Powder Mountain Resort Report
Add to Del.icio.usThe secret isn’t out yet.
by Rocky Thompson
While the rest of the world is lining up in their rental cars, waiting for Little Cottonwood Canyon to open, you could be riding knee-deep powder without crowds or lift lines.
Powder Mountain is located 55 miles north of the Salt Lake City, UT airport in the Wasatch Range, where 500 inches of the wicked white settles each year.
“We have 5,500 skiable acres, the most in the US. Of that, 2,800 is serviced by lifts—that’s the size of an average ski resort in Utah,” said Powder Mountain’s Group Sales Coordinator, Carolyn Daniels.
The other 2,700 acres are split between Powder Country and Lightening Ridge. Powder Country is a patrolled area adjacent the lifts accessible by a short traverse. The long and steep gladded terrain runs down to the resort’s road where a bus shuttles riders back to the lifts every fifteen minutes.
If busses aren’t your style, you can pay seven dollars for a snowcat tow from the bottom of Powder’s Sundown lift up Lightening Ridge for 2,100 vertical feet of powder. Powder Mountain also has a partnership with Diamond Peaks Heli Ski Adventures. Get one helicopter lift and a full-day pass at the mountain for $150, or $650 to heli ski all day.
www.powdermountain.com
Snowline: 801-745-3771
Main Office: 801-745-3772
Accommodations:
Columbine Inn 801-745-3772 x146
Vertical drop:
Lift served 2005ft
Lightning Ridge snowcat 2100ft
Summit elevation:
Hidden Lake lodge 8900ft
Lightning Ridge 9105ft