farbster

Trip Planning and other intro stuff...

I’ve read many trip reports here on Flyertalk and have always wanted to add my own. I apologize in advance for the lack of the following: photos of every minute on the plane, details of drinking champagne and eating caviar, details of booking flights in F using Expert Flyer, etc. This is a simple report of a guy going skiing. Maybe the next one will be more adventurous.

By way of background, this is the second ski trip I’ve taken with two of my friends and this year we added another friend to make it a total of four. We like the accessibility of Utah skiing, as there are four daily non-stop flights between BWI and SLC (two Delta and two Southwest).

Between the three of us, we have skied the resorts at Park City (PCMR, Canyons & Deer Valley) pretty extensively. Last year we skied Snowbird and Alta. Snowbird was a bit difficult for me (let’s face it, I almost could have died!) and we wanted to try something new. My friends are better skiers and I’m an advanced intermediate (not so comfortable in the bumps/trees).

We decided on Solitude and Brighton. The nice thing was that we could stay at Solitude and ski both resorts. Also, both mountains were new to everyone in our group! The four of us would work a half day on Wednesday and then fly out in the afternoon and then ski Thursday-Saturday. I would fly home Sunday and two of the others were staying in Park City for their kids’ spring break and the fourth would spend the next week with his family looking at colleges for their daughter.

Flight to Salt Lake City

Two of my buddies picked me up in the Escalade or whatever oversized SUV was booked to take us to the airport. I had two bags to check, one 22” carry on (ski boots and a few other things) and one medium size duffel (helmet and clothes) along with my backpack.

We arrived at BWI about 25 minutes later with oodles of time. We allowed extra time as we wanted to make sure all the ski stuff got on our plane. Gotta LUV Southwest as bags fly free They say that one of the main reasons baggage doesn’t make it on the flight is because people check in too close to departure, so we made sure we had plenty of time.

We had some lunch at the food court and then made our way to the gate to meet up with the fourth. I reminded them that I had four drink coupons from my brother in law. Did you know that you can set a preference on your profile to not receive the drink coupons from Southwest? Why would anyone not want free drink coupons? But I digress...

I was the cheap one and didn’t pay the extra for the early seating. As long as I get a decent “B” I’m ok to get an aisle seat. My friends said they would save me a seat near them, so I was in good shape.

Finally, it was my turn to board the plane and I saw the seat my friend saved for me across the aisle from him. I think I may have called him a dufus, as next to my empty aisle seat was a lady holding her baby. I have nothing against babies, having had two of my own, but I don’t consider a 4+ hour flight next to one a pleasure trip.

The flight was a typical Southwest flight. No meal, just a few snacks. I brought my own 6” sub and drank a Jack and Coke courtesy of my brother in law. I slept a bit and watched a bunch of episodes of “The League”. It is an funny show and I was able to download a ton of episodes to my Kindle. Actually, it was my daughter’s kindle (more on that later). Finally we landed and made our way to baggage claim.

Usually the bags come out pretty quickly in SLC, but it took what seemed to be a bit longer than usual. No problems and once we gathered our bags we met our driver outside. The driver had a large black SUV and got us to our home for the next few nights.

More in next post...

quirrow

I just returned from SLC 2 weeks ago and enjoyed the snowboarding at Mineral Basin in Snowbird. I consider myself an intermediate snowboarder doing mostly blue runs.

I think SLC is a pretty good value area for skiing since there are multiple cheap accomodations in the city, which is probably 40 minutes drive from the canyon resorts. I am looking to try other resorts there and hopefully you have photos of Brighton and Solitude!

farbster

I really only took a few pictures from the top of the mountain and found that the view was less spectacular than other places I've been, including Canyons Resort and even Steamboat.

SLC is an amazing destination for skiing. As you said, there are lots of mountains nearby. Also, the number of daily flights into SLC is far greater than any other ski airport. The likelihood of a flight cancellation is much lower than others as well.

