Powder Mountain Winter Resort

This is the Mecca of powder skiing and snowboarding. Prices keep going up here, but it’s not too bad considering the massive amount of terrain for all skill levels. Lifts are slow, but it’s never crowded here, and lives up to it’s name with constant fresh powder. Some of the more remote areas take some work getting to, but it pays off. Pay extra and take a snowcat up to untouched terrain, pay more and get a cat for the entire day in areas reserved only for those VIPs. It’s lower elevation makes for more warmer days up here, but results in less base and shorter seasons than the SLC area resorts.
It’s an old-​school resort, pretty barebones. no fancy lodge hotel, no 5-​star restaurants or gondolas. Since it’s not a destination resort, you’ll have to commute or find simple local lodging. Drive up the mountain can get harry, very steep and narrow, so be careful.
Anyway you play it here, you’ll have a great time.

Best father son trip ever! Cat riding booked through Powder Mountain Adventure Center was an awesome experience. The guides were very experienced and knew every hidden spot to go to find the best powder. The pace was amazing, we got 15 runs in! Overall a great value for the money. It was a great mixture of adventure and a real sense of safety. The quality of the snow was only surpassed by the quality of the crew and guides. Very professional! Everyone was friendly and easy going but the process is well managed. If you are looking for art galleries and skating rinks stay in Park City, if you want to be blown away by terrain and snow until you are ready to pass out then make the pilgrimage to Powder Mountain! My son is already asking when we can go back!

Gorgeous. Surrounded by beautiful scenery. Not too crowded with long runs — peaceful and enjoyable experience. Powder soft snow and plenty of greens for beginners. Also affordable lift tickets and rentals compared to other resorts nearby like Park City or Deer Valley (great value). Ate at Hidden Lodge (peak of Powder Mountain). Delicious and affordable mexican food for a resort — ate tacos non-​stop. My new favorite resort in Utah.

Best snow ever, plus everyone is very friendly. Resort is retro

I bought my husband a day of CAT skiing through Powder Mountain’s Adventure Center. It was somewhat expensive but was the best day of snowboarding my husband had ever had. He is already making plans to go back again.
The next day, I skied at Powder Mountain with a friend for the first time. The snow was excellent and it was almost like having the whole mountain to ourselves (we went on a Sunday, which I highly recommend!). The terrain was perfect — lots of fun blues and blacks with deep powder pockets and paths through trees. We typically ski closer to SLC but are happy that we discovered this little gym up north.

It was a really great snowboarding experience. Real powder snow made me to level up my snowboarding skills. (a total different snowboard experience compared to the Cali ski resort. Yes I know. Absolutely !) One star taken off. They didn’t screw up the biding on the board tightly, so when I was right ready to go off the hill, I had to come back to rental service to tighten them.

I can’t say enough good things about this place. I’ve been skiing here since I was about 5. My dad has always been ski patrol so I spent almost every weekend during the winter up at this resort. Gondolas? Nope. Fancy food? Nope. Beautiful lodges? Again, nope. You’re not paying for that. You’re paying for an unbelievable amount of terrain. This is the only mountain I know where you can come a few days after a storm and still find fresh tracks.
Do you love pow? Check out lightning ridge, Paradise, Cobabe Canyon, or the backcountry. Find a ski patroller or a host to see if they can point you in the right direction of anything good. When I was growing up my dad and I would happily show PowMow guests where to go.
Here’s the one *possible* downside… The Summit Group recently bought PowMow. Locals aren’t happy about it but so far there hasn’t been too many negative impacts. I guess we will see what happens with our beloved mountain in the coming years. I’m hoping it continues to be the local spot for fresh tracks. My heart will be sad if it turns into another fancy schmancy resort.

Our favorite resort in Utah for terrain just wish they would upgrade the Paradise lift to a high speed… the never ending lift. Powder country and Cobobee Canyons are both great as is Paradise ridge when conditions allow.
Not as steep as the SLC resorts, has more of a mountain resort and less of a Canyons resort layout.
Lower altitude than most of the Utah resorts means warmer temps but sometimes less snow.
Try the pizza by the slice in the main base area cafeteria and the ramen in the bar, both very very good and reasonably priced.
Really wish the bar had mixed drinks and served high point beer craft or not 4% tap beer is terrible.

The snow was powdery soft! You can get the mountain all to yourself even on the weekends. The Powder Keg serves tasty chicken wings. They have live music at night. I enjoyed hanging out here very much.

