Solitude

Located in Utah’s Big Cottonwood Canyon, Solitude sits in a remarkably snow-endowed microclimate just a short drive from Salt Lake City. The mountain has been around since the 1950s, but better-known resorts such as Alta, Snowbird, and Park City have overshadowed it on the destination field for decades. However, skiers and riders have recently developed more interest in Solitude, with the mountain now offering unlimited access on the Ikon Pass. The resort does a lot of things well, but it may not offer the full experience one might expect of a Rockies getaway.

Solitude gets hammered with snow each season, although generally, the snow totals aren’t quite as stunning as at nearby Alta, Snowbird, and Brighton. Accumulation is about as light and dry as it gets, allowing for effortless turns even on powder days. Elevation-wise, Solitude is competitive with other Rockies mountains, topping out at just over 10,000 feet.

Solitude may not offer the same expansive, wide-open vistas as some other Rockies destinations, but parts of the resort feature quite striking terrain. Lower mountain areas feel rather typical, but the upper mountain and Honeycomb Canyon areas feature striking canyons with jagged topography. Very little of the mountain is built up, giving it a natural, local feel.

At 1,200 acres, Solitude is quite a bit smaller than most Utah destination resorts and more on the scale of some large East Coast resorts. The mountain offers a longer vertical drop than that of neighboring Brighton, but much of its size discrepancy comes at the expense of beginner and intermediate terrain. Only a few short green trails exist on the mountain, and they’re all near the main base. Blue runs can be found across more areas, but only some lower-mountain ones are consistently groomed, while the others contain steep, ungroomed sections more typical of black runs. Intermediate guests will likely find themselves lapping the high-speed Apex and Eagle lifts, which feature some of the only large selections of intermediate groomers at the resort. The other area like this is Sunrise, but it’s directly serviced by a slow, fixed grip lift, making it undesirable to spend time there.

Advanced and expert visitors will find themselves right at home at Solitude. The footprint still isn’t as big as most competitors, but Solitude offers a wide variety of slopes for these ability levels. Advanced visitors may actually want to start on some of Solitude’s blues—the Apex and Summit areas feature blue-square trails that are comparable in difficulty to blacks at other resorts. Once progressing to the real blacks, guests should be prepared for long, consistently steep pitches. A few black-diamond runs off the Eagle lift receive grooming, but most remain ungroomed and require serious endurance to complete. If you’re looking to get your leg day in, Solitude’s blacks are a good place.

Solitude’s double-black runs make up about a quarter of the resort’s terrain. These lines are truly gnarly and require serious technical skill to get down in one piece. Obstacles found off lift-serviced double blacks include uncovered rocks, cliffs, and tree stumps; some sections also involve narrow chutes. However, Solitude’s most extreme terrain requires hiking to get to, with the Evergreen and Cathedral hikes leading to trails with tight couloirs and mandatory cliffs. The Fantasy Ridge is probably one of the most taxing hikes at any ski resort, and it tops out at some of the most extreme terrain anywhere, with perilous chutes lined with thick rock walls that require mandatory straightlining.

Unlike some Rockies mountains, most of Solitude stays reliably open throughout the season thanks to generous accumulation and early-season snowmaking. However, a select few Solitude areas—mostly hike-to—see particularly variable openings throughout the season. Solitude’s extremes take quite awhile to fill in, and the Fantasy Ridge hike often doesn’t open until February.

Many of Solitude’s key areas enjoy high-speed lift service, enough so that typical visitors will find themselves spending most of their day on these lifts. However, a few notable areas including the intermediate-centric Sunrise pod and the mid-mountain Powderhorn pod are still serviced by slow, fixed-grip lifts.

Additionally, Solitude’s lift network is not conducive to lapping certain advanced and expert terrain areas. If you decide to hit anywhere on Honeycomb Canyon, which comprises a third of the resort, you have to go all the way down to the Honeycomb Return lift. This means a journey of up to three lifts to get back to where you started.

Solitude’s lift network is also not well-equipped to handle the crowds it’s seen in recent years, as unlimited Ikon access has driven increased traffic. The setup has few redundancies, with only some base areas offering multiple lift options. Crowds in lower-mountain areas are generally okay, with neighboring lift pods offering access to similar intermediate and advanced terrain. But the resort’s biggest chokepoint is the Summit Express, which provides the only lift access to upper-mountain areas that comprise more than half the resort. This lift was upgraded from a double to a high-speed quad a few years ago, but it still fails to offer the capacity demanded for the area. At least it’s pretty direct to reach this lift from the lower-mountain Apex chair, resulting in little wasted time getting to the Summit lift line.

With the exception of those lapping Honeycomb Canyon, visitors should find Solitude easy enough to get around. The resort’s tall, narrow layout makes it tough to get lost, and while the base areas are a little tricky to figure out, signage in key places helps you get to the right place. Some trails lack clear indicators at their starts, but this pretty much only occurs when the terrain difficulty is not changing from the previous trail.

Solitude’s roots as a local mountain rather than a destination resort manifest when you try to go in for a break. Base facilities are nice, with both indoor and outdoor seating available. The Roundhouse Lodge is also a convenient place to stop in while lapping the Moonbeam and Eagle lifts. However, Solitude’s mid- and upper-mountain areas lack lodges entirely—including bathrooms. This means guests in these areas will have to go out of their way to stop in for a break. At least the resort is small enough that any lodge detour is never truly horrible.

Solitude may be modestly sized, but the area offers direct lift access to and from the neighboring Brighton ski resort. Visitors can ski both mountains on the same day with a SolBright ticket or the Ikon Pass. The two areas combined are similar in size to some smaller destination mountains, and those looking to stay for multiple days may want to consider splitting their days between the two resorts.

Lodging

Solitude offers limited on-site accommodations in the modestly-sized Solitude Village, including the Inn at Solitude hotel and a few condo complexes. Off site, the nearest lodging is a few minutes away down the Big Cottonwood Canyon access road. Options in these areas aren’t the cheapest in the world, but they’re priced reasonably enough. A much wider range of options is available approximately half an hour away in Cottonwood Heights, which is essentially a residential suburb of Salt Lake City.

During the core season, Solitude implements a paid parking system designed to incentivize carpooling. For vehicles with fewer than 4 occupants, parking costs $35 on weekends and holidays, and a parking reservation is required. On weekdays, no reservations are required and parking only costs $10, and is free for any vehicles with three or more occupants. A seasonal parking pass for up to two vehicles is also available for a steep $499, though a midweek-only parking pass can also be purchased for $99.

Apres-ski

Solitude Village is the closest thing to a real base village of all the Cottonwoods resorts, but it still falls far short of other destinations, with very little in the way of bars, restaurants, and activities. Much more is available in nearby Salt Lake City, which is approximately 45 minutes away with no traffic.

Verdict

So while Solitude may come across as a family-oriented resort at first glance, the mountain is better viewed as a low-key expert’s haven. Snow quality is outstanding and the resort’s terrain is quite unique, but the mountain just isn’t big enough to offer a best-in-class experience. That being said, the right groups will still find the mountain quite enjoyable, and lift ticket prices undercut competing Utah destinations, making Solitude somewhat of a ski vacation bargain.