Married With Children...and Skis

The scenario: My wife, Carolyn, and I, an early-40s, formerly ski-happy couple now with two elementary schoolers, wanted to return to the slopes. Where to go to discreetly regain our once-intermediate form? And to find a place with kid-friendly ski instructors?

We live in Southern California, and there’s always Mammoth, but it’s so big. And in the decade since our last Mammoth foray, the mountain has been festooned with new lifts to increase its skiers-per-hour capacity. But our last pre-child ski trip was to Utah, and I’d heard for years about this resort in southern Utah called Brian Head.

Bitten anew by the snow bug, I surfed the Internet for information on the resort and found lots of intriguing hype, such as “blessed with Utah’s highest base elevation, ensuring incredible snow.” Their Web site assured me that I would find Brian Head to be “the perfect family resort.”

That sold me. So last February we chose a four-night, Saturday-through-Tuesday stay at the resort’s renovated feature property, Cedar Breaks Lodge. The lodge’s package deal was $150 for Saturday night; then it dropped to $145 a night, including daily breakfasts and lift tickets for two adults.

It was a seven-hour drive up Interstate 15 to Brian Head, east of Cedar City--hardly longer than driving to Mammoth, and without the two-lane frustrations of getting stranded behind a Winnebago on California 395. Once we got past Las Vegas the scenery rivaled that Eastern Sierra drive for grandeur. Just inside the Arizona border, our route plunged into the spectacular Virgin River Gorge. The road then angled upward through snowy Pine Valley in southern Utah, and to the east, beyond Zion and Bryce national parks, snow smeared the reddish higher peaks. Just after nightfall we turned off at Parowan and followed the last miles of twisting, ice-rimmed Route 143 to Brian Head, where the elevation is about 9,600 feet.

Welcome lights illuminated the turnoff for Cedar Breaks Lodge. We checked in and found our accommodations in a three-story annex building. Our comfortable studio included two queen-size beds, a kitchenette with small two-burner stove and microwave and a game table. It wasn’t posh, but it was clean and well kept.

We found the lodge quite attractive. The structure has been transformed from a boxy glass-and-cinder-block style into a neo-chalet, with an exterior of warm-hued flagstone. Inside, the cozy reception and public areas are all natural pine with Native American rugs and baskets.

And the lodge’s new recreation complex is decidedly upscale, with a large indoor pool and two whirlpool spas (one warm, the other set at “ouch”). Tall stone columns support a vaulted ceiling, and with the surrounding picture windows, this gives the large room an airy feel. Opposite the entrance, overstuffed sofas are set around a fireplace. Other amenities include wet and dry saunas (the steam fascinated the kids), changing rooms and an exercise room furnished with gleaming new equipment.

We’d arrived two days after El Nino smothered the mountain in 3 feet of fresh snow. Drifts climbed the lodge’s walls and piled in 8-foot mounds along the roadside. Daytime temperatures hovered in the high 30s (though ample sunshine tempered the chill). Our daughters, Amanda, 9, and Katie, 6, were enthralled by the profusion of icicles. Amanda smuggled one back to our room and happily munched away in front of the TV.

Carolyn insisted on an unhurried first day to settle in and to check out a downhill thrill of a different sort--the resort’s Snow Tube Park. That morning at the lodge’s wood-paneled cafe, our waitress recommended that we not miss this attraction. So after breakfast, we layered up to confront the elements and drove the couple of blocks to the tube rides.

Tickets for rides cost $7 each for two hours, but the snow tubing was a blast. A T-bar lift tugs riders on oversize inner tubes to the top of a 100-foot-high slope. Then riders queue up in five lanes and plow down the hill, with varying degrees of assurance.

I started careening gleefully downhill, and after one plunge began the next one with more abandon. By her own count, Amanda, our elder thrill-seeker, racked up 30 runs down the twisting slalom course. Katie was a bit less enthusiastic: After skidding to a stop, she choked back a few tears and dragged her mom and tube to a gentler slope. Later we walked over to the adjacent Navajo Lodge to register our kids for the next day’s ski school. (A full day costs $65 each, including ski rentals, lifts, lessons and lunch.)

And then we chowed down on chili dogs in the cafeteria, where the cashier exuded the warmth we’d encountered repeatedly among locals. (In fact, one ski-area shuttle driver, in answer to my inquiries about alternative dining spots, actually hunted me down to tell me the local pizzeria was closed because the proprietor was AWOL on the ski hill.) The cashier confided that, yes, sometimes the slopes do get crowded, and she spoke warily about the resort’s developmental tilt.

Still, the spanking new recreation center lent a note of luxury to Cedar Breaks Lodge. Returning from snow tubing, I enjoyed a run on the treadmill in an exercise room overlooking the indoor pool. Below, Carolyn relaxed on an overstuffed sofa while the girls bounced from pool to spa to sauna.