Premier avis pour les Etats-​Unis, YOUPIIII !!
Alala, amis français qui êtes dans les parages venez mais directement dans cette station il n’y a même pas à hésiter ! C’est juste le paradis des pistes, le pied total, je n’ai rien de négatif à dire sur cette station mise à part qu’elle devrait exister en France car elle est un peu loin pour pouvoir en profiter aussi souvent.
Le plus: les pistes, elles sont au goût de chacun. Il y a aussi bien d’immense boulevard, que de petites pistes entre les sapins. Elles sont aussi bien difficiles que faciles. Et grâce à cela, et bien cela va vous arriver plus d’une fois de vous retrouvez seul sur une piste et cela même en saison haute ! Euh en France je n’ai jamais connu un tel plaisir, seul sur ma piste à faire les virages que je veux sans me soucier du skieur de devant, celui de derrière ou celui sur mes côtés !
Les installations sont également très bien. Il y a principalement des télésièges, qui sont très rapides. Il y a uniquement un tir-​fesse et franchement il vaut le détour aussi bien car la piste qu’il dessert est juste dingue, et en plus car le monsieur qui s’occupe du tir-​fesse est juste génial, c’est un père Noël rockeur trop attachant qui écoute de la musique à fond depuis sa cabane et qui danse !
Tout le personnel de la station est juste au top, ils sont souriants, accueillants, et ils ont vraiment le sens du service. Cela change définitivement de la France ! On a une sacré leçon à prendre d’eux.
La neige était juste parfaite en plus donc que demander de plus ?
Juste une chose m’a laissé perplexe, sur le trajet du télésiège qui monte au plus haut de la station, on peut voir un arbre avec plein de soutien-​gorge, de collier et même de chaussons, je n’ai pas compris la signification !

This place is the best. We come here from California every year and are never disappointed. Take a backcountry skin tour and they will alway find awesome powder, EVERY time. We usually tour with Grey beard Craig and he is great! If you stay inbounds the snow will be great too. Not crowded and fresh turns everywhere you look.

I love this resort! When I’m out skiing, it isn’t for the posh lodge and gold-​plated toilets. It’s for, you know, skiing! There is a good mix of green, blue, and black runs. The people at Powder are friendly and very helpful.
Parking is at the top, you ski down. The runs do not funnel into the same place. This resort has a great layout so that even on crowded days, you aren’t on top of each other!
Powder Mountain offers mountain tours at 10:00am and 1:00pm that comes with the purchase of your lift ticket. The tour guide will take you around the mountain and recommend runs that are good for you personally.
I have a season pass at Powder Mountain, I’m a loyal customer, one who returns when I’m treated well.
I’ve heard criticism about the drive to the mountain, and honestly, compared to Little Cottonwood Canyon, and even the North Ogden Divide, it’s isn’t bad!

Awesome mountain, still has a small resort feel with tons of ridable terrain. Love this mountain!

Powder is one of my favorite places to board and I drive up there every time I visit Utah. We went earlier this week and it was perfect! It is not a «tourist» resort so don’t expect to be pampered. But if you want great skiing and/​or boarding. .. this is the place. Try reserving the cat to take you to the other side of mouton. .. amazing! My only suggestion to management is bring back the soup in a bread bowl!

My favorite place on earth.
I’ve requested my ashes be spread in the aspen forests here.

this place has a cult following amog locals in the know, it could use some updated high speed lifts or gonadolas but the endless powder (which of course lasts longer since the lifts move fewer people per hour up the mountain) and snow cat service makes up for it.

Got invited on a boarding trip with a bunch of randoms. Opportunity to board out west? Hell yeah! They chose Powder Mountain based on reccos from people who said it was an off-​the-​beaten-​path locals spot.
This place was well worth the (discounted military) lift ticket I got. So much terrain, really great groomed trails. Lots of back country stuff.
Sadly while we were there, Powder Country wasn’t open. Some of our group went out on the Cat trip and said that it wasn’t a great day for it as there hadn’t been tons of new snow lately.
The t-​bar provided lots of entertainment as most of our group was boarders and there were some great videos of all of us eating it trying to make it up.
All-​in-​all, way better value than the more posh resorts closer to SLC. Would definitely like to come back.

