Utah has some of the best ski resorts in the country. So, why bother going anywhere else? Sometimes, curiosity beckons. That’s exactly what prompted us to head to Sun Valley in Ketchum, Idaho last March, a resort that is consistently rated as one of the best in North America. Although we originally expected a larger group to be traveling with us, homework assignments and motivation deficiencies resulted in our niece being our only companion. Less people didn’t equate to less enjoyment though. Allow me to catch you up on Ketchum.
Ketchum and Sun Valley Resort are situated in Wood River Valley, one of the oddest gorges I’ve ever entered. Its encircling mountains look mismatched with varying patches of foliage and incompatible gradients, fluctuating from thick evergreens to bare slopes at mild angles to gnarly ones. The sides of this valley just don’t seem like they belong together. To complete the uncanny impression, boulder-topped mounds bound up sharply at odd points in the middle of town. If you are interested in skiing somewhere scenic and idiosyncratic, this is your place.
From that peculiar dale rises Sun Valley Resort. Sun Valley is big, over 3,400 vertical feet and more than 2,400 acres. It felt big. Our first complete run, Warm Springs, took us nearly 45 minutes from lift to lift. We later learned that run is over two miles long.
What else did we discover about Sun Valley? All the difficulty designation for its trails were made in relation to each other, and they are all skewed. Greens at Sun Valley would be blues elsewhere and blues would be blacks. For instance, Warm Springs is one-third blue and two-thirds green. However, it certainly isn’t a beginner’s run. In general, I think beginners would find Sun Valley overwhelming, unless they stuck to Dollar Mountain. Dollar Mountain is the small beginner’s area that is completely separated from the resort’s main portion on Bald Mountain.
We also learned that most patrons of Sun Valley prefer groomed trails to fresh powder. Hence, powder lingers longer off the main paths there than at most resorts. Sun Valley hadn’t received any precipitation for a few days before our visit. Yet, we still found powder piled up on the sides of runs, and the trees were practically untouched. Those untracked trees were too tempting to Jason. Our first day, he took the group through a section of them he had gone down and enjoyed. When gaging the expertise needed for this particular hill, he had only considered its steepness and its density of vegetation separately, not as a combo, until he got us on it. He realized his oopsie somewhere amongst our downhill struggles. It’s okay, Jason; no one can think straight with powder on the brain. We made it through though, and he later admitted his chosen route was probably a double black diamond. Besides that unintended double-black-diamond dip, we stuck to Warm Springs that afternoon.
We rode for 3.67 hours from 12:45 to 4:25 and were rather spent by the end. That fatigue, in part, was due to our lack of lift-line breaks. It was a Thursday and there were basically no lift waits. The runs didn’t feel crowded either. If you visit Sun Valley during the week, expect to be welcomed by powder not people. Also, expect sunshine. Sun Valley is not a misnomer. That afternoon, there was not a cloud in the sky. With temperatures in the low 30s, it felt fantastic.
The next morning, Jason went out early for an hour and a half to hit some black diamonds before he got saddled with the rest of us. He did Mayday Bowl and Easter Bowl. He also did some tree runs and some smacking of his face with a branch, resulting in a bloody nose.
Once reunited, the group had lofty schemes to try all sorts of stuff from eating at the Seattle Ridge Lodge to going to College. While our plans didn’t turn out exactly as planned, we did take the route from Upper College through Sunset Strip and 42nd Street to Lower River Run, which is green the whole way. The middle portion of this run was fun, but the rest was nothing special. The upper section was quite packed, the traverse too long, and the lower section almost flat. Perhaps repetition would have improved my opinion, but, as I was sick of trying to figure out maps and confront unfamiliar terrain, I requested we head back to Warm Springs. It was a good call. Warm Springs stayed my favorite run at Sun Valley as well as our niece’s.
Later, after some debating and indecisiveness, we decided not to go to Seattle Ridge for lunch. Instead, we got chips and drinks at the Lookout Lodge at the top of Bald Mountain, which could be the unusual offspring of a bunker and a saloon. Then, we headed down Ridge, Blue Grouse, and Middle River Run, a streak of blues. We rode from 12: 25 to 4:25, 3.67 hours again with our short break at Lookout Lodge considered. Temperatures got up to 33, and it was super bright and sunny. We tried taking our goggles off for a minute for a picture, and boy was it painful. If you visit Sun Valley, make sure you bring goggle lenses with a low VLT rating, or your eyes will be crabby!
Our final full day in Sun Valley, the group didn’t make it on the slopes until 1:15, but Jason went out in the morning by himself again for about 90 minutes. He checked out the Seattle Ridge area to see if we would like it. He thought the lodge was fancy and pleasant, but the traverse he took to access it (Gun Tower Lane) was way too long, boring, and busy. Despite his reconnaissance, we just ended up back on Warm Springs. I wanted to get a few pictures, but I didn’t want to get stuck with my camera for more than one run. Warm Springs was the only feasible route for that. For the record, taking pictures with a SLR on an abrupt hill while you are snowboarding is not ideal. It’s awkward to get the camera there and awkward to take it out… and really awkward if you lose it down the mountain. We went for three hours with only a 20-minute tinkle break. It was significantly more crowded than Thursday and Friday, but lift lines were still only a couple minutes long.
Sun Valley is indeed sunny, nearly blinding without goggles. It is also challenging, enormous, and enduringly powdery. The runs are long, but the lift lines are not. Would we go back? Yes, indeed.