SLC Resorts or?

[Tony]

Possibility we might skip one day and try PC or Deer Valley if we don't like one of the resorts. I'm also booking a trip back to Banff (Went in Jan of this year, it was incredible) and will be doing 3-4 ski days there.

I'm wanting to go ASAP! So I'm looking at either the first or second week in Jan and then mid to end of Feb for the other.. All should be 100% open by early Jan right? Anyone have an opinion on which should be done first? for optimum conditions?

My recommendation is to do Alta in Jan. and Banff in Feb. although it may not make that much difference this year. Even though it looks like Banff may be off to a good start, they tend to get snow in small amounts and preserve it well so later in Winter should have a deeper base. You also should have warmer temps and more (or at least higher) sun in Feb. than Jan. but that is only using averages and weather is what happens when you are there. I skied Banff area in late Feb 2015 and the frontside of Lake Louise was very firm as it had gotten warm temps/rain?/sun, then froze hard. You could find bigger crowds in Canada on some days Feb. than in Jan. due to Canadian school holiday.

Thanks for the info. I'm still confused on the parking/bus situation. I've tried google but can't get a clear answer. It looks like SLC offers public transportation to the ski resorts (or at least certain ones?), but my questions are... Can you take your skis on the bus? And where does it pick up? If it's safe to drive to the canyon base parking lot pretty much regardless of conditions, could we not just park there and except a bus every 15-20 minutes for the relatively short ride up? Or would there be a million people also waiting and therefore could be in line for hours?

Or if I'm staying at the crystal, is there a bus stop near by where I could hop on it and go straight to Alta, Snowbird or Snowbasin?

Yes you can take your skis on the ski bus. I even took my baggage, boots and skis on light rail from SLC airport to downtown where I caught a commuter bus to near mouth of canyon where friend I stayed with lived. One of the regulars gave me a hard time, but I think it was because I took his regular seat. The driver offered to drop me in front of friend's house.

On a snowy day I've heard (and I think someone recently posted) it is better to catch bus farther away than near mouth of canyon as they may already be full when they get there and you want to be on one, not watching full bus go past. See https://www.rideuta.com/Rider-Info/UTA-Ski-Service for routes, etc.

AFAIK you would not want to take bus from SLC to Snowbasin as it would take multiples rides and too long. There are UTA buses from Layton and Ogden to Snowbasin, but not from SLC. You would want to drive to Snowbasin or could stay in Ogden and take bus for your Snowbasin days, but then how do you get to/from Ogden?

There are some buses from SLC to Park City, but schedule was limited last time I looked as they appeared to be for people living in Salt Lake City and working in PC.

 

[Crank]

Above is true re. parking lots filling up early on snowy days. Last time we were in SLC I remember seeing that. We had a regular mid sized car and were worried they wouldn't let us up the canyon. both fortunately and unfortunately a the same time, there was not enough snow for it to be a problem.

 

[SkiNC]

I have been to those resorts during that week 2 of the last 3 seasons. While they may not be 100% open at that time, I can assure you that 100% of your desired terrain should be open based upon normal weather conditions. As for order...I would base it upon the days of the week to take advantage of potential crowd issues. For example, Snowbird is the right choice on Saturday and Sunday as it has the best lift capacity and only two of the lifts really have any type of waits (the Tram, which can easily be avoided by taking the Peruvian Express, and Mineral Basin Express). I would avoid Alta for sure on the weekend as it is more likely to get a little backed up by crowds. Snowbasin is great during the week, but can definitely get busy on the weekends. Outside of that advice, I would suggest starting with Snowbasin, then Alta, then Snowbird. You are "going up" in elevation and difficulty by doing them in that order.

Thanks for the info.

My recommendation is to do Alta in Jan. and Banff in Feb. although it may not make that much difference this year. Even though it looks like Banff may be off to a good start, they tend to get snow in small amounts and preserve it well so later in Winter should have a deeper base. You also should have warmer temps and more (or at least higher) sun in Feb. than Jan. but that is only using averages and weather is what happens when you are there. I skied Banff area in late Feb 2015 and the frontside of Lake Louise was very firm as it had gotten warm temps/rain?/sun, then froze hard. You could find bigger crowds in Canada on some days Feb. than in Jan. due to Canadian school holiday.

On a snowy day I've heard (and I think someone recently posted) it is better to catch bus farther away than near mouth of canyon as they may already be full when they get there and you want to be on one, not watching full bus go past. See https://www.rideuta.com/Rider-Info/UTA-Ski-Service for routes, etc.

