Mountain layout -- Snowbasin | Powder Mountain

Snowbasin stretches along the southern edge of Ogden Valley. The ski and snowboard area has three distinct sections.

The John Paul Express lift and the Mt. Allen Tram serve Allen’s Peak and the No Name area. This sector is rugged with expert slopes dropping steeply through trees. Here is where the downhill courses raged down almost 2,900 unrelenting and twisting vertical feet of terrain.

The center of the resort and the original heart of the trail system traces the mountain from Needles through Middle Bowl and Wildcat Bowl. The Needles Express gondola whisks skiers and riders up 2,310 feet from the base lodge. The degree of steepness declines a touch from that found at Allen’s Peak and trails are a bit wider.

The final sector is beneath Strawberry peak served by a gondola, where wide open 2,472 feet of vertical terrain presents expansive bowl skiing and riding with little terrain definition.

Experts will want to test their mettle from the top of the Mt. Allen Tram and zoom down the Olympic Men's Downhill course or wind their way through the trees beneath No Name peak. Even the lower sections of the Grizzly Downhill and Wildflower Downhill are deceivingly steep with double fall lines. Runs beneath Needles Pork Barrel and Moose Mound will challenge advanced skiers. In the Strawberry Peak area the most difficult terrain is to the skier’s far right along the area boundary.

Intermediates will have the entire Strawberry Peak and Needles areas as their playground. In the Strawberry Peak area long cruisers like Main Street, Elk Ridge and Coyote Bowl bring smiles whether speeding along the groomed terrain or dashing into the off-trail powder. The Needles section has a series of shorter intermediate trails that drop off Philpot Ridge and empty into the base area through Wildcat Bowl.

Beginners will have to contend with speeding snowboarders and skiers who loop right through the beginner areas in front of Earl’s Lodge. Though the first-timer moving carpet lift is isolated, the next step to the Little Cat Chair puts struggling beginners in the same space as many skiers and riders finishing their trip down the mountain and scooting to the Needles Express gondola.

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Mountain layout – Powder Mountain
This is a massive resort spread over more than 5,500 acres (that’s bigger than Snowbird and Alta combined). The lifts are few (four chairlifts and three surface lifts) and far between, however they link well with each other. There are only a couple of groomed trails dropping down from the top of each lift. But what you see, you can ski or ride. There is also night skiing at the Sundown Lift from 4 – 10 p.m.

Every morning at 10 a.m., complimentary guides leaving from the Timberline Sports Shop are available to take skiers and riders on tours of the mountain to give everyone an orientation to the massive mountain. These orientation groups are popular and many of the skiers and riders end up signing up for a guide to take them to the best powder at the resort.

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Experts and Advanced skiers will find a world to themselves with a bit of exploration. Powder Mountain is not a resort that makes its best trails easy to reach. And that makes it much sweeter and way less crowded once skiers and riders make the extra effort to climb to isolated valleys. One major canyon, Cobane Canyon, is not lift-served at all. The only access to these 1,000+ acres is by the Sunrise surface lift and then a 20-minute hike across Sunrise Ridge. There are names for some of the drops on the trail map, however, only an expert will be able to tell where those specific trails begin and end. Back in Cobane Canyon all the snow is out there to enjoy without any trail limitations.

Paradise Lift provides the only real lift-accessed expert and advance terrain. The trails that drop 1,605 feet down from Paradise Ridge—Quickshot, Geronimo, Quicksliver, Snowchaser, Tombstone, Medicine Man, Eureka and others—are all steep and many are littered with trees.

Experts and Advanced skiers can also take advantage of 700 acres in Big Kash Canyon served by snowcats. This natural, wide-open bowl drains down into Rendezvous where it eventually links up with the Paradise lift to return skiers to the base area.

Finally, Powder Mountain offers Powder Country, tree-skiing that drops down 1,980 feet of vertical on the backside of Hidden Lake Lift to the access road. There a shuttlebus brings skiers back to either the Sundown or the Powder Mountain base area.

Intermediates will have plenty of opportunity to enjoy runs off the Timberline Lift and especially the new Hidden Lake high speed quad. The mountain serves up excellent intermediate powder terrain with the option of several short and steep expert shots that provide excellent confidence-building for deep snow. If anyone gets into trouble here, it is an easy traverse to mellow slopes. The Sundown double lift serves a whole series of groomed intermediate trails. Any intermediate that makes the climb into Cobane Canyon will be able to pick a way down with a bit of effort and definite exhaustion.

Beginners might want to start near the Powder Mountain Lodge and enjoy long trails back to the lodge or drop to the Hidden Lake lift from the top of Timberline. Hidden Lake has entire face of groomed and easy runs that will keep most beginners happy.

First-timers enjoy the same massive area. This means that first-timer lessons don’t suffer from hoards of skiers and riders zipping through the learning areas or down the lower-level trails. Here learning can be a peaceful and rewarding experience. The first-timers will spend most of their time just above the Powder Mountain Lodge and eventually work their way to Hidden Lake Lodge where they can feel like they are on top of the world.