Hi
@LKillick! I just got back last Friday from a 8 day trip to Utah! We actually stayed at the Hyatt Place in Cottonwood, right across the way from Residence Inn. We were trying to escape the holiday crowds at Mammoth and also wanted to take advantage of our IKON passes. Seems MarzNC has given you a ton of great tips, but I’ll share just a few tidbits from my recent experience as well.
Our plan was to do Snowbird, Alta, Solitude, Brighton, and Deer Valley, and extra days at whichever we liked. We ended up at Snowbird 4 days, and one day at each of the others, except for Brighton which we never made it to. We skipped one day after DH hurt his knee a little, but it was totally fine because it 0 and below that day!
Yes Snowbird does mountain tours and we actually did one and found it helpful, even though we had been there a few times before. They run at 9:30 and 10:30 daily and only go on blue and green runs. Lasts about 2 hours. I couldn’t decide whether I like Alta or Snowbird better in the past, but after this trip, I decided I like Snowbird the best. I love the open bowls of Snowbird, whereas sometimes I feel like I’m doing more flats or traversing at Alta. Since January is learn to ski month, I heard they have a great beginner deal for like $50 which even includes lift and rentals. This might be a good option for your better half.
We went to the Rustler at Alta last season and it was very nice. This time we went to Collins Grill for lunch which is tucked within one of the mid mountain lodges off Collins lift. Nice views of the hill if you can get a window table but you need to make reservations. They even provide comfy slippers for you if you want to take your boots off while you dine! We wanted to take the connector from Snowbird a couple times but just never did. Our understanding was that it will ding you a day off your pass at both.
We did Solitude on a Saturday since we were advised Snowbird and Alta would be crowded. While it indeed wasn’t that crowded, coverage wasn't great when we went but we still had fun. A guy we met said he was having more fun that day then he had had at Brighton the last two days. And that some of the stuff that people go to Brighton for wasn’t open due to lack of coverage. Based on that and also that we heard there’s a tendency to have more kids at Brighton, we decided to skip it.
We moved to the Hyatt in Park City for our last two nights so we could ski Deer Valley. We wanted to try DV because we had never been. We didn’t experience any of the world class grooming they were known for. The groomers we did had lots of icy patches and it seemed like all the blacks were huge deep mogul fields. Not the cool down day I was looking forward to. And tons of kids, then you would have people racing down the hill. Not safe! Very nice place but I would probably never go back. Especially when there’s Alta and Snowbird. Oh, and make sure you reserve your tickets online, they don’t have straight to lift there. There’s a link to IKON reservations on the DV website. Go to Main Street one night for dinner and drinks.
We drove to the resorts everyday, and traffic was fine, except for the morning after about a foot of snow, when it took us about an extra 20-30 to get to Snowbird. And on the way down one day when it was snowing, it took us over an hour and a half to get down the hill, which wasn’t fun. Other than that, driving was fine.
Wow, I just wrote a book here! Oops
Have fun!!!