Skiing Snowbasin

This ski resort is over one hour drive from Park City and is the place where both the Olympic downhill and super-G events were hosted in 2002. I had never skied there before, and this past Tuesday was the day I picked for sampling the place owned by the multi-billionaire Robert Earl Holding, Utah’s oil tycoon who also owns hotels and Sun Valley resort, up in Idaho. The entire mountain faces the morning sun, just like Mineral Basin in Snowbird, and that must affect the quality of its snow, but the little part of its terrain that I experienced was just fantastic. I say this, because yesterday only the center part of its slopes, served by the Needles Express lift was open. What’s unique about that particular lift is that each gondola has been named after an Olympic champion or medalist, and among a long list of names, I could see those of Jean Vuarnet, Stein Eriksen, Jean-Claude Killy and Toni Sailer with their respective country flags adorning the white exterior of each individual cabin. Skiing was limited to the center-third of the entire mountain but still offered 2,310 feet vertical and a large variety of fairly long groomed runs. As soon as the snow became softer, I jumped over to the closed mid-section of the “Grizzly” men’s downhill and experienced remarkable snow conditions with a “greasy,” dirty-grey, upper-surface, leaving clean, white tracks behind me. In all, I skied over 32,000 vertical feet and promised myself to return next winter to fully explore the mountain.