Take A Powder To Utah The Fluffy White Beckons Skiers - And ‘Boarders

The sun hasn’t quite made it over the steep mountain peaks, but the fresh snow is starting to sparkle, even in the shaded valley.

It snowed a foot last night. And you’ve just stepped onto Snowbird’s tram.

Steam rises off a grizzled employee’s cup of coffee. Someone’s two-way radio crackles. The handful of skiers taking this early ride are glowing with anticipation.

The tram glides out of the base station and ascends, hitting the sunlight about halfway up the mountain. Everything glistens.

In the sharp, cold air at the top of the mountain, the guide lays down the ground rules: Follow me. There are groomers working one area, avalanche-control work going on in another. This way.

A few fast turns down a groomed trail, and then you’re in the powder. Turn anywhere you want. The guide is the first one here; you’re second. There’s a reason why they call this $20 early-tram option the “First Tracks” program.

Skiers flock to Utah for vistas like this, for the jutting mountains that challenge even the best, for the dozen ski resorts that each have their own style and appeal. But one thing makes Utah skiing different from anyplace else: The snow.

More precisely, the powder. Lighter than spun sugar. Two- to three-foot storms are just average. Five hundred inches a year.

Skiing Utah powder is like floating from turn to turn. You never touch down. Sparkling sprays of cold white stuff fly out behind you like angels’ wings.

Airline competition is the skier’s friend. It now costs just $78 round-trip to fly from Spokane to Salt Lake City, a 90-minute flight that lands you 29 miles from the Snowbird tram base.

From there, options range from a cheap motel room on the city’s outskirts to deluxe slopeside lodging at any of a dozen resorts.

Don’t come here for the night life. There’s some, at spots like Park City and at the resorts. But Salt Lake isn’t an apres-ski party town. And if you’re going to ski the way these mountains just beg to be skied, a bubbly hot tub and early bedtime will be about all you’ll want, so you can do it again the next day.

Utah skiing has taken a giant leap forward this year, with Park City lifting its ban on snowboards, Snowbird scrapping its no-snowboarding area, and Solitude dropping its no-snowboard days. No resort anywhere in the Northwest bans or restricts snowboarding, which is the fastest-growing segment of the ski industry. But Utah still has some holdouts: Alta, Deer Valley and Sundance.

Keep that in mind when you plan your trip, if your child, spouse or a member of your ski party prefers to ‘board. Or, for that matter, if you’d prefer to hit a skis-only mountain.

But there are plenty of mountains here, resorts to suit every taste.

The pricey Deer Valley - $52 lift tickets - is a luxury resort aimed at an older, affluent crowd. If you ski (or dine) here, prepare to be pampered. You might even meet Stein Eriksen.

Park City Ski Area - $49 lift tickets - is a major ski-race venue with a new six-passenger high-speed detachable quad chairlift among its 14 lifts. Park City has extensive snowmaking and opens early. It will host Olympic events in alpine skiing and snowboarding in 2002.

Wolf Mountain, at $32 for lift tickets, caters to snowboarders, while Sundance, owned by Robert Redford, is artsy, environmentally correct and scenic ($35 lift tickets).

Snowbasin, 50 miles north of Salt Lake, is a low-key spot that’s going big-time by hosting the Olympic downhill events in 2002. There are five lifts and tickets are $27.

Solitude ($34) and Brighton ($29) both perch in Big Cottonwood Canyon just out of Salt Lake City. Kids 10 and under ski free.

Little Cottonwood Canyon, the next canyon to the south, is legendary for its snow. While all the Utah resorts get dumped on regularly with the same light, fluffy powder, Alta and Snowbird, which sit in this narrow canyon, average the most.

The two also both feature heart-stopping steeps, challenging chutes, wide-open, powder-filled bowls and other delights for the serious skier. Both also have gentler terrain for those who prefer it.

Alta, at $27 for an adult all-day lift ticket, is a no-frills bargain that attracts skiing purists.

“Where other resorts are putting in high-speed quads, Alta’s very content to say ‘we put in a tow rope’ or maybe cut down one tree,” said Mike Grass, communication director with Ski Utah. “It’s such a beautiful resort. They don’t really like to change much. … They have something there they just like to keep the way it is.”

Next door at Snowbird, things are more modern and luxurious. Tickets are $45, snowboards are allowed, there are shops and cafes, and the giant tram whizzes you to the top of a stunning mountain in just eight minutes.

Snowbird has some slopeside lodging, including the Cliff Lodge, a hotel that features a rooftop pool and giant hot tub, a full health spa and ski-in, ski-out access.

