Solitude Mountain Resort United States

Legendary

Photo by August Benjamin

Solitude exists because a millionaire couldn't find a bathroom. Robert Barrett was skiing at Alta one day in the 1950s when he asked to use the restroom and was told no.

The toilets were for overnight guests only. Alta had to haul its sewage down the canyon in tanks, so it wasn't handing out bathroom access to day skiers.

Barrett had money and a temper. He'd made a fortune in the uranium rush near Moab, Utah, in the early 1950s, and he decided he'd build his own ski area rather than ask twice.

He bought up land in Big Cottonwood Canyon, the next canyon over from Alta, and started building in 1956. Solitude opened in the fall of 1957 with two chairlifts.

The name was older than the resort. Silver miners had called this spot Solitude in the early 1900s, when hundreds of mines dotted the canyon.

The last one, the Kentucky-Utah Mine, closed in the 1950s. Solitude's two parking lots were built from its leftover ore.

Barrett ran the resort for about twenty years. In 1977, a businessman named Gary DeSeelhorst led a group that bought it, and he became sole owner in 1986.

DeSeelhorst fixed the problem that had started the whole thing. He helped create a sewer district and build a 17-mile line down the canyon, so Solitude would never have to haul tanks.

In 1989, he installed Utah's first high-speed detachable quad chairlift. His family later spent eight years building a small European-style village at the base, finishing the first lodge in 1995.

The DeSeelhorsts sold Solitude to Deer Valley in 2014, and Alterra Mountain Company took over in 2017. It's now part of the Ikon Pass.

The mountain gets about 500 inches of snow a year across 1,200 acres. It's known for being quieter than the big Cottonwood Canyon resorts, which is where the name still fits.

Ride the Summit lift to the top of Honeycomb Canyon, a long backcountry-style bowl reached by lift since 1982. Stay in the walkable village, where kids can go from the lodge to the lifts without crossing a road. In summer, hike or bike the trails, and stop by the Nordic center in winter for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.