The second installment should hopefully be posted today...

farbster

The Hotel Part

Seeing as the flights were on Southwest, I’m going to assume that you’ve continued reading this trip report to hear about the skiing and maybe a bit about the hotel. The flights were easy, as was the transfer to the hotel.

We had a minor miscue with the SUV, as we pulled in and went to what we thought was the front desk. It was however the front desk for the condo part of the resort. They pointed us up the way just a bit to the proper place.

Before we got back in the SUV, we decided to go to the little store and buy some adult supplies, ie. Jack Daniel’s. The price was pretty reasonable for a small bottle and we figured that if we needed more, it was only a quick walk away. We also picked up some sodas. The driver would have taken us for a grocery/beverage stop, but we figured out that what they charge for that would be greater than the premium you pay to buy your liquor at the mountain. TIP You can have the driver stop at Costco ahead of time to get you discounted lift tickets to various resorts in Utah. This can end up being a nice savings for a family.

Below is a picture of the Village Map.




Everything is really close and walkable.

The SUV drove us up a little bit and we reached another gate. Apparently you don’t drive right up to the hotel, but they come to you in order to retrieve your bag. The bags were easily picked up by the front desk personnel and check in was painless. I had a large kitchenette room with my friend and the other two guys had a large room (two beds, and a sofa, just no kitchenette part). The kitchenette sounds great, but with breakfast included we never touched it. In fact, one night I went to see if there was anything in our refrigerator and opened the door, only to have it fall off the hinges. Luckily it didn’t land on my toe or anything. The room also included a big flat screen tv on a dresser with DirectTV service.

The Inn at Solitude is small; I think the website says 46 rooms. Everything about the hotel was small, the lobby, pool, hot tub, restaurants etc. However, we never had a problem getting a table or spot in the hot tub. Somehow they figured it out just right. The size of the hot tub was a little ridiculous when you think that they planned for it to be that size. I’m not a builder or architect, but I can’t imagine that doubling the size of the hot tub would have made that much of a difference. After all, once the guys are there to dig...Having the larger hot tub would have made it more enjoyable as we didn’t have to all sit that close to each other...

The hotel also had access to the “Club Solitude”. I believe that the purpose of the Club was to provide services to all the condo guests. The Club was really nice for families as it had a pool table, foosball, movie room, video games and a gym. There was a nice sized pool with a slide and two hot tubs. Both hot tubs were completely full when we walked by.

We were eager to check out their steam room. At the front desk of the hotel, we asked if they had a steam room. They said that the spa in the hotel building had a sauna, but that the Club had steam room. Awesome! I love a steam. On a side note, I believe the technical term for steam room is really “schvitz”, as in “hey, you wanna go for a schvitz”. For those that don’t know the difference, a steam room is wet and you sit on either a wooden bench or a tile bench. The sauna is completely dry and made of wood and you sit on wood.

When we got to the club, we found out they only had a sauna and not a schvitz. We fell as if the rug was pulled out from us. Imagine you go somewhere and you’re excited because they told you that they have fresh sushi-grade tuna and when you get there you find out that they only have a can of tuna in oil and it’s not even Bumblebee! UGH!!! We much prefer a schvitz to a sauna and were upset that our hopes were dashed. Why don’t people know the difference between steam room/schvita and sauna? It’s like milk and meat...totally different!

Skiing at Solitude (ski days 1 & 3)

The skiing was awesome. The resort name is not a gimmick. There were no lift lines. I know people say that and sometimes that means they have to wait for 2-3 minutes. Literally, there were no lift lines. On a Saturday. During Spring Break. If you were on the lift and looked at the slopes, you would see at most 6 skiers. I think that happened once or twice. The lifts all used those fancy RFID sensors, so we could just keep the ticket in our jacket pocket and just waive your arm at the gate.

Below are some stats of the mountain that I took from their website and also a trail map. The lift ticket was $74, a big saving over the price of other resorts.



Hours of Operation
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM*
*Honeycomb and Summit lifts close at 3:30 PM.

