Hadn't skiers from the two coasts been relocating en masse to SLC for years, primarily for Alta/Snowbird, and Ikon then exacerbated the existing issue? I can't remember which FTOer the collective advised to consider that very point before moving there. Every person has a different point at which his/her head explodes due to crowds/traffic (mine is very low and I guess that we just saw kingslug's!).
@jimk seems to be such a happy camper, primarily as a Snowbird regular. What's his special sauce: Zen meditation? Retirement bliss? A magic carpet to fly over the mind numbing traffic?
One could more easily argue that Ikon singlehandedly ruined Solitude by making it all you can eat. I've mentioned arriving many times on the Saturday early morning flight from EWR up through the early 2010s and Solitude had neither crowds nor BCC red snakes or parking issues, even on powder days.
So yeah, there is a secret sauce or more appropriately, home field advantage.
Here's an example of how that works. I share this info in the hope that it will be consumed with discretion. This is kind of wordy, but you asked for it
Yesterday, Saturday, 21 Feb 2026 was an incredibly beautiful ski day, great snow, bright sun, cool, but comfortable temps preserving superb conditions. It also might have been the busiest day at Snowbird all season. It was the first fully sunny day after the huge dump on Tues-Thurs, and it was a Saturday. I skied at Snowbird Thurs and Fri and they were busy too, but Saturday was really slammed.
BUT, I had two Snowbird experts with me, one with intimate knowledge of the lifts and terrain including lift wait times, terrain openings, locations of best snow, etc. The other with mastery over all logistics issues. With those two buddies I zipped up to the mtn arriving at 1030 am after the primary traffic surge, and parked close to the slopes in a preferred/paid parking spot.
Enjoying Tiger Tail with a low volume of folks:
When we stepped into our bindings at the leisurely hour of 1045am there was a mob at the Gadzoom HSQ lift, so we rode the nearly empty, but old and slow Mid-Gad double chair. Mineral Basin drew it's usual sunny morning crowds, sucking people off the front side of the mtn. Additionally, they had just dropped the rope opening the Road to Provo and much of Little Cloud Bowl, which also drew a huge mob.
Meanwhile we headed to the less busy Gad 2 lift and skied through the recently opened Upper Tiger Tail gate where we enjoyed lightly tracked 2-3 foot deep snow for 2000 vertical. A repeat lap was made in this area. As the day went on we continued to move around to less busy sections of the mtn including one buddy's first run ever from the top of double diamond Hanging Bowl in the upper cirque with no one else in the bowl at the time.
We did a run on Great Scott to inspect Hanging Bowl (it's on the other side of the cliff ridge in middle ground of this photo), before my two buddies lapped the area again and entered Hanging Bowl from the top. This sort of terrain often sees only light traffic even on the busiest days.
A look at Hanging Bowl:
We took a late lunch in the new Nest Restaurant at Mid-Gad. It was also mobbed, but I found seats and a table for the three of us. I also brought food and drinks in a little cooler I kept stowed outside the restaurant until needed. I'm an expert on how to be a frugal skiing retiree
My companion that is the terrain expert/guide is able to make discounted food purchases at the mtn and we shared some inexpensive restaurant chili with the sandwiches, fruit, veggies, dessert, and drinks I brought from home. About $10 was spent on a nice lunch for three in a crowded, but comfortable indoor setting.
At closing time the descent on the access road can be very slow on such a max capacity day. But our parking spot was at Snowbird Entry 1, which meant when we left the mtn at 3:45 PM we were able to use a dedicated merge lane and move ahead of all up-canyon traffic, which is perhaps 80% of all vehicles on this type of day. We proceeded down the road at about 35 MPH and were home 5 or 10 minutes slower than an empty day.
I will add, that until the last ten days, few of the above tactics have been necessary because Snowbird's been relatively empty all winter due to the low tide season. This latest period is the first time I've been frequently riding chairlifts with out-of-towners. I ski a mix of both weekdays and weekends. I have 21 days at Snowbird since early Dec and 33 total ski days at this point of the season. I have a Snowbird senior pass and a base Ikon pass. And yes, being old, slow and retired gives me more patience than the normal guest at Snowbird on a max capacity day.
