Ezra Jones is taking us to his favorite spot at Snowbasin — a daisy-chained series of three-and-four-turn clearings connected by tight runs through evergreens.
There’s no name for this run, and Ezra’s fine with that. Put a name on something and someone can put it on a map. And, like most skiers, Ezra isn’t all that interested in letting his secret powder stashes become public.
He’s kept this secret for the better part of the 40-plus years he’s been skiing here, and I’ve promised him it will stay that way. Besides, to be perfectly honest, I’m not actually all that sure how to get back there. I was doing my best to just keep the Telemarker’s mustard yellow ski jacket in my line of sight.
It doesn’t really matter, though. I cannot deny that Ezra’s Run — there I’ve put a name on it — is something special. But I also cannot say that I’d need to be able to find it again in order to have an amazing day at Snowbasin — because it seems like every turn I took today could have become my new favorite run.
OK, to be very fair here: Snowbasin had put 33 inches on top of its more than 10-foot base in the past 48 hours, and the storm was still raging as we stepped onto the Needle Express gondola for our first run of the day. But Ezra says — and every local I talked to confirms — that a storm many notches less amazing will still pack this mountain with powder aplenty, with snow to spare for days and days to come.
And that would be enough for me. But that’s not the entire Snowbasin experience. The lodges here are lavish. The food is magnificent. The bathrooms…
… yes, the bathrooms …
… feel like they’ve been transported from Buckingham Palace.
And so I’ll be back. Lots. Because somewhere out there is Matthew’s Run.
And when I find it, I’m not going to tell you where it is.
Next stop: Nordic Valley.
Matthew D. LaPlante is skiing and boarding all of Utah’s 14 skis resorts—in seven days—with fellow powderhounds Jared “JJ” Jones and Erik “Swede” Price. Follow their trip on Twitter: @SkiAllOfUtah.