Runs and Terrain
Solitude offers 65 named runs and three bowls spread over 1,200 acres and features terrain for every ability level.
20% Beginner
50% Intermediate
30% Advanced/Expert

Average Snowfall - Over 500 inches
Top Elevation - 10,035 ft. (3,059 m) Summit Chair Top
Bottom Elevation - 7,988 ft. (2,435 m) Eagle Express Chair Bottom
Village Elevation - 8,175 ft.
Vertical Drop - 2,047 ft. (624 m)
Total Acreage - 1,200 acres
Snowmaking - Coverage of 5 lifts/21 runs/150 acres
Lifts -3 High-speed Quads, 2 Quads, 1 Triple, 2 Doubles, 8 Total
Lift Vertical Rise
Apex Express, 880 ft. (4 min)
Moonbeam Express, 670 ft. (4 min)
Eagle Express, 1,500 ft. (6 min)
Honeycomb Return, 860 ft. (4 min)
Summit, 1,235 ft. (10 min)
Sunrise, 810 ft. (8 min)
Powderhorn, 1,116 ft. (7 min)
Link, 160 ft. ( 5 min)

The last snow they had was a few days before we arrived, so no fresh powder. I’m an advanced intermediate skier, ie. I’m not comfortable in the bumps or trees (scared I’ll kill myself) and I stay away from anything too treacherous. I’m out there to have fun and not get killed. As a note, my wife’s parting words to me were not “have fun”, but “be careful”.

The only part of the mountain that I didn’t ski was Honeycomb Canyon. The four of us rode to the top of the Summit lift and split up. This was towards the end of our last day. I was being cautious and one of my friends was concerned that the trail would end in a long run-off. So we split up and two went into the Canyon and two of us went down the blue trail. The four of us met up and the other two guys said we should totally ski the first trail in the Honeycomb Canyon. Sadly, once we rode the lifts up, they had closed that part of the mountain. I guess it was too late in the day. Oh well, next year.

If you’re looking at the map, everything to the left of the Sunrise Lift is their “nordic center”. That means cross-country skiing. That means work. Tons of work. Not for me. I’m sure it’s fun and all, but not my idea of a good time. Now,I will say that I saw three people heading out that way and they all looked very thin and fit. Maybe I should try it?

Lunches and Aprčs
The first day we ate at the one mid-mountain restaurant. They had an interesting system where you ordered and paid for your food inside and then brought outside to the guy working the grill so he would make your burger. After a moment or two, I heard him call out my name. It seemed odd that there would only be one mid-mountain restaurant/bar, but as I said before, this place is not called “Solitude” for no reason. No problems getting a spot to sit. The burger I ordered smelled better than it actually tasted. But still, satisfying to stop, rest and eat.

The third day we ate at the Moonbeam Lodge. This seemed to be the area you would come if you were skiing for the day. As a side note, I looked at getting a lift ticket from Liftopia. Their website lets you purchase lift tickets to many resorts at a discount. When I investigated it before the trip, it looked like they only let you use the Moonbeam ticket office. Not knowing that you could actually use the Liftopia ticket at either the Moonbeam or the main ticket window across from the Inn, I paid full price and missed out on the approximately $9 savings. It was hard to tell the scale of the map and it seemed a little far from the Inn to the Moonbeam ticket office and I didn’t want to walk to save $9.

We had some beers after skiing at the Honeycombe Grill. The beers were nothing special. The menu could really be improved by adding some nachos, wings or something like that. We did have some appetizer that wasn’t called a pizza but was like a flatbread. Really delicious.

Dinners
We ate all three meals at St. Bernard’s, the fine dining establishment in our hotel. Other choices in the village included the spot we had for our Aprčs or a pizza place (nothing fancy, more like carryout) that also sold ice cream. There was some kind of bar, but we never got there.

