"don’t tell anyone you skied at snowbasin”

Most of the Easterners left for home Sunday so it was just H, me, Chris and Andrea heading to Snowbasin (after marvelous ham and egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast – thanks, Chris!). Snowbasin is about an hour or so drive from our house, plus doesn’t usually get as much snow as the places in the Cottonwoods, so we won’t be looking into season passes there. But we still wanted to check it out. H was curious to see what an Olympic Downhill course looks like – just how steep could it possibly be? - plus people had repeatedly told me that Snowbasin “has the best food” of all the resorts (always a bonus).

In Sister's Bowl, view to the east

We were completely unprepared for what we found. When we walked into the base lodge, our jaws dropped. Massive timbers, gorgeous burled wood coffered ceilings, enormous chandeliers, granite-inlaid wooden tables, giant stone fireplaces, leather couches and fancy carpeting … in the base lodge. The bathrooms were marble tiled; the individual stalls had wooden doors. It was as though we’d walked into a swanky hotel, except that everyone in this hotel was wearing ski boots. And it wasn’t just the base lodge: the two mid-mountains lodges were exactly the same. It was absolutely amazing – I’ve never seen anything like it.  Of course, I have no pictures so you'll just have to go here and here to take a look.

Something else we’d never seen before: at the end of the day, the detachable gondola cars were switched from the regular lift and stored for the night in an underground gondola car garage. Our jaws dropped then too when we realized what was happening. I tell you what, I’d like to see that garage. A friendly season passholder told us that the resort owner put $130 million of his own money into the resort when the Olympics were coming, some for the lifts, some for the lodges. But he refused to build lodging so Snowbasin is a day-trip mountain only - and the locals like it that way.

We were so overwhelmed by the facilities and the stunning scenery - smallish bowls flanked by massive sheer rock cliffs - that it rather made up for the less than stellar snow conditions. Despite the bright sunshine and fairly warm temperatures, the snow never really warmed up and I struggled with the crusty chop. We also discovered our first Eastern conditions at a western mountain: hard packed, scraped off and some ice. This wigged me out (since the edges of my skis have not been sharpened since February 2009) and I got very tentative. H, Chris and Andrea fared better than I, but they agreed that the day was better taken as a whole experience rather than a snow focus.

From the top of the tram, looking westward to the Great Salt Lake

We did take the tram all the way up to the start of the Men’s Downhill – fabulous view of the Great Salt Lake; the liftie told us that on the clearest days you can see four other states from up there: Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado - and peeked over the edge, immediately gaining a whole lot of respect for those skiers who launch themselves out of those start houses. Really, really, really steep. It was all bumped up so H and Chris gave it a try, reporting that in fact it was softer and less steep than some of what we’d skied at Alta; Andrea and I took the scary switchbacks down to the women’s start instead, finding that much less intimidating.

Apres - note the cushioned chairs and granite-topped tables

After we finished skiing (the other three skied right to the end of the day while I quit a few runs earlier), we grabbed a locally-brewed beer on the sunny patio, soaking in the mellow ambiance. Snowbasin is cool. But don’t tell anyone I told you so: at least two different people told us not to say we’d skied there – “tell’em you were at Park City or Snowbird” – because they want to keep it like it is, uncrowded, undeveloped, hidden, precious.  You just didn't hear it from me.