We had a smooth trip to Sun Valley, Idaho and Snowbasin, Utah for the kids February ski week. I had not been to these places in quite some time: 13 years for Sun Valley and 7 years for Snowbasin. However, neither mountain had changed much. SV has a new gondola which made getting to one area a little easier, and Snowbasin seemed a little more crowded than I remember, but we were also visiting over a holiday period.
We began by taking a short midday direct flight into Boise, and picking up a rental vehicle to drive over. We had originally booked a car from Enterprise, as that was all they had for a point to point rental, but were pleasantly surprised when we were upgraded to a full size Expedition. So we had lots of room for our gear. Later I found while chatting with another skier on a lift in Utah that there was a shortage of SUVs in Salt Lake City, so the company likely viewed our point to point rental as a free way for them to get a truck from Boise to SLC. In any case, that was nice, whatever the reason. The drive across Idaho was fairly desolate, with limited rest stops, views or gas stations. The rural undivided highways are not lit at night either, so its best to make those drives in the day. Taking the interstate is longer, but advised when weather or visibility is poor.
Our home base in Sun Valley was the Tyrolean Lodge, an Austrian style hotel right at the base of the River Run ski lifts and lodge. It had a great location, a breakfast buffet, and to the kids delight - a cocoa machine in the lobby whenever they wanted something hot. We enjoyed relaxing there with the fire and board games we had brought along as well. The hot tub was outside, and we tried that once, but it was very cold (outside, not in the water). Bald Mountain remains as challenging as ever; it's a steep mountain, with very long sustained ski runs -- 3000 to 3500 feet. These are double to triple the typical length in Tahoe. The kids improved their abilities and even went to the top of the mountain, trying both the long College run, and parts of the Warm Springs run. Once upon a time you could earn a pin for skiing Warm Springs without stopping or falling, but they don't award that anymore (and it's actually hard to earn). This is a very charming town, and our time on the mountain was generally very sunny.
After several days there, we drove down to to Snowbasin, this time staying in a city, Ogden, at a Hampton Inn. We had a much bigger suite here, but the building had been converted from a bank, so there were lots of odd things about the room and building. Our floor was distinctly not level for example. But the breakfast buffet, service, and cookies were good and it is incredibly convenient for taking a bus to the ski mountain as the #675 stops literally in front of the hotel. However, because of our schedule, and tardiness, we ended up driving to the mountain every day, so missed that nice amenity. Snowbasin, as the name suggests, was the opposite of Sun Valley and very snowy during our visit. The girls proclaimed it to be the best powder they had experienced. It'll probably be the best they experience for years, as the timing was indeed, very lucky. Overall the American West has had a low precipitation year, but we've been fortunate in both our trips -- going to snow-sure Mammoth for Christmas, later catching a storm right before Alta/Snowbird and then catching storms at both SV and SB. And despite all that, the weather didn't delay our travel, another break.
One plus of staying in a city is that we didn't have to eat the eventually tiresome ski town fare of pizza, burgers, etc. every night. So for the latter part of the trip we had Japanese and Thai food. From Ogden it was a short drive down to the SLC airport, an easy rental return, and an on time Southwest flight home. Normally, something always goes wrong on trips, and other than losing a few small items, this jaunt was a smooth, easy trip. These are all places we could have driven to -- and we have twice before -- and there is some advantage to not being limited by airline/rental car constraints, but it was nice to fly this time.
I'm sure I've forgotten things I wanted to mention, but there are lots of pictures in the links below.
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