Photo courtesy Vail Resorts

The irony isn’t lost on locals. Four miserable winters (comparatively) and yet Utah ski resorts spent millions on “improvements” this summer, while raising the cost of lift tickets yet again, all in the hopes of attracting more visitors.

Don’t they know by now that we skiers are all about deals? I’d rather have the option of brown-bagging it for a $50 lift ticket than spending $100 because there’s a shiny new lodge or snowmaking equipment that needs to be reimbursed. That said, Utah skiers can expect to see some major alterations to the Wasatch Front landscape this 2015/16 ski season.

Photo courtesy Vail Resorts

This was a HUGE year for construction and retooling. You would have been living in a cave in the North Pole not to have heard about the conjoining of Park City Mountain Resort and Canyons into one massive area now named “Park City Mountain” and “Canyons Village at Park City”. The area(s)’ owner, Vail Resorts, plunked down $50 million dollars to transform Park City into “the largest resort in the United States.” Not that anyone would actually want to spend more than half of their day skiing between the resorts (cabriolet, three lifts and two gondolas, with only one intermediate run to be had through it all) just to get from Canyons to PC) but, whatever, there will now be 7,300 skiable acres for one lift ticket or season pass price ($789 and $101, respectively). The folks it’ll suit best are intermediate skiers who start at Park City and want to spend the night at Canyons or ride their zipline. Or perhaps people staying in Park City who want to backcountry ski because you can only do it from Canyons. Think Whistler/Blackcomb not Alta/Bird.

In addition to the Quicksilver Gondola that links the two areas, PCM’s King Con Chair is now a six-pack, The Motherlode lift is now a detachable quad, “Miners Camp” replaces the Snow Hut Lodge- 500 indoor seats (yay!), a large deck and fresher food choices like homemade soups, made-to-order sandwiches and tossed salads- and the Summit House has been remodeled to increase seating; the Red Pine Lodge has a new, upper deck and 250 more indoor seats, and they’ve added snowmaking on two trails in the Iron Mountain area to handle increased skier traffic for Quicksilver Gondola access.

Photo courtesy Snowbird Resort

The next big spender was Snowbird Resort with $35 million dollars in capital improvements. Hidden Peak is finally crowned with the Summit Lodge. Guests can dine surrounded by a spectacular, 360-degree-view from 11,000 feet. The two-story glass-enclosed structure replaces the modified port-a-John that housed Snowbird’s elite Ski Patrol. The new 23,000 square foot building will have cafeteria seating for 192 people on the first floor, a private dining room for 180 guests, restrooms, a coffee/pastry shop, a 10,000 square foot deck and a new Ski Patrol headquarters. Patrons of the Cliff Lodge waved good bye to those quirky windowed-showers in 350 guest rooms in the east wings. The remodel includes carpeting, marble counters and tile in the bathrooms, ergonomic mattresses, contemporary furnishings and entertainment systems, energy efficient lighting and upgraded Wi-Fi. No more wire wickets. Following in Alta’s footsteps, RFID has come to the Bird.  The Bird plans to extend the ski season in Peruvian Gulch, Gad Valley and Mineral Basin by adding more snowmaking guns to those areas.

Then comes Deer Valley and Solitude. DV officially took ownership of the Big Cottonwood Resort in May 2015 and immediately began ripping out the aged Summit fixed-grip double chairlift. They installed the new, four-person detachable high-speed Summit Express chairlift and added a new ski run from the top of the existing Apex Express chairlift to the bottom terminal of the new, realigned Summit, significantly lessening the current travel time to Honeycomb Canyon. So now you can access Honeycomb without freezing and falling asleep. You’ll still have to ride two lifts to get back to the base of Summit but at least they are now all high speeds. When you’re ready to eat expect that Deer Valley Difference in the remodeled Moonbeam Lodge Restaurant. In fact, DV revamped the menus at all of the resort’s restaurants.

Brighton made the best move of all. They’re celebrating their 80^th anniversary by bringing back their extremely popular ‘kids 10 and under ski free’ deal. Smart families will be packing that brown bag and heading up BCC a lot this winter.

Utah’s newest resort, Cherry Peak Resort, is planning for their inaugural season this December. The Northern Utah area 15 miles from Logan features three triple chairlifts, a comprehensive snowmaking infrastructure and a 1.25 mile-long-run. They didn’t have enough snow to open last season so fingers crossed for something better soon. The resort has an impressive three-story day lodge for year-round events.

Feel like having a mountain all to yourself? Rent-a-Resort at Eagle Point, south of Salt Lake City, is available for private rental Tuesday through Thursday, January 5 – April 3.

I heard they were opening the backside. We’re talking Alta Ski Area- steeps, lots of rocks, known for serious powder. And I thought yeah, maybe not. We haven’t had a lick of snow in the last two weeks so I’m thinking it couldn’t possibly be worth the risk. I wasn’t about to wreck my skis on rocks or possibly impale myself on them. But, to be frank, after a few runs down Razor Back off Sugarloaf the groomers were getting boring; and by about 10 a.m. they were firming up. Venturing off trail had an appeal. The off-piste was soft, stable and sweet to my delighted surprise. It was- dare I say- fluffy? Now at this point I was still hesitant to explore more than a foot from the groomed but then there it was.

I had gotten off Sugarloaf slid across the unloading area and peered over toward Little Dipper. What the heck. I found a notch between the band of rocks on the rim and dropped in. The smile was inescapable. It spread from ear to ear. This is winter skiing.

There were soft gentle bumps in the belly that began to form from the clear days and eager skiers. But they were nothing that would cause you to grit your teeth. The snow spread like butter under my skis and I gleefully made turn after turn all the way to the Razor Back connector. I was hungry for more and ready to take the next chance I got to jump into more ungroomed.

Don’t get me wrong. The main trails weren’t iced over but they were hardpack and I hadn’t quite found my edges yet. Plus, people were bombing all around me. I’m not ready to go that fast. At this point in the season I have no ego. I’m willing to take my time and ease into the winter that seems to be easing into Utah. So avoiding the main flow of traffic never hurts.

Then the back side. We took the rope tow over to Collins, came around the patrol shack and traversed through the back gate. The sun was beating down on the bowl but the shots above Glory Hole were filled with fluffy crud. We skied down to the lower traverse and wound into Greeley Bowl. Granted, that’s a lot off traversing but considering the High-T is littered with scree, this was our best alternative. When I looked below me I saw what is arguably Nirvana for a skier who hasn’t skied all summer- an apron of untracked snow. It had been buffed by the wind so it wasn’t your typical 40-inch Utah blower but it was still soft and I could still make tracks and that was good enough.

We played all the way down until the run funneled into a grove of twigs. Normally, this section is covered and we can just cruise but today we gingerly weaved right and left to avoid getting tangled. In the maze at Sunnyside, I looked at Ryan. Both of us said without using words, “Let’s do it again.” We spent the rest of the day running laps in Greeley; it was just so good. We stopped into Albion for a brief snack and to rest our pre-season quads. Then it was back out for a taste of Ballroom on the front side. Unfortunately, the rocks were more prominent there. It was back to the back side.

All in all it wasn’t a bad day for the middle of December. Of course I’m the first in line to complain about our lack of snow right now but I’m also the first to cheer when we can actually find the sweet spots. Alta delivered; as it always does.