I've been delinquent in sharing ski reporting this winter with my DCSki friends. I actually did my migration to UT early this year and began skiing out here on Dec 5, 2025. But December was pretty grim with little snowfall and temps so mild places like Snowbird had trouble making snow even at night. In early Jan 2026 there was a saving streak of about 9 days of snow with totals approaching 60 inches. I missed part of that time returning to VA for about a week for family reasons.
The skiing was excellent when I got back on the slopes here about a week ago, 8 Jan 2026. But now (16 Jan) UT is in another long, high pressure system. Conditions are pretty good still, but firming-up.
5 Dec 2025, my first ski day of the winter was at Solitude, UT. They only had about 650' of vertical open and the lines were longish, but it was skiing:-)
Same deal on 7 Dec, but the sun came out. High pressure and dry, mild weather would be an all-to-familiar pattern in Dec in UT.
My first ski day at Snowbird was Dec 9 and to their credit they had top to bottom skiing off the tram, but only a few crowded routes down. You had to beware of meat missiles in the heavy trail traffic with firm conditions.
{Isn't an upside down flag a sign of distress at sea?}
Big Emma slope at Snowbird on the 9th:
11 Dec, these two photos were taken on Regulator Johnson trail at Snowbird.
18 Dec at Snowbird near the Little Cloud lift
I went to San Diego to visit family for Christmas for five days. We had a nice time checking out the sea lions at LaJolla beach.
On the return drive to UT we stopped for a meal at The Cliffside Restaurant in St. George, UT. This photo doesn't do justice to the views from our table.
28 Dec 2025 back on Regulator at Snowbird, if you have to ski a WROD at least it's 300 yards wide with 3000' vertical drop:
These two photos are from 31 Dec 2025, still pretty scratchy conditions at Snowbird.
Jan 2026: I returned from a brief visit to the east during the first week of Jan and everything had changed. Most of Snowbird's terrain was now open due to a total of about 60" of snow in the first 10 days of the month.
8 Jan 2026, Snowbird, my first true powder day of the season, about 8 new inches, but it came at the end of numerous prior snow days and skied even deeper in many spots. Conditions were excellent.
9 Jan back at Snowbird, UT:
More good skiing off Little Cloud chair.
But I also started getting runs off the Cirque Traverse to Middle and Lower Cirque areas.
11 Jan 2026 was perhaps my favorite day so far this season in UT, Snowbird had opened Mineral Basin and conditions were still powdery, but now with bright sunshine.
View of Mt Timpanogos from Mineral Basin
Ego boosting terrain off the Baldy chair in Mineral Basin
Challenging terrain beside the Mineral chair lift line. It all skied GOOD.
The Road to Provo was now open too, leading to more good skiing on the frontside of the mountain.
14 Jan 2026 I returned to Solitude for the first time in more than a month. Most everything was open except Honeycomb Canyon.
15 Jan 2026, very nice day at Snowbird. Snow still chalky in spots and even pockets of wind drift.
This is Near Bookends area in Mineral Basin, a friend and I lapped this area 4 or 5 times it was so good.
Silver Fox on the front/Peruvian side of the mtn skied quite well too.
What's next? In a moment of weakness, when conditions were poor a couple weeks ago, my son convinced me to spend the last 11 days of January in the Alps. Four of us are going over. Itinerary includes Geneva, Chamonix, Bern and Grindelwald and will include skiing and non-skiing activities. Not sure if I'll be able to document any of it real time here, but I'll share reports when I return.
Wow, have fun in Europe!
My daughter and I will be heading to Utah at the end of this week. Not the ideal conditions, but we will make the best of it. We are planning 2 days at Alta, and we are up in the air for the third ski day. With the small amount of snow they've had in the past two weeks, I'm leaning towards Deer Valley for some groomers. Is that crazy? We have Ikon so the other options are Snowbird, Solitude and Brighton.
eggraid wrote:
My daughter and I will be heading to Utah at the end of this week. Not the ideal conditions, but we will make the best of it. We are planning 2 days at Alta, and we are up in the air for the third ski day. With the small amount of snow they've had in the past two weeks, I'm leaning towards Deer Valley for some groomers. Is that crazy? We have Ikon so the other options are Snowbird, Solitude and Brighton.
Deer Valley and Park City weren't able to make much snow in December at all because it was too warm. Still less than 60% open. Best to check and see which areas are open before making a decision. Even for groomers LCC/BCC are a better bet in the next week.
