Ogden, a university town of 87,000, is a 40-minute drive from Salt Lake City Airport. But despite its convenience, the city and its surroundings might just be Utah's best-kept secret for anyone in search of a low-key skiing getaway.
I discovered just how great a base the Ogden area is during a three-day, two-night visit last winter, during which I hit the slopes of Powder Mountain and Snowbasin ski areas, each of which sit approximately 20 miles from Ogden's charming downtown. And while Park City, 65 miles to the southeast, has Ogden beat when it comes to glamour, Ogden offers a combination of homespun charm and affordability that simply can't be found at more chic ski destinations.
Ogden's four hotels, all of which pay commission to travel advisors, are a Hampton Inn, a Hilton Garden Inn, a Courtyard by Marriott and the Bigelow Hotel and Residences, an all-suite property and a member of the Ascend Hotel Collection occupying an 11-story, 1891 building that is on the National Register of Historic Places. Each of those properties is within a block of Ogden's Historic 25th Street dining, arts and entertainment district, which retains an Old West feel. Average nightly winter rates in the city are a refreshingly affordable $120 per night, according to Visit Ogden.
All four hotels are located near stops for the Ski Bus, a Utah Transit Authority service that runs to Snowbasin and Powder Mountain during ski season.
For those looking to get closer to the ski areas, the Ogden Valley east of town is home to the villages of Eden and Huntsville. In Eden, Powder Mountain Getaways manages luxury vacation rental communities that offer even easier access to the eponymous ski resort, though the company doesn't offer commissions.
The lobby of the 84-suite Bigelow Hotel and Residences. Photo Credit: TW photo by Robert Silk
Though I took time to experience downtown Ogden, including tipping back my share of pints from the city's emerging Roosters and Talisman breweries, it was in the valley where I lodged as a hosted guest of Powder Mountain Getaways.
Powder Mountain is perhaps the least known of the eight major ski areas within 60 miles of Salt Lake City. But it almost seems as if that's by design.
This coming season PowMow, as it's affectionately known, will be the only mountain among those eight ski areas not to be on either of the U.S. destination ski industry megapasses: Vail's Epic Pass and Alterra Mountain Co.'s Ikon Pass. Furthermore, PowMow caps both daily ticket sales and season pass sales at a paltry 1,500 despite having an enormous 8,400 acres of terrain under patrol. That's more skiable terrain than is offered by Park City Mountain Resort, which by most other measures is the largest ski area in the U.S.
With so much terrain and those limits on skier numbers, it should come as no surprise that during my day at PowMow I never waited more than a minute or two in a lift line. Usually there was no line at all, and that's even though the resort has just six chairs, only one of which is high speed. More than that, I skied more either untouched or lightly touched powder that day than on any other ski day of my life. Indeed, I came to think of Powder Mountain as something of a hybrid between a traditional ski resort and backcountry skiing. That's in part because much of the skiable terrain isn't serviced by lifts at all. For example, from the top of the Hidden Lake Express lift I skied through soft powder and trees, testing my ability fully, and ultimately landed at a roadway, on which PowMow circulates a shuttle bus back to its modest Sundown and Timberline lodges.
Brew kettles at the Roosters Brewing Co.’s B Street Taproom, which is part of a burgeoning brewery scene in Ogden. Photo Credit: TW photo by Robert Silk
Later that day, I took a snowcat to gain access to a broad expanse of mostly untouched terrain on the east side of the resort. About a 45-minute hike uphill sat 9,422-foot James Peak. It's part of the ski area, too, and just a few ski tracks broke up the otherwise virgin snow.
My second ski day east of Odgen was another fantastic one, this time at Snowbasin, which next year will join Vail's Epic Pass. Where Powder Mountain offers mostly amenities, Snowbasin emphasizes comfort and elegance. Among its nine lifts are two gondolas, three express chairs and a short tram, which takes skiers to the resort's highest spot, the 9,465-foot Allen Peak.
I started my day on the Strawberry Gondola, which climbs nearly 2,500 feet to Strawberry Peak, from where the clear morning sky afforded views over Utah's Wasatch Front and beyond, including Ogden, Salt Lake City and the Great Salt Lake.
Strawberry offers access to bowls filled with double diamond hills. Along with my guide, Megan Collins, who heads media outreach for the 3,000-acre ski area, we avoided the most difficult terrain and instead focused on several nearby black diamond runs, many of which still offered sections of untouched powder.
Later in the day, we sampled the routes that comprised the men's and women's downhill courses when Snowbasin was a venue for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
In between, we stopped for lunch at the mountaintop John Paul Lodge. True to form for Snowbasin, the lodge is classy. Rather than the basic, cafeteria-style space one usually finds at ski mountains, we took this meal on a granite tabletop next to a massive stone fireplace and underneath an Italian-glass chandelier. Indeed, Collins told me that when the company making the chandeliers informed then-Snowbasin owner Robert Holding that it couldn't ship a particular chandelier Holding wanted for the resort's Earl's Lodge, he resolved the problem by purchasing the company outright.
That evening, before heading back to the airport, I decided to down one last beer, this time at the Shooting Star Saloon in Huntsville, Utah's longest continuously operating bar.
I bellied up to the wooden countertop as sunset colored the snow outside and wished I didn't have to leave.
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The Utah Transit Authority Ski Bus from Ogden runs to the
Powder Mountain and Snowbasin ski areas. A previous version of this report had an incorrect ski area.