Powder Mountain's marketing director talks the resort's 50th birthday, 3 acres of terrain per skier, and the Indy Pass

By Mekenna Malan | November 17, 2021

Photo courtesy of Powder Mountain

"Our goal is to really preserve the best ski experience, and make sure that people are really enjoying themselves on the slopes and aren't waiting in line," says Jean-Pierre Goulet, marketing director at Powder Mountain. 

And how does the resort preserve that world-class experience? Goulet talks Powder Mountain's 2021/22 season in the Q&A below. 

On the Powder Mountain website, it says your resort is uniquely positioned to provide the safest environment for their 2021/22 guests. Can you elaborate on why that is?

We cap our day tickets at 1,500 a day, and our season passes at 3,000 a year. It's hard to visualize that, but that's a really, really low number. And that's not just since COVID—we've always capped at that number. With the amount of terrain that we have, you get about three acres per skier on our busiest days, which is pretty much unheard of. Our visitors are still getting powder turns after their lunch break, and the day after, and the day after that. After a storm, we have a completely different mentality than most ski resorts, instead of packing a bunch of people in one place.

We do sell out quite in advance for day tickets. And our season passes sold out in 40 seconds for this year. So, you know, if you get to ride Powder Mountain, you're lucky.

What's new this season at Powder Mountain?

We've implemented a new RFID system for ticket holders, which will make it really nice for guests as they can just reload tickets—or Lightning Ridge passes, for example—on their phone whenever they want. It's a really easy system for the consumer and the guests, and everything can be done from their computer or their phone. They'll only have to come to the ticket window once this year to pick up their media, and that's it. 

We've also partnered with the Indy Pass this year, which is a really reasonably-priced past that gives you two days to over 80 ski resorts across North America, as well as a couple in Japan. Three of those 80 ski resorts are in Utah—Eagle Point, Beaver Mountain, and Powder Mountain.

What other news or updates do you want visitors to know prior to the upcoming season?

It's our 50th anniversary this year—our birthday is February 19, 2022. We'll start celebrating a little bit before that, and will have a big party that weekend, which is exciting. We opened in 1972, so yeah, it's a big year for us. 

Why should skiers and snowboarders ride Powder Mountain?

Our biggest differentiator at Powder Mountain is how we limit our tickets at that super low number. But also, we don't make any snow, being upside-down. We get to open our top lifts before anything else, and that gives us the opportunity to not make any snow and to provide, really, just a better snow surface. You don't get those icy days at Powder Mountain.

What's next for the resort in the coming seasons, if there's anything you can share?

For people that ride two wheels during the summer, we've got some big plans coming for the summer season. I'll keep it at that.

Ready for the upcoming season? Shop ski and snowboard equipment here, or reserve daily rentals here.