Well, this is what the fuss is all about. Unfortunately, Ashley’s leg injury prompted our move to a slightly less ski-friendly area, so we didn’t get to ski here as much as we wanted. Let’s see what we got.
I come to this topic as an intermediate skier who had to start over a bit at beginner again, as it had been quite some time since I’d skied. I learned to eight years or so ago in the French, Italian and Swiss alps. There, the scenery is stunning, the snow is abundant and the little kids ski way faster than I ever will.
Then, I went skiing a few times in the east coast, in Pennsylvania. It’s where people go to ski who can’t get to anywhere else. (That might be Pennsylvania in general?)
Skiing in the Rockies (at least that small part which I saw) was in between. Lots of great powder and pretty decent views from the mountain tops. There are plenty of resorts to explore in SLC.
The biggest takeaway from skiing in Salt Lake City: Traffic.
On a good weekend day, it takes an hour and half, easily, to make the 20-mile drive to the slopes. Mostly, I decided to take the ski bus. You MUST wait at the bus’s first stop, at least on the weekends. If you go to any other stop, the bus will be full every time it gets to you and you just plain won’t get to ski, or maybe you’ll get there at two in the afternoon.
Even with the bus getting some priority in traffic, for both of the main roads going to ski resorts from Salt Lake (Big Cottonwood Canyon and Little Cottonwood Canyon), there is really just one lane. That means any accident or slowdown at all stops all traffic. I waited for three hours stuck in traffic on the way back after a traffic accident shut down the road. Actually it’s this accident right here: https://fb.watch/3IKZz9FTD8/. It’s worth a watch.
In a few ski sessions I did get my ski legs back. I was managing to keep my body pointed downhill and my skis parallel in the turns and not skiing from the backseat (too much). Here are some pics of the slopes.
I went to two ski resorts available on the Ikon pass, Solitude and Alta. Alta is huge and has a good mix of beginner, intermediate and advanced. Solitude is smaller and stepper and doesn’t have so much for beginners, but does have plenty of fun blues for us try-hards.