I went downhill skiing this week at Brian Head Resort. Brian Head is a medium sized ski area on the slopes of, you guessed it, Brian Head Peak. Brian Head is located about 12 miles from Parowan. The mountain is 11,300 feet high, and the resort sits just below the summit making it perhaps the highest resort in Utah. The ski area claims 650 acres of terrain, eight chair lifts, and 400 inches of snow annually.In my opinion, Brian Head is the perfect family ski resort. It has plenty of wide-open cruising terrain, torrents of southern Utah sunshine, and a low-key atmosphere. Sometimes a smaller, family-type resort can be a bit ramshackle, and things like grooming can be an afterthought. Not so at Brian Head. I think the quality of the grooming was the best I’ve ever seen—and I’ve skied Deer Valley, which is famous for its perfect corduroy. On top of the good conditions, there is the view. From 11,000 feet atop the Markagunt Plateau, the clear weather and long views are spectacular—Zion to the south, the basin and range country of Nevada to the west. It is a beautiful place. Finally, at least on the day I was there, the aggressive gang skiing and snowboarding was nowhere in evidence. I’m not saying it never happens, but I didn’t see the out-of-control, near misses that are common at the larger resorts. Brian Head just doesn’t attract the aggressive skiers. Partly this is because the terrain is not challenging. While this can be considered a good thing, it also leads my main complaint about the resort.
Brian Head has plenty of good cruising terrain, but it has almost nothing steep. If you are an expert skier looking for a challenge, you will quickly be bored. That is not to say that you can’t enjoy a day poking around. I had three or four good runs to the skier’s left of the Alpen Glow lift in some fairly steep trees full of soft powder. There is also one steep shot at Devo’s Pitch that requires a couple of jump turns. Once you’ve dropped in, however, there are only about three or four turns left before you’re in the flat. This is another problem with the steep pitches at Brian Head, they are very short and are often followed by long flats. If you don’t want to be walking, you’d better limit your turns so you can carry your speed through the valleys.
One caveat to all this is that I did not hike the peak. There are some very nice looking shots off the top of Brian Head Peak, some of which had been skied since our last storm. These are steep, challenging, expert only, “out of bounds” chutes that look like quite a bit of fun. Accessing them requires, however, a significant and lengthy hike from the top of the Giant Steps chair lift. Since I was alone and don’t know the mountain well, I wasn’t inclined to set out hiking by myself. When I get a chance, I’ll go back and give them a try. Unfortunately, even if they turn out to be good runs, they are too small and too inaccessible to make Brian Head truly a mountain for expert skiers. For half the effort, I can ski ten times the terrain at Snowbird or Alta.
In short, had a very good day at the mountain. The grooming was superb, the snow conditions were excellent, and the slopes were uncrowded. I wouldn’t hesitate to take Valerie and Ellen. I would not, however, recommend Brian Head to the “extreme” skier. It has a few challenging runs, but the terrain is mostly gentle to moderate. If you really need to go big, you’d better go north. How about Alta . . . have I mentioned Alta?
