Day 47: A return to a new old ski area.
Mrs. Admin and I drove down to southern Utah Friday night to visit Eagle Point to research an upcoming feature article for FTO. Eagle Point is the new name for the former Elk Meadows ski area near Beaver, known before that as Mt. Holly.
Shane Gadbaw and two partners bought Elk Meadows at a bankruptcy auction last year from the guy who planned to turn Eagle Point into an uber-exclusive private club, a la the Yellowstone Club. There are lots of folks in the area who are thrilled that plan failed, and the new owners are giving it 110% to try to revive the ski area that's more a part of the Vegas market than the rest of Utah (it's roughly equidistant between Salt Lake City and Las Vegas). Virtually everyone we ran into -- what few were there -- were from Vegas. They've fully renovated the mid-mountain Canyonview Lodge into a bar and restaurant, where they're bringing in live music even if there's no one there to listen to the band -- they'll be happy to see 50,000 skier visits all season. They somehow managed to brush out runs dormant since 2002 and load test and recertify all of the lifts even though they only had three months to pull it off. They built a new warming shelter atop the lower mountain runs, and revived the snow tubing hill.
But still, there's no one there:
Eagle Point is bisected by a state road, with the beginner terrain in an upper mountain pod and the steeper terrain below the road. We spent the beginning of our morning buzzing around the upper mountain before skiing under the road to the lower mountain.
Boarding the Lookout Quad, I planned to take Mrs. Admin on a long groomed cruiser down County Road to Beaver Tail, but things weren't quite as I remembered from 2002. I skied the first pitch, skied past a four-track vehicle and rounded a corner and...it was uphill. :-k
I was prepared to bring her down Anasazi Freefall, an ungroomed black, when I noticed that a guy was sitting in that four-track ready to give us a ride up the hill. It turns out that the new owners opted to not rebuild the chair that previously ascended Delano Drop, instead using the four-track to ferry people up the short grade to the top of the old chair on weekends.
We headed to Canyonside Lodge for lunch on the patio at noon.
After lunch, I hooked up with Alec Hornstein, whose business Tushar Mountain Tours offers guided ski touring and backcountry yurt hospitality in a 100 square-mile permit area of the Tushar Mountains within Fishlake National Forest.
Skinning up Mt. Holly with Alec was a pleasure.
We chatted a lot. Alec was a heli guide with Mike Wiegele in British Columbia before moving down to the Tushars 14 years ago to start his business. He appreciates the serenity and solitude that this southern Utah mountain range offers.
We skinned up to some rocks at the base of the Finger Chutes on Mt. Holly to take a break and take in the views.
The Tushars feature delightful low angle skiing on the western flanks, and steep couloirs east of the crest. We skied a line on the western slope of Mt. Holly, which alternated between wind crust, punchy soft snow and springlike slush.
We had planned on a second skin up Lake Mountain, but the afternoon sun was getting low in the sky already and I still had some stuff to accomplish at the resort, even though that was delayed further by beers with Alec back at the condo.
The sun was setting over the western desert as we descended Beaver Canyon back to civilization for the drive back to Salt Lake City. Stay tuned for our upcoming feature article on FTO.
Mrs. Admin and I drove down to southern Utah Friday night to visit Eagle Point to research an upcoming feature article for FTO. Eagle Point is the new name for the former Elk Meadows ski area near Beaver, known before that as Mt. Holly.
Shane Gadbaw and two partners bought Elk Meadows at a bankruptcy auction last year from the guy who planned to turn Eagle Point into an uber-exclusive private club, a la the Yellowstone Club. There are lots of folks in the area who are thrilled that plan failed, and the new owners are giving it 110% to try to revive the ski area that's more a part of the Vegas market than the rest of Utah (it's roughly equidistant between Salt Lake City and Las Vegas). Virtually everyone we ran into -- what few were there -- were from Vegas. They've fully renovated the mid-mountain Canyonview Lodge into a bar and restaurant, where they're bringing in live music even if there's no one there to listen to the band -- they'll be happy to see 50,000 skier visits all season. They somehow managed to brush out runs dormant since 2002 and load test and recertify all of the lifts even though they only had three months to pull it off. They built a new warming shelter atop the lower mountain runs, and revived the snow tubing hill.
But still, there's no one there:
Eagle Point is bisected by a state road, with the beginner terrain in an upper mountain pod and the steeper terrain below the road. We spent the beginning of our morning buzzing around the upper mountain before skiing under the road to the lower mountain.
Boarding the Lookout Quad, I planned to take Mrs. Admin on a long groomed cruiser down County Road to Beaver Tail, but things weren't quite as I remembered from 2002. I skied the first pitch, skied past a four-track vehicle and rounded a corner and...it was uphill. :-k
I was prepared to bring her down Anasazi Freefall, an ungroomed black, when I noticed that a guy was sitting in that four-track ready to give us a ride up the hill. It turns out that the new owners opted to not rebuild the chair that previously ascended Delano Drop, instead using the four-track to ferry people up the short grade to the top of the old chair on weekends.
We headed to Canyonside Lodge for lunch on the patio at noon.
After lunch, I hooked up with Alec Hornstein, whose business Tushar Mountain Tours offers guided ski touring and backcountry yurt hospitality in a 100 square-mile permit area of the Tushar Mountains within Fishlake National Forest.
Skinning up Mt. Holly with Alec was a pleasure.
We chatted a lot. Alec was a heli guide with Mike Wiegele in British Columbia before moving down to the Tushars 14 years ago to start his business. He appreciates the serenity and solitude that this southern Utah mountain range offers.
We skinned up to some rocks at the base of the Finger Chutes on Mt. Holly to take a break and take in the views.
The Tushars feature delightful low angle skiing on the western flanks, and steep couloirs east of the crest. We skied a line on the western slope of Mt. Holly, which alternated between wind crust, punchy soft snow and springlike slush.
We had planned on a second skin up Lake Mountain, but the afternoon sun was getting low in the sky already and I still had some stuff to accomplish at the resort, even though that was delayed further by beers with Alec back at the condo.
The sun was setting over the western desert as we descended Beaver Canyon back to civilization for the drive back to Salt Lake City. Stay tuned for our upcoming feature article on FTO.
