Soldier Mountain, Pomerelle, & Pebble Creek?

[ski diva]

These are all smallish, off the radar ski resorts in Southern Idaho. Anyone have any experience with any of them? What're they like?

Asking for a friend......

 

[Christy]

We've talked about doing Soldier sometime when we're on our way to or from SV, if we fly in and out of Boise. It's pretty remote, though maybe not as remote as Pomerelle, which sounds really interesting (for the amount of snow they get, given their location). When you drive by the turnoff for Soldier, which you generally only do in the summer because everyone says not to drive that way (the shortest way) to SV in the winter, you can hardly believe there is a ski resort anywhere around. It's just brown ranch lands. The county it's in is the least dense in Idaho, which is saying something. There's only one tiny town (Fairfield) in the whole county. Here's what the area looks like (random photo pulled from online):

But a weird, interesting thing is happening. So you know how Bruce Willis used to own Soldier, and much of Hailey ID, and had a spread between Hailey and Ketchum? He still has a lot of land in Camas County, and he illegally built a runway near Fairfield--so. close to Soldier--that can land a 737. He won't tell anyone what he is planning on doing with it but he filed a plan with the FAA to have 500 landings a year. It's caused quite the uproar because we can assume he is trying to start an airport not subject to the weather conditions of the Sun Valley/Hailey airport, but that is not an unreasonable distance from SV. And just because not very many people live in the vicinity doesn't mean those people want jets landing in their backyard.

 

[CarverJill]

I drove past soldier many times on the way to Sun Valley. The years I was there I think it was between owners and minimally running. We always went the way @Christy says is not suggested in the winter. We never had any issues in fact! If I remember correctly there was a lot of kite surfing (the snow type) going on just beyond the 2 lane highway. I always thought that looked amazing. BUt you can sort of see Soldier from the road, it looks decent. I know someone who has skied it if you want a real report.

Pomerelle is a resort I never bothered to go to despite living in Boise and skiing many time throughout the winter. I spent my time in Sun Valley, Bogus Basin and Tamarac. My husband learned to ski there as a kid in the 90's. I could ask him about it again but all I remember him telling me was that it was small and that there was a pretty big hill from the parking lot to the lifts. Now that he uses a wheelchair and in a mono skier he didn't think it was a place he could possibly ski now so we never bothered going there.

 

[contesstant]

I have a friend who works at Pomerelle. I've got all three on my radar to hit ONE of these days. It's just there are so many options in this area (sucks to be me!) so I never actually end up going.

 

[marzNC]

I remember when Soldier Mountain was bought by a young couple for a pretty low price in 2015. It wasn't an auction. The board of the non-profit that had owned it picked from 2000 bids based on "fit" not just money. Seems to have worked so far. Especially after they added cat skiing. Apparently going to host an avalanche training workshop in January put on by the Silverton Avalanche School. It's for professionals, not the average back country skier. For info about what's happening, check Facebook.

Soldier Mountain is 1143 acres of all natural snow, no snowmaking. Not that far from Sun Valley. $43 for a lift ticket or ski for an hour starting at 3pm for $13.

 

[Skisailor]

I've skied Pomerelle ! And I loved it.
Granted, it was probably 10 years ago, but it was fun. Part of the allure may have been that I just stumbled upon it. I saw a ski area sign, was not in a hurry and had my ski gear with. So I drove up there!

It was a very old timey place with a locals vibe. Super cheap tickets. Not many lifts. As I recall it, I took a lift to the top and then you could go left or right along a ridge and choose where to descend.

Anyway - it was really fun.