Powder Mountain, Utah

Earlier this year in March, my family and I went on a ski vacation to Powder Mountain in Utah. Powder Mountain is a ski resort located about an hour drive north of Salt Lake City, UT. We all flew in to Salt Lake City then rented cars to drive to Eden.

Powder Mountain does not have its own little town or resort surrounding it like most ski mountains have. With very few exceptions, most people stay further down the mountain in the little town of Eden and drive up to the ski area daily. This ski mountain is also different in another way, instead of immediately getting on the chair lift at the bottom of the mountain like you normally would, at Powder Mountain, you ski down to the chairlift. The parking lot is situated towards the top of one of the side runs. Down in Eden the altitude is 4,941 feet, as you drive up the ski mountain you end up gaining quite a bit of altitude. The altitude at the very top of Powder Mountain is around 9,422 feet.

Ski Mountain

This ski mountain has a wide variety of runs ranging from greens all the way to double black diamonds. Click here to view the map of Powder Mountain on their website. Powder Mountain has the largest ski area in North America with over 8,000 acres. This might lead you to believe that it was always crowded; however, the reality was quite the opposite. On most of the days that we skied, the ticket office was sold out of tickets for the day. This in no way affected how packed the ski slopes were though, it still seemed very uncrowded. I have been to smaller ski mountains in the past that were not sold out for the day and were still insanely crowded. The lift lines at Powder Mountain were for the most part nonexistent, which was absolutely wonderful! A few times first thing in the morning, we skied over to Mary’s Lift over in Mary’s Bowl and there were maybe 7 other people skiing in the entire area.

It snowed almost non-stop the entire time we were there. Two different snow storms passed over while we were staying in Eden. This meant that the un-groomed runs got a lot of powder. One afternoon some of us went and skied off of Paradise lift, which had been closed the first part of our trip due to motor issues with the lift. That was probably some of the best powder I have ever skied, with the snow being up to my thighs! Due to the fact that this lift was closed for a few days, once it reopened it did get a bit crowded because of the amazing powder.

In addition to the new snow and lack of crowds, the ticket office was very accommodating and friendly as well. We were able to easily add extra days to certain people’s tickets and book last minute ski lessons for others. The last day we were there, the entire top section of the ski mountain was closed due to insanely high wind speeds and extreme low visibility. This left only one small chairlift at the bottom open. Thankfully, we were able to get a refund for the tickets of those who would not be skiing that day. In addition to this, we were able to get a discount for those who chose to ski on just the one lift. As is probably expected, the ski lesson tickets were quite expensive. It was about $189 per child per day for all day group lessons and $699 per adult per day for an all day private lesson.

Food & Lodging

Due to the fact that we had such a big group, for the most part we cooked all of our own food. There is a small grocery store located in Eden called Valley Market. Here we were able to buy a majority of our food. We also drove an extra 25 minutes to a larger grocery store in a neighboring town named Ogden. Some of the people in our group packed a sack lunch each day, while others ate at the Timberline Cafeteria. Unfortunately, it was pretty packed during prime lunch time, which was right around noon. We discovered that if we waited until 1:30pm, there were plenty of empty tables. The food was pretty expensive, as it usually is at ski resorts. They did have a few gf options which was nice.

The one night we did go out to eat, we went to a Mexican restaurant called “Carlos and Harley’s”. Aside from mixing up our orders a bit, the wait staff was very friendly and the food was pretty good.

During our time in Eden we stayed in rented house. The name our lodging was Moose Hollow Condos. The house was large enough to house our entire crew of 15 people. During our last evening there, one of the snowstorms I mentioned passed through Eden. It was really neat to watch the storm which included hail, thunder, and lightning.