Solitude, Utah

Our Solitude review is based on two visits.  The first was back in 2011 on a huge powder day that we will never forget.  The second was 13 years later in Feb 2024 with excellent conditions and a little fresh snow overnight with more falling throughout the day.

Solitude is located in Utah’s Big Cottonwood canyon, a short drive from Salt Lake City, right next to Brighton. In the Salt Lake ski scene it’s somewhat overlooked due to the fact that it doesn’t really have any unique features compared to other nearby resorts. For example, Alta is the snowfall king, Snowbird is the overall steep resort experience, Brighton stays open late into spring and has night skiing, Park City is huge, and Deer Valley is the Rolls Royce experience. So what is Solitude’s niche?

Stats

Real Vertical ?	2,030′, Rank: 70
Size	1,200 Acres, Rank: 66
Annual Snowfall ?	500″ claimed / 437″ actual, Rank: 11
Ski Pods ?	7, Rank: 36
Distinct Trails ?	77, Rank: 51
Review Date	February 2011 and February 2024
Number of visits	2
Our Rating	★★★
Resort website	https://www.solitudemountain.com

Solitude Review

We first skied Solitude before the project was formed. It was a last-minute add to our annual Park City trip back when we had a timeshare condo at the base of The Canyons. A big storm was coming in to Park City so we drove out a day early. We stayed the night at a hotel near the airport and decided to ski Solitude the next day. At that time they had cheap lift tickets when bought from the local ski shops in Salt Lake, which helped make our decision. The other thing that helped was the 17″ of fresh snow they had received overnight, which was on top of multiple feet in the several days before.

The 2nd visit was planned well in advance because we didn’t have any photos from the first visit.  Snowfall was more or less average on the 2nd visit and we were able to more carefully evaluate the total resort experience.

Great conditions both times

In 2011 that first run down under the Powderhorn II chair was something I will always remember. This was some of the lightest snow we have ever skied. People were hooting from the chair when I skied down with snow boiling over my head.

In 2024 it was the beginning of a week long storm that ended up dumping over 6 feet of snow in the Cottonwoods, but luckily it was clear enough to get some pics and explore the steeps more.

The lifts

When skiing Solitude the first time, you quickly realize that although the total vertical is just over 2,000 ft., most of the lifts are much shorter than that.  The two lifts with the most vertical were our favorites: Eagle Express and Summit Express. These 2 chairs have just over 1,300 ft of vertical each. So although decent, they are not very impressive compared with the other nearby resorts.  In third place, Powderhorn II has about 1,100 ft of vertical.

Eagle

Eagle was upgraded to a 6-pack in 2023.  I imagine it was due to the popularity of that terrain on busy weekends and holidays.  This is a great chair with several groomed black runs and a lot of variety.  We loved the groomed black runs!

Summit

In 2011, Summit was actually a slow double chair.  It was upgraded to a high-speed quad in 2015 but the alignment wasn’t changed much.  The 2 intermediate runs under the chair and the Solbright trail get the majority of the traffic in this lift pod, but we used it mostly to explore the steeps on either side.

Powderhorn II

This chair is still a fixed grip slower chair but it accesses some decent steeper terrain.  The top is only a couple hundred feet lower than the top of the Summit chair.  This is the chair you would use to access the really steep stuff on either side of the ridge like Milk Run and Here be Dragons.  We appreciated the steep grooming of Diamond Lane.

Apex and Moonbeam

These lower mountain lifts open very early at 8AM.  We’ve only seen this at a couple of east coast resorts and it’s definitely unique in Utah.  Apex didn’t have much grooming and was mostly big bumps so we didn’t spend much time there.  Moonbeam had some nice mellow runs to warm up on while waiting for the other lifts to open at 9AM.

Sunrise

This chair appears really steep from the bottom, but it actually serves some really nice intermediate runs which were mostly groomed when we were there.  This would be a great chair to lap on busy days when lines are long elsewhere.

The steeps

There is plenty of challenge at Solitude with many true double-black runs. There is some seriously steep and scary terrain with sneaky gates and traverses everywhere.  For a visitor it’s a little intimidating blindly following tracks that could lead to some really technical lines.  There are a lot of really good skiers there and we wouldn’t claim to be at that level!

Honeycomb Canyon

Honeycomb Canyon is a dramatic feature covering about 1/3rd of the terrain on the west side.  After side-stepping down the rocky entrance you are presented with a nice mellow wide run “Woodlawn” with towering steeps on both sides. Unfortunately the fall-line runs are fairly short with a long flat-ish run out on Woodlawn.  I have to be honest that we never really figured out how to ski Honeycomb properly.  Both times we just ended up taking Woodlawn dipping into the trees on either side.  I’m sure locals who know all the secret zones find plenty to do there.

It was near the top of Honeycomb canyon in 2011 that I had a deep snow experience that I will remember forever. I found some untracked snow in the trees and as I dropped off a small knoll I dropped into fresh snow that was over my head. Everything went black for a second as the snow swallowed me whole. People have described this happening but it never happened to me until that time because with today’s fat skis the snow has to be incredibly light.

It takes 3 chairs to get back up to the top so these Honeycomb runs will usually be rare unless you want to spend all day sitting on chairs.

The area we found really interesting was the Headwall Forest, Corner Chute, and lower Evergreen chutes area (no-hike traverse from Solbright).  These are longer runs without as much runout.

The lodge and base areas

Solitude’s Moonbeam base area and on-mountain lodges are pretty basic, which is a bit of a strange contrast with the village that they built. The village is tucked away from the lifts to the east so it isn’t really a good focal point for activity. You may not even get over there because the main focal point of the resort is at the Moonbeam base area.

The food at Moonbeam was too expensive ($18 for a hamburger in 2024) so we had a much more reasonably priced and tasty lunch at Stone Haus in the village.

For beginners

There isn’t much here for beginners.  The Moonbeam chair has a couple of nice green runs and that’s about it.  The very short Link chair would be used for never-evers.   None of the other chairs have any green runs.

The good

• Lots of snow
• Unlimited challenge
• 4 high-speed chairs serve most of the terrain
• Proximity to Salt Lake City
• A reputation for good grooming
• The Moonbeam and Apex chairs open at 8AM (!)

The bad

• Inefficient lift layout
• Lifts are all short on vertical drop
• Weekend traffic is legendary getting up and down Little Cottonwood Canyon
• Parking is all paid ($20 in 2024) and must be reserved on peak days

Would we go back

Solitude isn’t necessarily a compelling multi-day destination resort, but it does really entice us with the extensive steep terrain that would be fun to explore more.  We have talked about spending a month in Cottonwood Heights with an Ikon pass skiing 7 days at Alta/Snowbird and the rest at Solitude which is unlimited. It’s a few places down the list of great ski areas in Utah, but is worth a visit if you are in the area with your Ikon pass.