Costco discount lift tix?

[johnnash]

We're doing our annual Christmas pilgrimage to SLC, and I saw a reference in an online article to some kind of discount deal Costco has on lift tix in SLC. This looked interesting, since we just recently jumped ship from BJ's to Costco. I looked at their national website,and found several deals on lift tix, but none in SLC. Does anyone know anything about this, and in particular if these are any cheaper than buying at Canyon or See and Ski?

Have to say that I'm encouraged by recent reports at the resorts. It looks like many of them have opened a LOT of new terrain over the last few days. I would be interested in some ''no bull'' reports on conditions at some of the places that now have a lot of terrain open, but still appear to be running pretty far behind their average snowfalls, like PCMR, Canyons, Snowbasin and PowMow. Is there likely to be a lot of brown snow on those newly opened runs?

I'm relieved :-D to see that there's no blizzard in the forecast for Christmas day when we arrive, like last year's. One visit to the Boise airport was quite sufficient ! Not that I would want to dis Boise, but it's hard to appreciate its charms sitting on a runway at midnight.

 

[socal]

I'm flying in tomorrow night and I'll be curious to hear others opinions on the non LCC/BCC resorts. My thought right now is there's just not enough snow there yet. We're staying downtown so we can be flexible and I'd love to show my friends around Snowbasin (some are more intermediates and love long groomers :roll: ) but I don't know that they're ready yet.

 

[Admin]

The exist but I'm a Sam's Club member. Give a shout to the proprietor of SnowlistUT.com -- she recently tweeted some deals that she saw in SLC Costcos.

 

[johnnash]

Thanks, but is SnowlistUT.com the correct name of the website? I couldn't reach it on my browser.

 

[Admin]

Sorry - snowlist.com.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

 

[Tony Crocker]

Any lift ticket deals in SLC should be compared to Canyon Sports as a benchmark.

All the LCC/BCC resorts are 90+% open.
All 3 of the Park City group are 64-66% open.
Snowbasin is 59% open.
Powder Mt. is 20% open. Anyone want to argue that Powder Mt. gets a lot more snow than Snowbasin?

Is there likely to be a lot of brown snow on those newly opened runs?

Not sure that's the problem. If it's steep and/or badly exposed it's not covered adequately and thus not open. If 1/3 of a ski area is not open, it's safe to say that over half of the advanced/expert terrain is not open. If it stays dry through "zoo week" the crowds might expose a few obstacles that aren't there now.

Holiday visitors above the intermediate level should stick to the Cottonwood resorts, unless there's another big storm to change the numbers above. Be glad you won't be in the other Summit County in Colorado, where resorts are half or less open. Likely very unpleasant with "zoo week" crowds.

From what I see Utah and Colorado get one more decent storm before Christmas, then nothing for the next week or so.

 

[rsmith]

Powder Mountain is not worth the drive if the Paradise Quad is not open.

PM probably does get a bit more snow than Snowbasin, and the variety of exposures and higher amount of trees seems to allow for better overall conditions than Snowbasin at any given time. In my experience SB is very liable to wind damage due to it's open terrain. However, I think the current differential in run counts is more a measure of Powder Mountains utter lack of snowmaking and their lack of investment in grooming/trail maintenance as compared to Snowbasin (which has a huge snowmaking infrastructure). On a 32" base the vast majority of PM should be ski-able - specifically since it's generally low angle terrain without a lot of underlying rocks. IF they had snowmaking at the choke points and the lower elevations I assume they would have at least the same % terrain open as SB.

 

[Admin]

All the LCC/BCC resorts are 90+% open.
All 3 of the Park City group are 64-66% open.
Snowbasin is 59% open.
Powder Mt. is 20% open. Anyone want to argue that Powder Mt. gets a lot more snow than Snowbasin?

That's an overly simplistic analysis. The bulk of the big storms thus far this year have favored southern and central Wasatch, such that the further north you go the less there is, and have also arrived on a southwesterly flow and thus favor certain areas. Pow Mow is on the lee side for such storms and does very well on a northwesterly flow -- recall that such storms are funneled by the Cache Valley to Powder Mountain. While we often get the latter over the course of a winter they've been few and far between so far this year.

Also, to explain open terrain totals recall that Snowbasin has a rather impressive snowmaking system, and Powder Mountain has none. Anecdotally, a baggage handler at SLC Airport last night was raving about what he was riding yesterday at Powder Mountain.

 

[rsmith]

I've also never found anything cheaper than the discounts at Canyon Sports. They list their discounted prices on their website: http://www.canyonsports.com/content/?page=LIft Ticket Pricing, and are in very convenient locations whether you're downtown, going up LCC/BCC or in Ogden.

 

[socal]

Also, to explain open terrain totals recall that Snowbasin has a rather impressive snowmaking system, and Powder Mountain has none. Anecdotally, a baggage handler at SLC Airport last night was raving about what he was riding yesterday at Powder Mountain.

Hmmm...interesting. I'd love to go to Powmow and the intermediates in the group would probably love it.

 

[Tony Crocker]

The low percentage at Powder Mt. is due to Paradise quad not being open. I suspect the bus and snowcat runs aren't open either. Over the past 3 seasons Powder Mt. has received 12% more snow than Snowbasin. With all Wasatch areas in the 60% range of normal so far, I agree the snowmaking at Snowbasin is making the difference.

My point is that if Powder Mt. really got BCC levels of snowfall much more would be open. As FTO reports show, the Cottonwood resorts are skiing quite nicely on that 60%. Snowbasin and Powder Mt. have much less margin for adverse deviation.

 

[Marc_C]

I've also never found anything cheaper than the discounts at Canyon Sports. They list their discounted prices on their website: http://www.canyonsports.com/content/?page=LIft Ticket Pricing, and are in very convenient locations whether you're downtown, going up LCC/BCC or in Ogden.

The Costco discounts are identical to those of Canyon Sports, Sea n' Ski, The Lift House, and Smith's Supermarkets.
Just remember that you can only get the Park City resorts discounts at the shops in the Salt Lake valley, not in Park City.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Snowbasin has a rather impressive snowmaking system.

Six years ago, I got a tour of the snowmaking HQ. Didn't get any pix of the "war room," but it's like an air-traffic control center.

 

[Marc_C]

How did you wrangle that? I thought DHS had that in lock-down!

 

[socal]

Off topic, but then again this whole thread has kinda been that way.

Quick question to the locals. Any thoughts on hitting up Sundance Resort this weekend? With the southerly track of the recent storms and the crowds for the holidays seems like it might be worth a trip down there. Thoughts?