Everyone thought their meals were excellent. Between us we ordered for main courses: trout, duck, steak, rack of lamb and pork. Awesome food. For the appetizers we had poutine, beet salad, carrot and ginger soup, grits with scallops, cheese plate. Everything was excellent with the exception of the poutine which was only fair. I wish we had a local restaurant this good.
We were going to eat at the Silver Fork Lodge which is just a few minutes down the road. By the time we figured out we wanted to eat there, we had to wait for them to come and pick us up. We waited for a bit and then had the hotel call again. They said that the driver was down at Brighton and would be about 10 minutes. We bagged it because we figured by the time we got there, we would have to wait to get a table etc. Walking ten feet from the lobby to St. Bernard’s was a great call.

Breakfasts
Breakfast was complimentary in St. Bernard’s. The breakfast buffet included scrambled eggs, bacon (nice and crispy), potatoes, croissants/danishes/bagels, juice, oatmeal, cereal, coffee etc. Everything was tasty. We got a bill that was zeroed out and just left a small tip.

Summary
This place was awesome. Great skiing, reasonably priced lodging and lift tickets, easy access to major airport and an empty mountain make it likely we’ll be back.

The next installment will detail our skiing at Brighton and the return from SLC-BWI. Thanks for reading my first report.

Not that anyone asked, but here's a picture of me skiing in January at Canyons Resort. If I can't ski well, I might as well look good

I almost forgot to mention the greatest invention...bluetooth ski headphones. I tried one called OT Chips or something like that. They were awful. The first pair had too low a volume and the replacement pair was staticky. The next brand I tried was UClear. I loved, loved, loved them. The control unit attaches to either your helmet straps (by the ear) or your goggle strap and then has a little wire going to the headphones inside the ear piece of the helmet. The neatest part was when you get a phone call. You hear a special beeping in your ears and you just say hello. Maybe twice. Then the music pauses and the phone answers. You have your conversation and then when the other person hangs up, your music starts back up.

I got two phone calls from home while I was skiing. The first was an inquiry about how to put the blender back together. For whatever reason, my family wanted some smoothies with dinner. I tried my best and couldn't get them through it. I won't even share how even more ridiculous the second call was. Thank god I only going from the lift to the trail for both calls.

farbster

Day 2 of skiing

Yesterday we skied Solitude and today we are going to ski Brighton. The Solitude Resort doesn’t have transportation to Brighton, but there is a public bus that you can take. No self respecting skier would take the bus when you had the opportunity to ski from one resort to the next. For just a few dollars more, you can have one ticket that works at both ski resorts. This is called the SolBright pass and you can purchase it at either mountain.

We made our way up the Sunrise Lift and then skied down a little bit to the Summit Lift. We then rode that lift to the top and then it got a bit more difficult. The skiing was just fine, it was the signage that wasn't fantastic. You head down the Sol/Bright trail and look for the Brighton resort. There must have been a little bit of a lack of good signs or we were not really paying attention, because we ended up skiing past the Brighton gate. Luckily we were able to make it under a rope and we ended up skiing down to the Millicent Lift (they call it Milly Express). We lost the skier that was skiing in front (I'm guessing he totally missed the gate for Brighton) and did a few laps until we met up with him. He had to make another loop around Solitude and do some poling, but everything worked out in the end.

After skiing a bit, we needed some lunch. We made a plan to meet up at one of the buildings. Somehow, two of us ended up together and two ended up at another spot, just a few hundred yards away. I was at the correct building and the other two were at the wrong one My friend and I ate Molly Green’s. The spot was perfect. I liked that they had an area inside designated for “brown baggers”. That was pretty classy to not make them eat standing up outside or anything.

In any event, we couldn't convince the other two to join us and my friend was too tired to go up hill to meet them. So, we just ate at different places. The upstairs spot was pretty quiet and there were some guys eating/drinking at one table and another table with a couple of guys on their laptops. My friend and I each had the French Onion soup and we split a pulled pork sandwich. I can’t say that this Bar Mitzvah Boy has had many pulled pork sandwiches, but it was pretty good. Splitting was just perfect as was the food.

The four of us skied around a little more and then one of us had to go and take a conference call for work. What a bummer to miss out one hour on a great mountain, but you gotta pay the bills...A little later we split up and two of us ended up on the Great Western Express Lift. Such great terrain on that side. The two of us ended up racing back to Milly to get one of the last chairs back up. From the top of that lift we ended up skiing back to Solitude and going straight to Honeycombe Grill to meet up for some adult beverages.

