Why settle for one resort when you can ski six in one day?
The Utah Interconnect Tour is a one day guided tour aimed at advanced and expert skiers that features six of Utah’s resorts. Under the supervision of certified backcountry guides the tour lets you experience some of the best resorts and backcountry terrain in the Wasatch mountain range.
The single day excursion starts in Deer Valley. From here you’ll make your way over to Park City Mountain Resort. From here you go over the back into Solitude. From Solitude into Brighton, then Alta. The last run of the day will usually be on Snowbird’s Hidden Peak.
The all-day guided excursion takes place on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The tour is intended for advanced to expert skiers who can ski from the start of the day through to 4pm with only a short lunch break, are comfortable skiing any type of terrain in varying snow conditions and can hike or sidestep for up to 20 minutes a couple of times throughout the day. Tours are limited to 12 people per trip.
Skiers should be prepared to travel about 25 miles on their skis – mostly downhill – on both inbound trails within the six resorts and some backcountry trails between them. On a typical day you could ski up to 16,000 vertical feet.
The route varies depending on snow conditions. However this is what a typical day looks like on the Interconnect Tour. Your day will start at Deer Valley with a safety briefing where avalanche transceivers will be provided. Safety first – you’re going into the backcountry during the day. You’ll be on your first chairlift by 8:30am and with a couple of blue trails to warm up you’ll make your way over to the Empire Express as you head up to the top of Empire Canyon.
Your group gathers in front of the ropes that separate Deer Valley and Park City ski resorts. The only time you can duck under these ropes and travel between the two resorts is when you’re on the guided tour (it’s usually considered to be an offence and both resorts take this seriously – try it without being on the tour and you could end up being fined!).
From here you’ll ski down into Park City and work your way across the resort eventually connecting with the Jupiter Lift. At the top, after a short hike up, you can ski off the backside into Big Cottonwood Canyon. The backcountry descent into Solitude is one of the best parts of the adventure tour.
After a few runs at Solitude you’ll make your way to a mountain restaurant for lunch in Solitude resort.
After lunch and some quick fire warm up runs on the SolBright trail, which links Solitude and Brighton, your group will head up to the ‘Highway to Heaven’. This gem drops into Little Cottonwood Canyon where skiers will get their first glimpse of Alta. The tour continues through the gates of Mineral Basin and onto the final resort of the day, Snowbird.
The one day excursion includes local professional certified guides, transceivers, tour lift pass, lunch, return transportation back to your departure point and finishers pin keepsake.
The tour is only available to skiers (as snowboarding is not allowed at Deer Valley or Alta) and you can complete the tour on alpine skis (‘backcountry skins’ are not required).