Crowded lift lines. Painful ticket prices. Quickly tracked-out terrain. These are just a few of the bummers awaiting skiers and snowboarders at many a U.S. alpine resort these days. While conscientious COVID-19 restrictions actually offered a brief respite from these issues for a couple years, they are back with a vengeance these days.
As an East Coast-based snowboarder, I know them all too well — and they’re almost enough to make me hang up my boots. Why can’t there be a place, I would daydream, where the powder is more plentiful than people?
Well, guess what: I found it.
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After years of listening to my buddy Ed rave about Powder Mountain, I finally made my way out there with him towards the end of 2022. And while December is typically too early to assess a mountain’s quality, I got knee deep enough times in three days to feel compelled to return last month — and to share the charms of this unique set of slopes, which is technically the biggest in North America.
Part of the appeal lies in its under-the-radar status, but that’s beginning to change. This past September, Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix, became majority owner of the mountain with a $100 million investment. A month later, SKI Magazine named it the no. 1 resort in the West.
The place is still remote enough that its charms are likely to continue for a bit longer, so please keep this highly sensitive information to yourself. With that disclaimer out of the way, and with the mountain rocking and rolling thanks to 96 inches of fresh snow this month (including nearly four feet in the past seven days!), here’s why Pow Mow is a peach — and what you should bring to make the most of it.
It’s uncrowded — by design
Hit a popular resort on a holiday weekend, particularly on the East Coast, and the crowds just might leave you feeling like you’re in a rat race — the exact thing a ski vacation is supposed to alleviate. Scrambling for parking, throwing elbows in the lodge and standing in line for lifts can really suck out the fun.
Powder Mountain, however, actively limits how many people can shred on a given day. The resort has a season pass cutoff of 3,000 (with a huge waiting list) and a day ticket limit of 1,500. That leaves the slopes wide open and lift lines nearly non-existent, giving you space and time to relax and enjoy both the stunning scenery and the rush of schussing down a trail with nothing to worry about but your next turn.
I’ll get to the sidecountry experience in a bit, but it’s worth noting Pow Mow is pretty beginner- and intermediate-friendly. There are six chairlifts, three tow ropes and a magic carpet to help you access 154 runs, most of which are rated blue. (Steeper stuff can be found at nearby Snow Basin, which boasts Olympic-level descents, world-class lodges and, yes, bigger crowds.)
At the moment, only one lift is high-speed, which has an upside: Slower lifts preserve the snow quality, preventing it from getting chopped up in a stampede of rapidly lapping skis and boards. For better or worse, that scenario’s days are numbered. This summer, with a $20 million investment from Hastings, Powder plans to replace two aging lifts (one with a high-speed detachable quad) and also install two new lifts to access terrain that is currently only accessible via snowcat.
It’s a mountain worthy of your best gear
Powder boards probably seem a bit superfluous, especially if most of your days on the snow are more corduroy than champagne. But the classic K2 Cool Bean is not only the perfect pow stick, it’s pretty damn fun in other conditions. So much so that I once wrote a love letter detailing why I’m kind of obsessed with it. The beauty of a “volume-shifted” board like this one is, it’s super easy to keep that big ol’ nose up when things get deep, with the bonus of a sweet spray of flakes shooting out the back with every slash.
My exact board is pretty hard to find these days, but lo and behold, someone is selling the same model and size (144 cm) on eBay. There’s also a split version available for $999.95 $619.95 on skipro.com.
eBayK2 Cool Bean Snowboard
Not ready to go that route? Nearly every snowboard offers multiple positions for the bindings. If you are hitting a place like Powder during or after a decent storm, I highly recommend moving them waaay back. It’s a volume-shifting hack that instantly ups the pleasure of powder — and saves the strain on your back leg.
Of course, you’ll need more than just a pair of skis or a snowboard to hit the slopes. If you’re venturing out to a place as epic as Powder Mountain, it pays to gear up properly, too. Here’s a look at some of my favorite equipment, which keeps me warm and safe and riding strong all day long.
Smith OpticsSmith Maze MIPS Helmet
This classic skate-style lid pairs well with my goggles (same brand = no gap) and boasts noggin-saving MIPS tech.
