Skiing the Greatest Snow on Earth: Utah, by the Numbers

Average annual snowfall at each of Utah’s 14 mountains

Resort vitals

Alta

• Cost for an adult one-day lift ticket: $79
• Skiable acres: 2,200
• Vertical feet: 2,020
• Number of named trails: 116
• Number of lifts: 7
• Number of snowboarders found on this mountain: 0
• Snow that’s already fallen on the hill this year: 130+”

Beaver Mountain

• Cost for an adult one-day lift ticket: $45
• Skiable acres: 828
• Vertical feet: 1,600
• Number of named trails: 48
• Number of lifts: 4
• Number of generations of Seeholzers you’ll find working on this mountain at any given time: 3
• Number of years the Seeholzers have been running Beaver Mountain: 64 and counting

Brian Head

• Cost for an adult one-day lift ticket: $54
• Skiable acres: 650
• Vertical feet: 1,370
• Number of named trails: 71
• Number of lifts: 8
• Number of resorts with a higher base elevation (9,600′) in Utah: 0
• Cost for spending the entire day launching your fragile body into the only inflatable air bag in the state: $20

Brighton

• Cost for an adult one-day lift ticket: $68
• Skiable acres: 1,050
• Vertical feet: 1,745
• Number of named trails: 62
• Number of lifts: 6
• Number of terrain parks on the mountain: 6, plus a bonus halfpipe
• Number of girls-only parks on the mountain: 1
• Year Brighton opened with a rope tow: 1936, making it the first resort in Utah

Canyons

• Cost for an adult one-day lift ticket: $86¹
• Skiable acres: 4,000
• Vertical feet: 3,190
• Number of named trails: 182
• Number of lifts: 19
• Number of terrain parks on the mountain: 4, plus 6 natural halfpipes
• Length in feet of Boxzilla 2013, a continuous, face-schmearing jib set up last spring: 196

¹Advanced purchase price

Deer Valley

• Cost for an adult one-day lift ticket: $108
• Skiable acres: 2,026
• Vertical feet: 3,000
• Number of named trails: 101
• Number of lifts: 21
• Number of crab legs you’re legitimately allowed to eat at the legendary Seafood Buffet: As many as you can handle

Eagle Point

• Cost for an adult one-day lift ticket: $48 on Fridays and Saturdays ($25 on Thursdays and Sundays)
• Skiable acres: 600
• Vertical feet: 1,500
• Number of named trails: 40
• Number of lifts: 5
• Average sunshine-y days each year: 320

Park City

• Cost for an adult one-day lift ticket: $107¹
• Skiable acres: 3,300
• Vertical feet: 3,100
• Number of named trails: 116
• Number of lifts: 16
• Number of years in the snow biz: Hitting the big 5-0 this year

¹Save up to 35% when purchasing in advance

Powder Mountain

• Cost for an adult one-day lift ticket: $65
• Skiable acres: 7,000
• Vertical feet: 2,205
• Number of named trails: 154
• Number of lifts: 4
• Price for a snowcat ride up Lightning Ridge to hit over 700 acres of powder: A measly $18
• Minutes of hoofing it up from Lightning Ridge to James Peak for the best, least-tracked-out powder bowls you’ve ever seen in your entire life: 20-30
• Regrets: 0

Snowbasin

• Cost for an adult one-day lift ticket: $82
• Skiable acres: 3,300
• Vertical feet: 2,950
• Number of named trails: 104
• Number of lifts: 9
• Terrain parks available on the mountain: 7, 4 of which are pocket parks
• Number of Yelp reviewers who made a point to mention their incredibly fancy bathrooms: 7

Snowbird

• Cost for an adult one-day lift ticket: $92
• Skiable acres: 2,500
• Vertical feet: 3,240
• Number of named trails: 98
• Number of lifts: 11
• Length, in miles, of the longest run: 2.5, Chip’s Run
• On-mountain eateries: 15 restaurants, 5 bars

Solitude

• Cost for an adult one-day lift ticket: $74
• Skiable acres: 1,200
• Vertical feet: 2,047
• Number of named trails: 65
• Number of lifts: 8
• Lift lines to speak of: 0

Sundance

• Cost for an adult one-day lift ticket: $61
• Skiable acres: 450
• Vertical feet: 2,150
• Number of named trails: 42
• Number of lifts: 4
• Classes daily in drawing and painting, pottery, jewelry-making, photography, and printmaking: 3
• Resident glass-blowers: 2

Wolf Mountain

• Cost for an adult one-day lift ticket: $36
• Skiable acres: 110
• Vertical feet: 1,000
• Number of named trails: 22
• Number of lifts: 3
• Acres of terrain park: 20

Epic stats that will make you want to strap in NOW

• Total skiable acreage in Utah: 29,214
• Amount of said area that’s considered advanced: 10,272 acres
• Total number of named trails: 1,221 (With the average length of season hovering around 140 days, you could feasibly ski every single day of the season in Utah without ever having to repeat a trail.)
• Cumulative vertical feet you can careen down on skis in the entire state of Utah: 31,117 (That’s about 25 Empire State Buildings.)
• Longest run in Utah: Park City’s Homerun at 3.5 miles
• Number of parks and pipes in Utah: 36
• On the front page of the Google “best ski resorts” search results, number of times you’ll find a Utah resort name-dropped in the piece: 9 out of 10 (One list mentioned 6 different Utah resorts; the piece that failed to mention a Utah resort was titled “Best ski resorts for non-skiers,” so…)

Getting here

• Number of cities offering direct flights to SLC: 92
• Number of resorts within a 55-mile radius of the airport: 11 (Which adds up to 27,136 skiable acres accessible in an hour or less once you’ve liberated your gear from the baggage carousel.)
• Closest resort to the tarmac: Snowbird, at 29 miles away (This means that if you hopped on a plane at 7am in New York City, you’d find yourself standing at the top of a slope at Snowbird by noon on the same day.)

Cost

• Average cost for a gallon of gas in Salt Lake City: $2.98 (At 23mpg, it’ll cost you approximately $3.76 to get to Snowbird. You paid more than that for a croissantwich at the airport.)
• Cheapest lift ticket in Utah: Eagle Point’s $25 ticket on Thursdays and Sundays gets you access to 600 skiable acres. Every other day, head to Wolf Mountain for a $36 ticket.

Apres

• Number of ski-in/ski-out distilleries in Utah: 1
• Number of ski-in/ski-out distilleries anywhere else in the world: 0
• Number of other bars and restaurants in Park City that will serve you despite your clompy ski boots and soggy clothing: At least 99
• Average score of the top 40 Utah beers on RateBeer.com: 95.99
• Number of Utah beers that snagged medals at the 2013 Great American Beer Festival: 5
• Excuses needed to drink local: 0
• And if you’d rather skip the apres ski and go straight for more skiing, number of resorts open for night skiing and riding: 6