POST CARDS FROM BRIAN HEAD SKI RESORT -
Dear Editor;
Thought I'd bring you up to speed on my vacation - uh, assignment. I have checked out the area extensively, but I definitely need to stay longer to give the place another good going over. Somebody has to do it.
So far, most of my investigative reporting has focused on Things That Slide on Snow - skis, snowboards, cross country skis, tubes. I gave each my personal attention. But I did take the weekend off. I soaked in the hot tub and roasted in the sauna for hours. Stick a fork in me; I think I'm done.
There are still some things I need to check out. I'll keep you posted.
Dear Editor;
I'm using my crack journalism skills to unravel a great mystery: Where is everybody? We have blue skies, tons of snow, but no people. Strange. The southbound freeway during spring break was jammed with cars. I thought northern Utah was conducting a fire drill. But when we reached Parowan, they kept going south. I turned west - the path less chosen.
Brian Head is a well-kept secret, and that's fine with me. The family and I almost have the place to ourselves. "I've never seen lift lines longer than five minutes here," says Bob Foster, head of the Cedar Breaks Ski Lodge.
But let's not tell anyone. Later.
Dear Editor;
We went tubing yesterday. Tubing, you say? Well, they've fixed the one glaring flaw in that sport - walking up the hill. They have a tow rope. All you have to do is sit there. My kind of tubing - no exercise. There are a half-dozen lanes, some with bumps, others with S turns. I feel like a bowling ball. Tubing is the surprise hit of the season at Brian Head.
We toured the north rim of Cedar Breaks today on cross-country skis. It's gorgeous country. Scenery is by Ansel Adams. Snow on red rock. Snow falling on cedars (sounds like the name of a book).
Cedar Breaks is four miles from the ski resort. We skied right along the rim and gawked at the cliffs and the gorge. The skiing was a breeze, you could say. The wind was howling out of the breaks and blew us all the half mile back to the road. We never had to take a step. If I had had a bedsheet handy, I'd be writing from North Dakota by now.
But I'm still here.
Dear Editor;
I think I understand what's keeping people away. It's the name. Brian HEAD? Who wants to visit the Head? Not me - unless I have to.
There are a lot of theories about the origin of the name, but that's all they are. One theory has it that one of the rock formations is shaped like a head, but no one seems to know where the rock is. Cesar Munoz, the resident historian and lodge bellman - he came from L.A. 17 years ago to be a ski bum and just never got around to leaving - doesn't buy that theory. Like others, he says the resort might have been named after Williams Jennings Bryan, a famous politician who made a career out of finishing second in presidential elections. Eventually, the y was changed to an i. Or, Munoz says Head could be a geological term, such as point or cape. Another theory: A member of John Wesley Powell's expedition was named Bryan.
Whatever. I say change the name. How about Cedar Breaks Resort? By the way, what's a Break?
Dear Editor;
It turns out that even though Brian Head is in Utah - it is our state's southernmost ski resort - it is not really the resort of Utahns. Most of its clients come from Las Vegas and California, in that order. People from San Diego can actually drive as quickly to Brian Head as they can to Mammoth, and they get better lift-ticket prices, better snow and shorter lines thrown into the deal.
The Head is three hours from Las Vegas, four hours from downtown Salt Lake City. Skiers in Northern Utah tend to stick to the Wasatch Front resorts. Brian Head is trying to remedy this by remaking itself from a ski hill to a complete resort, a vacation getaway of the family or romantic kind.
In the past year they remodeled the Cedar Breaks Lodge, adding a pool, weight room, sauna, Jacuzzi, steam room, new restaurants, a game room. They built a tubing hill with a half-dozen different courses that can be used day or night.
There's also a snowboard playground with house-sized chunks of snow that have been carved into various geometric shapes, which are used by the snowboard crowd to "catch air." There's a groomed five-kilometer cross-country trail that can be used free of charge. Some ski the trail at night under the stars, which are 60-watt bright here at 9,600 feet. There are also snowmobiling tours of the back country. As for skiing and snowboarding, there are two different mountains, with a free shuttle to take you from the lodge to basically anywhere you need to go.
Picture Disneyland on snow. Without the crowds. The Northern Utahns who have visited Brian Head say this is what Park City used to be like. It's quiet and small.
Dear Editor;
I spent this morning falling off a snowboard. I've got a bad case of whiplash, and there's an S-turn in my spine. But the sun is out and it's warm. We took a break in the afternoon and watched a pond-skimming exhibition. Snowboarders - and a few skiers - slide down the mountain and "skim" across a small pond. Some skim, some swim.
I think I'd better visit this place again in the summer. Brian Head wants to become a summer base for vacationers. From here, visitors can take day trips to Cedar Breaks National Monument and Zion and Bryce national parks, or ride mountain bikes or hike the local red rock. It's a good place to escape the crowds and the heat. It's cool through the summer months.
Think I'll stay and check it out for myself.