Snowflakes were everywhere. On coffee mugs, T-shirts, key-rings. Huge posters of skiers covered in inconceivable amounts of snow adorned the walls. Salt Lake City airport’s arrivals hall left me in fear of being avalanched. “GREATEST SNOW ON EARTH!!” is the slogan yelled from every sign, souvenir and number plate I encountered. The state of Utah’s slogan is even a registered trademark, albeit one that is contested now and again.
Earlier this year, the Colorado ski resort of Steamboat sued Utah tourism officials for a campaign calling Salt Lake City “Ski City USA”, which it said infringed its “Ski Town, USA” trademark. Visit Salt Lake president Scott Beck admitted they were trying to lure skiers away from Colorado, which gets three times more skiers than Utah – 12.6 million skiers last season compared with 4.1 million.
There’s bound to be more such bickering if Utah fulfils its latest dream: to create the biggest linked ski area in the US. Fifteen resorts are scattered around Salt Lake, and with just a few extra lifts, seven major ones could potentially be connected, creating a skiable area of 18,000 acres. This project, called One Wasatch, is still theoretical, and though officials from all seven resorts are keen to make it happen, there is opposition from environmentalists.
The first major step is already under way, however. Vail Resorts, which owns two of the state’s biggest and best ski areas – Park City (which it bought in September) and the Canyons – is to connect the two for the first time with a high-speed gondola next season.
I had long dreamed of visiting this city of religious devotion to both God (Mormon-style) and the outdoors, whose resorts are synonymous with ski films and untracked slopes. And even though the famous trademarked powder failed to materialise for most of my trip, with so many places to choose from, there was always something new to explore.
From Salt Lake City it’s a 40-minute drive to Deer Valley, Park City and the Canyons on an I-80 highway full of trucks with skis and snowboards thrown in the back.
I headed to posh Deer Valley first, where huge groomers weaved in and out of expensive properties and small lift queues oozed politeness. It was as if a top-end British boarding school had transplanted itself into Utah and created a ski resort. I was never going to fit in; nor were any snowboarders: the resort is one of only three in the USA where snowboarding is banned.
This doesn’t seem likely to change any time soon because in September a judge ruled that snowboarders do not have a constitutional right to ride at Alta, another more extreme Utah resort where snowboarding is banned.
Peaceful, ordered and quiet, Deer Valley was a good first stop to get my ski legs back. By the end of day one I had remastered turning left.
Neighbouring Park City is both a ski resort and a town, and boasts an impressive amount of immaculate pistes, plus fun parks. It used to be an old silver-mining town, and the mining carts were used to transport the first skiers up the mountain.
I skied around the Jupiter, Thaynes and Motherlode lifts, which cover an area comprised entirely of double black diamond runs and where a sense of being somewhere wild and undeveloped remains. You can still see the old mine shafts and machinery.
In Jupiter bowl I found car-sized moguls. And a phrase that would torment me for the rest of the week was yelled by a passing skier: “This would be amazing on a powder day!” Sigh.
I headed into Park City town for solace and found it in a superb Moscow Mule served in a battered tin cup at the High West distillery. The arty Main Street was decked out in fairy lights and cowboy shops. Higgledy-piggledy bookstore Atticus rubbed shoulders with the Java Cow Cafe, which boasts a Banksy mural crafted during the Sundance Film Festival in 2010. The town has a chirpy twinkle, rife with ghost stories about headless hookers and soup-stirring poltergeists.
The Canyons resort is smart and well-kept too, with fun, easy pistes, avenues of silver birch and expert terrain of steep tree runs and bowls.
For the next part of the trip I travelled to the less obvious base of Ogden, 40 miles from Salt Lake City, an old junction railroad town whose streets sit over a network of tunnels used for smuggling booze during prohibition. The main action is on the revitalised 25th Street, where you can catch an art house film, get a tattoo and grab a vegan meal while a saxophonist serenades your walk. Looming in the background is the near 3,000-metre peak of Ben Lomond, said to have inspired the Paramount Pictures logo thanks to William Wadsworth Hodkinson, one of the founders of the studio, who grew up in Ogden.
From here, it’s a quick hop to the low-key resorts of Snowbasin, Solitude and Powder Mountain, of which only Solitude would be linked into the proposed mega-resort. I found powder at last in Snowbasin’s Middle Bowl Cirque, and at Powder Mountain, a “locals’’ hill, with a fun atmosphere in the Powder Keg saloon, where skiers chowed down on burgers and beers.