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$155 (40% off)
Smith OpticsSmith I/O MAG Imprint 3D Goggle
An app-driven just-for-you fit plus easy, magnet-aided lens-swapping make these specs a GP100 Game Changer.
BlackStrapBlackStrap Hood Balaclava
This lightweight liner is perfect for keeping the frost off your nose and neck. Available in nearly 100 different colorways too.
DakineDakine Baron Gore-Tex Index Mitt
This mitt features Gore-Tex ePE, an earth-friendlier PFC-free membrane. All I know is it keeps my mitts dry and cozy.
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$130.00 (35% off)
BackcountryBackcountry Cottonwoods GORE-TEX Jacket
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$449 (40% off)
BackcountryBackcountry Cottonwoods GORE-TEX Bib Pant
The matching pants feature a removable bib and pant cuffs that fit nicely over bulky snowboard boots. Upside: They are majorly on sale. Downside: Men’s version is sold out.
TacticsVans Hi-Country & Hell-Bound Snowboard Boots
These super comfy boots feature removable tongue stiffeners that let you dial in the flex.
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$349.95 (15% off)
Amazoninsta360 ONE X2 Bullet Time Kit
With a telescoping “invisible” selfie stick, this slick, portable 360-degree camera makes everything look cooler.
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$431.00 (11% off)
“Unconventional lifts” open up the slopes
At this point, you are probably thinking: Wait a second, didn’t he say Powder was the biggest resort in North America? How could that possibly be the case with only six chairlifts, while Park City’s unreal 7,300 skiable acres are accessed by a whopping 42?
Yet it’s true, technically, thanks to what the mountain itself calls “unconventional lifts,” which are even listed on trail maps. The term refers to two snowcats and, no joke, a bus, which combine to reach roughly half of a truly mind-blowing 8,464 skiable acres.
The snowcats deliver you to about 3,000 of said acres, but they do cost extra — $39 per ride, on top of a day lift ticket, which will run you north of $150 — probably why the resort does not trumpet its size as much as it probably could.
(Pro tip: Powder Mountain is on the $379 unrestricted Indy Pass, which lets you ski for two days at more than 180 resorts across the US, Canada and Japan. Pro tip 2: The mountain also now offers night skiing for as little as $19 a ticket.)
The bus, meanwhile, is free with your lift ticket. Just cruise over to Powder Country or Woody’s World, which access 1,200 acres of ungroomed backcountry-like terrain within resort boundaries. Shred your way down to a little cat track that leads to a turnaround point in the actual road up to the resort, where the bus makes continuous laps to scoop up powder hounds.
This terrain was not yet open on my first visit in December 2022, but it most certainly was during my second visit in January 2024. And while Powder Country was largely “dust on crust,” we hunted down some deeper, nicer untouched snow in Woody’s World — after unstrapping and crossing a roadway halfway down (no joke).
The powder is plentiful — and phenomenal
I feel like I’ve been burying the lead the whole time, because this place is called Powder frickin’ Mountain — and damned if it did not live up to its name. Each of my first three days there (in December 2022), I was exposed to a bit more — an accidentally well-timed slow reveal of the magic. (Ironically, the pow was not as plentiful last month, but considering the nearly 100 inches of new snow in February, Lord I wish I were there right now.)
The first day, as I was still getting warmed up (slash recovering from a back injury), we did reconnaissance, riding all the open lifts and scoping things out. That was my first look at the treasures Pow Mow can offer.
At many resorts, even fresh snowfall is tracked out by late morning or early afternoon. Here we found ourselves in plenty of powder pockets off the main trails, despite the last big snowfall being a week in the rearview mirror. Hooting and hollering with each fresh line, I felt like a kid again — albeit an alternate reality kid who grew up snowboarding rather than a guy who picked it up in his early 20s.
The big news on the mountain was that the next day, they’d be opening up the Paradise chair, pulling back the curtain on terrain that hadn’t been skied since that snowfall and manifesting a mini-powder day. That morning, a crowd of about 50 early-rising skiers and riders nearly plowed over the ski patroller who opened the gate to the lift, but we needn’t have rushed. Even our second and third runs off the Paradise chair were impressively powdery.
