Snowbird is tucked away up a canyon access road above Salt Lake City. It's a compact resort with a handful
of chair-lifts and a centre-piece “aerial tram” (cable-car to us imperialists). The base area is a narrow canyon subject to
obvious avalanche danger; for this reason the resort buildings are substantial concrete beasts with internal design
which wouldn't be out of place in a nuclear bunker. That said, the architecture has stood the test of time quite well. For
a 1970s structure it's efficient without being ugly. Leaflets available in the lodge explain that when the avalanche danger
is high visitors may be confined to the buildings on pain of arrest. Although you can stay at the Cliff and a few other low-rise
structures in the valley, Snowbird isn't really a destination resort. Most visitors stay in or live in Salt Lake City, which is
half an hour down the road for those with a 4wd or snow tyres.
You can buy tickets at the resort, although locals and smart people pick them up down in SLC, saving a few dollars each
day. Tickets are available with or without tram access. If you opt for the cheaper no-tram tickets you can still get to all the
terrain if you're prepared to hike some, but the tram is by far the quickest way of getting up the mountain. The tram takes you
and a hundred or so others to the top in nine to twelve minutes. That's 2,900 feet up from the deck to the top of Hidden Peak
at 11,000. I can't handle imperial units, but it's quite high enough. Like any anglo-saxon place, the queues are civilized,
polite and smoke-free.
Terrain-wise Snowbird's very different from many of the Colorado resorts I've visited:
there are few tracks cut through trees, with most sliding taking place on open mountain faces sprinkled with trees and cliffs.
The pistes tend to be wide with borders which are easily crossed and there's nothing to stop the intrepid from venturing anywhere
within the resort boundary. It's a piste resort when there's no fresh snow, but the whole area becomes a powder-park after a storm.
In packed snow conditions there's a mix of corduroy and moguls. Bump lines are generally direct routes under the lifts, usually
provided with alternative wimp-out roads. I didn't see any bashing during the day, but the resort seems to be relatively uncrowded
on non-powder days and the smooth stuff seemed to stay smooth.
Snowbird really comes alive after a storm. The local weather services are accurate and ensure that the city's aware of
when and where the powder's going to be, so on a powder day there's an early morning rush of locals hungry to get first tracks. If you get up
early enough and pay a supplement there's a single “early bird” tram for those who'd like to cut their lines down the middle of the
major resort pistes. Once the normal tram service starts, there's a race to be in line for the first tram. You really do need to be
on that tram. If you had to organize a bunch of people to cut up a lot of fresh powder quickly then it's hard to see how you could
do it more efficiently than the market forces of Snowbird on a powder day. All the reasonably easily accessible lines are tracked
out by about 10:00; by lunch time even lines you have to hike for are gone.
The catch with all this powder-frenzy for the visitor is that it's not that easy to find your way around on Snowbird's off-piste.
Whilst you can see many lines from the lifts, these are the lines which go first, and route finding on the lower parts of the mountain
is a little tricky. There are enough cliffs and other terrain features to ensure that the locals are going to get to the best and the
most powder. So buy someone a drink and see if they'll show you around. Don't choose one of the squiffy types in school uniform:
they're mormons.
Snowbird shares an access road with Alta, and there's even an “Interconnect” which is advertised here and there. That's not
much use for nasty snowboarders like me, as Alta (along with the up-market but flat Deer Valley) doesn't allow those who ride
only one edge. I don't think I'm missing all that much, and I suspect most people just drive to one hill or the other and stay
there for a day.
Here's a google earth
track log from a day at Snowbird.
Rider: peter cullen. All images copyright phil wigglesworth