rugbyskier
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The last skiing location for me was Utah. I stayed at the Courtyard Marriott SLC Cottonwood, which is located adjacent to the base of Big Cottonwood Canyon, which is home to Solitude and Brighton snow resorts. The hotel was 200m from the bus interchange where Utah Transit Authority buses run up Big Cottonwood Canyon and across to Little Cottonwood Canyon, which is home to Alta and Snowbird.
I skied in Utah in 1997 and 1998 so I was interested to see what had changed, and there were a lot of changes and not necessarily for the better as I think Utah skiing is being loved to death. First up, Alta and Solitude had had major lift upgrades. Alta had slow two seater chairs without safety bars and now there's detachable quad chairs, with one old lift remaining. Solitude had additional lifts and expanded terrain. Snowbird has opened up a lot of additional terrain in the Mineral Basin area, which was backcountry in 1998.
The ski areas are considerably more crowded than in 1998 and the infrastructure is not coping. The UTA buses are full on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and parking in the canyons must be reserved on those days as well. It took nearly 3 hours to come back from Alta to the hotel on Sunday afternoon (it's 21km), with buses not turning up and then bumper-to-bumper traffic from Alta all the way to the bottom of the canyon. We were squeezed in like sardines and some people were starting to get anxious from claustrophobia. However, the modern lifting systems meant that lift lines weren't too excessive - 15 minutes was the longest wait time at Alta on Sunday.
The skiing was also considerably more expensive than Japan and Germany. Lift tickets are $200 per day (or $320AUD) compared to $60AUD in Japan and $90AUD in Germany. I got a discounted Salt Lake Super Pass through the hotel, but it was still $740USD for 5 days. Restaurant meals with the obligatory tip were close to $100AUD and lunches on the mountain were around $50AUD.
The cultural differences between Germany and the US were on display at the ski areas. I never skied alone, on the first morning when I was waiting for the bus I was befriended by a local radiologist who was on his way to Solitude to meet friends. I was invited to ski with them and then he decided to adjust his work schedule so he could ski with me on two other days. On the Sunday morning I met a fellow from Boston and his two adult sons, who were staying at the hotel, and when the UTA buses turned up full they booked a large Uber and invited me to join them. We ended up skiing together at Alta on Sunday and Snowbird on Monday and I gave them informal coaching and they were so pleased with how they progressed they shouted me dinner on the Monday before they flew back east on Tuesday morning.
Alta on the Sunday morning - my first lift queues all trip!
Views of Alta
I went back to Alta on the last day, the weather wasn't too conducive for photos but took one of a porcupine and my new friend Paul got a photo of us at the end of the day.
I skied in Utah in 1997 and 1998 so I was interested to see what had changed, and there were a lot of changes and not necessarily for the better as I think Utah skiing is being loved to death. First up, Alta and Solitude had had major lift upgrades. Alta had slow two seater chairs without safety bars and now there's detachable quad chairs, with one old lift remaining. Solitude had additional lifts and expanded terrain. Snowbird has opened up a lot of additional terrain in the Mineral Basin area, which was backcountry in 1998.
The ski areas are considerably more crowded than in 1998 and the infrastructure is not coping. The UTA buses are full on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and parking in the canyons must be reserved on those days as well. It took nearly 3 hours to come back from Alta to the hotel on Sunday afternoon (it's 21km), with buses not turning up and then bumper-to-bumper traffic from Alta all the way to the bottom of the canyon. We were squeezed in like sardines and some people were starting to get anxious from claustrophobia. However, the modern lifting systems meant that lift lines weren't too excessive - 15 minutes was the longest wait time at Alta on Sunday.
The skiing was also considerably more expensive than Japan and Germany. Lift tickets are $200 per day (or $320AUD) compared to $60AUD in Japan and $90AUD in Germany. I got a discounted Salt Lake Super Pass through the hotel, but it was still $740USD for 5 days. Restaurant meals with the obligatory tip were close to $100AUD and lunches on the mountain were around $50AUD.
The cultural differences between Germany and the US were on display at the ski areas. I never skied alone, on the first morning when I was waiting for the bus I was befriended by a local radiologist who was on his way to Solitude to meet friends. I was invited to ski with them and then he decided to adjust his work schedule so he could ski with me on two other days. On the Sunday morning I met a fellow from Boston and his two adult sons, who were staying at the hotel, and when the UTA buses turned up full they booked a large Uber and invited me to join them. We ended up skiing together at Alta on Sunday and Snowbird on Monday and I gave them informal coaching and they were so pleased with how they progressed they shouted me dinner on the Monday before they flew back east on Tuesday morning.
Alta on the Sunday morning - my first lift queues all trip!
Views of Alta
I went back to Alta on the last day, the weather wasn't too conducive for photos but took one of a porcupine and my new friend Paul got a photo of us at the end of the day.
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