.

Yeah I was kinda thinking SLC in Jan. Plus I noticed my passport just expired so gotta renew that ASAP!

I also noticed the same about the front side of LL. It was still very cold when we were there this Jan and I was told it can be icy and it's true. It was firm but still way better than the ice rinks I'm used to in the south east! I liked LL but preferred SS.

I was thinking catching the bus somewhere in town would for sure be the better option since it seems like the parking area can be crazy I was imagining a lot of full buses. Hopefully there's a stop near the hotel or a parking lot close by to one elsewhere. I'm planning on getting a rental car but would prefer a cheap small car vs having to pay tons for an AWD. Though I did stumble upon the website Turo where you can rent a random persons car and found some AWD for around $30 a day! Seems kinda sketchy and not guaranteed though renting from a stranger like that...

 

[Tytlynz64]

The Crystal Inn allows you to catch the bus at the mkuth of their driveway. 30 yards from the hotel front door. There are 3 or 4 others like that in Midvale Sandy area.

 

[TonyC]

I definitely agree January for SLC and February for Banff. That 2015 trip was an aberration at Banff, which is usually col,d and unlikely have the widespread melt/freeze we saw on its frontside then.

Snowbird is the right choice on Saturday and Sunday as it has the best lift capacity and only two of the lifts really have any type of waits (the Tram, which can easily be avoided by taking the Peruvian Express, and Mineral Basin Express). I would avoid Alta for sure on the weekend as it is more likely to get a little backed up by crowds.

That was historically true but not so much in recent years. I'm there every year, and it seems that Snoiwbird's skier traffic is growing steadily along with lift capacity while Alta remains stagnant. So from a skiing/liftline perspective the mountains are now similar, and parking is definitely more of a challenge at Snowbird on weekends/powder days.

 

[New2]

I'll split the difference between Lofcaudio and TonyC... Snowbird can be super-crowded on powder weekends/holidays. But on non-powder weekends/holidays, I think it'll easily have the shortest lines of the three that you're looking at... lots of Bird locals only show up on the weekend if there's powder. If you get weekend snow, expect lift lines pretty much anywhere you go, but DV, PowMow, and Sundance are all worth a look for shorter lines. If you want to stick to an MCP resort on a powder weekend, I'd recommend Snowbird despite the crowds... you'll likely have fun on the Baldy Express and/or Wilbere Chair, which will have fewer crowds and are more sheltered from the weather than most lifts at Alta or Snowbasin.

 

[Crank]

Powder mornings in LCC are like a feeding frenzy.

 

[Poolskier Vinny]

If you do decide to come visit LL in Feb try to avoid the Alberta Family Day weekend 16-19 as long weekends drive the people to the hill and the prices up! You are still going to have to deal with some schools/universities out for reading weeks etc. In Feb. but it'll be manageable. We had a pretty good season last year and so far we are off to a good start.

 

[SkiNC]

Thanks for all the info. I got the mountain collective pass and booked SLC for Jan 6-13, so I'll have 6 ski days. I'll actually be staying at the metropolitan.
I see the instructions to pick up the pass at each resort, I assume it's a pretty quick process once there?

I haven't finalized the date for Banff yet but for sure going, it will be early Feb for that.

 

[Crank]

Takes 5 or 10 minutes. Last time I did it you had to go to guest servlces and they take a pic and get your credit card #, email, etc.. Then they issue you a RFID pass. From that point on through the rest of the season you are good to go. Should you go beyond your 2 days your card will be automatically billed. I believe you can also use the pass to charge stuff on mountain.

 

[Lofcaudio]

You can also request to have your pass from Snowbasin be mailed to you. You just log into your Mountain Collective account online, upload a photo, "sign" a waiver, and request the pass. Alta and Snowbird still require you to do the process as Crank described. It's super-easy at Alta (from my past experience). I've never had to do it at Snowbird and I recall some people having less than ideal experiences when picking up the pass there.

 

[SpikeDog]

Snowbird has gotten better at it. You can use any ticket window in the Tram Plaza now, easy peasy.

 

[SkiNC]

Hmm.. I wasn't sure exactly what the "pass" was. I didn't know if it would be like a card that was valid everywhere or if you simply checked in at the resort and got a regular 2 day lift ticket as you would if you bought it any other way..

 

[Crank]

But you do have to get a pass at each resort.

