Every year I go on a ski trip with my brother and an old college friend. We usually go to Steamboat and stay at one of their places, but this year I got a condo (Powder Ridge Village) on the mountain at Powder Mountain via timeshare trade. Let me first say that you go to PM to ski. There is no development. No restaurants, shops, or bars. This week it lived up to its name. Powder tracks everyday, all day. It is relatively low angle, which inhibits some of the vast terrain with deep snow. Except for Hidden Lake Express the lifts are old and slow. It doesn't make much difference though as their is nobody there. Skiing off of the cat is great. We did not try the Powder Country area as there was so much good snow in the lift served area.
This is my brother in the trees on our second day.
Tuesday we drove over to Snowbasin. Snowbasin has a different vibe and excellent skiing. Intermittent sun and clouds for the day. The lodges are opulent and the ski shop feels as if you are in a pro shop at a nice country club. We hired 4ster as our guide/instructor for a couple of hours to show us around and give us a few pointers. It was well worth the money. After checking us out on our first run (mostly untracked powder) we headed up the Allen Peak Tram. It had not been open for two days so there was about 25" of untracked snow up their. Since we were technically on a lesson we went to the head of the line.
This is our tracks off of No Name Peak
4ster then showed us the rest of the mountain, including this area on the diamond.
My friend in the front and 4ster being the nice guy and bringing up the rear.
All in all the day at Snowbasin was fantastic and I highly recommend hooking up with 4ster, especially if you have limited time as there is no way we would have found are way to these great areas without him.
The last 2 days were spent at PM skiing virtually untracked powder. The sun finally came out for our final day.
This is the view our final morning from where we put our skis on at the condo.
From the top of Lightning Ridge where the snowcat drops you off.
The powder 2 days after the last snow off the backside of Lightning Ridge. My brother cutting up the powder.
The guys at the end of a fantastic ski week. I'm in blue, my brother Jeff in red, and our friend Dave in green.
This was a fantastic trip with incredible snow all week. PM and Snowbasin were great. I cannot say enough about our experience with 4ster at Snowbasin. Thanks for indulging me in my first trip report.
