Skiing Sun Valley, Idaho

By:  Jennifer Milano, December 2015

We usually ski on the east coast over the December holiday break, but wanted to try something different this year.  Our kids had never skied out west, and our good friends from California agreed to meet us anywhere we chose.  For December school break, parents need to make travel plans months in advance.  So the hardest part about deciding in August on where to ski in December is not having any idea about early season snowfall.  We knew we were taking a gamble.  An expensive gamble. 

After researching several ski areas claiming historical success with December skiing, and wanting a mountain that was low-key and not Aspen- or Vail-like, we settled on Sun Valley, Idaho.  Sun Valley is located in Ketchum, Idaho - a real town, not one manufactured and overdeveloped for skiers. Sun Valley boasts that its snow-making capacity is the best in the U.S., but this year, the mountain didn't even need the snow guns.  While east coast ski areas were closed or functioning at reduced capacity this December due to warm temperatures, Sun Valley received a whopping nine feet of snow.  Nine feet!  Locals told us this was more snow than the mountain received in all of last season.  Isn't it nice when a gamble pays off?

On December 26th at 9:00 pm, we landed at the quiet Boise airport on a small, half-empty jet.  It seemed as though not many people travel to Boise, which was fine with us.  Who remembers the last time your rental car was parked right outside baggage claim?  It took my husband less than five minutes to fetch the car, which was about a minute more than it took all of our bags to arrive on the carousel.

Since the Sun Valley reservations agent had advised us not to travel the three hours to Ketchum in the dark, we drove our rental SUV five minutes down the road to the Hampton Inn & Suites Boise/Spectrum, a clear step up from your typical Hampton Inn.  Our southern Californian friends were waiting in the very nice lobby to greet us and discuss the frigid temperatures that welcomed them to Idaho.  I was feeling guilty about dragging Kristen and Scott, who purposefully moved from Michigan to California for climate alone, to ten degree temps.  Kristen assured me that her two children had been asking for a winter wonderland - fluffy snow, cold air, and lots of hot chocolate - and she was looking forward to seeing if they would feel the same at the end of the trip.  After a restful night's sleep in our $100-per-night room, we piled into our rental cars for the easy drive to Sun Valley.  I think we saw about five other cars during the three-hour trip.

Traffic picked up slightly as we approached Ketchum, an adorable town with an adorable main street.  A quick search on my cell phone revealed an organic bakery with high ratings nearby, and we stopped for a quick lunch (or for the kids, their second pancake breakfast of the day). 

From town, it is only a few minutes' drive to the newly-renovated Sun Valley Lodge.  The Lodge welcomes guests with a huge sun carved out of snow, and twinkling white lights on pine trees.  The beautiful lobby is filled with glowing fireplaces and cozy couches, and overlooks a large outdoor skating rink.  After we were informed that our condo was not ready, we drove three minutes down the road to the resort's Nordic center to embark on our very first sleigh ride.  An open wagon with two opposing benches was waiting for us in a snowy field, two sturdy-looking horses ready to pull us on a ride through the forest.  We snuggled under heavy wool blankets, and enjoyed spectacular views of the mountains and streams as we traveled by the Ernest Hemingway Memorial and a cabin where Hemingway spent time writing.  Our friendly sleigh driver stopped for a break halfway through our ride, and the kids got out to talk to the horses and throw snowballs at the adults.  We felt as though we were in a true winter wonderland, making our friends' vacation hopes come true.  (Although the experience would have been enhanced had we been served steaming cups of hot chocolate!)

In addition to sleigh rides and ice-skating, visitors to Sun Valley can cross-country ski, snowshoe, sled and downhill ski at nearby Dollar and Bald ("Baldy", if you want to sound local) Mountains.  While Dollar is geared toward beginners and those seeking terrain parks, Baldy is much larger with more varied terrain.  Our days of skiing Baldy were near-perfect, with short lift lines, friendly staff and terrific snow.  The trail ratings are not comparable to most mountains where we have skied - a green at Sun Valley is more like a blue elsewhere, and so on.  This means that the green runs can get crowded at times.  The temperatures were also lower than average during our stay, which resulted in cold toes and lots of hot chocolate breaks.  Warm Springs Lodge was our favorite spot to recharge.

After our days on the slopes, we loved soaking in the outdoor pool at the resort, heated to a perfect 100 degrees.  Our youngest found his Scandinavian inner self by immersing his bathing-suit clad body in the snow, then running delightedly back into the hot pool.  The resort also has a bowling alley and game room.  There are restaurants on site at the resort, but we chose to eat in the authentic western town of Ketchum, finding several good restaurants (see below for recommendations).

