Utah Least busy Cottonwoods resort on the weekend?

[Beartown]

Was headed to Mammoth; made a last minute change based on the forecast. Will be skiing out of Cottonwood Heights from Friday to Friday with an Ikon Pass. Have mostly skied Alta and Snowbird, but have also been to Solitude and Brighton in the past. Looking to minimize crowds on my Sat/Sun ski days. Where to? Soiltude? Or even make the drive up to PowMow? Any thoughts from the locals? Thanks in advance!

 

[Spooky]

(Edit) Something went wrong...
Yes, Solitude has been fine...just remember that it's paid parking.

 

[Phelmut]

Deer Valley is on the Ikon and was not crowded when I went on the weekend last year. It was a powder day and the LCC & BCC resorts were packed. Hit the others midweek.

 

[skinavy]

BCC generally a tad less traffic than LCC? Park free at Brighton and ski over to 'Tude. Honeycomb canyon
I'm headed out end of Jan for long weekend, similar thoughts rolling around my skull.

 

[RollingLeaf]

I'm pretty much in the same position as yous, except I won't have a car. Deer Valley sounds tempting, but it seems to take too long to get there by bus from Salt Lake. Is it easy to ski between Solitude and Brighton?

 

[blackke17]

yeah its an easy ski between the 2 resorts. the problem is that it always closes with fresh snow.

 

[Beartown]

Just finished my 8 day Utah trip. Stayed in cottonwood heights. 7 powder days. Stayed about 13 miles from the cottonwood resorts. Daily drive to Alta/snowbird/Brighton/solitude/deer valley was anywhere from 25 min (Brighton midweek non-powder day) or 2.5 hrs (Alta/snowbird/solitude/DV on pow days, both weekend and midweek). The canyons are a friggin’ s#*t show on weekends and powder days. All That said, it was a rippin’ good week and many happy turns were had. Still, I am looking forward to my next three trips being ski-in/out!

 

[aubergine]

It's crazy how different the BCC experience is between a weekend/holiday and a midweek day. If you were going on the former, and didn't have some reason why you had to take your own car (kid gear/midday bbq whatevs) I'd park at the base of the canyon and take the bus up, with a couple podcasts or good playlists to listen to. You could also be sneaky and park at the Hampton Inn, and grab the bus there, where you would be more likely to get a seat if it was busy since it stops there before the big parking lot at the base of BCC road.

 

[tromano]

"Cottonwoods" and "not busy on weekends" don't go together. In fact any resort in n. Ut will be relatively busy on the weekends.

 

[Kindbuzz]

Bcc on weekends for sure....lcc is tough...take the bus if you have

 

[RollingLeaf]

Does Park City absorb the crowds better than the other resorts in BCC/LCC, because of its size?

 

[JoeSchmoe]

How bad has it gotten since my last trip 3 years ago?

For non-powder days, I don't ever recall waiting in a line at Snowbird for more than a minute or two other than for the Tram or the Mineral Basin lifts... which could be 5 to 10 minutes. Both of those can be easily avoided anyways.

 

[Beartown]

I would note that even with all the 90+ minute drives up BCC/LCC last week, I almost never waited more than 1 min for a chair, and that wasn’t even in the singles line (Outside of 0900-0930 am). I think the limiting factor is the drive and parking. The resorts seemed big enough to accomodate the crowds, in my limited experience.

 

[Wasatchman]

Does Park City absorb the crowds better than the other resorts in BCC/LCC, because of its size?

Size and getting to Park City from Salt Lake involves major wide, multiple lane interstate highway as opposed to single lane Cottonwood Canyon roads.

Still, getting to Park City can get backed up pretty bad once you exit the highway. So nothing is a sure bet on a weekend/pow day.

Long time locals in Utah will tell you crowds here seem to have progressively got worse every year since the Olympics in 2002.