# Best resorts in utah for our skill level?



## Guest (Feb 4, 2010)

Hello, I know that there are a lot of threads on Utah in this forum but I wanted to ask questions that are specific to our situation.

3 of us will be going the last week of february (snowboarding on thurs, fri, sat) and staying in midvale, and renting a car probably.

We are all intermediate east coast riders, we are not looking to ride crazy steeps or anything like that, we prefer to ride nice wide open bowls and long groomers/other runs that aren't too steep and crazy... We obviously have 3 days, so 3 resorts to choose... Which ones would you guys recommend? And out of these resorts, which ones get the busiest? (We obviously would try to ride the busiest resort on thurs and least busiest on saturday)

As for the driving situation, i know that if it snows a lot, we can just drive to the uta stop and take a bus to the bcc/lcc resorts... But what if we wanted to drive to snowbasin, park city, canyons? Would that be pretty impossible with a lot of snow?

Thanks a lot for your help!


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## Guest (Feb 4, 2010)

Powder Mountain, Brighton, Canyons, Snow Basin, Park City.

Basically every resort is sweet....

Sometimes the roads are closed to people without 4wd or chains. It's not usually a problem though.


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## Guest (Feb 4, 2010)

Monster Man said:


> Powder Mountain, Brighton, Canyons, Snow Basin, Park City.
> 
> Basically every resort is sweet....


details? hehe. I hear that snowbird is a great resort, but i just looked at the trail map and it seems like its all double blacks and blacks... Am i correct in assuming that we should avoid it?


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## Guest (Feb 4, 2010)

Personally I think Snowbird is best on a deep deep pow day. It's pretty steep and tends to get chopped up fast - steep crud and deep ski moguls. 

On a good powder day it is awesome.

If you want a more mellow ride as you describe I suggest looking elsewhere.

Go Brighton!


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## Guest (Feb 4, 2010)

Monster Man said:


> Personally I think Snowbird is best on a deep deep pow day. It's pretty steep and tends to get chopped up fast - steep crud and deep ski moguls.
> 
> On a good powder day it is awesome.
> 
> ...


so if u had to rank the resorts for an intermediate rider, how would you rank them


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## burritosandsnow (Nov 22, 2008)

The Canyons is large and great for all skill lvls. It has long groomers open trees and fun bowls. Right now theres a deal online where you can get two passes two drinks and two burgers for $119 check out their website its called the pair pass. I think the Bird will be a little much for you but you should definitely try out both Brighton and its neighbor Solitude. You can buy a combo pass for both for about $10 more than a day pass to one of them its called the SolBrite pass. Solitude is steep like the Bird but the runs are wider and there are not as many large rocks and stuff that alter the terrain. Solitude has some lovely open backside bowls (inbounds. Brighton is great for all levels because its one of those resorts where things funnel down to the same place so when you have a group everyone can find something suitable to their lvl and you all end up at the same lift. Brighton is like the Canyons in that it has pretty much every type of terrain but in a much smaller area than TheCanyons. Powder and Snowbaisin are nice as well but from Midvale you are looking at about 1 hour to 90 minutes just to get there so Id rule it out THIS time.

All three of the resorts can be visited any day. Id go Canyons first Solitude on Saturday and then Brighton on Sunday. The Canyons has lots of folks but because its so spread out the crowds after the initial gondola are never really too bad. Solitude is rarely busy unless its a holiday or big pow day so it would be your best bet for Saturday. Brighton is about the same as Solitude Sunday will be fine unless of course like I said we get a huge storm that weekend then everyone comes up haha...

As far as travel .. if you are staying in Midvale ( thesuper8? ) then you can easily get right on the interstate to make the quick drive (about 30-40 minutes) to The Canyons in Park City. The main road in Midvale called Fort Union Blvd dead ends into the base of the canyon that both Brighton and Solitude are at the top of.

As far as weather... if theres a big storm there will most likely be chain or 4wd restrictions on the canyon to sol/bri. My suggestion is just take the bus from the base of the canyon at the cost of a few bucks each because the canyon is tricky and imo chains arent really enough if you dont know the canyon well. Your hotel guy can also point you to where the ski bus can pick you up near your hotel for some its literally right on the corner where the hotel is then you wont even have to drive there at all. For Park City the road is usually kept in better condition since its the main interstate artery for heading north/northeast and wont have restrictions unless its REALLY bad ... so just judge for yourself the interstate conditions before you take the exit to head towards PC. 

Hope that helps some. If you have more questions just ask Ill be happy to answer. If you ride Brighton let me know Ill meet with you and show you some stuff. Whatever your style Ill know where to send you at Brighton.


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## Guest (Feb 4, 2010)

mithong said:


> so if u had to rank the resorts for an intermediate rider, how would you rank them


I think burrito has a good plan


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## Guest (Feb 6, 2010)

It'd be a shame to go to utah and not hit snowbird, quite possibly the best resort in NA. There is a good amount of intermediate stuff there. Chips run is a nice blue that goes peak to base. Lunch run to lower bassackwards is a nice blue off of gadzoom. If it snows there most of the blacks on the bottom half of the mountain become more like intemediates.


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