Powder Mountain, Utah

Powder Mountain the 2nd most northerly ski resort in Utah, just 21 miles from Ogden. It’s name suggests lots of powder skiing, and that’s what people say they go there for. It seems more like a resort serving the northern Wasatch front population rather than a true destination resort. This review is based on two visits featuring deep powder on the first, and more average mid-winter conditions when it hadn’t snowed for a week or so on the second.

Stats

Real Vertical ?	2,100′, Rank: 67
Size	5,000 Acres (a lot of this is not directly lift served), Rank: 6
Annual Snowfall ?	500″ claimed / 350″ actual, Rank: 28
Lift Pods ?	6, Rank: 47
Distinct Trails ?	70, Rank: 61
Review Date	February 2010 and January 2022
Number of visits	2
Our Rating	★★
Resort Website	https://www.powdermountain.com

Powder Mountain is one of those iconic resorts that has a good reputation for snow quality and powder skiing.  We were less impressed with the resort than we were expecting though.  The reason is a combination of stats inflation, lack of value, and flat terrain.

Stats Inflation

If you happen to be comparing stats and want to ski a 5,000 acre resort that is almost as big as Vail, Powder Mountain would do it.  Don’t be fooled though — you will be doing a lot of hiking and polling if you want to explore everything on the map.  There is a shuttle bus that give you access to a small part of it in Woody’s World and Powder Country, but the main lift-served area is probably in the 2-3,000 acre range.

The true lift-served vertical is 2,100′ (top of Lightning Ridge to the bottom of Paradise), but the resort lists the total vertical as 3,436′.  I have no idea where they get those numbers because they don’t explain it and it doesn’t make sense if you study a topographic map.

I’ve had to update this page multiple times since 2010 as the stats, lifts, and access changed.  2 of the lifts we skied in 2022 are now private homeowner-only lifts.  Another homeowner lift was added as well which looks like it addressed one of our main complaints about the hike-to only terrain, but non-homeowners cannot use it and just have to ski right past.  Lightning Ridge which we previously skied in 2010 via snowcat is now lift-served and the snowcat shuttles are gone.  Both Timberline and Paradise were replaced with new chairs and Paradise became a high-speed detachable.

Lift Pods

Most of the activity at the resort is on the Hidden Lake Express chair.  This is a 1,200 vertical drop high-speed quad with a lot of wide groomed runs.  We spent most of our time lapping that chair.  It’s a beginner or low-intermediate paradise.  Even the black runs are very easy and just about any intermediate could handle them.  In general, the trail ratings at the resort are about 1 rating too high compared with other resorts.

Timberline is the other main lift with grooming on a couple of runs.  We took several laps there, but it’s a relatively meager amount of vertical at only 800′.  This was upgraded to a fixed-grip quad for the 24/25 season but the alignment and vertical did not change.

Paradise is the most interesting lift with an impressive 1,600′ of vertical.  It runs right up a steep ridge and this is the most demanding lift-served terrain on the mountain.  Most of it was not skiable on both of our visits due to thin cover or icy conditions, but we did have the most fun of the day on Snowchaser which had been groomed a few days prior to our 2022 visit.  This was upgraded to a high-speed quad for the 24/25 season which will make it even better.

We couldn’t figure out how to get over to the very short Sundown lift without driving.  In 2022 we could ski the newer Mary’s and Village lifts but those were too flat to be of any interest.  Since then, those have been closed to the public and are now only open to homeowners.  In 24/25 the Raintree lift was also added as a homeowner-only lift.  These 2 lift pods were removed from our stats but 2 new and better ones have now replaced those so the lift pod count does not change.

Upgrades!

For the 24/25 season, Powder Mountain added the Lightning Ridge lift.  This was previously served by a snowcat that was a $25 ride.  I skied it in 2010 and it’s great terrain with a decent vertical drop of 1,100′.  This is a serious upgrade, but we’d have to ski it to see how much of a difference it makes in the overall feel of the resort.  Maybe it will earn the resort a 3-star rating?

Next up for 25/26 will be 2 new lifts in completely new terrain.  The Davenport Express will be for homeowners only to skier’s right of Raintree over the ridge.  More exciting for regular folks will be the DMI/Wolf Canyon lift which serves steep terrain on the back of the Sundown lift.  I don’t have any stats on these yet, but will update after the build.  You can see it on the 24/25 trail map as closed.  There is serious vertical over there of up to 1,800′ so it will be interesting to see the end result.

Lodges and Food

The Hidden Lake lodge is tiny with a very limited food offering and no indoor seating on the food-service level, but you can climb another set of stairs for picnic table seating on the 3rd floor.  The main cafeteria is in the Timberline lodge.  Cafeteria food was average for a smaller resort in 2022.

Real Estate

The resort appears to be trying to develop a “Village” at the top with a nice collection of very expensive homes scattered about.  This explains why the Mary’s and Village lifts exist, but like most real estate oriented ski terrain it’s less about skiing and more about providing an attractive amenity for homeowners.  The addition of the Raintree lift in 24/25 changed that considerably, and the planned Davenport Express will be a game changer for their real estate offering.

Priced too high

The lift ticket was too expensive for a resort of this size with only 1 high-speed lift.  Food was also more expensive than we are used to for this type of resort.

Powder Skiing

Our first visit was on a 16″ powder day, so we have a pretty good idea what the “Powder” in the name means.  The problem was that much of the expansive terrain was too flat for that amount of powder and we just ended up going straight down most of the runs.  The hike-to stuff was a long hike followed by a very short actual run.  On a 6-8″ day I think it would be an absolute blast though.  The mellow slopes would be perfect for that amount of snow.

The good

• High quality snow
• Uncrowded
• Friendly staff
• Great terrain for a beginner or low intermediate

The bad

• Resort statistics are vastly overstated
• Most of the lift-served terrain is flat
• Only 3 lifts have over a 900 foot vertical rise
• Expensive for what you get

The Bottom Line

Powder Mountain is fun on a powder day but is not a good choice as a destination resort since you can’t just pick the best days unless you are local.  We felt like the resort is perfect for 2 types of skiers:  A) Local experts who ski on powder days and don’t mind hiking or polling long distances, and B) beginners or low intermediates.  If you aren’t one of those, you will probably be happier at nearby Snowbasin.  Having said that, since 2022 Powder Mountain has made significant investments in the resort to improve all of this.  It will be interesting to return after the DMI/Wolf Canyon chair is built to ski these new offerings and maybe re-evaluate our rating.