Major Changes Coming to Powder Mountain
Photo by Dave Sartwell of fellow Contributor Mike Roth skiing at Powder Mountain
Powder Mountain is about to embark on a private/public ski area development venture. In a bid to sell more real estate, a large segment of the mountain will become the exclusive domain of the on-mountain home owners. Like Homewood in California and Windham Mountain in New York, Utah’s Powder will be a hybrid model with major changes for longtime devotees. Those changes start next season.
“In order to pay our bills, we need to sell more real estate, and to do that we are introducing private homeowner-only skiing,” said Reed Hasting, in a letter to the community in Dec of 2023. The new CEO of Powder Mountain added, “We will be designating the Village and Mary’s lifts, which serve beginner and intermediate terrain, plus a new lift on Raintree for this private skiing, starting a year from now.”
With more than 8,500 acres of skiable terrain, Pow Mow, as it is known by the locals, is the largest ski area in North America. Located in the Wasatch mountains just thirty minutes northeast of Ogden, Utah, it is best known for receiving more 500 inches of snow each year – and free skiing to those who are 75+. Powder hounds from across the country trek here to ski the off-piste, tree-ladened slopes and laid-back vibe.
Reed, the co-founder of Netflix, got involved with Powder last April, and then took majority control of the resort in late summer by pledging a reported $100 million in new investment. He signed a development agreement with Meriwether Companies, a leading resort developer perhaps best known for their development of Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch, to head this new effort.
They immediately removed from the market 25 of the 57 lots in the Overlook area that had been listed for $1 million each while they develop a new master plan.
In the meantime, they are investing in some infrastructure upgrades. The horribly slow Paradise lift will be replaced by a high-speed detachable quad that will cut the ride time in half. Additional terrain will be accessed by a new fixed-grip quad on Lightning Ridge, which had been accessible only by cat skiing or skinning in the past. The cat skiing will be moved to another part of the mountain. The new owners are also upgrading the Timberline triple lift with a fixed-grip quad.
“We believe this blend of public and private skiing secures us decades of exceptional uncrowded skiing for all, funded partially by real estate. To stay independent and uncrowded, we needed to change, and we didn’t want to join the successful but crowded multi-resort pass model (ie, Snowbasin) or sell to a conglomerate (ie, Vail),” Reed stated.
Construction Begins This Summer
This ambitious plan will affect their 2024 summer operations.
“Construction will begin this summer on a number of lift and maintenance infrastructure upgrades that are set to greatly enhance the on-mountain experience at Powder Mountain,” they announced. “We will not be operating lift-accessed mountain biking this summer (2024) due to on-mountain summer construction needs. We appreciate all of the planning and hard work that has gone into making lift-serviced mountain biking at Powder possible for the past two summers, however after evaluating all options, this is a necessary step in order to complete our ambitious plans of installing four new lifts.”
Some new homes already have been built in the designated private area. A few are really are spectacular with truly wonderful views of the mountains. Meaghan O’Neill recently wrote in Architectural Digest that, “… buildings by acclaimed architects like Marmol Radziner, Olson Kundig, and MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects, the Summit Powder Mountain village promises sprawling views of the Great Salt Lake and a stunning organic modern aesthetic.”
The new grand design has yet to be rolled out.
Changes to Season Passes
There have been several changes in the ticketing prices. For this next year they are lifting season pass caps, but intend to control numbers by limiting day passes. In a blow to seniors, the complimentary 75+ season pass has been eliminated.
What will the future hold for Pow Mow?
Will this become a private club for the super rich or a necessary blend of public/private that will keep the area open to the general public for generations to come? Stay tuned.
- Keeping Warm on the Slopes - January 19, 2026
- Major Changes Coming to Powder Mountain - March 20, 2024
- Montana Brown Trout Magic - September 23, 2023
Say goodbye to the free skiing!
Free skiing for 75+ year-old skiers is being eliminated. I was looking forward to skiing Pow Mow next year when I turn 75, but…now I’m going to have to pay the same as younger seniors. The timing is tear-inducing, to say the least.
No more senior season passes…age 65-100 all pay the same…$1499. And no free skiing for 75+.
No mention of the loss of free senior skiing.
Dear David, I am just back from 5 days at Powder, and can share these observations: 1) Heard that the 75+ Free Ski deal will be gone next year; 2) The soon to be private Village and Mary’s areas can’t hold much interest for serious skiers. Our group skied through both and judged them a bore.; 3) The new private homes parallel to the Village lift do have dramatic views. But where are you going to dine or shop? Hard to think of a location more isolated or challenged by weather. $10,000,000 to live there? Please.; 4) The road up to Powder is curvy, steep and a real challenge in the snow. Unfortunately for Mr. Hastings, it looks like all the flat land down in Eden has been developed or otherwise taken. Where does he grow? Best, Livingston
David, Thanks for the news. It sure will be interesting to see how it all develops.
