Why ski Utah?

Acidchrist

Acidchrist

New member
Ok, AC here. So I patrolled at The Canyons for two seasons, and skied the cottonwoods every weekend on my days off. BFD. What would I know about Utah anyway???
Anyway, I actually trying to SELL a friend of mine on going to Utah instead of Colorado...crazy, right? I must be extremely unpersuasive. Could someone provide me with a good, solid, single sourced reference (one that contained some raw statistics balanced w/some solid, positive, resounding reviews of the skiing?)

Hope you're all having a great summer!
AC
 
I would have him peruse this board a bit. I know that Admin has posted some good videos of skiing the Utah powder. I have just spent the last two years skiing Utah after years of skiing Colorado and then California -- I think that Utah does have the greatest snow on earth. Last year I had quite a few days skiing waist deep powder in the Aspens at the Canyons. It was the greatest skiing of my life! 8)

p.s. There's a chance of snow here in the High Uintas tonite!!!
 
Hmmm...let's see...

1. Snowfall. Stats tell the whole story.
2. One third the skiers per acre of Colorado's.
3. Snowfall.
4. Terrain. Aside from a few select locations Colorado is decidedly intermediate.
5. Snowfall.
6. Traffic and distance. Ever drive I-70 from Summit County to Denver on a Sunday night? Our resorts are right near the airport.
7. Did I mention snowfall?
 
With regard to admin's #4, Colorado's expert terrain is perversely concentrated at areas like Crested Butte that are on the low end of the range for snowfall. The big snow areas (Wolf Creek, Steamboat, Vail) are good for powder but don't have much in the way of steeps. You'll hear a lot of marketing crowing about the epic season last year (7 Colorado areas set records, http://bestsnow.net/summ08.htm) but that has little relevance for those planning ahead.

Before we all pile on the bandwagon, we don't know the priorities of Acidchrist's friend. He might be an intermediate skier, or he might place high value on apres-ski and resort ambience.

There is a reason Utah skier visits are barely 1/3 of Colorado's. You can have the awesome terrain and "Greatest Snow on Earth" in BCC/LCC, OR you can have the resort experience at the Park City group. You can't have both unless you're willing to spend a lot of time daily commuting. Most destination visitors prefer to stay put once they get to a resort, especially with families. When push comes to shove, the typical vacationer (as opposed to typical FTO poster) will opt for the full service resort. And Park City is middle-of-the-pack in that regard by Colorado standards.
 
No matter what level skier you are...snowfall. Tony can probably whip something up quick.

I remember doing some hut to hut in Colorado. The guides, based in Vail, were going on vacation after our trip. They were going to Utah.

It was my impression that they lived in Colorado because it was easier to make money as a guide there. More yahoos (like me) per square inch.
 
o.k. :D try to come up with a legitimate excuse not to other than the alchol laws which are getting better. not that i have issues with them cause i don't drink enough for it to matter. but alot of people do.I won't go back into any of the reasons admin posted because there all legit and don't forget the SNOW. hope everyone in ithaca is well.
 
Tony Crocker":1oct0c9e said:
There is a reason Utah skier visits are barely 1/3 of Colorado's. You can have the awesome terrain and "Greatest Snow on Earth" in BCC/LCC, OR you can have the resort experience at the Park City group. You can't have both unless you're willing to spend a lot of time daily commuting. Most destination visitors prefer to stay put once they get to a resort, especially with families. When push comes to shove, the typical vacationer (as opposed to typical FTO poster) will opt for the full service resort.
Click to expand...

There's a lot of truth to that (I deliberately left the last sentence off from the quote). In Colorado, nearly every ski resort has a resort town associated with it -- just a few of the smaller ones like Wolf Creek, Loveland and Monarch don't. In Utah we have only one ski resort town: Park City. Those who want the whole package will only find Park City here. That in and of itself is the biggest driver for our lower skier visits than Colorado's.

It all depends on your priorities. Salt Lake City is no resort town, it's a real working small city, but with Little and Big Cottonwood Canyons rising from the suburbs. Both of those canyons, however, have something Colorado wishes it has.
 
Dangerous speaks. It was worth instigating this moronic thread just for the response...thanks everyone else for indulging me...
 
Acidchrist":2m920djc said:
Dangerous speaks. It was worth instigating this moronic thread just for the response...thanks everyone else for indulging me...
Click to expand...
You'll owe us the next time you're out here. 8)
 
No matter what level skier you are...snowfall. Tony can probably whip something up quick.
Click to expand...
Not necessary. It's all on my website:
http://bestsnow.net/utahnet.htm for Utah, http://bestsnow.net/ncconet.htm and http://bestsnow.net/swconet.htm for Colorado. But Acidchrist still hasn't told us the profile/preferences of his friend.

With regard to those who want the resort experience, I see the two Summit Counties in Utah and Colorado as being comparable in many ways. Multiple large areas with mainly intermediate orientation. The Utah Summit areas' principal advantage is lower crowds. Snow preservation is much better in Colorado's Summit County due to altitude, which is a decisive advantage from March 1 onwards IMHO.
 
Seeing "cougars" and "TGR" in the same post has me worried. [-X

Rumor has it that it's pretty good in Park City, not that I have any first-hand information or anything...
 
Tony Crocker":2itf2117 said:
The Utah Summit areas' principal advantage is lower crowds.
Click to expand...

Amen. I suppose that if you know the mountain well enough to avoid the people, the Colorado front range is OK on weekends. I've hit huge crowds that made it difficult to navigate the mountain. I now have a "avoid anything within 2 hours from Denver on a weekend or powder day" rule. At Aspen, Saturday is the slow day of the week since it's the travel day for all the ski week people.
 
As far as cougars in PC goes, my patrol buds and I have made a pact that should our marriages fail, we would move back to PC and get jobs patrolling at Deer Valley . We'd be set for life... :lol:
 
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