Utah Season Passes: Where to Go???
8 years ago
Utah Season Passes
The time has come. It’s still 100 f@ckin degrees outside but I hope you have been saving for your season pass. I have missed out on some of these early perks before and I wasn’t too happy about it. I have made my decision and I am going to walk through everything that is out there.
First place to go is SkiUtah.com. They have all the high level info and even a Ski Resort comparison tool for you to help determine where your winter days will be spent based on distance and snowfall. As I wrote this, I realized Ski Utah has the most comprehensive comparison tool on the planet. Kudos to them.
Gold and Silver Passes
Let's start out with the big boys. If you are getting a Utah Gold or a Utah Silver pass and are the 1 of 135 or 55 buyers of these passes respectively you don’t have to decide much. Just ski wherever you want each day. The Gold pass is good for 55 days at each and every Utah resorts and the Silver is good for 30 days at each and every resort. So assuming ski season is Turkey Day to to May 180 * 55 you’ll have 9900 days of skiing (better try to get a few days with multiple resorts in).
Snowfall
First parameter I look at when deciding where to go skiing is the annual snowfall. We are blessed here in Utah to have great mountains that get even better when the lake effect snow fills them up. Using the comparison tool from skiutah.com here they are:
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Alta - 560 inches, 14.2 meters
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Snowbird - 500 inches 12.7 meters
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Solitude - 500 inches 12.7 meters
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Brighton - 500 inches 12.7 meters
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Powder Mountain - 500 inches 12.7 meters
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Eagle Point - 450 inches 11.43 meters
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Beaver Mountain - 400 inches 11.43 meters
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Brian Head - 360 inches 9.14 meters
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Cheery Peak - 322 inches
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Park City - 300 inches 7.62 meters
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Deer Valley - 300 inches 7.62 meters
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Sundance - 300 inches 7.62 meters
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Snowbasin - 300 inches 7.62 meters
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Nordic Valley 300 inches 7.62 meters
Alta, Snowbird, Solitude and Brighton are pretty much all touching so for Alta to report 60 extra inches might be a little exaggeration but who am I to talk, I ride a snowboard...
If snowfall is your one and only deciding factor and you have a pair of skis, Alta is where you want to be.
Pass Perks
The reason to buy early is for the perks. If you are still saving some dough, then you miss out on some of the really early bird perks. There are more Collectives, benefits, Epicness, Yetiness, Alliance, MAX, passports, bundles than ever before. Be sure to check your vacation plans becuase one of these passes may save you some dough on a trip to Idaho or Colorado.
Ski Utah does another good job trying to summarize all these here. Several resorts give day passes to each other, but they are not very valuable for the boarders (Deer Valley, Alta). Invet
******** Buy in the next 4 days to get a free room at the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird *********
Terrain
Now terrain is a subjective criteria. So we are gonna have to break these down on based on style. And I haven’t rode every mountain to grade all the terrain, but who cares? This is the internet, I can be angry, wrong, and misinformed and run for president!.
Steeps
From what I know and hear this has to be in this order, and if you disagree I’ll call you crooked and attack you on social media.
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Alta - skiers that like steeps go to Alta, hard to argue with all the edits out there
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Snowbird - If good skiers have good snowboarder buddies, then they rip the bird.
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Solitude - If you want to hike for it
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Park City - 9990. Be careful
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And thats all I really know
Parks
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Park City - Combined with the Canyons, one of the best in the land
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Brighton - Top to bottom. Jumps and rails. I think 50 edits a day are made at Brighton
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Deer Valley - just checking if you’re paying attention.
Don’t listen to me on this one. Just hit up ski Utah again.
Size
Park City is now the biggest skiing in America. Alta Bird doesn’t have the size but it has the terrain. Only Pow Mow can compare with its Cat Skiing Acres. Again, as I type this I am finding out how cool the Ski Utah website is. Really every comparison is on there. So I might actually stop typing.
Conclusion
Buying a ski pass means the best time of year is almost here. And since it seems like pass buying is getting earler and earlier, that means that fall is almost here. And Fall is the best time of year. The snow hasn’t fallen yet, the new gear is home and sitting in the living room so you can check on it each day. The winter hasn’t decided what kind of winter its going to be yet. There is hope, there is satisfaction of scientifically deciding on new boots, skis, boards, passes. Everything is set in place and it’s just a matter of time before the flakes start piling up, the movie premiers start playing and we get to bring out our light weight jackets. Then we eat some turkey and start shredding. All I know is that I can’t wait and it’s too damn hot out. Conclusion number 2 is that I need to check out more or Utah's resorts. I have only a handful notched and need to get some more. This affected my decision for my pass and I hope to see a few more this season.
10 day pass at the Bird
Night skiing at Brighton
Those are my choices. The Bird for pow, and Brighton for nights and the little 4 year old to shred it up.