Brody Sanderson has been a local rider at Snowbasin in Huntsville, Utah for the past 6 years. Growing as a rider at Snowbasin Brody said he has seen the culture change in just the time he has been there. When Brody moved out to Utah from the flat plains of the midwest, Snowbasin was a completely independent mountain but has since then utilized the popular conglomerate passes Epic and Ikon.
When discussing the supportive culture of the western ski community and Snowbasin in particular, Brody stated, “The locals that you see every single week, those are the guys that you respect for the rider they are and they respect you for the rider that you are…The mutual respect between snowboarders and skiers was not always as positive as it is now”.
Skiing has evolved quickly since its creation, going through many different periods and cultural changes over the years from uphill hiking, and culture clashes between sports to the creation of the chairlift and even the lasting impacts that the Covid pandemic had.
When Skiing was introduced to the U.S., the sport was used for mostly practical reasons, like delivering mail in strenuous conditions. It took a few decades until it became a recreational sport that was reasonable for the average person to take part in.
The introduction of the chairlift in the 1930s changed skiing forever. Skiers were now able to get multiple runs down the mountain in one day. Skis were adapted to handle solely the downhill sections of mountains; this was a huge change from the previous telemark ski that allowed the heel of your boot to move.
Snowbasin which has been under the same ownership as Sun Valley followed suit and built another 5 years after Sun Valley built the first chairlift in 1936. It expanded its snow park into a mountain resort as it became a haven for snow lovers of all kinds. Snowbasin was on the cusp of ski development and quickly became a leader in mountain resorts hosting races and competitions in the 40s.
It didn’t take more than a couple of decades for another major cultural change in the skiing community. Snowboarding was introduced in the 1960s, and there were mixed opinions. After 20 years of having the mountain to themselves, skiers were not too fond of the new snow equipment on the mountain.
Many resorts would not allow snowboarders to use the amenities, the chairlifts, or even the mountains themselves at times. Utah resorts such as Alta or Deer Valley still maintain the ban to this day. Snowbasin was one of the few mountain resorts in Utah that have always accepted snowboarders; the mountain was often referred to as a snow park where pretty much anybody who was into sports on the snow could enjoy themselves.
Brody Sanderson, K2 rider and park crew, compared the cultures between skiers and snowboarders from Utah to where he grew up in Minnesota and said: “They respect good snowboarding, whereas back home, even if you were the best snowboarder in the park, they were just gonna look back at you like you’re messing up my line or your getting in the way, where out here its more of an action sports community”.
Old patterns are hard to lose, but it seems that Snowbasin is one of the few resorts working to build better patterns for the future of the skiing community.
Snowboarding was phased into the Olympic games in 1998 and became a more verified sport in many’s eyes. Soon snowboarding style was beginning to show in different skiing disciplines. Skiers began to use the halfpipe and adopt many snowboarding tricks. It took a few decades before either sport was willing to learn from one another, but as soon as they did the sports took leaps and bounds forward.
After the worldwide televised Olympic games in 1998 and again at Snowbasin in 2002, many people saw the sports competing on the same courses. Skiers and snowboarders have progressed in the sport faster in the last 25 years than in the entire first century of the sport in the U.S.
Fast forward a decade to 2008 and the Epic pass was introduced to the ski community. There were and still are very mixed opinions about the ski pass. The community has seen negative and positive effects ranging from ‘ruined’ local mountains that were bought out by Vail Epic Passes to increased accessibility for many people. It took another decade before another company figured out how to successfully use a similar model to the Epic Pass.
Ikon Pass was introduced in 2018 allowing access to a completely different set of mountain resorts from what Epic Pass offers. While Colorado seems to maintain a fairly even balance of resorts between the two conglomerate passes, nearly every mountain resort in Utah is under the Ikon pass. After Snowbasin switched from Epic passes to Ikon in the Spring of 2022, Park City is the only remaining Epic pass resort in Utah.
Tyler Olson, a Nastar ski racing volunteer, and Arcteryx affiliate said “With the majority of people in Utah having the Ikon pass it gonna bring a lot more people to the Snowbasin area, the small effect we saw with the Epic pass is going to drastically change”.
Although many people blame Vail’s Epic pass for ruining many mountains, other conglomerate passes pose a threat too when other factors come into effect. Snowbasin was once a hidden mountain an hour farther north than most other ski resorts in Utah, but then Epic Passes created a partnership allowing their pass holders 7 days to ski at Snowbasin. Ikon managed to grab the contract only 3 years later opening up the mountain to far more consumers as the majority of skiers in Utah own Ikon passes.
The introduction of conglomerate ski passes changed the future of skiing forever. It has been clear which mountains are part of a conglomerate pass since they were first introduced; the mountains are much busier and often make more money. What many didn’t anticipate was that the mountains within the pass would vary as well. The Ikon and Epic passes have different accessibilities that are allowed for each mountain; some only have a few days of access while others are unlimited.
Snow Basin Lift Operations Supervisor, Cole Grieb, said: “ I think that the resorts that have limited days have slightly fewer people due to the fact that people have to strategically choose which days to go to the resort, whereas, if you go to a resort like solitude there are lots of people because the people don’t have to pick which days they are gonna go, they have unlimited”.
These passes changed the culture of skiing vastly; vacations became more affordable, and students/ younger people could ski mountains across the U.S., but this meant that constant people were coming and going from small ski towns.
This created a mix of sustainability issues ranging from a lack of affordable housing, and tourism structured in a wave where streams of income are not always profitable year-round. The cost versus benefit of conglomerate passes is still to be debated and will be for many years to come.
Covid-19 regulations hit ski resorts in the American West hard, but with the increase in remote work, the pandemic brought many new consumers. Many of the spacing and occupancy regulations forced ski resorts to limit amenities and the number of people at the resort.
Many ski resorts would have failed if it weren’t for the conglomerate passes. The passes set up reservation systems to work with the mountain and maintain a safe and legal amount of people at the resort during the pandemic. Despite the losses caused by the lack of restaurant and bar consumers during the pandemic, the sheer amount of people that used ikon and epic passes helped keep these resorts going.
As social distancing became a known reality for many; a lot of people turned towards the mountains as a serene escape. Remote work made accessing the mountain much easier for most. During and since the pandemic the amount of skiers and boarders at the resort has increased exponentially.
The pandemic created a new generation of skiers that now flood the mountain in their newfound free time and share the great time mountain resorts offer. The profits that were still reaped despite the limiting factors of the pandemic only proved the success of the conglomerate passes. The pandemic has created another cultural period in the Ski community that will have lasting effects on the way many mountains and groups function.
The ski culture and community in the American West will continue to evolve as people change and sports progress. Progress may seem slow at times and fast at others. Skills will exponentially increase through competition and personal improvement.
Change has ranged from decades of consistent culture within the community to rapid change through a pandemic that halted the world. The future of skiing is in good hands. People are working to make the industry a supportive and welcoming community that shares a common love for fun on the snow.