Powder Mountain ski and snowboard resort, over the past decade, has cultivated a reputation as being somewhat unconventional.
Its latest machination will do little to change that.
During weekends in February — the busiest days of one of the busiest months on the ski season calendar — the Eden-area resort will close its 4,200 acres of lift-accessed terrain to everyone except season passholders. On those weekends, Powder announced Tuesday, single-day tickets will not be valid. The closure dates include Feb. 1-2, 8-9, 15-16 and 22-23.
“Powder has always been independent and done things a little differently,” general manager Kevin Mitchell said in an email to The Salt Lake Tribune. “At the same time, we’ve introduced a lot of change in the past year. At its core, this new offering is about preserving what makes Powder, Powder while innovating in a way that brings value to our passholders and stays true to who we are.
“Any time you do something outside the norm, you’re hoping that the idea connects with the audience. If uncrowded lift lines on massive skiable acreage are your thing — we’ve got that.”
Powder began cultivating its reputation as a unique winter playground after a group of four tech entrepreneurs bought the large and largely overlooked resort in 2013. They experimented with holding what Fortune billed as “TED meets Burning Man” conferences for the ultra wealthy on the mountain. That didn’t stick. Neither did the Montessori school or the science center they presented to county officials.
What did take hold, however, were limits on season pass sales. At first, they were a minor inconvenience. As esteem for the resort grew and ski areas closer to the Salt Lake Valley became more crowded, though, the waitlist for 2,000 or fewer passes ballooned by some estimates to more than 6,000.
Read the full story at sltrib.com.
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.