Solitude, Utah

Back in the 1950s, the very rich Bob Barrett (who had accumulated his fortune in the uranium extraction industry) suffered the ignominy of being refused access to the restroom at his favorite skiing resort Alta.  In an enormous huff, he vowed to buy up all the land available in the canyon, and develop his own resort.  So was born Solitude Ski Village, just a stone’s throw from Alta.  Development of the ski hardware began in 1956, and the following year the resort opened for the first time, with just 2 lifts.

Today Solitude is a lively and bustling ski area with a excellent snow record, a reputation for short lift queues, and a diverse and interesting ski mountain.

Conveniently for beginners, the ski school can be found immediately above the village. The school is well-managed, and efficiently run by an enthusiastic team of friendly instructors.  You should be up to attempting a green run by the end of your first week.

There’s lots of options for intermediates, from exciting steep runs with bumps and curves, to long winding cruising runs meandering slowly down the mountain.

Honeycomb Canyon is an irresitable magnet for expert skiiers.  From the top station, a long traverse into the canyon reaches some brilliant chute runs.

The terrain park is completely made from snow, but there’s still lot to do, with a mixture of jumps and tables.

At the base of the mountain, the ski village clusters around the bottom lift.  Its an attractive traffic-free village, with lots of accomodation available and plenty of facilities on offer.  There’s an ice rink at the village center, and 2 outdoor (but heated) swimming pools. In the evening you’ll have lots of restaurants and several bars to pick from, but after a heavy day on the slopes, most head off to their bunks early on.

Solitude was one of the first resorts to introduce smart ticketing – you just keep the card in your pocket, and it’s read automatically at each chair.  This means that the resort has a number of interestin ticketing options available, such as ‘By The Ride’ passes,  as well as the more usual day passes. 

Best Ski Resorts’s (from 100BestEverything) rating (out of 5 stars) 3-expert,3-intermediate,4-beginner.

Tags: american-skier, apres-ski, holiday-ideas, ski-holiday, ski-holidays, ski-north-america, ski-resorts, ski-utah, ski-vacation, ski-vacations, skiing-resorts, skiing-utah, solitude-ski-center, solitude-utah, utah-ski-vacation, utah-ski-vacations, utah-skiing, vacation-spots, winter-break, winter-holidays, winter-sports, winter-trip, winter-vacation