For those who just can’t decide between Utah’s resorts, there’s the Interconnect tour. This $95 all-day experience takes skiers between resorts, skiing the back country in between, hitting four or five resorts and including guide service and lunch. There’s some hiking and a fair amount of single-track traversing, so it’s best suited for alpine and nordic skiers. Don’t forget the camera.

Utah skiers tend to sound like TV weathermen when they talk about their snow. It’s the storm track, explains Ken Dailey, marketing director for Snowbird for the last three years but a season-pass holder there for the last 10.

The storms dry out as they move across the desert, then hit the wave of moisture and salt over the Great Salt Lake, funnel into Little Cottonwood Canyon and smack into Snowbird and Alta.

“It runs into the peaks, and it just drops,” Dailey said. “This canyon, it’s a meteorological phenomenon.”

Last January, Snowbird got 84 inches of snow in three days, a hassle for the resort as it was trying to groom a course for a downhill race.

“The last storm brought 19 inches,” Dailey said. “It’s not uncommon at all to have three feet.”

“It gets blown right up this canyon, just like we put our thumbs over a hose.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: IF YOU GO Flying from Spokane to Utah for a ski trip has become a bargain, thanks to airline competition. Current fares, on either Delta or Southwest, are $78 round-trip. When tax is added in, it’s $84, according to Pat Plaster, a travel agent with U.S. Travel in Spokane. This fare is good through December, excluding holidays, but it’s consistent with lower fares that have been offered since Southwest started competing head-to-head with Delta in the Spokane-to-Salt Lake market. “When Southwest purchased Morris Air, then it got competitive,” Plaster said. Delta has three nonstop flights a day to Salt Lake, while Southwest has one. With fares this low, skiers may find it cheaper to arrange their airfare separately from their lodging and lift tickets. Ski packages including lodging, lift tickets and transportation from the airport are available with or without airfare included. Here are some samples of packages for Spokane skiers headed to Utah: For a truly deluxe set-up, skiers can stay at the Stein Eriksen Lodge located midmountain at Deer Valley ski resort. From the oversized jetted whirlpool baths and terry-cloth robes in the rooms to the gourmet restaurants and the carefully groomed ski slopes outside, the Stein Eriksen is described as “distinguished and prestigious.” A three-night stay, with three days of skiing at Deer Valley, breakfast buffet, and transportation from the airport, is $830 per person based on double occupancy ($914 if you add $84 for your airfare). Information: Deer Valley Central Reservations, (800) 424-DEER. A more moderately priced package puts you at the Ramada Inn in Salt Lake City, with three nights’ stay, a three-day interchangeable lift ticket good at Alta, Brighton, Solitude or Wolf Mountain (it’s good at Snowbird too, but you pay $9 extra to ride the tram), shuttle to the ski resorts, transfers from the airport and your airfare on Southwest, all for $321 per person double occupancy. This price is for a Wednesday-through-Saturday trip; weekends cost more. Information: U.S. Travel, Spokane, 924-0666. At Park City, three nights at the moderate Chamonix Lodge plus three days of skiing and round-trip airport transfers costs $379 per person, double occupancy, or $463 if you add $84 for your airfare. Charlie Lansche, Park City spokesman, says the hotel-style lodge is within “walking distance to the lifts.” Information: Park City Ski Holidays, (800) 222-7275. Staying on the slopes at Snowbird means the Cliff Lodge, where the special this year is for Sunday through Wednesday night stays. Including airfare on Delta, Snowbird is offering a $489 package (per person, two people) for three nights and three days skiing, plus transportation from the airport. It’s about $100 higher for weekends, and Snowbird spokesman Ken Dailey cautions that weekends fill fast. Information: Snowbird Central Reservations, (800) 453-3000. The least expensive option may be to fly to Salt Lake, rent an economy car for $24 a day, stay at a Salt Lake-area motel and ski at one of the lower-priced resorts. The Comfort Inn in Sandy, Utah (an adjacent suburb of Salt Lake that’s near the turnoff to Little Cottonwood Canyon), charges $70 to $80 a night for a room for two adults, and features an indoor pool and spa. A public shuttle bus runs to Alta, Snowbird, Solitude and Brighton for about $1.50 a person, but with the price of airport transportation ($16 per person each way), it may be as cheap to opt for the convenience of a rental car. That also allows you to seek out inexpensive restaurants for breakfast or dinner, and get to the grocery stores so you can pack a lunch. If you ski at Alta ($27 a day), cost per person for a three-night trip with three days of skiing is about $324. Though these prices can change, they should be representative. For more information on Utah skiing, call Ski Utah at (801) 534-1779; the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau at (801) 521-2822; the Utah Travel Council at (801) 538-1714; or the Park City Chamber Bureau, (801) 649-6100.