Ski the West

I grew up skiing in New England. You really have to work for it in New England – snow gets skied off by noon, stopping on a dime is a necessity as kiddos dart in front of you, you learn how to slide correctly across the ice covered slopes, and liquoring up is a must to stay warm.

Skiing the West is completely different. The trails are triple in size and hold the crowds well, it’s so warm you barely need gloves or goggles, and the snow is powdery and luscious.

Here’s our favorite mountains on the Ikon Pass during the 2019-2020 ski season!

Snowbird

I’ve never seen a ski resort quite like Snowbird. It’s easily my favorite, and it’s clear now why locals buy a season pass to just Snowbird (rather than an Ikon Pass).

The resort has the normal trails, but what makes Snowbird truly special is the fact that the front and the back of the mountain are two huge basins, allowing you to ski anywhere. Basically nothing is off limits.

In good weather and blizzards (the canyon gets a LOT of snow… Snowbird got 479 feet of snow in 2019-2020 ski season!), Snowbird is clearly the best!

They converted an old mining tunnel into a cut through from the front of the mountain to the Basin.

Snowbird hosted Winter Fest this year – free demos, free concert by Billy Strings, and lots of giveaways!

Solitude Mountain

40 minutes from Salt Lake City, Solitude is easy to get to, you pay to park ($20 – 1-2 people, $10 – 3 people, $5 – 4 people), and the mountain holds the crowds really well.

This is the first mountain we’ve been to in Utah, and it didn’t disappoint, but I couldn’t help but wonder if this was a smaller mountain than others out here.

What I loved was that we barely needed a winter coat (no polar vortex’s here!) or gloves!

Deer Valley

Deer Valley is aa skier only resort in Park City. At first I wasn’t sure I was going to care one way or the other about skier only… but it was fabulous. My brother and a lot of my friends shred, but I didn’t realize how great it was to not get side swiped bombing down the mountain or having someone lean into you getting off the chair lift.

Plus, the views are insane. This was a lazy green trail at the end of the day post lunch 😉

Brighton

Brighton opens up from 4-9 p.m. MT for night skiing every night, and Wednesdays are $25. When we first got out here, I was doing a max of 4 hours because I hadn’t skied in 2 years and the elevation screws with you. It’s a great deal, and a pretty good chunk of the mountain is open.