The Crest 6 is Brighton’s first six-pack elevate and its first new elevate set up since 2007.
For the 2023-24 season, Utah’s Brighton ski resort accomplished its largest suite of capital investments in over a decade.
First off, the resort changed its workhorse Crest Specific quad with the brand-new, state-of-the-art Crest 6 six-pack. The brand new elevate comes with a loading carpet and makes use of up to date Doppelmayr D-Line know-how to permit for a sooner journey pace than conventional removable lifts.
Brighton’s path map, with the Crest 6 elevate highlighted in inexperienced and the Snake Creek Lodge location highlighted in orange.
As well as, Brighton added the Snake Creek Lodge—its first mid-mountain lodge ever. This facility introduced on-mountain seating with out forcing company to ski or trip all the way in which all the way down to certainly one of its bases for the primary time within the resort’s historical past.
On the floor, each of those tasks carry important expertise adjustments that look to make Brighton extra aggressive with different Utah locations. Nonetheless, each tasks have include a couple of caveats that restrict their total effectiveness—and don’t straight map to a greater total mountain expertise.
Maybe partially because of the new loading carpet, the Crest 6 solely masses from the skiers’ proper aspect of the elevate.
Expertise Modifications
Crest 6 Carry Improve
Brighton’s new Crest elevate may be probably the most superior chairlift within the Cottonwoods, with a easy trip, contoured seats, and a 20% sooner trip time than even the previous high-speed quad, which was no slouch itself. As well as, the six-place seating and wider chair spacing makes for extra environment friendly chairlift operations than the previous setup, with fewer misloads.
Nonetheless, the brand new Crest 6’s loading setup isn’t excellent. Slightly than the previous quad setup the place company might line up on each side of the elevate, the Crest 6 solely masses from the skiers’ proper aspect of the elevate, creating extra congestion on that aspect of the hill and making it extra of a slog to load the elevate if one is coming from the skiers’ left Milly zone. Company who instinctively ski or trip all the way down to the skiers’ left aspect of the elevate will probably be compelled to hike uphill to the loading space on the opposite aspect, which may be pretty annoying.
The Crest 6 elevate is 20% sooner than the previous quad, however its wider chair spacing implies that any capability improve is negligible.
As well as, whereas the Crest 6 may even see fewer misloads than the previous quad, its on-paper capability isn’t really any greater because of wider chair spacing. On high of that, Brighton’s lifties nonetheless haven’t found out how you can effectively handle a six-person queue, so at the very least as of the 2023-24 season, the resort has not persistently loaded chairs to capability. Because of these circumstances, the upgraded chair’s affect on elevate traces hasn’t been all that noticeable.
Lastly, whereas that is actually only a minor nitpick, the Crest 6’s huge LED backside terminal display screen does look a bit misplaced at this in any other case local-feeling resort.
The Snake Creek Lodge is positioned on an inconvenient hill that requires an uphill hike from most close by trails. When on the Snake Creek elevate loading space, it’s practically hidden from view (as seen within the above image).
Snake Creek Mid-Mountain Lodge
Brighton’s first ever mid-mountain facility ought to theoretically have made it quite a bit simpler to cease in for a break. Nonetheless, the lodge has plenty of design flaws that considerably restrict its practicality.
First off, the Snake Creek Lodge is positioned on a hill a number of ft above the primary path junction it serves, so it’s a ache to stand up there until you actually know what you’re doing. As well as, the lodge is only a lot smaller than the demand entails—even on off-peak weekdays, it may be powerful to discover a seat. Much more irritating is the lavatory scenario—there are solely six stalls in the complete facility, and on busy days, you may be ready longer to make use of them than for the precise chairlifts.
The meals at Brighton’s new Snake Creek Lodge is fairly good, however restricted seating and loo entry damage the power’s effectiveness.
Lastly, Brighton has paired its new mid-mountain lodge with the conversion of its Milly cafeteria right into a full service restaurant. Whereas there’s nonetheless an outside shack on the base of Milly, you may’t sit inside and heat up anymore until you do a sit-down lunch, which may be actually irritating should you’re spending time on this remoted space on a chilly day.
The meals on the Snake Creek Lodge is de facto good—and seating capability opens up a bit when it’s good sufficient to sit down exterior—however total, it doesn’t really feel like Brighton’s on-mountain facility setup has improved all that a lot.
Brighton has paired its new mid-mountain lodge with the conversion of its Milly base cafeteria right into a full-service restaurant, that means company can’t go inside and heat up anymore with out ordering a sit-down meal.
Ultimate Ideas
Whereas Brighton’s Crest 6 and Snake Creek Lodge tasks might look flashy, they in the end fall brief with regards to addressing the resort’s largest points: crowd administration and a awful on-mountain facility setup. Don’t get us incorrect, these enhancements do have some very tangible advantages—but it surely appears like they’ve come paired with quite a few flaws which can be misplaced for such substantial capital investments. Coupled with the weekend and vacation paid parking coverage that the resort launched this previous winter, these hoping for a much-improved expertise at Brighton this previous winter might have ended up a bit disillusioned.
Contemplating a ski journey to Brighton this 12 months? Try our full Utah rankings, in addition to our complete Brighton evaluation. You too can take a look at our evaluation of the foremost 2022-23 ski resort improve tasks in video kind under.