Prior to the start of a horrible season (January 2011), and I had booked a seat on the snowcat at PowMow. I’d been told by everyone and anyone that conditions in the area were awful that season and there was little to no powder to be found. So I was rather surprised when I received a call from the mountain saying that yes, the cat was going out.
I arrived at the resort as scheduled and met my guides. Everyone was very professional and we headed out at 8:30am. We spent the entire day on untouched trails with at least knee deep powder. The guides knew the mountain well and consistently found the stash on every run.
After over 8 hours with limited breaks, we closed out an already long day and headed back to the lodge. On the way in the guides took us out for an additional run, so all in we had a fuller day than we could have at any lift-​accessed area.
PowMow is definitely worth the drive from SLC. I’ve already booked another day on the cat for 2013.

Powder Mountain may be the underdog of mountains in Utah but it is far from that, providing the most epic riding you’ll ever experience in Utah. Pow Mow provides a good variety of terrain ranging from tons of drops, booters off the sides of trails, natural kickers galore, awesome glades, and lots of hidden pow if you know where to look. Some of my favorite places that are worth checking out include Sanctuary, Magic Bus on Cobabe Canyon (although Cobabe Canyon itself is awesome so you can pretty much go anywhere, though you have to go up an intimidating but easy tow rope to get there), Powder Country (shuttle bus at bottom of hill to take you back to the lodge), Paradise (requires traversing and wrapping around a very narrow rock just past Straight Shot) but the rewards are great (good drops, chutes and pow that most people won’t want to bother getting to). There is also a $ 15 cat ride if you’d like to ski the very right side (James Peak). If you’re feeling baller and want a once-​in-​a-​lifetime experience (though I haven’t done it), they also have a ~$ 375 Grand Cat Package where a cat is reserved for you all day and takes you to parts of the mountain that is closed off exclusively for people who commit to this package. You may just be good with one $ 15 cat ride just for the experience.
The only downside to this mountain is that the lodges are small to nonexistent. Don’t expect any extravagant food as they serve the bare minimum, and I would recommend packing your own lunch, but who wants to waste all their time in the lodge when they will be doing some very memorable and epic riding.
I could probably spend a whole week here just because of the vast amount of terrain, as it is touted as the biggest mountain in North America with 7000+ skiable acres. You’ll have to work at getting some of the remote places but it’s well worth it. This is definitely my favorite of the Utah mountains.

Hands down the best place I’ve ever boarded. The Tahoe area used to be my fav but dang it, Pow Mou has taken over as #1.
It hadn’t snowed in five days yet I was able to leave fresh tracks in the old powder.
Sure it is kind of a drive but you are rewarded with short to no lines, beautiful views and just an overall great experience.

My first time skiing out west and I came here b/​c of the great reputation: cheaper lift tickets, less crowded and the best snow. I can’t give a valid opinion on the snow, but I will say that I did find the prices to be less than those of the surrounding resorts, it was definitely not crowded (very tolerable on the weekend) and the snow was real purty.
One thing to mention is that if you buy your lift tickets at the resort, they’re $ 58. If you buy them at the hotel where you’re staying or Diamond Peak (as someone else mentioned), you can get them for the same rate/​day as a 3 day pass, which is $ 49. Day passes go from 9 am — 4:30 pm, but some of the lifts close at 3:30 and 4, so make sure you take note of that when planning your route. In fact, if you get a night pass ($ 15 for 3 – 9 pm), there’s only one lift operating, Sundown (I believe), which only has a few runs.
So as a newb to skiing out west, this was an interesting experience for me. I only took the easy runs, but I found some of them to be quite challenging. Namely, Drifter, and parts of East 40. Those two had some very steep parts so if you’re not used to that, it can be quite an interesting experience to ski them. Especially b/​c Drifter is the slope right by the main lodge, so if you’re just getting into the park for the day, you’ll probably start out on it and it has a steep drop at the beginning, unless you take the path that veers to the left.
I drove by Snowbasin on my way out of town and took a look at the resort. Much more commercial looking than Powder Mountain. PM is more about the skiing – no actual restaurants there, just places to get snacks and the slopes weren’t swarmed. The fellow skiers weren’t snooty, as I’ve heard they can be at other places, and like others said, the wait for lifts isn’t bad. Even though supposedly only 25% of their runs are easy, I’m not even sure I made it to all of them in those 3 days.
Word of warning: if you’re driving up the mountain yourself, be careful. It is incredibly steep, and as I’m told by locals, there have been multiple fatalities b/​c brakes have gone out in cars. If you’re not used to driving on roads such as this, pump your brakes when you’re going downhill, or you will burn them out.