Recapping Snowbird's Winter '23/'24 Season With Taylor Pratt

Utah's last ski resort holdout, Snowbird, has finally thrown in the towel on the 2023-2024 ski season. The final days of lift-served skiing at the resort featured warm temperatures—reportedly warm enough to ditch the shirt—and plentiful corn snow.

Snowbird's past season was less of a freak show than the winter of 2022-2023, which saw a comically large amount of snow—over 800 inches of it, to be precise. One Salt Lake City-based friend of mine admitted that during that record-breaking season, he'd grown tired of the endless powder days and craved a high-pressure-system-induced reprieve from the snowy barrage.

The enduring skier's question is this: What's better, a tastefully above-average season (Snowbird's final 2023-2024 tally was 607 inches)? Or the snowpocalypse?

To answer that question, among others, we caught up with Utah local Taylor Pratt to recap the 2023-2024 season at Snowbird.

Taylor Pratt Winter '23/'24 at Snowbird Q&A

How were the conditions at Snowbird this season? The latter half of the Utah season seemed pretty epic.

"The season started off a bit slow out here, but yeah, as we got into mid-January, the faucet turned on and never really gave up. Consistent, mid-size storms from the middle of January to late April and a couple of big storms to close the season out had us skiing fresh snow almost weekly. Both of the Little Cottonwood resorts were filled in nicely by February, and skiing like a dream until the end."

How did the last couple of lift-accessed days at Snowbird go?

"Prior to closing weekend at the Bird, there was a quick 5" dusting and then a gradual warmup, which allowed the new snow to settle and corn up. So up high was ripping, the natural pond skim on the Peruvian side was all-time, coverage was still around a 90" base, and it was warm enough to have your tarps off and Crocs on in the parking lot to close the days out."

Was it nice having a break from the non-stop snowpocalypse that was the 2022-2023 winter, or were the endless powder days missed?

"Almost anyone who went through the 22-23 season will tell you they were relieved to see less of the snowpocalyptic type of storms for 23-24. Especially with how often Little Cottonwood Canyon was closed last year, 600" felt like the sweet spot for all of us. There were far fewer multiple-day canyon closures, avalanche conditions were less intense, patrol crews were able to open terrain faster, and the airs we all love around here weren't completely buried. Feels weird complaining about a 900" season but 600" was far easier on all of us in every aspect this season."

How was your season personally? Any video projects or accomplishments?

"Personally, this season was incredible for me! Although it was a bit chaotic trying to balance coaching and traveling with the AltaBird freeride team, shooting for sponsors, shooting for myself, and just getting out to Freeski, it was another one of those "best season yet" types of years!"

What's this upcoming summer looking like for you?

"I've already started training and getting ready to begin work for the USFS on a wildland firefighter hand crew out here in Utah, but will be trying to take advantage of the incredible mountain biking and late-season corn harvest between rolls, planning out some trips for next winter as well as hanging out with my girlfriend, our black lab Baldy, and our cat Nora!"

Related: Conquering Palisades Tahoe's 'Three Ps' on Snowblades for Closing Day

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