.
Utah Skiing
The Utah ski resorts all vary significantly. Snowbird and the resorts around Park City have a high profile. Subsequently the crowds tend to flock to these ski resorts. Conversely some resorts fly under the radar and have fewer visitors (e.g.
Powder Mountain,
Solitude). Some of these lower profile resorts also have undeveloped infrastructure, but with fewer people on the slopes the chances of skiing or boarding untracked powder is much greater. Another plus is that the lesser known resorts have much cheaper lift tickets. Our
USA ski resort comparison document outlines the difference in lift ticket prices and other mountain statistics such as vertical, hectares of terrain, and annual average snowfall.
Utah Snow and Weather Conditions
Utah is the dry state in many respects. It’s a misconception that it’s not possible to get a drink in Utah, but the desert air is so dry that you’ll need to apply Chapstick every 5 minutes. The snow is also incredibly dry and the infamous Salt Lake Effect is partly attributable for this. The salt lake never freezes, and as storms blow over the lake, moisture is picked up and dropped on the mountain ranges in the form of super dry powder. The snow at
Alta ski resort typically contains only 5-7% water, which is lovely in comparison to the Sierra Cement of the Lake Tahoe region that typically has snow with 10-15% water content.
Utah can receive all types of weather, but generally the temperatures are not too cold. White-outs are not a major problem, and all the resorts have lots of terrain below the tree line, so if there is inclement weather there’s always somewhere to hide.
Why Ski Utah?
It’s pretty obvious really - Utah is the powder skiing capital of USA!!
The profile of skiing in Utah is much lower than in neighbouring Colorado. Many attribute this to the stereotype that one cannot get a drink in Utah, and that the state is not quite “normal”. Of course this is far from the case, and the low profile of Utah skiing is of benefit to powderhounds who don’t have to share the fresh powder with many people.
Alta and
Solitude have been given the coveted award from Powderhounds.com of “5 paws out of 5” for being a ski resort ideal for powderhounds. The other Utah ski resorts also score pretty well in the powderhounds stakes, and
Park City Mountain Resort gets an “overall” award for the
best skiing in USA.