 

[SkiNC]

I'm wondering if I'll regret the week I chose. Jan 6-13.. I looked back at snow history and seems like it doesn't usually pick up until the end of January. I'm wondering if I should look at the end of January instead? It seems like at most resorts, the kind of terrain I prefer usually opens first (greens and blues) so hopefully it would still be a good time.

Also, several reviews have mentioned Snowbirds lack of grooming. I know they have that "too advanced" marketing thing going on, but one review mentioned how almost every run is mogul filled and almost nothing groomed. Is this true?

 

[TonyC]

I looked back at snow history and seems like it doesn't usually pick up until the end of January.

A complete myth fostered by nine low snow Januaries between 2001 and 2015. Weather is volatile and once you get out to 25+ years of data spurious patterns like this disappear. The last 2 Januaries in Utah have been big. The odds of big powder in LCC are essentially the same any week from December through early April.

This issue for early season is coverage. But LCC gets so much snow that the odds of good coverage during the first week of January are 90+%. There will be more seasons when Snowbasin/Park City are still lacking coverage in some sectors in early January.

As far as Snowbird for intermediates is concerned, that is being covered in another thread. SkiNC would probably not be happiest there for a whole week, but a couple of days out of that week should be fine. My observation is that Snowbird's grooming has improved and is quite good now. It is inevitable that steeper groomers will grow moguls fairly quickly with skier traffic. But January after the holidays is not a peak traffic time.

 

[Bigtinnie]

I'm wondering if I'll regret the week I chose. Jan 6-13.. I looked back at snow history and seems like it doesn't usually pick up until the end of January. I'm wondering if I should look at the end of January instead? It seems like at most resorts, the kind of terrain I prefer usually opens first (greens and blues) so hopefully it would still be a good time.

Also, several reviews have mentioned Snowbirds lack of grooming. I know they have that "too advanced" marketing thing going on, but one review mentioned how almost every run is mogul filled and almost nothing groomed. Is this true?

If you like greens and ‘most mountains’ blues maybe Snowbird isn’t the best choice. They do groom a few trails and ‘every run’ is not full of moguls.
It’s a great hill as far as scenery is concerned and watching good skiers rip it up is worth the ticket alone.

 

[SkiNC]

A complete myth fostered by nine low snow Januaries between 2001 and 2015. Weather is volatile and once you get out to 25+ years of data spurious patterns like this disappear. The last 2 Januaries in Utah have been big. The odds of big powder in LCC are essentially the same any week from December through early April.

This issue for early season is coverage. But LCC gets so much snow that the odds of good coverage during the first week of January are 90+%. There will be more seasons when Snowbasin/Park City are still lacking coverage in some sectors in early January.

As far as Snowbird for intermediates is concerned, that is being covered in another thread. SkiNC would probably not be happiest there for a whole week, but a couple of days out of that week should be fine. My observation is that Snowbird's grooming has improved and is quite good now. It is inevitable that steeper groomers will grow moguls fairly quickly with skier traffic. But January after the holidays is not a peak traffic time.

I was just expecting it to be further along by now with snow, seeing as Sunshine has already opened up around 40%.. Hopefully SLC will be mostly open come early Jan..

If you like greens and ‘most mountains’ blues maybe Snowbird isn’t the best choice. They do groom a few trails and ‘every run’ is not full of moguls.
It’s a great hill as far as scenery is concerned and watching good skiers rip it up is worth the ticket alone.

I bought the mountain collective pass since I'm also going to Banff.. And since Snowbird is on it, I know we'll do at least one day there but I know it's not exactly a beginners mountain. Probably do one day at Alta, Snowbird and Snowbasin then if we don't like one or more locations for a second day, we'll try PC, Deer Valley or elsewhere and just pay for the ticket.

 

[Bill Miles]

I'm wondering if I'll regret the week I chose. Jan 6-13.. I looked back at snow history and seems like it doesn't usually pick up until the end of January. I'm wondering if I should look at the end of January instead? It seems like at most resorts, the kind of terrain I prefer usually opens first (greens and blues) so hopefully it would still be a good time.

Also, several reviews have mentioned Snowbirds lack of grooming. I know they have that "too advanced" marketing thing going on, but one review mentioned how almost every run is mogul filled and almost nothing groomed. Is this true?

They usually have pretty good selection groomed. I would say its worth a try for one day and if its not for you then go elsewhere.

 

[TonyC]

we'll try PC, Deer Valley or elsewhere and just pay for the ticket.

If you don't want to pay through the nose, buy the Park City ticket online and other tickets at an SLC ski shop. You will be fine with multiple days at Alta and Snowbasin IMHO.