Equateur Flowers

The Greatest Snow on Earth’ that’s what Utah claims. (Until recently it made the claim on every car number plate, but now seems to be targeting broader markets.) It’s a debatable claim: the Colorado resorts say that their famous powder is drier, and have figures to prove it. What they can’t dispute is that some Utah resorts do get huge dumps of snow up to twice the amount, over the season, that falls on some big-name Colorado resorts. And you don’t need to worry about whether it is or is not the lightest: by Alpine standards it’s wonderful stuff. If you like the steep and deep, the pilgrimage to Utah is one you can’t put off forever. In fact, it’s one you shouldn’t put off much longer.

There are big differences in snowfall. The biggest dumps are reserved for Snowbird and Alta, close together in Little Cottonwood Canyon; combined with some super-tough terrain, the snow record of these small resorts makes them the powder capitals of the world.

Brighton and Solitude get very similar amounts of snow. Their terrain is less challenging than that of Alta and Snowbird, but the snow is just as good, and it doesn’t get skied out within hours of opening time. In the course of our research for this edition, your editors forced themselves to make a return visit to Utah and at last to ski the Utah Interconnect a day-long tour from Park City to Snowbird, taking in Brighton, Solitude and Alta, with a lot of ‘back-country’ (off-piste) stuff along the way. It was a day we shall never forget. Apart from anything else, it left us with an abiding desire to go back to see more of the beautiful Big Cottonwood Canyon that Brighton and Solitude occupy.

The 2002 Winter Olympics will be based in Salt Lake City, so you’ll be hearing a lot about Utah. But don’t expect to hear much about these resorts of the Cottonwood Canyons: they don’t have the infrastructure to cope with Olympic events, and Snowbird and Alta in particular are not reliably accessible. If a major storm hits the canyon, it could be a couple of days before anyone gets in or out. The American TV networks don’t allow risks of that kind to jeopardise their programming.

Park City, the main ‘destination’ resort of the area, is hosting (in partnership with next-door Deer Valley) the lion’s share of the events. But it’s unknown Snowbasin that gets the prestige downhill and super-G events.
Park City gets detailed coverage in its own chapter on page 506. Snowbasin is a quite extraordinary resort, for which we predict a great future. Right now, it has the distinction of being the only resort in these pages with absolutely no visitor beds. You can stay nearby, but you can’t stay at Snowbasin. Even so, we thought readers would be interested to learn something about the hill where the Klammers of 2002 will be earning their medals, and where the more adventurous tourists of 2003 will boldly go. Over the page, therefore, is a trail map and a mini-report on this and the other Olympic resorts.

An unusual and interesting holiday exploring the Utah powder can be had by staying in Salt Lake City. The resorts are all within day-trip driving distance, accommodation and car hire are cheap, and the town has the kind of nightlife that only a real American town can offer. What are you waiting for?

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