# Uncrowded Spring Break Locations



## ThundrDuck (Jan 21, 2014)

Hey everyone,

Our school's spring break is between Mar 28th and April 5th. I know that it is later than most college's spring break which is fortunate from a crowd standpoint. I reside in the Dallas area and am looking to go West to CO, UT, or Tahoe. Heck even Washington. Wherever I can find the cheaper cost with flights/lift tickets. Does anyone have good experiences during late march early april with certain resorts over others? I am mostly worried that if I go somewhere like Utah or Colorado and I'll end up picking the busy resort as opposed to the less trafficked one with the same quality of snow. Any info from your experiences is appreciated!


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## ridinbend (Aug 2, 2012)

Go to Idaho, plenty of smaller resorts with minimal tourism.


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## Argo (Feb 25, 2010)

Powder mountain Utah


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## neednsnow (Nov 30, 2007)

Welcome...

So that spring break date is also spring break for most secondary schools. 

Do you have anything else you need besides limited crowds? Here are my Thoughts

I suggest considering SLC (Snowbasin/Pow Mow, Brighton/Solitude, or even Snowbird) Not the resort party scene (unless you go to Park city), but great mountains and the most reliable snow.

Tahoe......hit Kirkwood, Alpine Meadows. Heavenly will be crowded, but they are pretty big and it is worth skiing Heavenly at least once. (Tahoe hasn't gotten squat for snow so far this year.)

Colorado, head to Copper, Steamboat. 

Realize if you want no crowds, go to a non-resort town. (Breck, Vail, Park City, etc are Resort towns.) That being said, the season is starting to die-down at that point of the year. I was in Breck for Spring Break a few years ago and it was very crowded, but Spring Break was mid-march.


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## ThundrDuck (Jan 21, 2014)

thanks for the replies guys, I wish i could go to Idaho to sun valley but the flights are too much from Dallas to get there at a reasonable cost right now. 

It's looking like SLC is the area to go to in terms of cost as well. I'm worried Heavenly may run the bill up too much at the end of the week. After looking more it looks like staying in SLC, renting a car, and going to a couple mountains (multiple canyons) and doing that experience looks like the best bang for your buck unless I shelled out more money for the Park City area. Also noticed a resort called Sundance but don't know much about it, will have to look into there too as well as Powder mountain that was mentioned. So it's looking like Brighton Solitude and Snowbird or shell out more for PC and the canyons! Appreciate the replies guys, I can use all the info I can get.

Does one cottonwood canyon get late snow or usually preserve snow better than the other?


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## BurtonAvenger (Aug 14, 2007)

Anywhere but CO. I would suggest Idaho/WY or WA. Even Montana.


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## SkullAndXbones (Feb 24, 2014)

i've never been to utah but i've heard they get tons of spring snow.


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## Hirvy (Dec 30, 2012)

Went to Breck last year for my spring break, mid March and no idea if it was the same week as schools from other states but most of Oklahoma schools were out. Monday was packed, mid week there were a lot of people but no long lift lines, end of the week was packed again.

Usually I hit up Red Lodge MTN in Montana and it's always dead and they have a good student discount.


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## oc3ansky (Feb 14, 2013)

Monarch mountain in Salida CO is rather close to Dallas and is not as busy as other resorts during the break. It has a mild party scene at night and I think it's best for beginners/beg-intermediate level overall. No matter where you decide to stay, check out airbnb.com for lodging. I find the best deals with good quality there. Good luck


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## neednsnow (Nov 30, 2007)

ThundrDuck said:


> thanks for the replies guys, I wish i could go to Idaho to sun valley but the flights are too much from Dallas to get there at a reasonable cost right now.
> 
> It's looking like SLC is the area to go to in terms of cost as well. I'm worried Heavenly may run the bill up too much at the end of the week. After looking more it looks like staying in SLC, renting a car, and going to a couple mountains (multiple canyons) and doing that experience looks like the best bang for your buck unless I shelled out more money for the Park City area. Also noticed a resort called Sundance but don't know much about it, will have to look into there too as well as Powder mountain that was mentioned. So it's looking like Brighton Solitude and Snowbird or shell out more for PC and the canyons! Appreciate the replies guys, I can use all the info I can get.
> 
> Does one cottonwood canyon get late snow or usually preserve snow better than the other?


Lets address some of your questions and observations.
1: Sundance-It is a good film festival, not much beyond that. The film festival is in January, so don't bother looking at or even considering Sundance as a ski/board/snow option.

2. It sounds like you have a good bang-for-buck plan. SLC is centrally located to a ton of places. 20-60 minutes and you have access to a ton of goodness. 

3. You could book a day or two in Park City to get the Park City resort/party experience, I would avise that. (I would also advise doing so on a Thurs-Sun set of nights. No point in partying when noone is around.)

4. (Ogden Resorts) PowMow and Snowbasin are near each other to the north of SLC. I generally steer people away from PowMow, but many LOVE the place. I don't like it because the lifts are slow and the layout, while big, has a lot of run-outs. It does have cat rides that you can purchase which will take you to many places the lifts do not.
Snowbasin has a more well-to-do feel to it. It is VERY BIG and the lifts are fast. This may be my favorite mellow-cruisey resort in the entire country! It doesn't get too crowded and tends to have snow stashes longer than many other resorts.

Your Question about the Cottonwoods......I would venture to say that they tend to get the same amount of snow....which is more than all of the other Utah resorts. 

The LCC (Snowbird) gets a little more snow and A LOT more people than the BCC (Brighton/Solitude). Snowbird is bigger than Solitude and Brighton Combined and the hikable terrain adds so much more fun!

As far as buying your lift tickets. You can purchase from ski shops in town for a general discount. I usually use the Lifthouse which is at the base of BCC and just before the base of the BCC.


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## ThundrDuck (Jan 21, 2014)

Thanks everyone for all the advice! Looking like its coming down to SLC (cottonwood canyons, maybe a day at Park city), or going to CO (crested butte, monarch, copper?)...unfortunately Montana (whitefish has been my favorite place to far) is out because of the flight cost from dallas. It will just depend on what flights I am able to secure. Flying to SLC is much more expensive than Denver, or even driving to CO. I know frontier is super cheap but checking bags and everything with them is $$$$ southwest is probably the easiest in terms of travel and bag checking from Dallas but rates change...

Doesn't seem like CB has gotten much snow which is unfortunate cuz that's the first place the g/f wants to go if we go to colorado (or Copper). Hoping I can convince her to spend more on SLC if it comes down to it. 

Thanks again for all the help/advice!


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## readimag (Aug 10, 2011)

I just came from Mt Baker I love that place and it is a local owned Mt and get tons of snow. On the plus side no cell phones work in the town of Glacier so you can’t Facebook all the time haha.


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