Ski Resorts in Utah
By Jackson Stark
For many years, winter sports have been the front and center attraction for Utahns and tourists from not only across the nation, but also from across the globe. Utah is considered to have some of the best snow on Earth and that is all thanks to the world famous resorts that we are blessed to have. These resorts have a lot of history that all start from the early 1900’s that shape them to today’s resorts that we all know and love.
The first resort that was ever established in Utah was Brighton Ski Resort. Brighton Ski Resort was founded and established in 1936 and was named after Thomas W. Brighton. When this resort was first established, they didn’t have any sort of chairlift set in place, so what they did to improvise on this is that they used some rope and tied it to a motor that allowed for people to be pulled up the mountain and to ski all the way back down to the bottom. From then on, Brighton is still a very well known ski resort that has plenty of locals/tourists all winter long. More specifically, Brighton is very well known for its cliffs, chutes, bowls and other natural features. Brighton was also voted 2nd for best snow in North America, losing the top spot to Snowbird which I will talk about later.
Another very notable resort in Utah that I want to talk about is Alta Ski Resort. Alta Ski Resort, one of the private resorts in Utah, was founded in 1939 and although it wasn’t the first resort to be established, it was the first ever ski resort in Utah to have a fully functional chairlift that is open for the public to use. Alta is also one of the three resorts in the United States to ban snowboarding. Alta Ski Resort was founded by a man named Alf Engen who was a multiple world record holder in his time as a ski jumper, and also founded the very well known Alta Ski School which was the first ever ski school to be established in Utah. It wasn’t until the beginning of the winter of 2002 where they decided to partner up with Snowbird Resort to create a joint pass where skiers can go directly from Alta to Snowbird by crossing the gate into the different sides of the mountain.
The Snowbird Resort first opened up in 1967 and is very well known for the dry powdery snow that the great basin produces. Going back to what I went over when talking about Brighton, Snowbird is considered to have the best snow in North America, hence why you see a lot of tourists while on the mountain. These are just some of the many ski resorts in Utah that made the winter sports scene there some of the best in the world. Although I wasn’t able to go over the other resorts, just looking at the history at the very first resorts gives an idea of the development of the foundation.
Jackson Stark: I am from San Clemente, California. The thing that I like most about Block U is that it revolves around so many aspects of work and wellness that are very useful in the real world.