Beaver Mountain, Utah: Jan. 18-20, 2020

Beaver Mountain Utah is a small ski resort in Northern Utah that I read about on Pugski and SkiUtah. The mountain has four lifts: Harry's Dream (1600'), Beaver Face (1200'), Marge's Triple (~1300), and Little Beaver (400'). You don't need to walk through a stupid base village, something I despise from my few days at Northstar. There are a couple of spots in the parking lot, where you can ski down to the lift. You can also ski down to your car from a different trail. There is no conventional on-site lodging. You can rent a yurt near the main lodge to get an off-grid ski-in ski-out experience, something we did not do.

I took this picture of the ski area from across the highway from a snowmobile rental place.
full mountain.jpg


Access trail from parking lot.
little beaver.jpg


Adult lift tickets are $50, you can also buy a lift ticket for 400' vertical lift only for $25. My wife took 2-hour private lessons for each of the three days we were there. They were quite affordable at $130 for two hours. She was able to do her first parallel turns. I'm hoping more lessons this season will get her to skiing mostly parallel turns on green slopes this season. I was skiing with my daughter during her lessons on the magic carpet and beginner lift (Little Beaver).

The magic carpet is the best I have seen so far. Many magic carpets have on and off-ramps that are not correctly sloped, making it difficult for people to get on and off. The green runs off the beginner chair were steep and flat in sections. I don't believe they are very good for true beginners. I think the green runs at Park City and Squaw offer a better progression. The green run off Harry's Dream meanders around the mountain through steep sections and catwalks. It would probably be rated blue at Park City.
magic carpet.jpg


The conditions were excellent, soft snow everywhere. I noticed it even more since my previous ski day was at Squaw in early January with lots of icy patches. I could also see chopped powder in many places. They groom a decent amount of runs, and a couple of groomed runs are available from all chairs. Most runs off the beginner chair were nicely groomed. A short blue run off the beginner chair that was used for a race as well.
trail.jpg


There is a groomed run with a pitch that's perfect for me beneath the Beaver Face lift. It has no flat or super steep sections and is wide enough. The other runs I skied were off of Harry's Dream. Nicely groomed and wide.
beaver face lift.jpg



I saw the Glenn brothers multiple times showing off their tricks to the people on Harry's Dream lift. There were also in line in front of me, and they were in a good mood, poking fun at others, pushing people out of the line to get them in trouble with the lifties.
https://www.powder.com/stories/dedicated-bumps-skiers-beaver/

lodge from top.jpg


The lodge is nice enough. I took this picture around 11:30 on Sunday when it was not very crowded.
inside lodge.jpg

food menu.jpg




Crowds
There were a lot of people on Saturday. The parking lot was full and you had to park on the side of the access road. They were organizing rides to the base area from the parking.

Sunday was a lot quieter. I mostly shared the lifts with students from Utah State University on Sunday. They told me that Sunday is less busy because many people are at Church.

An employee at the rental shop told us that this was their busiest weekend as most students are back at the University. So the week after Christmas is not as busy as MLK weekend. The worst lines were about 10 minutes, and the average was < 5 minutes. Overall the slopes didn't feel crowded.

We stayed in Garden City, and you get a beautiful view of the lake while driving back from the ski resort. It was pretty affordable to stay there. We got a lovely three-bedroom condo for $200 a night. I have paid over $500 a night for a worse condo/cabin in Tahoe on a regular weekend.
bear lake.jpg


Our return drive back to SLC was also easy, and we got a great view of the mountains just outside Logan. We had a good time. We may return here in the future.
view from highway logan.jpg
 
Great report. I skied the Beav in 1975? on my first trip to UT. We stayed with buddy going to school in Logan. Would like to get back there. I see I can exchange the 1 bedroom timeshare I have that sleeps 4 (means 2 people on fold-out couch in living room) for 1 bedroom at Bear Lake that sleeps 10! Too bad Beaver is the only ski area very close.
 
jamesdeluxe":3ipdiia3 said:
I assume that it'd be a good option to break up the drive between SLC and JH.
When we had an active admin, he provided the most interesting answer to that question: Pebble Creek
 
tseeb":bwb8p5yu said:
Great report. I skied the Beav in 1975? on my first trip to UT. We stayed with buddy going to school in Logan. Would like to get back there. I see I can exchange the 1 bedroom timeshare I have that sleeps 4 (means 2 people on fold-out couch in living room) for 1 bedroom at Bear Lake that sleeps 10! Too bad Beaver is the only ski area very close.

