2017.01.08 first visit to Utah, Solitude and Brighton
Utah’s Conttonwood Canyons are home to four resorts set atop two canyons in the epicenter of two prevailing snow-bowl formations.
“Big Cottonwood Canyon” (hwy 190) closes the culdesac cliff formation to shelter Brighton and Solitude, and to catch feetz of snow when the storms come.
The big cottonwood resorts are the small ones, both in size and traffic. The destination-names are in the “little” canyon (Hwy 210), Alta and Snowbird.
The cottonwoods are legendary for quality and quantity of snow. All four ski areas score among the top 12 in annual snowfall.
Table of North American ski areas sorted by annual snowfall
Solitude and Brighton are a quick 15 mile drive uphill from Cottonwood Heights
Hotels in the SouthEast corner of Salt Lake City run 50-100$/night, making it a budget-friendly destination, especially compared to Park City.
Brighton is at the culdesac with base elevlation = 8755ft, , and solidude is downhill with a base just under 8k.
Brighton’s high base leaves a limited vertial drop (1760ft), the shortest of the Cottonwood four, and its lift count (6) is the least, although they can, and do, boast that all 6 chairs are detachable high-speeds.
By acerage, Solitude is smaller, although Brighton feels smaller to me.
Because the big names (Alta-Bird) are one canyon south, Sol-Bright don’t get quite as much traffic, and can be a great place to find powder. The Honeycomb canyon at Solitude is usually the highlight for me.
Table of UTAH ski areas sorted by base elevation (column M)
from the top of the Honeycomb Canyon on the back-side of Solitude
