This is the only time I’ve skied Powder Mt. in full-on spring conditions. It was crystal clear all day with temps in the 30’s in the morning and 40’s after noon. Four prior visits were for leftover powder and the most recent in early February 2021 with NASJA was midwinter high overcast.
We started skiing at 10:30, but in Utah Daylight time that’s really 8:45 sun time. Hidden Peak groomers were pretty much packed powder, which is a sign of very high level grooming to break up any melt/frozen snow. I suspect this is a recent development perhaps with Reed Hastings’ majority control.
As the day progressed most groomers turned to corn or close to it due to the low skier density on a Monday with no new snow. This was far better groomed skiing than I have ever experienced with Deer Valley’s manmade snow and greater skier numbers.
We skied to the Village and Mary’s lifts, which serve the Summit real estate and will not be open to the public next year. This construction does not look customized at all.
Liz approaches the Village lift on south facing and pristine Mt. High East level corn snow.
Most of these homes look like what we saw in 2021.
We tested some softened ungroomed on the way to Mary’s lift.
From Mary’s we skied into deserted Cobabe Canyon’s On Your Mark.
From the Paradise chair we skied near its liftline which I have never done before. By now it was past noon and this upper part was in good shape.
View of Straight Shot riding back up:
Lower down on Silver Bowl and Paradise snow was heavier but still manageable.
View west from top of Paradise lift:
Lightning Ridge is the treed knoll above Liz’ head. James Peak is over the red pole. In 2012 we followed BobbyD traversing across that entire face and dropping into the bowl behind the tree at far right.
We skied four groomers on Hidden Peak, then rode the Poma for one more shot at Cobabe Canyon, still mostly untracked 4 days after the last snowfall.
It was past 2PM and snow was very heavy.
Our final run from Paradise was in the NW facing Powder Chambers.
While obviously in spring mode today, this is the best fall line powder terrain with easy lift access. I had never skied it before.
I skied 20,700 vertical after one more Main Line/Dilly Dally groomer, still in great shape at 3:45.
Powder Mt. was purchased by the Summit consortium of tech bros in 2013. I reported from the NASJA meeting in 2021 on the real estate development under way, served by the new Village and Mary’s lifts.
The marketing manager from 2021 is no longer there and I could not make contact with the new one. However, when I came out of the Timberline Lodge Liz was chatting with a helpful employee Larry.
Larry thinks overall management has improved since Reed Hastings acquired majority ownership from the Summit group in 2023.
Not all the land we think as Powder Mt. is controlled by the resort. The obvious case is the real estate developed by Summit with its two lifts. Not so obvious are these homes between the Timberline and Sundown lodges.
This development severed the ski connection so skiers must catch a bus to travel between those lodges. We did not ski Sundown at all on Monday. Next season a lift will be installed from the Timberline base to Lightning Ridge. This will allow a connection to Sundown plus lift access to what was formerly served by a $29/ride snowcat.
It is not a surprise that the explosive growth in Utah skier visits has affected Powder Mt. I recall former admin explaining that Powder Mt. was always so empty because SLC skiers had so many options at 45 minute drive or less. But in recent years when it might take 2 hours to get up LCC on a weekend or powder day, Powder Mt. looks more attractive. According to Larry, Powder Mt.’s limitation was parking capacity. There was much illegal parking on that very steep access road. So sometime in the Summit ownership era a cap was put on day ticket sales. Larry thought that cap was originally 750, then relaxed to 1500.
Under Reed Hastings’ control, price has become an additional lever to preserve Powder Mt.’s very low skier density. Elissa from the old Mammoth Forum has been spending a week here in late February for several years, buying advance ticket packs in the fall. A few years ago those were $40 per day. Last year they were $70 and this year $120. Those tickets are transferrable and Liz used one today. I used the Indy pass I got via NASJA. In both cases you must register in advance and be under the day ticket limit. If buying day tickets in 2023-24, they cost $229 adult and $189 senior, whether by advance reservation or at the window. Powder Mt. is also dropping out of the Indy Pass for 2024-25. As good as the groomer skiing was today, I doubt Liz and I would have been there if paying in the $400 range for two day tickets on a non-powder day.
Season passes for 2024-25 are $1,499 adult, $1,299 senior and good for the rest of this season.
The strategy utilized by former admin occasionally and my first 4 visits between 1991 and 2018 was to come to Powder Mt. second or third day after a storm when other areas were tracked out. That strategy rates to cost ~$250 day going forward. One could argue that if prices remained cheap as in the past, the 1500 per day skier limit would sell out far in advance at least for weekends, and the ability to chase powder would be lost.
