by High above the Great Salt Lake and copper mines that stretch three miles deep, Utah’s Wasatch Range looms large, with a wrinkled expression and a tree line that often reaches to your forehead. The high-altitude mountain range, which means “sloping mountain pass” in the language of the Shoshone Native American tribe, is where the Rocky Mountains narrow into a desert littered with dinosaur bones. But in recent winter seasons, Wasatch has become known for something else: as the most memorable place to ski in North America.
Last winter, all records were broken, when the best snowfall in 40 years hit Utah and season closing dates stretched into the scorching summer sun. I skied three of its 15 resorts in late March: Snowbird in Little Cottonwood Canyon; Powder Mountain in the Ogden Valley; and Sundance Mountain Resort, once owned by Robert Redford. Every night, heavy snow storms hit all the resorts. The good times didn’t end until June 18, when Snowbird, the last resort that remained open, finally closed.
For all that, Utah is best known to the British as red rock country, the quintessentially American destination of horseshoe arches, desert mesas, and tombstone rock pillars. This is the United States of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Thelma and Louise. You’re probably familiar with Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, or Zion National Parks. Perhaps not so much for its abandoned ski lifts atop snowy cliffs.
But the Wasatch, just an hour’s plane-to-strip ride from Salt Lake City, undergoes a fascinating transformation each winter, and now claims to be the informed alternative to Colorado or California. Or, as the locals like to say in a spirit of utter provocation, the gunpowder capital of North America.
cocaine addict
I started at Snowbird. Utah’s Little Cottonwood Canyon has an unenviable reputation for being home to the most dangerous snowy road in the country. The steep canyon walls lean over the road as it ascends for seven miles, and snow blocks access as regularly as it falls. World War II howitzer guns fire almost daily to trigger slides from less than 2,500m and keep everyone safe and moving.
I couldn’t believe my luck. In the weeks before I arrived, 705 inches (17.9 meters) of snow had fallen, and there I was, skiing pristine slopes in the sun, despite the avalanche-prone Mount Superior glowering on the other side. from the valley. Before that, at the base station ski rental, I asked how Snowbird was coping with so much snow. The great fear was not being able to excavate the station’s main tram. Weeks before, he had been up to his neck for the first time in his history.
Snowbird opened in 1969 and the resort presents itself as an all-rounder, with Grand Prix-style groomers and several off-piste bowls, all easily accessible from its upper stations. A trip between the two main ski areas, made possible by a conveyor belt and history museum blasted through the mountain, took me to a series of double black diamond descents and views of the Colorado Plateau and neighboring Alta.
Snowbird’s sister resort, Alta, is just as beautiful, though you have to have a tolerance for staunch American prejudices: Utah’s oldest ski-lift resort is for skiers only. However, let’s let that slide and know that Alta received 903 inches (22.9 meters) of snow last year, the most recorded by any resort in state history.
dust mountain
The highway north to the unassuming resorts surrounding Ogden City seems like the perfect cure for those who might think Little Cottonwood Canyon is too busy. Powder Mountain limits daily passes to 1,500 skiers, and when I arrived, the glades were loaded with powder, the slopes empty, and the resort blinded by snowfall that came as fast as fog.
Behind the assumption that Utah has the most snow in the world is a meteorological anomaly caused by the impact of the Great Salt Lake on precipitation. As Powder Mountain ski instructor Loel York told me, it’s a magic formula known as “floating” that sees the sky besieged by dense clouds, the mountains ambushed by constantly light spinning gusts.
“The lake effect creates constantly fluffy snow,” he said, as we rode one of the many empty chairlifts that day. “This gives us the opportunity to ski the same slope every day, as if it were the first time. And for our terrain without lifts, we have a snowplow.”
That plow costs $25 (£20) per drop, opening up vast basins and easy-access chutes that give you a piste map on a much larger scale than larger operators like Vail and Whistler Blackcomb. For a time, we skied on roller coasters and traversed a snow-covered plateau that was once used as a grazing field for sheep.
In the distance were the bright lights of Ogden, where the construction of America’s first transcontinental railroad created a boomtown in the late 1860s. Today, it retains its Old West atmosphere with breweries, pawn shops with a gold rush theme and historic 25th Street, making après-ski simple with a host of fantastic bars and restaurants.
Given more time, I would have visited the closest resort to Ogden, Snowbasin, which was once empty and wild and is now undergoing significant expansion. But she already had another destination in mind.
Sundance Mountain Resort
In the decades since Robert Redford bought this swath of wilderness beneath Mount Timpanogos, the Hollywood actor has turned it into an arcadia where skiing meets art, and today its new owners cling to its original principles. Steep ravines empty into wide basins, log cabins host art classes and film festival premieres, and huge tracts of spruce forests remain protected from development.
What the resort means to those who have seen it grow has also changed in recent years. “Since Redford sold it to its new owners, the ski area has improved,” ski patrol Tracy Christensen told me. “They really have their mind set on creating a tourist destination.”
I spent the afternoon with the Wasatch Backcountry Rescue veteran and his nine-year-old black Labrador Jagger, and as we explored Sundance’s newest bowl, which opened 10 new races, he told me that the 2023 season was the most unforgettable in 30 years. At the top of an elevator, he pointed to a pile of snow in the cold, bright sunlight. Somewhere deep down there was an invisible measuring stake.
After spending a day with Tracy and Jagger, I came to the conclusion that these resorts have an honesty and freedom that is difficult to find in California or Colorado. Forgetting its newfound snow fame for a moment, perhaps that’s what makes Utah the unsung hero of American skiing.
Essentials
Ski Safaris (skisafari.com) offers a 14-night Utah Powder Hunter and national parks itinerary, including Snowbird, Alta, Powder Mountain and Snowbasin, from £3,675 per person, based on two people, including flights, accommodation and rental of cars.
America As You Like It (americaasyoulikeit.com) has an 11-night Dark Skies and Winter Highs plane trip, including Snowbird, Alta, Powder Mountain and Snowbasin, from £2,740 per person, based on two shared trips, including flights, accommodation and car. hire. For more information about Utah, visit visitutah.com.
Mike MacEacheran was a Visit Utah guest.