The final day, however, provided the best preview of what this place can be mid-season in a good snow year. The resort started running the Lightning Ridge snowcat, and a few dozen folks turned out early Monday morning to catch the first rides. While you can hike or skin to the same powder stashes, the ‘cat gets you there in maybe 15 minutes … which is nice, because the process of getting back to that starting spot is a 90-minute, multiple-lift traipse, quite the circuit for a shot at two or three minutes of snow-surfing bliss.
And yet, as seasoned sidecountry and backcountry skiers and riders know, those precious moments are what it’s all about: the elusive, effortless float through deep untouched powder that you’ll never forget. As an East Coaster who makes it out west a couple times a year, I treasure those rare runs, traveling as far as Canada, Alaska, Europe and Japan in search of them. And while our 10-minute hikes beyond the cat drop-off point did not result in the greatest powder I’ve ever seen — Japan still has that distinction on lock — it was easily the best powder I’ve ridden in December.
This little video clip — shot using the excellent Insta360 ONE X2 camera mentioned above — doesn’t really do it justice, but perhaps it’ll give you a sense of what it’s like to ease into early-season freshness and revel in some sweet turns before your buddy advises you to go right.
Suffice it to say, it’s already earned a special place in my powder paradise memory banks. Trust me. Or don’t. That’ll just leave a bit more fresh pow at this winter wonderland for the rest of us.
Time waits for no land
It is worth noting that this particular kind of bliss is nearing its end. Come next year, one of the aforementioned new lifts will reach terrain currently accessed by the Lightning Ridge snowcat, which will be deployed elsewhere on the mountain. The other snowcat, Raintree, will be replaced by the other new lift, which will only be open to Powder Mountain homeowners.
In other words, these spectacular snowcat runs — which admittedly do cost extra — will only be available for the rest of this season. Perhaps the reassigned Lightning Ridge snowcat will reach some yet-untapped new powder stashes. But accessing the previously referenced terrain via a chairlift will not be quite the same, due to the greater overall traffic — although things might not be all that busy on what will likely be a very exclusive homeowners’ lift.
Additionally, beginning next winter, two existing lifts will also be restricted to homeowners, moves Hastings says are necessary to sustain the mountain’s existence as a whole.
“In order to pay our bills, we need to sell more real estate, and to do that, we are introducing private homeowner-only skiing a year from now,” he shared in a post on Powder Mountain’s blog this past December. “We believe this blend of public and private skiing secures us decades of exceptional uncrowded skiing for all, funded partially by real estate.”
Local grumbling aside, perhaps that bodes well for the long-term health of Pow Mow as a business. No matter how you feel about it, the place has so much acreage that I believe wide-open terrain will continue to be pretty abundant— and the hardcore among us can take solace in that fact that the good stuff will still be accessible to anyone willing to travel the old-fashioned way: hiking or skinning.
It’s surprisingly easy to reach
For skiers and riders — can we just call them sk’riders by now? — one of Utah’s big claims to fame is the swath of world-class resorts so close to the airport, you can fly into Salt Lake City in the morning and be shredding by noon. That’s literally true: Snowbird, Alta, Solitude, Park City and Deer Valley can all be reached in 40 minutes or less.
But that hype obscures the fact that places like the aforementioned Snow Basin (45 minutes) and Powder Mountain aren’t that much farther away. Based in the tiny town of Eden, Pow Mow is 56.8 miles north of SLC, about a 70-minute drive.
Relatively speaking, that’s off the beaten path, part of what has kept this place off the mainstream radar. But it’s also 20 minutes less than the drive from Denver International Airport to Loveland Ski Area, which is Colorado’s closest major resort to its biggest airport.
The best place to lodge is Ogden, a fun town about a half-hour from the mountain. It’s just under half the size of Salt Lake City, with enough wallet-friendly eateries to keep your belly full. I recommend Slackwater Pub & Pizzeria for creative pies and a huge beer selection, Tona for surprisingly awesome sushi and No Manches Way for fantastic birria tacos on a budget. There’s also a pretty cool arcade/dive bar called The L.A.B. if you’re into that kinda thing.
But I mean … nobody really goes to Utah for the nightlife anyway, do they?