A week-long stay with an exchange would probably not be fun for you. The Bear Lake area is very dead in winter. It would be nice to at least have tubing and ice skating, but we couldn't find anything else to do. I prefer booking with my Worldmark credits since I can do shorter stays. I booked a 3 bedroom using my resale Worldmark timeshare for next year's MLK weekend for ~$120/night. I can always cancel 30 days out if the forecast doesn't look promising.
 
Tony Crocker":wkc7v9dt said:
jamesdeluxe":wkc7v9dt said:
I assume that it'd be a good option to break up the drive between SLC and JH.
When we had an active admin, he provided the most interesting answer to that question: Pebble Creek

So, what is Pebble creek like? I don't see much info about that area.

My wild guess is Beaver Moutain gets more snow than the Park City/Canyons base area as it's 7200' vs. 6300' for Park City. I don't think I saw any Beaver Mountain data in your detailed excel files.
 
sierra_cement":3jov1hho said:
My wild guess is Beaver Moutain gets more snow than the Park City/Canyons base area as it's 7200' vs. 6300' for Park City.
Park City base elevation is 6900'.
 
Tony Crocker":3v7hld7f said:
jamesdeluxe":3v7hld7f said:
I assume that it'd be a good option to break up the drive between SLC and JH.
When we had an active admin, he provided the most interesting answer to that question: Pebble Creek
Simple: go to the Grand Adventure YouTube channel.... Ep. 21 covers 3 spots: cat skiing at Soldier Mountain, Pomerelle, and Pebble Creek (in that order).
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INAQRA3XsmE[/youtube]
 
Marc_C":2pkqdhb5 said:
Simple: go to the Grand Adventure YouTube channel.... Ep. 21 covers 3 spots: cat skiing at Soldier Mountain, Pomerelle, and Pebble Creek
Grand Adventure doesn't meet Tony's needs.
:stir:
 
The trip in that video was during a very poor snow year. But admin could see the terrain quality so he returned during the good 2019 season. I looked for that but of course it was never mentioned here. :stir: The day in question was President's Day:
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q= ... SEARCH_BOX
Click on the second search result. There's one overview picture of the ski area from the access road. No pictures and minimal info are provided of the actual skiing that day. But it's enough to put it on my list to visit sometime. We were supposed to be in Jackson/SLC this week, but of course that didn't work out.

Pebble Creek is highly inappropriate terrain wise for sierra_cement and family for the time being. They would enjoy Pomerelle a lot though.

sierra_cement":2yf19nxf said:
My wild guess is Beaver Mountain gets more snow than the Park City/Canyons base area as it's 7200' vs. 6300' for Park City. I don't think I saw any Beaver Mountain data in your detailed excel files.
Elevation is one of many factors in snowfall. The local microclimates are what matter most, and nowhere is that more true than in Utah. Within Park City boundaries, average snowfall ranges from 361 at the top of Jupiter Bowl to a modest 150 inches at the base in town. That difference is more due to distance from the Wasatch crest than it is to elevation.

Pebble Creek is known to be rather lean on snowfall. Their "brochure quote" is 250 inches, and I estimated 225 for zrankings. Beaver Mt. is right on the UT/ID border. Top elevation is 8,500 and it's only slightly closer to Snowbasin than it is to Pebble Creek. Beaver Mt's "brochure quote" is 400 inches, which is surely :bs: . I see no reason it would be any more than Snowbasin's 320. I estimated 300 for zrankings and that might be generous.
 
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