Solitude Mountain Resort is a

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area–a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North Am ...

located in the

Big Cottonwood Canyon Big Cottonwood Canyon is a canyon in the Wasatch Range southeast of Salt Lake City in the U.S. state of Utah. The -long canyon provides hiking, biking, picnicking, rock-climbing, camping, and fishing in the summer. Its two ski resorts, Bright ...

of the

Wasatch Mountains The Wasatch Range ( ) or Wasatch Mountains is a mountain range in the western United States that runs about from the Utah-Idaho border south to central Utah. It is the western edge of the greater Rocky Mountains, and the eastern edge of the G ...

, thirty miles southeast of

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Salt ...

. With 66 trails, and vertical, Solitude is one of the smaller ski resorts near Salt Lake City, along with its neighbor

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

. It is a family-oriented mountain, with a wider range of beginner and intermediate slopes than other nearby ski resorts; 50% of its slopes are graded "beginner" or "intermediate," the highest such ratio in the Salt Lake City area. Solitude was one of the first major US resorts to adopt an

RFID Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder called a tag, a radio receiver, and a transmitter. When tri ...

lift ticket system, allowing lift lines to move more efficiently. It was followed by

Alta Ski Area Alta is a ski area in the western United States, located in the town of Alta, Utah, Alta in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, in Salt Lake County. With a skiable area of , Alta's base elevation is and rises to for a vertical gain of . One of the ...

in 2007. Solitude is adjacent to

Brighton Ski Resort Brighton Ski Resort is a ski area in the Western United States, western United States, located in Big Cottonwood Canyon in Brighton, Utah, Brighton, Utah. About from Downtown Salt Lake City, downtown Salt Lake City, it is owned and operated ...

near the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. Solitude and Brighton offer a common "Solbright Pass" which provides access to both resorts for a nominal surcharge.

The Mountain

Most of Solitude's

trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or a small paved road (though it can also be a route along a navigable waterways) generally not intended for usage by motorized vehicles, usually passing through a natural area. Ho ...

s descend from a

ridge A ridge is a long, narrow, elevated geomorphologic landform, structural feature, or a combination of both separated from the surrounding terrain by steep sides. The sides of a ridge slope away from a narrow top, the crest or ridgecrest, wi ...

(Eagle Ridge trail) which runs parallel with The Big Cottonwood Canyon Scenic Byway (SR-190) as it rises up the center of Big Cottonwood Canyon. Two lifts—quad chair Powder Horn II and the six-pack Eagle Express—run to the top of Eagle Ridge, while quads Apex Express and Moonbeam Express feed the intermediate and beginner terrain (respectively) immediately below it. The back of Eagle Ridge drops into Honeycomb Canyon, a long

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

with most of the resort's

bowl skiing A bowl is a typically round dish or container generally used for preparing, serving, storing, or consuming food. The interior of a bowl is characteristically shaped like a spherical cap, with the edges and the bottom, forming a seamless curve. ...

. Honeycomb Canyon is primarily accessed by the Summit Express lift, which runs behind Eagle Ridge to the mountain's summit; return access from the bottom of Honeycomb Canyon is also available via the Honeycomb Return quad. The Summit Express lift also provides access to adjacent

. Two more lifts, Link double and Sunrise triple, provide dedicated skiing areas for beginners.

History

Solitude was first developed for skiing by

Moab, Utah Moab () is the largest city in and the county seat of Grand County in eastern Utah in the western United States, known for its dramatic scenery. The population was 5,366 at the 2020 census. Moab attracts many tourists annually, mostly visitor ...

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

tycoon A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

Robert M. Barrett. Barrett decided to start his own ski resort after being denied the use of the restrooms at

Alta Alta or ALTA may refer to: Acronyms * Alt-A, short for Alternative A-paper, is a type of US mortgage * American Land Title Association, a national trade association representing the land title industry * American Literary Translators Association, ...

, which were reserved for Alta guests only. He started construction at Solitude in 1956, having bought all the land in

, the next canyon over from Alta. The resort opened for business one year later, and passed through ownership changes until it was acquired by a business group led by Gary DeSeelhorst in 1977. DeSeelhorst became the resort's sole owner in 1986 and implemented an aggressive renovation project, including the 1989 construction of Utah's first express quad chairlift, Eagle Express. Accommodations upgrades in this period included the construction of the Creekside lodge in 1995. On October 3, 2014, Deer Valley Resort announced that they had entered into an agreement to buy Solitude from the DeSeelhorst family and took over operation of the resort on May 1, 2015. During the summer of 2015 under the new leadership of Deer Valley Resort, Doppelmayr constructed a new high speed detachable quad to replace the existing Summit double chairlift, with a new alignment. The new Summit Express lift, combined with a new access trail from the top of the Apex Express lift, decreases the travel time to Honeycomb Canyon. In August 2017, parent resort Deer Valley was acquired by

Alterra Mountain Company Alterra Mountain Company is an American hospitality company established in 2018 with headquarters in Denver, Colorado. It is privately owned by KSL Capital Partners and Henry Crown and Company, the owners of Aspen/Snowmass. It is a conglomerate ...

. Solitude continued to be owned by the former Deer Valley ownership for one more season until it was announced on June 20, 2018 that Solitude had agreed to be sold to Alterra. Solitude is the host for the snowboardcross and ski cross events for the

FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships 2019 The 2019 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships was held in Utah, in resorts Park City, Deer Valley and Solitude Mountain, from February 1 to 10, 2019. 19-year-old Dmitry Loginov of Russia became the youngest World Champion ...

. Solitude was the first resort in Utah to implement basic parking fees. Visitors were charged as much as $20 per day to park beginning November 23, 2019.

Solitude Nordic Center

Solitude Resort also operates a nordic center. The Solitude Nordic Center, nestled between the Solitude and Brighton ski areas, offers a variety of

nordic Nordic most commonly refers to: * Nordic countries, the northern European countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and their North Atlantic territories * Scandinavia, a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern ...

sport opportunities, including

snowshoe Snowshoes are specialized outdoor gear for walking over snow. Their large footprint spreads the user's weight out and allows them to travel largely on top of rather than through snow. Adjustable bindings attach them to appropriate winter footw ...

ing,

skate Skate or Skates may refer to: Fish *Skate (fish), several genera of fish belonging to the family Rajidae * Pygmy skates, several genera of fish belonging to the family Gurgesiellidae * Smooth skates or leg skates, several genera of fish belongin ...

and classic cross-country skiing. The site's 13 cross-country skiing trails cover twelve miles (almost 20 km) evenly divided between "easiest" and "moderately difficult", including a long loop of two miles (3 km). Six snowshoe trails cover six miles (ten kilometers). Instruction and training workshops are offered.

Facts and figures

*Base elevation: *Summit elevation: *Vertical rise: *Total skiable area: *Lifts: 8

chairlift An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel wire rope loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers. They are the primary on-hill tran ...

s: (1 high speed six pack, 3 high speed quad, 2 fixed-grip quad, 1 triple, 1 double) *Runs: **Beginner: 10% (Green Circle) **Intermediate: 40% (Blue Square-more difficult) **Advanced/Expert: 50% (Black Diamond-most difficult) Named a Top 20 Family Ski Resort for two consecutive years, 2007-2008http://www.familyskiresorts.net

Chairlifts

References

External links

Solitude Mountain Resort Official Site
{{Ski areas and resorts in Utah Sports venues in Salt Lake County, Utah Ski areas and resorts in Utah Radio-frequency identification Sports venues completed in 1957 Wasatch Range