Resort Authority: Powder Mountain

Rossi rider Zach Siebert having a smoke on the chair and gazing down at one of many rad features to be had at Powder Mountain. Photo: Pouch

Words: Evan LeFebvre

Powder Mountain could very well be the best place to go snowboarding. Out of all the places you could go, it could be the best. Powder Mountain. Wow.

I made the trek out there about a week ago, early in the morning, right after the last big storm had rolled through leaving clear skies and a lot of fresh snow. I headed out with two of my roommates, Jarad Hadi and Tyler Verigin—seasonal Oregon transplants and original Skeleton Crew Go Listers. We met up with a handful of “Pow Mow” vets and good friends of mine who’d been slightly more on it that morning and had sqeezed in about three really good runs before we’d showed up—Dragon TM Alex Pashley, Rossi TM Pouch Gauthier, Neil Provo, his older brother Ian Provo, Zach Siebert, Alex “Littlest” Sherman, and Scotty Arnold.

After linking up our crew probably accounted for about half of the skiers and riders there that day—a powder day. Of course I’m exaggerating but this place is empty in comparison to anywhere I’ve ever been, especially on a day with pretty much bottomless, fresh snow on top of lots of drops, cliffs, lines, chutes, doubles, tranny finders, gaps, taps and anything you could want to ride outside of a park (they have a really sweet park too).

Powder Mountain Photos: CLICK HERE

Powder Mountain is located about an hour and a half drive from of Salt Lake City, and about a half hour outside of Ogden. The resort, which is as down to Earth and mom and pop as they get is situated in aptly named, Eden, Utah. Conditions permitting the resort is open from Mid-November to Mid-April, and their seven chairlifts access over 7,000 acres of totally awesome rideable terrain, for all experience levels and minimal crowds. The inbounds vertical is about 2,500-feet, which brings up the next topic—out of bounds snowcat skiing. If you really want to get nasty, bring your beacon/shovel/probe (really good idea to bring all that with you in-bounds as well) over to Powder Mountain’s Lightning Ridge Snowcat and get whisked up to the top of Lightning Ridge—a peak that can’t be accessed by chair and has a 2,100-foot vertical drop and over 700 acres of legit terrain. Once at the top you can either drop right in to one of the many lines, or hike about 30-minutes off Lightning Ridge to James Peak and it’s accompanying powder bowls. You can get a single ride up on the cat for $12.00. For the price of an inexpensive lunch you can really get after it up there.

Save the best for last; properly named, Powder Mountain has an average annual snowfall off 500-inches of “Real Snow”. They aren’t blowing any of that man made business, Pow Mow prefers to keep it real. You should go there.

For more info: www.powdermountain.com

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Photos: Powder Mountain Resort Authority

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