Big Cottonwood Canyon's Solitude has excellent terrain for all levels. Skiers and snowboarders easily can progress here.

One disadvantage to the trail layout for some groups: If your group includes people at the opposite ends of the ability scale, you'll likely spend your day on different parts of the mountain, but you can always meet up for lunch.

To help new visitors get a better feel for the resort, Solitude's trail map has helpful yellow notes on it. Although the quips are a bit trite—"Honeycomb Canyon: Two words: True Solitude"—the notes really do help decipher the trail map. Here's a larger, more detailed trail map.

DOWNLOAD THE SOLITUDE TRAIL MAP HERE

Expert, Advanced: Solitude gets far less traffic than the Little Cottonwood Canyon resorts, so the dry Wasatch powder can stay untouched even two days after a storm. Experts should head straight to the Summit or Powderhorn chair. The double-diamonds are short, palm-sweating steeps through the trees, and even the single-diamonds don't leave much room for error. For longer runs, hike the ridge above Honeycomb Canyon. But check conditions first and never hike alone. The tree runs off of Eagle Ridge—Navarone and Here Be Dragons—are steep, tight, and sometimes set-up. Honeycomb Canyon is a great place for advanced skiers to hone powder skills. From the traverse, drop in wherever the pitch and powder looks right. Advanced skiers will also enjoy the bowl-like runs from the top of the Powderhorn chair; Paradise, Vertigo and Paradise Lost are open, airy, and leg-screaming steep. For offpiste terrain enthusiasts, the Queen Bess area north of the Honeycomb lift offers great powder skiing. For fast, steep corduroy—and it usually stays as untracked corduroy well into the day—head to the right off the Eagle Express, the first high-speed chairlift installed in Utah. Challenger is reportedly the steepest groomed run in Utah. Fast turns here are as close to freefalling as many of us want to get. Serenity/F.I.S. feels even steeper, with ungroomed moguls on one side to slow the freefalling feel. [TOP]

Intermediate: Intermediates have wonderful terrain to choose from. The Powderhorn and Eagle Express chairs have no green runs, just blue and black. If you're at the high end of the intermediate level, you'll like this terrain. If you're new to the intermediate level, try the Sunrise or Apex chairs. Sunshine Bowl is wide open and groomed, so you'll be carving some huge arcs on this one. Other places to let 'em rip: Rumble, Grumble and Stumble. Gary's Glade is a great introduction to glade skiing. You can duck in and out of the trees here. A hidden jewel of glades: the unnamed trees under the Apex chair. The Summit chair has upper-intermediate runs like Dynamite and Liberty. Eventually you'll meet the runs off the Sunrise chair, which head back to the base. Want a taste of the backcountry? Woodlawn is a marked run that follows the floor of Honeycomb Canyon. On the map it's rated black and blue. Check the grooming report before you head in: When groomed, it's a great advanced-intermediate run—otherwise, it's advanced all the way, with some hefty mogul fields and a short but extremely steep section that looks like it might be a small waterfall in the summer. It's thrilling to watch the higher-level skiers tackling the canyon sides. [TOP]

Beginner, First-timer: Novices start on the Link chair, a slow-moving lift that serves a nearly flat, very wide, isolated run called Easy Street. This is at the base of the New Moonbeam Lodge and the Snowsports Academy ski school, where all facilities are convenient for beginners. Look for Solitude's Director of Skiing, veteran Olympian Leif Grevie. He's always on site in a handsome Norwegian sweater providing gracious and helpful tips. Once you conquer the gentle Easy Street run off the Link chair, graduate to the Moonbeam chair, where Little Dollie, Pokey Pine and Same Street will easily take you back down to the base. The Sunrise chair, out of the Village at Solitude, has one green trail, North Star, surrounded by lots of gentle blues that afford variety. Don't worry about hotshots on your beginner trails. However, the green slopes tend to be crowded, so be aware of beginning skiers who might not always be in control. The Apex chair is a good place for advanced-beginners. All the trails are rated blue here, but they are gentle and some are wide open, so if grooming is good, advanced-beginners should have no trouble. [TOP]