Inside ski writer Tim Neville’s epic day in Utah.
Otherwise, it was pitch black.
My watch read 4:36 a.m.
Credit:Tim Neville
The most gonzo ski trip of the season had begun.
Utah looms large in a skier’s world with spectacular terrain and so much snow.
Some of the best runs of my life have been on the double black diamonds at Snowbird.
Hailey Klotz
I learned to do a 360 in the terrain park at Woodward.
But I wasn’t there to ski just any Utah resort.
I was there to skiall 15 of them.
Hailey Klotz
And I would do it in a day.
For as impractical and silly as this feat is, we all knew it was doable.
Thats because this has already been done before, sort of.
Hailey Klotz
That time, a group ticked off a run at all 14 resorts in just under 17 hours.
Now, more than a decade since that last adventure, the skiing landscape has shifted once again.
That sounds less exhausting.
Alison Palmintere; Hailey Klotz
Brian Head came first since it sits the farthest south near the adventure town of Saint George.
Shadows played across the slope.
The hiss of our skis seemed louder and crisper with no one else around.
Tommy Flitton, the pro skier, played in the soft snow off to the side.
This is so fun!
He had dropped us at the top.
While we skied, he drove the van around to meet us in a parking lot.
Reunited, we loaded up our skis, switched off our headlamps, and piled inside.
Everyone was too excited to sleep.
Fourteen more to go.
The faint crescent of a waning moon hung over the trees.
For the first time since waking at 3 a.m., I got some sleep.
(A single-day ticket at Deer Valley or Park City can cost you north of $250 alone).
At$11,000 each, the pass is fully transferable.
Companies typically buy one to share among employees as a perk.
Sundance would have been a fun place to linger, with a stunning location against 12,000-foot Mount Timpanogos.
We were getting efficient.
Three more resorts around Park City fell in a matter of minutes.
We hitDeer Valleyby way of the Jordanelle Gondola, a good place to look for parking on crowded days.
We werent yet halfway through, and the crux had yet to come.
Its a big day, about 25 miles, but you dont need special backcountry skis.
The chairlifts take care of most of the climbing.
AtSolitude, we amazed a skier from Maine who couldnt believe this was resort No.
8 for the day, and it wasnt yet noon.
AtAltain Little Cottonwood Canyon, we rode the Sunnyside lift, a six-person chair that opened in 2023.
The previous record had stood at 17 resorts.
That had happened in Japan.
For us, the final five resorts felt like a Guinness-worthy mix of determination and absurdity.
We skied a short access run atSnowbasin, which had closed by the time we arrived.
The temperature had plummeted to 5 degrees Fahrenheit.
Its been glorious, Tommy said.
Ive made a lot of memories in my life, but this is one of the sickest.
We raced down, high-fived, and took some celebratory pictures.
It had taken us 20 hours.
Instead, wed had a day of all the wonderful things that being a skier lets you do.
We traveled to new places.
Yes, but every one of us would do it again.
And so, we sorta did.
We rode the lift up once again and glided off into the night.
