If you’re sick and tired of lift lines that seem to go on forever and slopes so packed that they have you wondering why you even still buy lift tickets, we can now verify that Powder Mountain in Utah is a refreshing alternative that deserves consideration for your next ski destination.
With the most skiable acres of any resort in the United States (8,464 skiable acres), an annual snowfall of 500+ inches, and max capacity of 1,500 daily tickets, and 3,000 season passes, Powder Mountain is a reliable place to get fresh turns with plenty of space to breathe (approx 3 acres of terrain per skier on a busy day).
We spent our first day at Powder cruising around, whipping snowcat laps and hiking a bit to harvest some untracked freshies. It felt like we covered some serious ground, but I got the feeling that you’d need at minimum a week skiing here to fully grasp the vast amount of terrain available…8,464 skiable acres is over 13 square miles, so yeah, there’s a lot to explore.
When you’ve worked up an appetite shredding the goods, pop into the Powder Keg at the base of Powder for a frosty bev and a bowl of ramen. The food is excellent and the lunchtime crowd was vibrating with back slapping good spirits. Wish we could have stuck around for the Grateful Dead tribute band set to play later that night but sadly we had to bounce. They host live music 5 nights and its definitely worth checking out in the evenings.
It would be remiss not include the fact that change is a coming to the gem of a ski resort. Powder Mountain announced that it will be going semi-private for the 2024-2025 ski season. Many are weary that mellow vibes and ample terrain that makes this place so great are in jeopardy with the move but after skiing the place and talking with locals, the consensus is the move will be a net positive with cash influx that will benefit infrastructure and modest amount of terrain that will go private. Take that with a grain of salt but lift ride conversation after lift ride conversation, people weren’t sweating it.
Grolsch E-Z Cap swing-top bottles have a most satisfying pop when opened at altitude. An excellent beverage to cap of day of skiing the uncrowded slopes of Powder Mountain, Utah. Cheers!
Mountain Stats:
Skiable Acres: 8,464
The most of any ski resort in the United States.
Annual Snowfall: Over 500”
100% natural “Greatest Snow on Earth”
Vertical Drop: 3,346’
Lift serviced: 2,205’ Lift accessible: 2,519’
Summit Elevation: 9,422’
Hidden Lake & Mary’s lift: 8,900’ James Peak: 9,422’
Named Runs: 154
Beginner: 25% Intermediate: 40% Advanced: 35%
Hot Tip Alert: We were chatting up a bartender in Ogden (great town, still affordable with excellent access to the mountains) and when he’s not tending bar he works as mountain guide up at Powder. Dude let us in on a pretty sweet deal if you’re exploring the mountain with a crew. You can get an inbound guide for the day $599 for a group of 5 skiers/snowboarders. The price includes 2 snowcat rides which go for $39 a piece for people with day passes (definitely recommend taking a snowcat laps if your at Powder). If you do the math, if you are with a group of 5 you can get a mountain guide for a full day to show you the goods for around $40 if you factor in the snowcat rides. It’s a smoking deal and worth exploring HERE.
