I am going to Utah in the winter and I wonder which resort is most suited to a beginner like me? I know they all have beginner trails .
We just booked for Deer Valley. Pricey, ski only, but a great percentage of green/blue. We are old and slow, and our 2 kids are bringing beginner SOs. But you’ll find somewhere to have fun at any of the resorts. Ski or board?
Deer valley is great , nice groomed runs and no snowboarders (I like snowboarding , I used to, but they don’t always mix with beginner skiiers). Really pricy, but very very nice. Worth it and enjoy dinsdale!
Park City is a big resort. They include the canyons now as Vail resorts own both . ( full disclosure I lived there for 5 years and season passed at the canyons).
Good runs and a good lifts. Pricy on hill food as Vail resorts are trying to recoup their investment. They made big advances on on hill safety and have clamped down on lunatics (of the one and two plank varieties).
The park city side is good, I prefered the canyons side, but if you don t know the mountain it’s a bit dull. You can easily pick up a mountain guide on that side, and the lift lines are a lot less than the PC side. Harmony is a great easy blue long cruiser.
All in a huge amount of skiing if there are some experts in the group also some terrain just ad challenging ad on the other side.
The Park City side is also easy to get to the resorts and a ton of accomdation and resteraunts and free bus service and you can ski deer valley and PC/canyons from staying anywhere there.
On the salt lake side you have little cotton wood canyon, which has snowbird, and Alta.
Both have fantastic skiing and get big lake effect snow dumps. Alas on a powder day it is absolute chaos. Limited accommodation up there and if you stay in salt lake the canyons is an interesting drive.
Great skiing though ( no snowboard at alta) but more limited beginner runs.
BIG cottonwood canyon has Brighton and Solitude. Both great ( I think SOLITUDE is owned by Deer valley now but not the same price) Both are good value and have a good mix of runs and good terrain for beginners.
I really like these two resorts, low key but good facilities and decent range of accomodation.
If you stay down in salt lake driving up the canyon every day, like snowbird/Alta is a mammoth pain, particularly on a snow day.
There is Sundance in Provo canyon. Nice but not a weeks trip worth or skiing. Nice resteraunt and the cabin accommodation is gorgeous but pricey.
Cherry peak is a new resort but low altitude and had trouble opening, more of a locals resort.
Heading north you can go to Snowbasin. Good resort lots of accommodation and a good set of lifts. Personally every time I went there for kids ski races it was cold and windy, but good snow coverage. Honestly I couldn’t really comment too much on the beginner skiing there. If the price is right it should be good, but I think the apres ski options are more limited
Up that way is Poweder Mountain. Some truly epic skiing, some of the best powder days I have had have been there. It’s actually not stupid steep, really nice long side county skiing and great in bounds stuff. Not a beginner resort though.
If you go the big or little cottonwood canyons route and stay i. Salt lake, there are good resteraunts etc. Utah liquor laws are not ad bad as they are made out.
If you want lots of apres ski options and a quaint (Ok slightly fake quaint now) town to wonder around I word hit up park city side.
As I said I am biased though.
Enjoy either way, I’ll be heading back to PC at thanksgiving Xmas and spring break.
Also if you hit up Park City check out Vail ‘Epic’ pass , worth it if you hard doing more that 5 or 6 days.
I think the SOLITUDE and Brighton passes are cheaper and good value, either way pass price should be looked at , for a family of 5 it can get pricy and maybe sway location choice
Enjoy
pcm
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Find a resort that has good ski instruction.
A beginner can learn exponentially with instruction. And not develop bad habits.
^ Any questions? ^ 
Great answer Pcm.
I would ask where have you been and what did you like?
BTW already several snows here in Idaho. Was up at the local hill doing OEC training Saturday. I didn’t ski but there were tracks being made…
I have not skied before . I am staying in Salt Lake City so the resort hotels and other stuff like bars does not matter to me.
If you’ve never skied before I’d go to Park City. It’s easy to get to (although further than in the Cottonwoods) has good instruction, plenty of easy terrain, and full facilities if you are tired after a half day. IMO, you’ll be frustrated at the resorts in Little and Big Cottonwood Canyons.
It’s been ages since I skied Utah, but I think Brighton is pretty good for a beginner, and used to be the least expensive.
If you want incredibly broad and well-groomed beginner trails, Deer Valley used to have in spades. One guy I knew called it “ballroom skiing”. The biggest problem was that some skiers lost track of how fast they ended up going because it was so easy to do. It used to be the most expensive of the Utah resorts.
I have to agree that Park City is a good choice, too – it’s a huge resort with lots of options, and it’s right there in town.
I might be slandering a ski area, but Canyons Resort (formerly The Canyons, formerly Wolf Mountain, formerly Park West) used to have pretty icy trails, which would be pretty off-putting to someone just starting out. But maybe that’s all changed now.
Our decision included as follows.
We’d been to Snowbird/Alta and loved both. Wife and I are medium-level, our 2 kids are near expert. Looking this time, was surprised at how few greens there were, because I hadn’t considered even many of the blues overly challenging. Of course, on those mountains, a single green can be HUGE, and plenty of enjoyment for a newbie… This time we were going with our kids and their SOs, who might desire some nightlife. At Snowbird/Alta, you pretty much just have the resorts. The snow was incredible.
Canyons/Park City is monstrously huge. Have been to Park City once, some years ago. We were a tad intimidated by the prospect of getting from one base to another. If you are not familiar with the slopes, and not expert, it can be a bit of a hassle getting from one end of the map to the other. Pretty sure these are included on the Epic pass (which appealed to my kid from Denver.)
Deer Vallley is pricey (but who are we kidding - NONE of them are cheap!), but I’ve not heard a bad thing about it. My wife like some amount of pampering, and it is nice to treat the kids. We figured that if our kids wanted to shoot over to Canyons/Park City for a day or so, or to board, there was a free shuttle going there or to Park City. We’re not going til March, but I’m already excited!
Those are the only SLC resorts I’ve been to. But I have a hard time imagining you’ll be disappointed just about any resort you pick.
Brighton/Solitude sounded interesting, but in the end, we had to pick one.
Assuming you have a car then Brighton or Solitude, although it’s a pain to drive up big cottonwood canyon and as Telemark said a PC trip may be just as quick and less hassle. I80 over parleys pass is a decent highway with good snow clearance.
The canyons ( park city canyon side now) is the first resort.
They have dramatically improved snow making lifts and grooming so much less issues on icy runs. Sidewinder aka sidewinder is still a bullet proof ice sheet but easilly avoided.
Docs run down to the base gets crowded at end of day, but the gondola is a good download option.
Being in SLC, is great to hit up multiple resorts, but the downside is you loose potential bundle lift pass savings and tend to waste more time learning the lay of the land.
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