Arizona Snowbowl - Fakten Skigebiet

The Snowbowl's 2300 feet of vertical and location just 14 miles from Flagstaff are yet another reason why the town is Arizona's outdoor recreation hotspot. Nestled in the beautiful San Francisco Mountains, the Snowbowl has been around since 1938. It may best be known for the Hart's Prairie beginner area, a 50-acre rectangle served by two double chairs and a short surface lift, where thousands of Arizonans learned to ski. The 650 feet of vertical here is more than ample to develop the rhythm necessary for first-timers to feel confident on the snow. Terrain Two triples serve the rest of the mountain which is split about two-to-one between intermediate and advanced terrain. The Sunset triple serves a pod of blue-square cruisers over 654 vertical feet. The Agassiz triple is over a mile in length and serves upper intermediate terrain and the Snowbowl's black diamond trails. Intermediates are advised to get off at the mid-station. The 1981 vertical feet served here makes up 86% of the Snowbowl's total vertical. The Snowbowl's owners have worked diligently the past few years to shepherd a new development plan through the US Forest Service's public hearing and review process. It's a modest plan overall but important to Snowbowl's future. A key feature will be the addition of a modern snowmaking system to cover most of the existing 127 acres of skiable terrain, an additional 55 acres of proposed intermediate trails, and another 20 acres or so made available by work on existing trails. The bulk of the new terrain will give the Snowbowl some badly-needed lower intermediate trails, as the blue square stuff higher up is a bit steep for someone just graduating from Hart's Prairie. This new terrain will be served by the existing Sunset triple, which will be rebuilt. In its place a high-speed quad will be installed. The longer of the two doubles in the learning area will also be replaced with a high-speed quad. Other improvements call for a � pipe with its own surface lift and a new lodge adjacent to the current Agassiz lodge to alleviate weekend and holiday overcrowding. At build-out the Snowbowl will still remain an essentially Eastern-sized resort: Not much more than 200 acres or so with 95% of that covered by snowmaking. In the meantime the Snowbowl is still a popular destination, with varied trails, plenty of Arizona sunshine, a full-featured terrain park, and interesting lodging. An added bonus is the nearby Flagstaff Nordic Center, one of the West's best, and the backcountry lure of the San Francisco Mountains.