By Sunday evening, the place really cleared out. Upon arriving, we’d parked in a two-thirds-full parking garage; now our car was one of four remaining. At dinner that night in the cozy Summit Dining Room, we chatted with a Salt Lake couple accompanied by their young children. They agreed that the resort was a good fit for young families, and regretted having to leave the next day.

Perhaps our sole complaint about skiing midweek was that Brian Head became almost lonely. The lack of clientele meant that some restaurants closed during the week and limited our choices, although the nice--but pricey--Summit Dining Room (with entrees in the $12-$23 range) remained open. Moreover, we saw nary a trace of apres-ski night life.

Monday morning we waved goodbye to Amanda and Katie as they shuffled off with their ski classes. With some anxiety about the 10 years since my last ski turn, I followed Carolyn toward the slopes. Suddenly here again was the acceleration of being gathered up by a lift chair, the swaying as we cleared each lift tower. (Never at ease at any height, I closed my eyes over the tallest one.)

Within minutes, with ski tips up, we exited cleanly. Carolyn motioned right, toward a trail dubbed “Navajo” with a green circle sign indicating a beginner run. After my first few turns on that trip down, I’d abandoned any illusion of competency. Even with a new pair of wonder skis, I struggled to unlock my knees, and some unknown force propelled me into the beginner’s pose, in which my ski tips came together (or, as my kids were taught to call it, “the Pizza”). Each tiny bump threatened to dislodge me from barely upright, while Carolyn swooshed on ahead. I joined her at the bottom and queued up for a second trip. From some ancient ski article I recalled a mantra--”Re-laxxx”--and ventured downhill again. And, gradually, my knees unlocked, my back relaxed, the dreaded wedge abated.

By lunch, Carolyn had run out of patience with the beginner hill and suggested we tackle headier terrain. Brian Head is divided neatly between two mountains. We’d warmed our skills that morning amid the gentle glades of Navajo Peak, while the intermediate terrain--about 40% of the resort’s acreage--girdles neighboring Brian Head Peak. Brian Head has a moderate 1,700-foot vertical drop, but it can take awhile to reach the top slope because the resort doesn’t offer any high-tech quad lifts, just an assortment of ‘70s-era double and triple lifts.

While Carolyn and I brushed up on skiing rudiments, Amanda and Katie were gaining confidence in their ski school. We enrolled them with no expectation of miracles, and getting Katie to agree to enroll at all was progress.

But by midday, she was refusing to leave to ski with Mommy and Daddy. We watched as she stole handfuls of snow between practice runs, or snowplowed--er, pizza-turned--behind her instructor, who, Katie recalled, took to calling her “tiger monkey.”

Meanwhile, Amanda improved rapidly. She started on the beginner Navajo Peak slopes and later in the day had graduated to Brian Head Peak. As I followed her after her first day’s lesson, I smiled at her much-improved skiing style.

With our girls happily occupied in the kids’ program, Carolyn and I spent the remaining two days threading the aspen-lined intermediate trails fanning out from Brian Head Peak’s “Giant Steps” and “Roulette” lifts. After skiing this inviting, butter-smooth terrain, a hint of my old competent ski self returned.

By the end of the first day, I’d rediscovered the elation of pushing those inner boundaries, where a little “go for it” still goes a long way. I even managed an upright descent of a “black-diamond” advanced run.

Indeed, our experience at Brian Head--with its modest offering of meticulously groomed runs and its cheerful approach to teaching kids--restored our faith in the possibility of a ski life with children.

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GUIDEBOOK

Kiddie Powder at Brian Head

Getting there: You can fly from LAX to Cedar City, Utah, with a connection in Salt Lake City, on Delta Airlines. Round-trip fares start at $148. From there it’s a 30-mile drive to Brian Head ski resort. About 480 miles by car from Los Angeles, Brian Head is a seven- to eight-hour drive. Head northeast on Interstate 15 to Parowan, Utah, then south on Utah 143 for 12 miles to the resort.

Where to stay: There are several lodgings in Brian Head. We stayed at the Cedar Breaks Lodge, 223 Hunter Ridge Road, Brian Head, UT 84719; telephone (800) 272-7426, Internet https://www.brianhead.com. The lodge offers various packages, including Sunday-Thursday deals: Three nights’ lodging with breakfast and three days of lift tickets for two adults are $499; four nights are $667; five nights are $835. Children under 12 stay free. There is also a Friday-Saturday package for two nights’ lodging with breakfast and two days of lift tickets for $386; an additional night is $88. Prices are for non-holiday weeks.

For more information: Utah Travel Council, Council Hall/Capitol Hill, 300 N. State St., Salt Lake City, UT 84114; tel. (800) 200-1160, fax (801) 538-1399, Internet https://www.utah.com.