Skiing / Bob Lochner : Brian Head, Utah’s Best-Kept Secret, Is Close as Lake Tahoe

Tucked away on a shelf at 9,600 feet in the southern Wasatch Mountains, this place is perhaps the best-kept secret in western skiing.

It’s not Snowbird or Park City, the state’s two world-class resorts, but then it’s not 750 miles from Los Angeles, either. It’s about 475, all except the last 16 via four-lane Interstate 15. That’s the same mileage Southland skiers must drive to reach Lake Tahoe, a trip with several stretches of two-lane passing roulette, plus four snowy summits.

“Skiers arrive here on a weekend from Southern California or Las Vegas and say, ‘Wow, there’s nobody around,’ ” marketing director Julie Amsden said. “Then they try to keep it to themselves because they don’t want the crowds to come and spoil everything.”

Still relatively unspoiled are 500 acres of ski terrain on two mountains with a top elevation of 11,000 feet, served by seven chairlifts and covered by Utah’s famous powder. About 45% of the runs are intermediate, 35% advanced and 20% beginner. Cross-country skiers can choose from a number of trails, including the scenic route to Cedar Breaks National Monument and back.

In the spring, Brian Head is an especially attractive destination for a ski week because of the opportunity to add a little sightseeing in nearby Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks. Then there’s always Las Vegas to break--in more ways than one--the monotony of the eight-hour drive across the desert and mountains, either coming or going.

But skiing has been the principal attraction here since the Navajo lift was opened in January 1965. The Giant Steps Lodge across the road, with four lifts, came later, and Brian Head Station, with two more lifts around the bend, is the most recent addition. A free shuttle-bus service connects the three base areas.

On a sunny Sunday recently, there were only about 2,000 skiers scattered over the slopes and inside the lodges. Lift lines were non-existent. At $22, the all-day ticket is priced reasonably; Snowbird and Park City charge $32 tops, but of course, they’re both bigger than Brian Head.

Base depths currently range between four and five feet, following a slightly later-than-usual start this winter. Although the big resorts near Salt Lake City were open by Thanksgiving, Brian Head remained just south of the jet stream and didn’t get enough snow to start operating until the Tuesday before Christmas.

“We’d had two good years in a row before that, so it was a bit deflating to have to sit around while others were skiing,” Amsden said.

Also somewhat deflating has been the current status of Brian Head Enterprises, which is undergoing Chaper 11 reorganization, according to Amsden.

“It has caused some problems,” she said. “But skiers aren’t being affected, and we’re fortunate to have a trustee who understands the ski business. Rene Meyer, the boss now, has been an executive at both Sun Valley (Ida.) and Snowbird.”

Overnight accommodations are separate from the ski operation, and there is a mix of hotels and condominium units supplying beds for about 4,000 skiers in the town of Brian Head. Additional lodging is available in Parowan, at the junction of Interstate 15 and Utah 143, and in Cedar City, 32 miles away. Cedar City also has an airport that is projected as a future gateway for commuter airline connections with Southern California.

Apres-ski activity is limited mainly to a few restaurants, including a new gourmet spot called The Junction in Brian Head Station. Utah’s liquor laws are somewhat obscure to most visitors, but the bottom line seems to be that it’s OK to drink with a meal, or if you go through the fiction of paying nominal dues to join a “club.”

Southern Utah is known upstate as Dixie, also as “Color Country.” It’s usually 10 to 30 degrees warmer down here, but old Brian Head hands are hoping, probably in vain, that it doesn’t become a skiing hot spot.

Skiing Notes

A 30-member panel selected Marc Hodler, longtime president of the International Ski Federation (FIS), as the seventh winner of the AT&T; Skiing Award, given annually to an individual “whose commitment to excellence and dedication to skiing has profoundly enriched the sport.” The other finalists were Jean-Claude Killy, France’s 1968 triple Olympic gold medalist, and Andrea Mead Lawrence, 1952 double Olympic gold medalist, who lives in Mammoth Lakes. Previous winners included Bob Beattie, Jimmy Heuga, Serge Lang, Billy Kidd, Warren Miller and the late Willy Schaeffler.

