by High above the Great Salt Lake and copper shaft mines that run three miles deep, Utah’s Wasatch Mountain Range looms large, with a rugged expression and a tree line that often stretches up to its brow. Meaning “slanted mountain pass” in the language of the Native American Shoshone tribe, it is the high-altitude sierra that leads the Rocky Mountains into a desert full of dinosaur bones. But in recent winter seasons, the Wasatch has become known for something else: as the most impressive place to go skiing in North America.
Last winter, all records were broken, as the best snowfall in 40 years hammered Utah and the final dates of the extended season towards the blazing summer sun. I skied three of their 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 evening, all selections were made with heavy snow storms. The good times only ended on June 18, when Snowbird, the last resort to stay open, finally closed.
For all that, Utah is best known to the British as the land of red rock, the all-American destination of horseshoe arches, desert mesas and tombstone pillars. These are the United States of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Thelma and Louise. You are probably familiar with Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, or Zion National Parks. Maybe less than that marooned ski lifts high above snowy cliffs.
But the Wasatch, as little as a plane-to-piste transfer an hour from the gates of Salt Lake City, undergoes a terrible transformation every winter, and there is now a claim that it is the only known alternative to Colorado or California. Or, as the locals like to say in the spirit of utter provocation, the powder capital of North America.
Snowman
I started in Snowbird. Utah’s Little Cottonwood Canyon has an incredible reputation as home to the most dangerous snow road in the country. Steep canyon walls follow the highway as it ascends for seven miles and snow blocks access as often as it falls. World War II Howitzer cannons explode almost daily to trigger slides below 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 a virgin piste in the sunshine, despite the avalanche-prone mountain Superior looming across the valley. Before that, at the ski rental base station, I asked how Snowbird was coping with so much snowfall. The big fear was that the resort’s main tram route could not be dug up. Weeks before, he was neck-deep for the first time in his history.
Snowbird opened in 1969 and the resort styles itself as a full resort, 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, which could have been a conveyor belt-cum-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.
The few options at Snowbird, Alta., are just as beautiful, although you have to make allowances for the harsh American prejudice: Utah’s oldest lift-serving resort is for skiers only. Let that slide, though, and know that Alta received 903 inches (22.9 meters) of snow last year, the most recorded at any resort in state history.
Powder Mountain
The road north to the low-key resorts around the town of Ogden seems like the perfect remedy for those who think Little Cottonwood Canyon is too busy. Powder Mountain caps the number of days that go to 1,500 skiers and, when I arrived, the glades were powder-laden, the slopes were empty and the choice was blinded by falling snow that rolled in as fast as fog.
Behind the fact that Utah has the most snow anywhere is a meteorological anomaly caused by the influence of the Great Salt Lake on precipitation. As Powder Mountain ski instructor Loel York told me, it’s a magical formula called “floating” in which the sky appears besieged by dense clouds, the mountains draped with streams of light, constantly spinning.
“The lake effect creates a steady stream of fluffy snow,” he said, as we rode in one of many empty wheelchairs that day. “It gives us the opportunity to ski the same run every day, as if for the first time. And for our terrain without lifts, we have a snowcat.”
That snowcat costs a paltry $25 (£20), opening up large pools and easy-access slides that give it a piste map on a much larger scale than big operators like Vail and Whistler Blackcomb. For a while, we skied on rutted trails and across a snow-glazed plateau once used as a sheep pasture.
In the distance were the bright lights of Ogden, where the realization of America’s first transcontinental railroad created a boom town in the late 1860s. These days, it retains its Old West vibe with brewpub saloons, goldrush-themed pawn shops and historic 25th Street, which simplifies après-ski with a run of great bars and restaurants.
With more time, I’d like to visit Ogden’s closest resort, Snowbasin, which was once empty and wild and is now undergoing significant expansion. But I already had another destination in mind.
Sundance Mountain Resort
In the years since Robert Redford bought this wilderness range under Mount Timpanogos, the Hollywood actor has turned it into a ski-art arcade and today its new owners keep fast to its original principles. Steep spruce funnel into wide basins, wooden lodges where art classes and film festival premieres are held, vast areas of spruce forest remain fenced off from development.
What the option means to those who have watched it grow in recent years has also changed. “Since Redford sold it to its new owners, the ski area has improved,” ski patrolman Tracy Christensen told me. “They have really put their minds to creating a destination of choice.”
I spent the afternoon with a Wasatch Backcountry Rescue veteran and his nine-year-old black Labrador Jagger and, as we explored Sundance’s newest bowl, which has opened 10 new runs, he told me that the 2023 season was on the most unforgettable in 30. years. At the top of one lift, it highlighted snow in a cold sparkling light. Somewhere deep below was an invisible measuring pole.
After spending a day with Tracy and Jagger I concluded that these resorts have an honesty and freedom that you struggle to find in California or Colorado. Forgetting its newfound snow fame for a moment, perhaps that’s what makes Utah the unsung hero of stateside skiing.
Fundamentals
Ski Safaris (skisafari.com) offers a 14-night Utah Powder Hunter and National Parks itinerary, including Snowbird, Alta, Powder Mountain and Snowbasin, from £3,675pp, based on two sharing, including flights, accommodation and rent a car.
America As You Like It (americaasyoulikeit.com) has an 11-night Dark Skies and Winter Highlights flight, including Snowbird, Alta, Powder Mountain and Snowbasin, from £2,740pp, based on two sharing, with includes flights, accommodation and car. hire For more information on Utah see visitutah.com
Mike MacEacheran was a guest at Visit Utah.
