# Snowbird



## cav0011 (Jan 4, 2009)

There are plenty of groomers to enjoy there. However Brighton or Canyons might be more what you are looking for. Snowbird can be a lot of fun though.


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## hikeswithdogs (Sep 23, 2011)

Glidinhigh said:


> So I am planning on taking a trip mid December and while looking around for deals, Snowbird UT came up? From what I can tell the majority of the mountain is black and double black diamond. Not that I am a rookie snowboarder, just looking for some groomers to take it easy on and have some fun. So is this mountain one I would enjoy or do I need to look elsewhere?


"The Bird" is EPIC , one of the 3 gnarlyist resorts in the country but unless it's a powder day preferably a Tue-thursday I stay FAR FAR away.

4 years living in Utah(coming from the midwest) and I rate resorts in the following order for out of towners.

1. Powder Mountain
2. Brighton(Our Home resort)
3. Snowbasin 
4. Solitude
5. The Canyons
6. PCMR

My advise to everyone for an epic Utah trip would be to say screw SLC\Park City and split your time between Powder Mountain and Snowbasin in Ogden and stay at the Snowberry Inn in Eden.....

Guaranteed amazing experience


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## cav0011 (Jan 4, 2009)

Shhhhhh. Powder mountain sucks! Basin is amazing !!!


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## hikeswithdogs (Sep 23, 2011)

cav0011 said:


> Shhhhhh. Powder mountain sucks! Basin is amazing !!!





















DOH! Totally forgot #1 rule of powder mountain , don't talk about powder mountain. 

Forget Everything I said, all the cool kids hang out in park city :facepalm3:


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## cav0011 (Jan 4, 2009)

You are now banned from the worst resort in Utah


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## neednsnow (Nov 30, 2007)

Powder Mountain as #1 and snowbird not even in top 6? 

Powder Mountain is not good for tourists. Lifts are slow, takes forever to get anywhere, there are plenty of flats. Locals and low-key vibers, yes POW is great.

Basin....Great for tourists.
Snowbird....everyone must experience it at least once. I would suggest someone experience snowbird before I suggest they experience PCMR. Same with Brighton/Solitude. Tourists need to get the experience!

Snowbird is a manageable ride, too. Plenty of open runs and groomers.


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## Bamfboardman (Dec 11, 2012)

Seriously guys? Don't send tourists to Snowbird. Its crowded as fuck and they probably will go somewhere they shouldn't go and get hurt. You should go to Solitude or the Canyons.


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## hikeswithdogs (Sep 23, 2011)

Bamfboardman said:


> Seriously guys? Don't send tourists to Snowbird. Its crowded as fuck and they probably will go somewhere they shouldn't go and get hurt. You should go to Solitude or the Canyons.


Yea I'd even say Brighton is easier than Solitude from a steeps perspective.

Exactly, for me Snowbird on the weekends sucks donkey balls and if it's not a powder day its just too steep for it to be fun for anyone but THE most hard core skiers and riders.

Again after living in Utah for 4+ years and having countless visitors(we have two extra fully furnished bedrooms that all always occupied) from everywhere from Maine to Montana this is the order of which people have had the most fun.

Again if it's a Tue\Wed\Thur powder day yea snowbird fucking rocks the house with 3000ft vertical tram laps(also why the bird gets ridden out so fast) all day but short of that no thanks.


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## Bamfboardman (Dec 11, 2012)

hikeswithdogs said:


> Exactly, for me Snowbird on the weekends sucks donkey balls and if it's not a powder day its just too steep for it to be fun for anyone but THE most hard core skiers and riders.
> 
> Again after living in Utah for 4+ years and having countless visitors(we have two extra fully furnished bedrooms that all always occupied) from everywhere from Maine to Montana this is the order of which people have had the most fun.
> 
> Again if it's a Tue\Wed\Thur powder day yea snowbird fucking rocks the house with 3000ft vertical tram laps(why the bird gets ridden out so fast) all day but short of that no thanks.


Totally true. I mean if you want to freeride Snowbird is the places to go but if you aren't seriously experienced then I would steer clear.


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## hikeswithdogs (Sep 23, 2011)

Bamfboardman said:


> Totally true. I mean if you want to freeride Snowbird is the places to go but if you aren't seriously experienced then I would steer clear.


Right , an epic day at Snowbird can be a "life changer" but a day there with poor conditions literally sucks.....to me terrain isn't worth a shit without great snow, I'd rather be at a resort with 500ft of vertical and great snow than somewhere with 5000ft of vert that's an ice field.


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## Glidinhigh (Nov 26, 2014)

Well.......looks like I may have leaped before looking. Already bought lift tickets (unrefundable) for the 18th through 21st Dec. O well. Live and learn. First few replies were positive so I figured what the hell. Hahaha. Guess I will make the best out of a bad situation. 2 of the 4 days on the mountain are a freakin weekend. Should have planned better and waited for more opinions. :blowup:


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## SBK (Sep 14, 2011)

As a tourist who's been down to SLC twice to board I can only talk about Snowbird, Solitude and Brighton. FWIW I enjoyed all of them for slightly different reasons.

Snowbird is indeed epic, been there three times one of which was a powder day. It does get crowded even on weekdays and tracked fairly quickly. The Wheelehouse, or something like that name, is a cool apres boarding hangout.

Brighton has the best "local" vibe and the old school lodge for lunch is great. We also found that the far right lift, as you face the mountain, had a fair amount of untracked powder the day after a big snow.

Solitude has the best groomers, some of the best I've ever ridden anywhere in my limited experience. It also seems to be the least crowded. It has a corporate feel that to me is less than inviting and at least the two times I've been there they couldn't seem to keep their ticket scanners working properly leading to a bit of aggravation.

