Winter Wonderland: Salt Lake City

Salt Lake is so much more than what people expect. It’s a place where diverse pastimes, cultures and landscapes come together in our modern mountain hub of the west. There’s something for everyone in our amazing urban basecamp. Our vibrant downtown is just 10 minutes from the New SLC International Airport and just 35 minutes to world class mountain recreation.

Salt Lake City is, of course, one of the world’s most coveted skiing and snowboarding destinations. Here, four world-renowned winter resorts—Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude—are located within an easy 35-minute drive of the city’s bustling metropolitan core. Gratefully, the aptly named “Greatest Snow on Earth®” falls over much more of the landscape here than just those resorts’ storied slopes.

Snowshoeing: If sliding down the mountain isn’t your thing, you can always take in the majesty of the Wasatch Mountains on snowshoes. Explore on your own in Millcreek Canyon, along Big Cottonwood Canyon’s Days Fork Trail (at the Spruces Campground) or Alta Ski Area’s summer road. Or let a local expert lead the way on a guided snowshoe tour at Solitude Mountain Resort’s Nordic Center or at Alta Ski Area courtesy of the Cottonwood Canyons Foundation.

Nordic Skiing: Not much compares to kicking and gliding along a meticulously groomed track on a sparkling winter morning. And not much will get your heart pumping as hard either. Popularity for “skinny skiing” has boomed in Utah in recent years, fueling development of multiple Nordic skiing destinations located just minutes from the Salt Lake Valley, including Big Cottonwood Canyon’s Solitude Nordic Center, The Utah Nordic’s Alliance’s Nordic center at Parleys Canyon’s Mountain Dell Golf Course, upper Millcreek Canyon and a 5km track between Alta’s Albion and Wildcat base areas.

Mountain and City Spas: Little Cottonwood Canyon, home to Alta and Snowbird ski areas, beckons with two destination spas. At 8,500 above sea level. Stillwell Spa offers a full menu of wellness treatments, including a high-altitude recovery massage and cleansing oxygen inhalation therapy. Spectacular year-round views from the rooftop pool and hot tub at the full-service Cliff Spa promise to inject an exhausted skier or hiker with a purely natural dose of well-being.

Flow into Fearlessness

If you’ve ever frozen at the sight of a 90-degree ski slope carved in moguls or shuddered at the thought of taking air on a black diamond run, tap into the expertise of fear and anxiety expert and nationally celebrated athlete Kristen Ulmer. Her popular three-day “Art of Fear” ski camp at Alta Ski Resort guides skiers toward finding their flow and amplifying the ski experience with a healthy mindset