Sharon
New member
After 2 powderdays on the steeps and bumps at Alta, the gentle glades of Powder Mountain were a welcome change. Pam, Amy, John and I headed north to investigate this must-do destination that none of us have ever been to.
Pow Mow is a very expansive mountain with very little skier traffic. It was one of the busiest saturday's of the season. Locals were commenting that the small parking lots were just about full. We could hardly believe they call this crowded. We never waited for more than a minute for the lift, and we hardly saw any people on the trails. We'd have entire areas to ourselves where we wouldnt see another person.
We sampled the lift-served in the morning and found fresh snow on north facing glades. We also found crusty and windblown snow in places, but we quickly learned to stay in the thicker northfacing trees. The layout of the area was a bit perplexing at first, but we got the feel for it after a few runs.
The base lodge is quite primitive as far as resort standards go. Very basic and the food was fair at best. They ran out of a lot of things, including soup, chili, ketchup and pickles by the time we got there. They weren't prepared for the 100 or so extra people who made the place more busy than usual.
After lunch we did a run off of Lightening Ridge which is cat-served. For $8 they take you up to 9000' and you have a whole 'side country' area to yourselves (and the 6 others who were on the cat with us, whom we never saw again once we headed to the ridge).
It was very cool being dropped off by the cat and having so much terrain to ourselves. There was a guide who gave us the general layout, but he didn't go with us. We were on our own. It was a nice adventure.
Apres ski in the bar downstairs of the baselodge. It was fairly busy and there really weren't many tourists. Felt very much like a local's place, especially after being at Alta the 2 previous days with all the east coast accents in the air. The guys of Powder Mountain say that 4" of snow ski like 8". Well, we know how men like to make up for any deficiency. The lack of steeps and the pure expansiveness of the terrain, coupled with the lack of skier traffic makes even a little snow ski pretty nice. Leftovers from the last storm were still in good shape.
We all agreed that we must go back to PowMow again and try to get there after 4" or more of fresh snow. The place will ski real big and it is simple to see why you can ski fresh runs the whole day long. There is just so much terrain and not much competition.
Back in SLC we ate dinner at Cafe Med. It was some of the best mediterranean food I've ever had. The Mousakka was wonderful and the meal was huge and put us in a food coma. Perfect meal after a great day of skiing a new mountain with good friends.
Pow Mow is a very expansive mountain with very little skier traffic. It was one of the busiest saturday's of the season. Locals were commenting that the small parking lots were just about full. We could hardly believe they call this crowded. We never waited for more than a minute for the lift, and we hardly saw any people on the trails. We'd have entire areas to ourselves where we wouldnt see another person.
We sampled the lift-served in the morning and found fresh snow on north facing glades. We also found crusty and windblown snow in places, but we quickly learned to stay in the thicker northfacing trees. The layout of the area was a bit perplexing at first, but we got the feel for it after a few runs.
The base lodge is quite primitive as far as resort standards go. Very basic and the food was fair at best. They ran out of a lot of things, including soup, chili, ketchup and pickles by the time we got there. They weren't prepared for the 100 or so extra people who made the place more busy than usual.
After lunch we did a run off of Lightening Ridge which is cat-served. For $8 they take you up to 9000' and you have a whole 'side country' area to yourselves (and the 6 others who were on the cat with us, whom we never saw again once we headed to the ridge).
It was very cool being dropped off by the cat and having so much terrain to ourselves. There was a guide who gave us the general layout, but he didn't go with us. We were on our own. It was a nice adventure.
Apres ski in the bar downstairs of the baselodge. It was fairly busy and there really weren't many tourists. Felt very much like a local's place, especially after being at Alta the 2 previous days with all the east coast accents in the air. The guys of Powder Mountain say that 4" of snow ski like 8". Well, we know how men like to make up for any deficiency. The lack of steeps and the pure expansiveness of the terrain, coupled with the lack of skier traffic makes even a little snow ski pretty nice. Leftovers from the last storm were still in good shape.
We all agreed that we must go back to PowMow again and try to get there after 4" or more of fresh snow. The place will ski real big and it is simple to see why you can ski fresh runs the whole day long. There is just so much terrain and not much competition.
Back in SLC we ate dinner at Cafe Med. It was some of the best mediterranean food I've ever had. The Mousakka was wonderful and the meal was huge and put us in a food coma. Perfect meal after a great day of skiing a new mountain with good friends.