Salt Lake City was the first stop on the second phase of our year-long adventure. We left the Airstream in Las Vegas for the winter the week prior after living in her for five months through 28 states. Our plan is to slowly work our way north towards Whitefish, Montana, where we plan to spend a good chunk of the winter. We hope to ski a lot in Whitefish and stop at several spots on the way to ski some more. Salt Lake City is a well known mecca for skiing – there are nine resorts within an hour of the city. As it turns out, Salt Lake has a lot more to offer than skiing. We were surprised at how much we liked it.
The main reason we decided to spend a week in Salt Lake was the skiing. We bought Mountain Collective ski passes, which allows two days of skiing at 18 different resorts, this year. Lucky for us, several of these resorts are on our route from Las Vegas to Whitefish. Two of the resorts, Alta and Snowbird, were right outside of Salt Lake City in Little Cottonwood Canyon. We found a great place on VRBO (in a basement in-law suite) near the base of the canyon that would provide us with easy access to the canyon and to the city. The owners were great. We hung out with them and it turns out that they hope to take off on a wild adventure like the one we are on once their kids are a little older. Our skis were waiting for us when we got there as some friends from Richmond shipped them to us after decorating the boxes.
Alta
Alta was the first mountain that we skied on. That was a good thing because it was much more “family friendly” than Snowbird. Alta is known as a “skiers mountain” which is a nice way of saying that there are no snowboarders allowed there. It’s a good thing that we all ski, because Alta had gotten more snow than any other resort in the country when we got there and we all loved it. Alta had great easy runs, great hard runs, and lots of fresh snow still on the ground. It is also in a beautiful area that also happens to have some great views from the top of the mountain.
We all started on the green (beginner) runs to get our ski legs back but quickly made our way over to the blue (intermediate) runs. Jamie and the kids were doing great on these runs and were quickly building confidence. Archer and I had a great time skiing some of the black (expert) runs as well. With 2,600 acres and 116 runs, Alta is a pretty big hill. There was tons of snow there and we were able to find plenty of areas to get our fix of powder. They had gotten so much snow recently that they were doing avalanche control all day the second day we were there. Nothing like hearing bombs going off on the mountain above you all day.
Alta is a ski area (they do not like being called a resort) that has something for everyone. We had a great time there. It is a mountain that we all want to get back to one day to explore further.
Snowbird
On paper, Snowbird looks similar to Alta. Snowbird has 2,500 acres of skiing and 169 runs. Snowbird is right next door to Alta. There are even a couple locations where you can pass through a gate from one resort to the other. Despite being in such close proximity, the two resorts couldn’t be further apart, though.
Snowbird is famous for their steep and deep terrain. Alta has plenty of deep snow and steep terrain as well, but Snowbird just seems a whole lot steeper. Snowbird claims that 27% of their terrain is green, but we couldn’t find it. Maybe it was because the area with most of the beginner slopes was closed? That would normally be OK because we can all normally ski the blues or better. Unfortunately, the blue runs at Snowbird are steeper than the black runs at a lot of other places. I absolutely loved it, but it wasn’t for everyone.
On our first day in Snowbird, we started off slowly on some easier slopes before heading further up the mountain. Everyone seemed to be doing fine, so we took the tram up to the top of the mountain to get some lunch and hopefully find some good blue runs to ski on. That backside of the mountain was supposed to have easier blues, but it was closed due to avalanche danger. So, we ate some lunch at the top of the mountain in the highest restaurant in Utah before skiing back down.
Everyone was skiing great as we worked our way back down the mountain. Smith and Archer are now getting to the point that they can ski steep terrain with confidence, so they worked their way down the mountain with relative ease. Jamie was doing great until we picked the wrong way around some trees and she found herself staring down a section of a “blue” slope steeper than any slope I have ever seen in the mid-Atlantic. Of course, this happened when I decided to split off and get my fix on a black slope that paralleled the slope everyone else was on. I poked out at the bottom, looked up, and knew I was in trouble.
Jamie made it down the slope just fine by taking her time (sliding sideways while having a major panic attack). Unfortunately, her confidence was shaken. She was done with Snowbird and done with me for a couple hours. So, the kids and I skied together by ourselves the next day. They did great all day as we tackled the newly opened backside of the mountain, Mineral Basin. Archer crossed her skis up on a steep section of the mountain and ended up twisting her knee. I took my skis off and quickly sunk in the snow up to my knees. At least the snow was good! Her knee really hurt her, so she was done for the day. We downloaded the tram to the bottom of the mountain and waited for Jamie to meet us.
Snowbird is a great mountain if you want to do some steep and stout skiing. I loved it and would love to get back and ski more of the mountain. The kids loved it as well. I think I can talk Jamie into it once she gets a good number of days of skiing under her belt. She will have plenty of practice because, as a woman working at Snowbird told Smith and Archer, our ski itinerary includes three of the hardest ski resorts in the country. Oops!
The Lake
Salt Lake City is named after the Great Salt Lake. The Great Salt Lake is a large lake to the west of the city. We drove there one day to a state park and were surprised by how beautiful it was. It was massive and was surrounded by the mountains of the Wasatch Range. We were also surprised by the fact that there was a marina there filled with sailboats. Sailboats with a large body of water surrounded by snow-covered mountains? Yes, please.
The Great Salt Lake is an interesting yet inhospitable place. The salt content of the lake is extremely high. Depending on the levels of the lake, the salinity can reach levels almost ten times that of the ocean. Because of this, there are no fish in the lake. They only thing that lives in the lake are brine shrimp. The salinity is also so high that the water doesn’t freeze so sailing is possible all year long. But, I have to wonder what all that salt would do to your boat when you left it in the water year-round?
The City
The skiing is great in the Salt Lake City area. We could have told you that without ever going there. What really surprised us about the area is how much we liked the city itself. Salt Lake City is about the same size as Richmond, Virginia, where we left to strike out on this trip. It feels much bigger though. The majority of Salt Lake City is confined to a valley between the large mountains of the Wasatch Range. This allows the city to not be as sprawling as some other cities its size, like Richmond. The rugged mountains also provide a beautiful backdrop as they tower over the city. In the winter, the mountains are covered in snow only adding to the ambiance.
Salt Lake City has lots of great shops (including a lot of ski and outdoors stores), restaurants, beautiful religious buildings, and even several breweries. Many of the people we talked to in Salt Lake live there because of the mountains and the quality of life they provide. There is skiing, hiking, climbing, biking, snowshoeing, boating, and just about any other type of outdoor recreation you could want right outside of the city. If you put it all together, Salt Lake City seems like a really nice place to live. The only downside, it seems, is that the city has periods of bad smog due to the geography and weather patterns. We were surprised when the smog filled in one day so thickly that we could hardly see across the valley to the mountains on the other side of the city.
We really enjoyed our time in Salt Lake City. The area is beautiful, the skiing is great, and the people are friendly. I would love to come back and visit in the summer to spend some time exploring the Wasatch Mountains. I would also love to get back there and ski the rest of those Utah ski resorts. We are on the fence about whether or not we could live there with the problems with smog and air quality though. Park City, on the other hand, is right outside of the city in the mountains above the smog. Maybe one day!
