Brighton
Saturday 13 February 1993

Weather

Pretty cold throughout the day. The sun tried to break through in the morning, but failed and by afternoon, snow had set in at higher altitudes.

Overall

This was my first trip to Brighton, one of the less fashionable resorts in Utah. I am not sure what pushed me towards Brighton, but I suspect it was the prospect of the long queues at Snowbird and Alta.

Brighton is a little further from downtown Salt Lake than the "big 2"; about a 40 minute drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon. When I got there, the resort was almost deserted and I virtually had the mountain to myself.

Because of the position of the sun, I started off on the Millicent and Evergreen lifts. There was good variety, with long groomed runs and some powder, particularly from Evergreen. It was very cold early on, so a mid morning break was a welcome opportunity to warm the feet.

I then moved over to the main part of the resort, where there is an opportunity to get a lot of skiing in from the high speed quad lifts. The runs down from Elk Park Ridge in particular, provide a variety of steep and steeper, groomed and not quite so groomed runs.

Brighton is a great place to completely wear out the leg muscles and that was exactly what I did. This was my longest (in terms of vertical feet) day of skiing yet.

Vertical (feet)

19000

Easy Runs

Mary Trail - Run from top of Majestic Lift. Gentle and groomed
Lost Maid - Run through trees, Gentle, groomed but narrow.
Canyon - Easiest way down from Evergreen lift. Surprisingly steep in places
Main Street - Wide easy run down
Sunshine - Easiest way dwon from Snake Creek Pass
Dick Knight Access - Short path from foot of Snake Creek lift to run to the base
Snake Creek Access - Run to foot of Snake Creek lift
Majestic - Broad easy slope near base.

Intermediate Runs

Milly Access - Path between two areas. Narrow and flat in places!
Back Bone - Run along ridge from top of Millicent Chair. Groomed but with several inches of fresh snow on top. A bit of a roller coaster.
Perri's Bowl - Steep in places, but groomed. Some powder excursions available at the edge of the run
Christi's Bowl - Steep in places, but groomed
Backdoor - Easyish path down from top of Millicent. Narrow in places.
Easy Out - Escape route from Exhibition (black part)
Exhibition - Wide run down to base from foot of black part. Flat in places needing poling.
Evergreen - Interesting run. Groomed at the top, but disappears into an area of powder and a run through the trees to get to the base. (Much more difficult than some of the blacks).
Winter Green - Run down from top of Crest Express Chair
Lone Star - Long looping run from Snake Ridge down to mid-mountain.
Great Western - Run down the face of Great Western Express.Bumps.
Scout - Path through the trees to base.
Dick Knight - Path through trees to base

Advanced Runs

Exhibition - Powder run under face of Evergreen lift. Did upper part and then escaped
Elk Park Ridge - Run along ridge from top of Great Western Chair, giving access to other runs. Relatively gently, but narrow in places.
Aspen Glo - Steep groomed.
Golden Needle - Steep groomed.
Rockin R - Very steep but groomed.

Last updated: 03/02/99