First off, majowiski, welcome...both to First Tracks!! Online, and to the addiction that all of us here share!
"Family friendly"...just about anything in Utah meets that definition. :wink: I've been blessed in that I've been fortunate enough to have had the chance to ski mountains all over the world (yeah, Tony, I know that I have yet to get to Mammoth or Baldy :wink: :wink: ), and I moved our business here from the East Coast because in my opinion, Utah has some of the best and most easily accessible skiing on the continent. The enthusiasm I'm about to share isn't bias, it's my true belief.
Given your ability descriptions, I think that you'd have fun at the Park City-area resorts. Very little at those three (Park City Mountain Resort, Deer Valley and The Canyons) will scare anyone silly, and they have the benefit of Utah's only true resort town to keep you entertained off the slopes, or for a day off should your wife desire one. The chamber's website is at
www.parkcityinfo.com and the ski areas are at
parkcitymountain.com,
deervalley.com and
thecanyons.com. The downside is that these areas don't get nearly the same snowfall as the four Cottonwood Canyons resorts -- Alta, Brighton, Solitude and Snowbird -- just on the other side of the ridge. On the plus side, those coming from sea level will find the sleeping at 6,500 feet in Park City easier than at the higher Cottonwood base elevations. If you have a snowboarder in the family, note that Deer Valley prohibits snowboarding. You say that you like to occasionally venture onto a black, so I'll note here that Park City Mountain Resort is making an effort to expand grooming on its black runs this season.
Now, let's talk about those four Cottonwood Canyons-area resorts. Alta (
alta.com) is a throwback experience that many serious skiers view as a trip to Mecca. Alta truly has terrain for all abilities, but a quiet evening by the fire and sharing the dinner table with fellow lodge guests has to be your idea of an exciting evening (it is for me, but some others would surely disagree). It also arguably has the best snowfall in the state. Likewise, Brighton (
skibrighton.com) and Solitude (
skisolitude.com) offer what you're looking for, with similar snowfall to Alta's and minimal base area lodging - Brighton has one or two small inns nearby, and Solitude has a sleepy Intrawest-designed village. I should note that Brighton has a significant snowboarder population, and Alta prohibits snowboarding just as Deer Valley does. I've purposefully left Snowbird out of this discussion as it's best left for when you and your wife bring your skiing skills up a notch, IMO -- it sounds as if she may be intimidated there, as there's very little easy terrain.
The beauty of the four Cottonwood Canyons ski areas -- Alta, Snowbird, Brighton & Solitude -- is that they're all 20 minutes from lodging in the Salt Lake Valley for an economical lodging alternative (hotels in the Valley are cheap by Atlanta standards) with virtually endless dining and shopping opportunities for the evening. Nowhere else in North America will you find world-class skiing so close to a metropolitan area. The Salt Lake Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau website is
visitsaltlake.com. City bus routes (
utabus.com) even take skiers from many Valley hotels to Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude, so it's possible to get by without a car. And by staying in the Valley, you're sleeping at 4,500-5,000 feet. By contrast, Alta's base elevation is 8,350 feet, high enough to affect some people coming directly from sea level.
Another benefit of this proximity is that Alta, Snowbird, Brighton & Solitude are all only 30 minutes from Salt Lake International airport, a hub for Delta, meaning that you can get an easy non-stop from Atlanta -- and Delta's prices since their bankruptcy filing have been phenomenal. The three Park City-area resorts are less than 45 minutes from the airport. You don't have to drive hours to the ski area after getting off the plane when you vacation here. In fact, you can catch an early-morning flight out of Hartsfield, and with the time difference land here in time to be eating lunch on the slopes. The parkcityinfo.com website referenced above even offers out-of-towners who register online prior to arrival to receive a free lift ticket on the day of their arrival.
For a recent family-oriented feature length article on Snowbird, Alta, Park City and Deer Valley,
click here. A feature article on Brighton is
here, a dedicated feature article on Alta is
here, a dedicated feature article on Snowbird is
here, and an older feature article on Solitude is
here.
There are other ski areas in Utah, of course. Sundance (
sundanceresort.com), Robert Redford's resort near Provo, is decidedly low-key and primarily intermediate in nature -- but it's at a lower elevation and gets snowfall similar to that received by the Park City areas. Snowbasin (
www.snowbasin.com, with an older feature article is
here) and Powder Mountain (
powdermountain.com, with an older feature article
here) are up north near Ogden, and neither has a bed base (OK, Pow Mow has a small hotel at the top with maybe 10 rooms, the Columbine Inn). There's a smaller area up there, too, Wolf Mountain
wolfmountaineden.com (formerly Nordic Valley), but that's more of a local learning hill. Then you've got Beaver Mountain (
skithebeav.com), a mom-n-pop place out in the boonies near the Idaho border, and Brian Head (
brianhead.com)down south near Cedar City that's frequented by folks from Las Vegas (feature article
here). And that pretty much wraps up the state.
Finally, the Utah Ski & Snowboarding Association puts together a rather comprehensive website,
SkiUtah.com.
Colorado definitely gets the lion's share of skier visits of any U.S. state. However, a big draw for Colorado resorts is that nearly all of them are built around a resort town with bars, restaurants, night spots, boutiques, etc. Park City may be our only true resort town, but the proximity of the Salt Lake Valley makes that a moot point for the four Cottonwood Canyons-area resorts, IMO. And I am also a firm believer that the quality of the skiing here is much better, and most certainly prices are lower. Our mountains are high enough to preserve snow quality, but not nearly as high as the Colorado resorts, again leading to fewer complications from altitude sickness. Ditch one of those Colorado trips you're planning and come on out here!