You left out a key fact for this audience. No 75+ free ski pass anymore!
10 to 15 of us from Oregon have been coming to powder Mountain for a week to 10 days for over 15 years. We have absolutely love the experience, but was the lack of knowledge for next year‘s costs. We will probably not be skiing there anymore. Sad to say, we all love powder, Mountain, but don’t want to see it become an expensive snow basin. , we all love powder, Mountain, but don’t want to see it become a expensive snow basin. All the best to you.
The free 75+ season pass has been eliminated! It has been replaced by a 65+ pass for around $1349. Their strategy is obviously to stay uncrowded by pricing all but the very affluent skiers out of the market.
Too bad because it is one of my very favorite places to ski.
Alta is now one of the few major ski areas left who reward Senior skiers for their loyalty!
Love this place! The trade off of a lift up Lightning Ridge for closing to public of Lefty’s and Mary’s is reasonable although for us old folks the greater access to expert terrain may turn out to be less desirable than continued access to easier terrain.
The two of us have enjoyed the Super Senior $69 Pow Mow season pass for the past few years. We might have been happy to pay over $1200 each if we knew what the future might be next season. Through a “Chat” with Pow Mow, I learned that they are marketing season pass sales with benchmark dead lines (dynamic pricing) but aren’t telling us about what they refer to as the “parking experience” for next season. We haven’t minded the one hour ride up to Eden and then and extra 15 minutes to get to Hidden Lake Lodge. But if our options “may be” paid parking, free parking somewhere with their own shuttles, or enhanced UTA bus service, then the drive time from leaving home in Cottonwood Heights to our first run makes for a very unappealing scenario. For the kind of money Pow Mow is asking for a senior pass, we think we’ll join the IKONNERS and get their premium pass.
My first year, turns into my ONLY year as a Super Senior!! My pass for next year as a “senior” has an OVER 2000% increase!!! No other group has experienced such a vast increase!! Are they just trying to get rid of us?? This just smacks of a money grab and age discrimination.
This is no longer the “local mountain” that drew us here in the first place.
The owners desire to change the pricing for 75+ seniors from $0 to $1300+ is definitely a slap in the face and and disrespectful enough to take what was once one of my favorite resorts off the list for visiting. Sad…
This is another example of making alpine skiing a sport for the elite. I appreciate the need to make a resort financially feasible but the cost is putting them out of the average person’s budget. I suppose we can thank the courts for imposing unlimited liability on them despite assumption of the risk inherent in downhill but our kids will be priced out of the sport soon.
How sad such a wonderful ski area is going down the path of unbridled greed, led by Reed Hastings, the same guy who raised prices for Netflix subscriptions to conform to a “tiered pricing” business model. I guess it’s inevitable that some wealthy folks only want more and more…….
POWDER Mountain, we all skied through the 80’s & 90’s as a really fun throwback mountain where you could explore so very much offpiste. So sad you are eliminating 75+ free skiing. We are the very folks who there paying for 20+ years lift tickets. How incredibly sad!!! We won’t return… all do to greed ….the lifts are spinning anyway….give us a break…btw we are the very skiers who touted Powder as an amazing mountain!! I guess just like Windam Mountain…all great things do come to an end!! Onward ….. to Wolk Creek!!
So, a few rich people will have “really spectacular homes with truly wonderful views”. The rest of us – nothing. Privatizing ski areas is never a good idea. Remember the Yellowstone Club? Who needs that?
In fact, frankly, I am losing interest in all the largest, most expensive, most commercialized, and most crowded ski resorts. I don’t ski “resorts” any more. I now look for “ski areas” and “ski hills”. There are hundreds of them around the United States and Canada. Most skiers will never experience them. But that is where I am headed. No lift lines, no crowds, and affordable tickets and affordable food.
As a lifelong surfer and newbie to snowboarding (took it up about 8 years ago) I was initially shocked at the various age groups on the mountains I visited, especially the little groms under 6-7 years old and the seniors, too. I’m 55 and all I can say is, if you’re still skiing and riding at/after age 75, you should get free or extremely reduced lift tickets!
I only visited Pow Mow once, in 2023/24 season, and I just wish it has been sooner. It really had that old school vibe and the people we met were great. I get it, it takes money to operate any place of business, but who the hell needs art installations on the ski trails? Seriously, GReed Hastings!?? Get your head out of your ass and make a profit without totally ruining the place.