My buddy skis and I board. We're in our late fifties. Every year we go somewhere out west (live in Maryland). Last year we visited his kid out in Logan, UT so we hit Beaver and Powder. This year we're looking for lots of good blue trails and nice accommodations right at the base of some place where we can walk to the lifts. My research came up with Snowmass, and his came up with Brighton. Love to hear some opinions from folks and other suggestions. Again...looking for lots of great blues...we avoid anything above that.
Brighton is a great resort, but not a lot of accommodations. You'd be better off going to solitude, which is right before brighton. They are basically connected and you can buy a pass for both resorts.
Park city resorts might be better for what you're looking for. You have a great little town that leads right up to Park City Mountain Resort. Very nice accommodations, and more of a beginner/intermediate resort. Even then, if you get bored of that resort, you have the Canyons 5 minutes down the road, or you could even hit Snowbird, Solitude or Brighton which would be probably 30 minutes.
here is a great overview to give you an idea of the area of salt lake and park city utah
I feel like that pole is a bunch of sh1t, seriously one resort from Utah(park city REALLY?!?!?) and BC in the top 10 and 5 from Colorado and 2 from California and NOTHING from Wyoming and Montana?!?!?!!?
Gimme a break I've ridden most of those resorts personally so I'm assuming they must be rated on the quality of weed and beer available and not actual terrain and snow conditions.
Brighton does now have onsite lodging and you can access both Brighton and Solitude(both very uncrowded and not uber steep) from either resort, you can even get a single pass to access both called a "Solbright pass"
Just out of curiosity what did you think of powder mountain, not much for nightlife or bar\ restaurants but it's our favorite resort for terrain and vibe\people.
Wasn't on your list but Copper Mtn has some sweet, long blue terrain of American Eagle lift. It has some pretty good apre ski spots if your into that sort of thing. Can get pretty packed on a weekend though.
Any packed weekend in Summit County and Copper is going to have some of the shortest lines. Mellow vibe at Copper, doesn't get the attraction of Breck and Vail but tons of great blues and even a groomed black on the east side (Rosie's Run takes a turn off a blue and is a mogul free drop straight down to the lift, great fun!). Condos are available at the base.
Secret Copper Local tip: Super Bee is a high speed 6man lift that services the east village. There are tons of signs everywhere that say "NO BEGINNER TERRAIN" (but there are plenty of fun long blues) on the shuttles to east village as well as all over the moutain if you head there. This keeps alot of tourists, missile kids and other undesirables away offering shorter lift lines to long runs on a crowded day. Ladder up a couple intermediate lifts on that side of the mountain and you wont wait in line much even if its crowded.
Copper has a more authentic vibe than alot of the other top tier resorts which have a more Disney-meets-Beverly Hills feel (meh). IMHO FWIW.
There are a crapload of blues over on the west side too, explore those off peak times (lunch, weekdays, first tracks)
Mt. Hood's Timberline Lodge gets you staying at the base of lifts (in the building they filmed the Shining in ) with 25% green, 50% blue, 25% black trails; the largest nightskiing area in North America across the highway at Skibowl, and the option of Mt. Hood Meadows down the road 10 minutes.
We're thinking of Snowmass because of it's large amount of blues...liked Big Burn years ago, and it's uncrowdedness. The places around SLC seem to get bigger crowds just because you can get there in an hour or so from SLC...Aspen/Snowmass is too far away from Denver to get that. We'll probably do a Sunday through Thursday so most places will be uncrowded anyway though.
Seriously? MAYBE on the weekends but I've NEVER seen crowds in Utah like I have in Colorado especially summit county and Epic pass friendly resorts and have never stood in line for more than a minute at either Brighton or Solitude under normal conditions, Snowbird does get a bit busy on the weekends with families\tourists but still a far cry from what I experienced at Summit Co resorts.
If you want intermediate terrain it's sort of hard to beat Vail. As the sayin' goes "same 'ol blue Vail"...
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