So,
The wife and I have a road trip planned starting next Saturday, January 20th. We are leaving from Flagstaff AZ on the Saturday morning, and can go any where we wish, as long as we are in Sandy Utah on the evening of Wednesday the 24th for a ski gathering with friends. That means we have five days to drive and ski. We do have Snowbowl season passes, which means we have the Powder Alliance benefits, plus some reciprocity with other resorts. Our original plan had been to drive to Durango and ski Purgatory for three days before heading up to Salt Lake, but as the infamous "cancel my plans" thread points out, there is no snow. We can book hotels through Booking.com with free cancellation, and we don't mind driving. However, we are now a week away and need to make some choices. The best skiing we can find is at the top of our list, but not exclusive. The lodging roughly costs the same wherever we go, but ticket prices range from free, to discounted, to full window price. Driving is tertiary, but does carry some weight. We are also basing our choices on current skiing conditions, as snow is, well, not exactly reliable this year.
So, here are the options we have so far.
The wife and I have a road trip planned starting next Saturday, January 20th. We are leaving from Flagstaff AZ on the Saturday morning, and can go any where we wish, as long as we are in Sandy Utah on the evening of Wednesday the 24th for a ski gathering with friends. That means we have five days to drive and ski. We do have Snowbowl season passes, which means we have the Powder Alliance benefits, plus some reciprocity with other resorts. Our original plan had been to drive to Durango and ski Purgatory for three days before heading up to Salt Lake, but as the infamous "cancel my plans" thread points out, there is no snow. We can book hotels through Booking.com with free cancellation, and we don't mind driving. However, we are now a week away and need to make some choices. The best skiing we can find is at the top of our list, but not exclusive. The lodging roughly costs the same wherever we go, but ticket prices range from free, to discounted, to full window price. Driving is tertiary, but does carry some weight. We are also basing our choices on current skiing conditions, as snow is, well, not exactly reliable this year.
So, here are the options we have so far.
- We can make the 8 hour drive to Monarch, ski for free for three days then make the seven hour drive to SLC for the gathering.
- We can also ski Crested Butte for free for three days, but can't find reasonable accommodation in the area
- We can make the eight hour drive to Ogden and ski PowMow for free for three days, then drive down to SLC on the Wednesday.
- We can make the seven hour drive to Sandy and ski the Cottonwood resorts at window price for a few extra days before the gathering begins
- We can make the twelve hour drive to Jackson and ski the Hole with a 40% discount for three days, then make the four hour drive back to SLC on the Wednesday
- Anything else anyone can come up with