Probably the single most difficult part of snowboarding, when you live in Chicago, is being able to come up with the cash to afford your fix. There is nothing worth riding within reasonable riding distance so any attempt to tap your vein appropriately means time off work, airfair, hotel accomodations, food, drinks, shuttle service, and, of course, lift tickets. It’s not hard to see how this can become prohibitively expensive extremely fast.
Because of this I’m always looking for some way to cut back on expenses without sacrificing experience. One truly great deal I’ve found, and my wife and I continue to exploit year after year, is the Canyons ‘SpringGruv’ special. ‘SpringGruv’ is typically the last 2 weeks that the Canyons are open for the season, this year it was from March 21st – April 6th. During that time the resort hosts live music and the infamous Pond Skimming event where participants get dolled up in costumes, thoroughly hamboned and attempt to cross a fairly large and very cold body of water without sinking.
Honestly, the day of the Pond Skimming is typically a day me and wifey-poo take off, sip cocktails by the pool and escape the throngs of humans denting up the mountain and filling out the Ganjola line like it’s Disneyland. But, for the locals, this is a huge draw.
Oh, and frankly, the music typically sucks at ‘SpringGruv’ as well. This year featured the Wailers, Bob Marley’s old back up band which has been pretty thoroughly renovated to compensate for time. I have a hard time stomaching reggae ever since I got past age 13 and it’s even harder to sit by and watch throngs of Hard Lemonade sipping Trustafarians ease their well-considered vibrations to music that has more post-consumer recycling applied to it than the bottle they’re drinking out of. Though, we did happen to be staying in the hotel room next to a few of the Wailers and, being the solid, good-natured folk you would expect, they managed to deliver on more important levels than simply the stale ‘Redemption Songs’ of days of yore.
But, I digress. The reason I drag my middle western tuchus to The Canyons in Park City, Utah every end of March is twofold:
- Hands down, no bones about it, Utah has the best snow in the world. In the world. And it DUMPS those last few weeks in March.
- The lodging deals at the Canyons are off-the-hook.
We paid, this past year, $200 a night to stay in a decent sized room with a kitchenette at the base of the mountain. For that $200 we also got 2x $25 breakfasts every morning and 2x the $80 lift tickets. Not to mention right out our door is a heated pool, a hot tub and 2, yes 2, gas grills where we cook our dinner (salmon was the meal of choice this year). Combine that sick deal with the incredible natural bowls that are all over this GIANT mountain (I think there are like 6 peaks at the Canyons?), add-in Southwest offering roundtrips to SLC from Chicago for under $200 and top it off with the majesty of this fine planet’s atmosphere bestowing us with the best snow in the world night after night and there’s just no beating it, no way.
This year we were there from Sunday – Sunday and it literally dumped at least 1 foot of delicious, delicious powder every day from Tuesday – Sunday and kept that up for at least another week after we left. It was crazy.
The downside: The Canyons resort is pretty lame. The food is just mediocre and the bars are closed by 8pm. If you need to drink you’re going to have to rent a car, take the free public bussing (which are clean and on time typically), or get raped by a cab service.
The upside: Crazy cheap deal and the best snow you’ll ever ride in your life.