By 9am there was a snake of cars heading through Big Cottonwood Canyon and up to Solitude. Local superstition dictates that as you pass through Whispering Rock you hold your breath. Solitude, too, is like a moment stopped in time. It’s small and quiet, with some decently steep runs, and I hope if it does get connected to the other resorts it won’t lose its charming, peaceful vibe. Its Honeycomb Canyon area – so named because its sides are filled with mines – has no lifts in the canyon itself so you feel a sense of isolation despite the small dimensions of the resort. It’s still family-owned and after the slickness of Park City and Canyons, this homely feel was welcome.
The famously steep skiers’ resort of Alta, plus funky Snowbird and Brighton, were still to explore, but a storm blew in, creating a massive whiteout and I never got the chance. If the link-up happens I could have done them all in one day but that will have to wait. From what I tasted on my tongue, though, as I stopped outside Salt Lake City airport departures waiting for my snow-delayed flight, it was indeed some very, very good snow.
• Ski Safari (01273 224060, skisafari.com) offers holiday packages to five ski resorts in Utah. Stay seven nights at the four-star Newpark Resort & Hotel in Park City, room only from £1,215 per person, including flights and resort transfers. Ski Safari can tailor-make a Utah itinerary at the following resorts: Deer Valley, Canyons, Park City, Snowbird and Solitude
READERS’ TIPS – SKIING IN THE USA
Winning tip: Mount Bachelor, Oregon
Underrated and little-known, Mount Bachelor is snow-sure with winding, tree-lined pistes and plenty of accessible backcountry. It’s just one of the spectacular volcanic peaks which dot the western US.A ride on the “Summit Express” to the 9,000ft peak offers views across to the Three Sisters trio of peaks and numerous marked and unmarked routes back down the mountain. Cross-country skiing and snowmobiling are also popular activities in the area.
youcantalan
Waitsfield and Warren, Vermont
The twin Vermont ski villages of Waitsfield and Warren are a real joy, full of organic bakeries, artisan studios and friendly locals who frequent the range of après-ski bars and restaurants and make tourists feel welcome and valued.
nicolletta
Las Vegas Sk, Nevada
You probably don’t think of Vegas for skiing but there are some fun runs in the Spring mountains at an altitude around 2,800 metres, ranging from beginner to expert and the scenery is stunning. For après-ski, the Vegas strip is just down the road.skilasvegas.com
catchytitled
Mad River Valley, Vermont
Mad River Valley has breathtaking views of snow topped peaks and bohemian village communities like Waitsfield where locals run cafes bars and independent theatres which are a refreshing change from the national chains. The Big Picture House in Waitsfield is an uplifting après-ski experience, showcasing local bands, cult movies, dance classes and locally sourced food. Listen, Lounge and Linger is their invitation!
bigpicturetheater.info
foxthecox
The Mangy Moose, Wyoming
The Mangy Moose in Jackson Hole is a funky alternative to the rich cowboy ski bars in the area. A huge stuffed moose is visible from every part of the old style wooden bar and there’s is a great choice of local craft beers at $5 a glass in during happy hour. The food is cheap and hearty – huge, filling burgers from 11 bucks. The place really gets rocking when the free live music starts almost every night.
mangymoose.com
gallarate
Après-ski in Utah
Après-ski options are improving in the once alcohol-disapproving state of Utah. In Park City, for an après-ski drink with a local vibe head to No Name Saloon or to local brewery Wasatch, but for something different, and a petrolhead heaven, it has to be Billy Blancos for Tex Mex food beneath fully functioning cars and bikes.
callens17
Jackson’s power bowls, Wyoming
Too much hype is written about the legend of Corbet’s Couloir that it overshadows Jackson Hole’s true attraction: the unbridled joy of finding your own way down Rendezvous Mountain through a series of waist deep, feather light powder bowls. Get the first tram up to get the first ride down, navigating your way down to the Hoback’s. Then do it again. And again. And again. Four hours later after floating over what seemed like an endless sea of powder, we stopped at The Mangy Moose (see above) for Yard Sale Burgers - the perfect tonic before going out to do it all over again in the afternoon. I’ve skied many places around the world but that day was unparalleled.
tommalcolm
Mad River Glen, Vermont
This great little ski resort is a one-off, being owned by a co-operative since 1947. The slopes aren’t pisted and it still has a single chair lift. Serious black bump runs, tree skiing and groovy music from the big-bearded lift operators’ boom boxes. It’s unlike anywhere else I’ve ever skied.
cg1960
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