We all agreed that our five days in Sun Valley made for a near-perfect winter vacation.  Why not perfect?  There were some flaws.  First, the resort advises guests to use the shuttle to the ski mountain.  But the shuttle runs only every fifteen minutes, and often fills up at peak times.  The condo itself was located about ten minutes' walk from the resort, meaning that in the frigid morning temperatures we piled into the car just to drive to the shuttle stop.  By the second morning, we figured out it was easy to drive ourselves to Baldy.  We tended to arrive on the early side, so parking was plentiful and located only a few minutes' walk to the base.  Second, while the condo itself was very nicely updated, spacious and comfortable, we wished it was closer to the amenities of the resort.  Third, the ski rentals at the Baldy base were not ideal.  We tried to rent our skis the afternoon before our first day of skiing, but the shop was sold out of rentals.  While we easily got our rentals the next morning, they were expensive, and the line to store them overnight at the base was lengthy at the end of the day.  Self-service ski lockers would have saved time.  And if we had known how easy the Boise airport was to navigate, we would have brought our skis from home.  Finally, while the Boise airport is easy to navigate, it is located three hours from Sun Valley, so is not as convenient as Utah and Colorado skiing are to major airports.  Of course, this last negative is really a positive - Ketchum's distance from a major airport ensures that it retains its low-key, friendly, authentic vibe - and this is reason enough alone for you to make the trip to Sun Valley. 

And as for the verdict from our Californian friends on a cold weather vacation?  On her second day of skiing, fingers freezing inside ski mittens, Kristen and Scott's eleven-year-old proclaimed she had decided she was a "California girl".  But that didn't stop her from enthusiastically joining in discussions on where we should all ski next year!

How to Get Here:

Our friend who is a pilot for a major airline advised us to fly into Boise or Twin Falls rather than Sun Valley/Hailey, as the airport is often closed due to weather.  There are no nonstop flights from New York to Boise, but that route, with one connection, was the least expensive (but still expensive).  Our friends were able to take the one daily nonstop flight from San Diego to Boise. 

Car rentals from Boise airport are cheap and convenient, with the vehicles located right outside the baggage claim area.  The drive from Boise airport to Sun Valley takes about three hours.  There are two routes - taking Highway 20 is slightly faster, but if there is snow and the roads aren't cleared, you want to avoid Highway 20 and take Highway 26 (click here for directions for both routes). 

If you don't want to drive yourself, Sun Valley Express runs a shuttle between the Boise Airport and Sun Valley for $75 per person, one-way.

Where to Stay:

While flights from the east coast to Boise, Idaho were pricey, the four-bedroom, four-bathroom condo we rented at the Sun Valley Lodge was surprisingly reasonable at $560 a night.  The condo (and the lodge) had just been renovated, so although it was considered a "standard" and not "deluxe" condo, it was really very nice.  Housekeeping was excellent, and cleaned our condo thoroughly each day, even washing the dishes in the sink.  (That latter part is pretty much my definition of "vacation".)  Unlike most ski condos we have rented in other places, this condo was really quiet. We could hear no noise from neighboring units or common areas.  There were some maintenance issues that arose during our stay, but they were addressed promptly.

The downside was that the condo was really too far to walk to the lodge in the cold.  It is probably only a ten-minute walk, but when it is eight degrees outside, you want to climb in your car and drive the two minutes instead.  It would have been nice to be closer to the lodge to enjoy its wonderful amenities without piling eight people into the car.  The lodge rooms, though, were more expensive and less spacious than our condo, and on balance, we were glad we stayed in the condo.  The Sun Valley Inn has less expensive rooms, and is located just a five-minute walk from the main Lodge.

None of Sun Valley Resort's condos are ski-in, ski-out.  There seemed to be no ski-in, ski-out properties at the main base of Bald Mountain, although we did see condos at the Warm Springs base area of Baldy that appeared to be ski-in, ski-out.  Sun Valley Resort runs a shuttle to and from the lodge to both Bald and Dollar Mountains.  But we found the shuttle to be inconvenient.  At peak hours, the shuttle was often full, forcing passengers to wait another fifteen minutes in the cold for the next bus.  After the first day of this, we decided to ignore the advice of the resort and drive to the mountain.  Granted, we arrived at the mountain by 8:30 when the lifts opened at 9:00, but we had no trouble parking our car and walking three minutes to the lift.  (If someone from Sun Valley Resort is reading this, run the shuttle continuously at peak hours!)

If you need to stay overnight in Boise, I highly recommend the Hampton Inn & Suites Boise/Spectrum, a step above your average Hampton Inn and a fantastic value at only $100 per night.