World Cup racing continues this weekend at Steamboat, Colo., where the women are competing in another downhill and a super-G, and at Whistler Mountain, Canada, where the men are doing likewise. . . . Vreni Schneider of Switzerland tops the women’s standings with 286 points, 62 more than teammates Maria Walliser and Michela Figini, both two-time World Cup overall winners, who are tied for second place. Carole Merle of France, who had been Schneider’s closest pursuer, injured her right knee last week in a training run at Lake Louise, Canada, and was sent home for arthroscopic surgery, her season over. . . . Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg has all but clinched his third men’s overall title with 358 points, 116 more than three-time champion Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland. . . . The circuit winds up with two slaloms and two giant slaloms for both men and women early next month at Furano and Shigakogen, Japan.

Skiing on TV this weekend: World Cup women’s downhill today at noon, then World Cup women’s super-G Sunday at 3 p.m., both on Channel 7. . . . “Ski World” Sunday at 2:30 p.m., followed by World Cup men’s downhill at 3, both on ESPN.

The World Nordic Ski Championships continue through Sunday at Lahti, Finland. The host Finns lead the medal count with 13, including six golds; Norway is next with eight (two of them golds), followed by the Soviet Union and Sweden with five each (including two golds apiece). Nancy Fiddler of Crowley Lake scored the first Nordic World Cup point for the United States in four years when she finished 15th in the women’s 15-kilometer classic race last Tuesday. . . . The World Freestyle Ski Championships will begin next Tuesday and run through March 5 at Oberjoch, West Germany.

Phil Mahre of Yakima, Wash., is in second place on the U.S. Pro Tour, 15 points behind Jorgen Sundqvist of Sweden, who has 365. However, both trail third-place Niklas Lindqvist of Sweden in the money column. Lindqvist, with 320 points, has earned $43,905, to $35,150 for Mahre and $31,600 for Sundqvist. . . . The men are at Keystone, Colo., today and Sunday; then, it’s on to Winter Park, Colo., next weekend and Snow Summit March 10-12. . . . Catharina Glasser-Bjerner of Sweden has 225 points for a 30-point lead over Birgit Hussauf of Austria in the Women’s Pro Ski standings. The women are at Haystack, Vt., this weekend, before coming to Sierra Summit next Friday for three days of racing.

At Big Bear Lake this weekend, Snow Summit will be the site of the Corporate Ski Race, and Bear Mountain will play host to the Far West Disabled Ski Championships. . . . The Smirnoff Ski Trials, in which skiers may have themselves videotaped on a race course, for a nominal fee, will be conducted at Bear Mountain Tuesday and Wednesday, Northstar-at-Tahoe next Friday through March 5, Mammoth Mountain March 6-8 and Ski Incline March 10-12. . . . Giving the vodkas equal space, the annual Absolut Bartenders Race is set for Squaw Valley Monday. . . . The Jimmie Heuga Express, to benefit the Jimmie Heuga Center at Vail, Colo., chugged through Mammoth Mountain Friday, en route to Squaw Valley March 10. . . . California’s qualifiers for the U.S. Collegiate Ski Championships March 7-10 at Ski Incline are being determined this weekend at Mammoth Mountain.

Doug Pfeiffer, “father of freestyle skiing” and former editor of Skiing magazine, is again teaching his Pfeiffer’s Pfun Class at Snow Summit, and he says, “Anybody capable of making half-fast christies is invited to enroll” and learn some new tricks. . . . Buzz Bainbridge, a longtime New Mexico ski executive in various capacities, was the guest of honor Friday night in Santa Fe, N.M., during the weekend-long WinterFestival, celebrating 50 years of skiing there. . . . More than 35,000 beginners turned out at 260 ski areas around the country on “National Learn-to-Ski Day” last month, according to the sponsoring National Ski Areas Assn. and Ski Industries America. . . . “Free-Heel Skiing,” a recently published book by Paul Parker, tells cross-country skiers all they need to know about telemark turns and how to apply Alpine parallel techniques so they can ski anywhere, in all conditions. Yvon Chouinard provided a foreword.