From a convenience point of view these are hard to beat. If you don't have a local to put you up and drive you to the mountain you can get a hotel south of downtown and hit all three. Since it is expensive to rent a 4WD vehicle you can drive a regular car to the bus shuttle stops and let them worry about chains and driving on snow. The hotel we stayed at had a package that included bus and lift tickets.

It's hard to think of a place anywhere in the US that offers top quality resorts so close to a major airport. Also if you don't get a package deal lots of ski shops around town sell discounted lift tickets for all these resorts.

I'll definitely return someday and will likely branch out to some of the other resorts.

To the locals, can you get discount lift tickets to Snowbasin and Powder Mountain?


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## SBK (Sep 14, 2011)

Glidinhigh said:


> Well.......looks like I may have leaped before looking. Already bought lift tickets (unrefundable) for the 18th through 21st Dec. O well. Live and learn. First few replies were positive so I figured what the hell. Hahaha. Guess I will make the best out of a bad situation. 2 of the 4 days on the mountain are a freakin weekend. Should have planned better and waited for more opinions. :blowup:


Plane tickets or lift tickets?

If not the lift tickets hit Brighton and/or Solitude on the weekend.


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## neednsnow (Nov 30, 2007)

For Discount Lift Tix, hit the Lifthouse on your way to Bird/Brighton/Tude. Otherwise, Canyon Sports also does discount tix for Basin and others. There is also liftopia.

Either way, don't second-guess yourself. You'll have a blast no matter where you go. Do keep in mind, December is never a sure bet as the snow hasn't had enough of a chance to lay down a base, so conditions won't be perfect.


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## SBK (Sep 14, 2011)

neednsnow said:


> For Discount Lift Tix, hit the Lifthouse on your way to Bird/Brighton/Tude. Otherwise, Canyon Sports also does discount tix for Basin and others. There is also liftopia.


Thanks.

Here in Washington discounts lift tickets are rare. Even Mission Ridge didn't have much on Liftopia last ear.


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## Tuan209 (Dec 26, 2008)

Honestly, it just depends on what you like.

I agree that the smaller resorts (Brighton, Solitude, Powder Mountain, and Basin) are great for tourists. 

Having ride at the Bird for the last 3 years, I agree its just alright unless its an epic POW day. I only get a season pass there to improve my riding skills. Other than that, I am not really a big fan of the Bird. It gets tracked out pretty quick on a good day and the people there are pretty aggressive on a POW day. Snowbird also doesnt have any kind of worthwhile park. They have a few setups and jump lines but they are utterly $hit.


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## Glidinhigh (Nov 26, 2014)

neednsnow said:


> For Discount Lift Tix, hit the Lifthouse on your way to Bird/Brighton/Tude. Otherwise, Canyon Sports also does discount tix for Basin and others. There is also liftopia.
> 
> Either way, don't second-guess yourself. You'll have a blast no matter where you go. Do keep in mind, December is never a sure bet as the snow hasn't had enough of a chance to lay down a base, so conditions won't be perfect.


Well......best case scenario it will snow like a mutha before and while I am there. worst case scenario I will enjoy gliding down crowed slush. Just looking forward to being on the mountain really. Going to Breck. in March so I am really not bitchin. For a South Texas boy I am lucky as hell.


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## hikeswithdogs (Sep 23, 2011)

Glidinhigh said:


> Well......best case scenario it will snow like a mutha before and while I am there. worst case scenario I will enjoy gliding down crowed slush. Just looking forward to being on the mountain really. Going to Breck. in March so I am really not bitchin. For a South Texas boy I am lucky as hell.


Frankly I wouldn't stress regardless of where you go you'll have fun and hey who knows maybe you'll get slammed with a big storm and they'll close the entire canyon leaving the entire resort open to only those in the hotel!!!


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## jdang307 (Feb 6, 2011)

I honestly don't think I'm that good of a rider (too limited in number of days I can ride good terrain a year because I'm in San Diego) but didn't find Snowbird all that intimidating?

Rode it for 3 days last year. All 3 days had some powder but the middle day was pretty deep on the backside (forecast said 1-2" and then we got back there and it was white out couldn't see past 10 feet or so). I don't really hike but no terrain was remotely intimidating. Had a great time don't me wrong. Wish I brought a rockered board not a cambered twin but whatcha gonna do.

I saw plenty of chill spots to ride. At least from any lift served spots. If you take the Peruvian Express and then through the tunnel all that stuff below is pretty mellow. Or take the tram and go skier's left. 

Stuff off of Mid-Gad and Gad2 were pretty mellow too.


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## acoolazn (Nov 30, 2014)

I'm heading up to Snowbird for two days, Brighton for a day, and Sundance for night boarding in January. First time in Utah so I'm stoked. I could care less about powder condition as long as it's decent coming from Arizona...


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## neednsnow (Nov 30, 2007)

acoolazn said:


> I'm heading up to Snowbird for two days, Brighton for a day, and Sundance for night boarding in January. First time in Utah so I'm stoked. I could care less about powder condition as long as it's decent coming from Arizona...


FWIW

Brighton also does Night Boarding. Sundance is just Meh. you'd be fine riding Brighton, and it is probably closer. (This is coming from a guy who usually downplays Brighton.


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## SBK (Sep 14, 2011)

Quick recommendation question, if you were heading to Powder/Snowbasin for a Sunday through Tuesday how would you schedule your days?

We are intermediate boarders, can ride blacks with good conditions but typically avoid real steep stuff.

Thanks.


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