What to Do:

Sun Valley Lodge has plenty to do on site.  There is a beautiful outdoor skating rink, sleigh rides through the snowy fields and woods, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.  There is an outdoor pool heated to 100 degrees, adjacent to a hot tub heated to 104 degrees, and wait staff to take your drink orders while you soak in the pool.  (Full disclosure:  the wait staff at the pool was scarce, and always cranky.)  If you prefer to be indoors, the Lodge has a bowling alley and arcade on its lower level, and plenty of cozy couches in front of warm fireplaces in which to lounge.  If the lodge is busy, put your name down on a list an hour or so before you want to bowl, and plan to spend time eating or playing games while you wait.  Our kids all loved having ice-cream treats and hot chocolate each day at a la Mode, located at the Resort in between an Austrian bakery and a candy shop.  It's tough to get more kid-friendly than that!

For downhill skiing, Ketchum has two mountains.  Dollar Mountain has fourteen runs, including an adventure park, and is geared more toward beginners.  Bald Mountain, called "Baldy", has 97 trails and few lift lines even in the peak holiday period.  We found the difficulty of the runs to be higher than those at other mountains.  The conditions were excellent, and although it was colder than usual, the lack of wind made skiing all day feel pleasant (at least for us New Englanders, the Californians may have a different opinion...). 

Lift tickets at Baldy are expensive at $125 per day per adult in peak times.  Equipment rentals at the base (Pete Lane's) were also expensive, but convenient as the rental included complimentary storage of skis and poles at night.  (Boot storage costs $4 per night.)  The lines for storage at peak hours were long during the holiday week, and rentals ran out by 11:00 am or so each day.  We would have preferred self-service ski lockers to the storage counter.

Activities we hoped to do but did not have time for were soaking in the natural hot springs while surrounded by snow (click here for options), and snowmobiling near Galena (click here for information).  My friend, Julie, who visits her brother in Ketchum each year, recommends snowshoeing from Galena Lodge and enjoying lunch or dinner there (dinner served only occasionally).  Julie also recommends taking a yoga class with Cathie Caccia at the Gather Yoga Studio in Ketchum.  For the kids, Julie suggests the YMCA in Ketchum, which has its own indoor water park.

Where to Eat:

During peak travel times, be sure to make your dinner reservations several weeks or more in advance.  While we had some great meals in Ketchum, some of our first-choice restaurants were booked.

If you are staying overnight in the Boise Spectrum area, try Goodwood BBQ, which our Californian friends enjoyed.  For breakfast or lunch in downtown Ketchum, we liked Bigwood Bread Café, which handcrafts organic breads and offers a full sandwich, salad and baked goods menu.  If you are staying at the Sun Valley Resort, Konditerei is an Austrian bakery that is open all day.

For dinner, eat at the Grille at Knob Hill, where I had a delicious Idaho trout, and others enjoyed the prime rib sandwich and the wiener schnitzel.  Warfields, a distillery and brewery as well as a restaurant, had the best poutine my husband has ever tasted (and he ate this dish in its native Quebec last year about half a dozen times).  Warfields also serves Idaho grass-fed beef, and both its steaks and burgers were top-notch.  During our meal, Warfields ran out of several dishes on the menu, and made substitutions on almost everyone’s plate.  The manager was apologetic, compensated us for one entrée, and also brought complimentary cookies and root beer floats for the kids.

Globus, an Asian fusion restaurant, has very good food filled with flavor, and an attentive, knowledgeable staff.  My husband, a proud, self-proclaimed food snob, enjoyed the Pad Thai, brussel sprouts and Thai salmon. Our Californian friends also loved Globus, and it is a favorite of Julie's, my friend who visits Ketchum every year.

The locals’ favorite at dinnertime is Pioneer Saloon, with a classic western feel and popular margaritas.  No reservations are taken, and when we gave our name to the hostess we were given a wait time of 3 to 3½ hours!  We ended up finding an empty table down the street at Whiskey Jacques, another western-style pub with average food.  My husband rated their famous hand-tossed pizzas a 4 out of 10, and their burgers a 5 out of 10.  The atmosphere is lively, though.

My friend, Julie, highly recommends the Ketchum Grill for dinner, but we could not get a reservation for the week we were there.  The menu looks fabulous.  Book well in advance for peak travel periods.  Julie also recommends Grumpy’s for burgers in a casual, local scene.

For dessert, our kids were in heaven at a la Mode, an ice cream and hot chocolate café in the Sun Valley Resort’s outdoor mall area.  The homemade marshmallows melt in your mouth!  For cupcakes and other baked treats, Konditerei is two doors down from a la Mode.