Overall Impressions

Brighton was great. The lift lines were beyond short. The longest we waited was maybe one minute and that was at one of the lifts near the lodges after lunch. The terrain was excellent. I had thought that because of their extensive terrain park it would be more heavily infested with boarders, but that wasn’t the case at all. Perhaps they just stayed in the park? There were more “punkier” skiers/riders, but not a big deal at all. I would definitely ski here again. There really isn't lodging at Brighton, so Solitude is a great option for skiing at Brighton.

Below is a trail map for Brighton.

farbster

The skiing is done and I have to get back to Baltimore. I shared a SUV ride with one of my buddies and the other two guys went over to Park City Mountain Resort to meet their families. Using one of the free nights from my Marriott Credit Card, I booked a room at the Salt Lake Marriott Downtown at City Creek and would fly home the next day.

We checked in easily and proceeded to one of their computers so we could print our boarding passes. I was flying Southwest home, but my friend was flying Frontier to New Orleans. I grabbed the closest pc and he was stuck with the Mac. Now people say Macs are so great and easy to use and blah blah blah. Meanwhile the thing was hanging up when printing and it was unclear how to close the windows/tabs. My friend almost put his foot through the computer. On the other hand, I got my boarding pass from my pc just fine

We went up to our room after the boarding passes finally printed out. The room was just what we wanted, two double beds. After throwing our stuff down, we walked to a nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner. The Blue Iguana was just a few blocks from the hotel. On our walk we saw a bunch of kids dressed up for prom. Seems like a million years ago for me. To get to the restaurant you had to walk down the street and then turn into the alley where you saw a Benihana sign. Then you walked down these steps to the restaurant.

The Blue Iguana was just perfect. Not very expensive and the food was pretty good. The only issue was that I left my credit card at the restaurant and did not realize it until the next day! Ack! When I realized the next morning it was before the restaurant opened up. Just in case they might be there to prep for the day, I walked over. The lights were all out and I was out of luck. I called Chase and got them to put a temporary hold on my card and then walked back to the hotel. I was able to call them from home and they mailed my card back with no problem. Thanks!!

At check out I got the directions to the public transportation to the airport. I only had a 22” rolling suitcase, a small duffel and my backpack, so I was able to take their TRAX light rail to the airport. Turning out of the hotel and walking down the block took me to the stop. The walking time was no more than two minutes. I used my credit card to purchase the $2.50 ticket to the airport from a machine and waited. The train was right on schedule and it was easy enough to get on. I got a little nervous that there might be connections, as they had a map of the system, but after inquiring, the train went directly to the airport. Once the train ended, you exit and walk a very short distance into the terminal.

Checking in was pretty easy. I went to the Southwest counter and they tagged my two bags. I was then asked to carry them to the x-ray machine a little past the end of the counter. Not a big deal. Now with just my backpack I made my way to security. I was hoping to get Precheck courtesy of my new Global Entry. I thought that it might not work and it didn’t. The line was very short and I was through in no more than 5-10 minutes. Not sure why it didn't work as I updated my profile with Southwest prior to checking in for this flight.

After clearing security I made my way to the food court for my first meal of the day. I went to the Pei Wei and ordered up some Mongolian something or another. The food was pretty disappointing, as I remember having a decent dinner at a Pei Wei at home a few years ago. After my brunch, I got in line to get a sandwich to take on the plane for later. They did have a piano player on a baby grand in the food court. Pretty classy for an airport!

Sandwich in hand, I made my way down to the gate area. I chatted with a guy I saw from home and eventually made my way onto the full flight. The flight was very quick and I was able to watch a bunch of episodes of The League. Once I retrieved my bags I met my family outside at the passenger pickup and we went to eat dinner.

My next trip report will be on my summer trip that will be Baltimore-Bali and also Singapore, Macau/Hong Kong.