$250 is not a terrible number if you know you will be getting low competition powder. However I was reminded in the hot tub tonight that Powder Mt. has another constituency, northern Utah families. The cheap prices and overall mellow terrain were ideal for many of them and they are being priced out by the new management.
We started skiing at 10:30, but in Utah Daylight time that’s really 8:45 sun time. Hidden Peak groomers were pretty much packed powder, which is a sign of very high level grooming to break up any melt/frozen snow. I suspect this is a recent development perhaps with Reed Hastings’ majority control.
As the day progressed most groomers turned to corn or close to it due to the low skier density on a Monday with no new snow. This was far better groomed skiing than I have ever experienced with Deer Valley’s manmade snow and greater skier numbers.
We skied to the Village and Mary’s lifts, which serve the Summit real estate and will not be open to the public next year. This construction does not look customized at all.
Liz approaches the Village lift on south facing and pristine Mt. High East level corn snow.
Most of these homes look like what we saw in 2021.
We tested some softened ungroomed on the way to Mary’s lift.
From Mary’s we skied into deserted Cobabe Canyon’s On Your Mark.
From the Paradise chair we skied near its liftline which I have never done before. By now it was past noon and this upper part was in good shape.
View of Straight Shot riding back up:
Lower down on Silver Bowl and Paradise snow was heavier but still manageable.
View west from top of Paradise lift:
Lightning Ridge is the treed knoll above Liz’ head. James Peak is over the red pole. In 2012 we followed BobbyD traversing across that entire face and dropping into the bowl behind the tree at far right.
We skied four groomers on Hidden Peak, then rode the Poma for one more shot at Cobabe Canyon, still mostly untracked 4 days after the last snowfall.
It was past 2PM and snow was very heavy.
Our final run from Paradise was in the NW facing Powder Chambers.
While obviously in spring mode today, this is the best fall line powder terrain with easy lift access. I had never skied it before.
I skied 20,700 vertical after one more Main Line/Dilly Dally groomer, still in great shape at 3:45.
Powder Mt. was purchased by the Summit consortium of tech bros in 2013. I reported from the NASJA meeting in 2021 on the real estate development under way, served by the new Village and Mary’s lifts.
The marketing manager from 2021 is no longer there and I could not make contact with the new one. However, when I came out of the Timberline Lodge Liz was chatting with a helpful employee Larry.
Larry thinks overall management has improved since Reed Hastings acquired majority ownership from the Summit group in 2023.
Not all the land we think as Powder Mt. is controlled by the resort. The obvious case is the real estate developed by Summit with its two lifts. Not so obvious are these homes between the Timberline and Sundown lodges.
This development severed the ski connection so skiers must catch a bus to travel between those lodges. We did not ski Sundown at all on Monday. Next season a lift will be installed from the Timberline base to Lightning Ridge. This will allow a connection to Sundown plus lift access to what was formerly served by a $29/ride snowcat.
It is not a surprise that the explosive growth in Utah skier visits has affected Powder Mt. I recall former admin explaining that Powder Mt. was always so empty because SLC skiers had so many options at 45 minute drive or less. But in recent years when it might take 2 hours to get up LCC on a weekend or powder day, Powder Mt. looks more attractive. According to Larry, Powder Mt.’s limitation was parking capacity. There was much illegal parking on that very steep access road. So sometime in the Summit ownership era a cap was put on day ticket sales. Larry thought that cap was originally 750, then relaxed to 1500.
Under Reed Hastings’ control, price has become an additional lever to preserve Powder Mt.’s very low skier density. Elissa from the old Mammoth Forum has been spending a week here in late February for several years, buying advance ticket packs in the fall. A few years ago those were $40 per day. Last year they were $70 and this year $120. Those tickets are transferrable and Liz used one today. I used the Indy pass I got via NASJA. In both cases you must register in advance and be under the day ticket limit. If buying day tickets in 2023-24, they cost $229 adult and $189 senior, whether by advance reservation or at the window. Powder Mt. is also dropping out of the Indy Pass for 2024-25. As good as the groomer skiing was today, I doubt Liz and I would have been there if paying in the $400 range for two day tickets on a non-powder day.
Season passes for 2024-25 are $1,499 adult, $1,299 senior and good for the rest of this season.
The strategy utilized by former admin occasionally and my first 4 visits between 1991 and 2018 was to come to Powder Mt. second or third day after a storm when other areas were tracked out. That strategy rates to cost ~$250 day going forward. One could argue that if prices remained cheap as in the past, the 1500 per day skier limit would sell out far in advance at least for weekends, and the ability to chase powder would be lost.
$250 is not a terrible number if you know you will be getting low competition powder. However I was reminded in the hot tub tonight that Powder Mt. has another constituency, northern Utah families. The cheap prices and overall mellow terrain were ideal for many of them and they are being priced out by the new management.
