Headlamp skiing is the newest nighttime thrill in the mountains

Brighton • Chelsey Kim pointed her snowboard down the aptly named Pioneer run at Brighton Resort and plunged into the darkness.

The stars, bright in a cloudless sky, and the dim residual glow of the resort’s night skiing operation located just over the next ridge did little to illuminate the undulations of the freshly groomed trail in front of her. Only slightly more effective was the small headlamp strapped to her helmet, clicked to its brightest setting. As she followed its yellow spotlight down the mountain with the black outline of pine trees rising up beside her she felt a mixture of fear and exhilaration.

“Everything is dark but your headlamp,” said Kim, 25, of Park City, “so it’s scary, but adrenaline scary.”

This is headlamp skiing, the newest animal in the quirky world of night skiing.

Brighton ran its first two-hour expedition Feb. 21. The resort will hold another Feb. 28 and, depending on demand, will consider extending the program another couple of weekends this season or setting up a few dates next winter.

The idea came from Brighton’s sister resort, Big Sky in Montana, which started headlamp tours as a way to make further use of a lift that was already serving a restaurant/lodge at the top of the mountain. They became popular enough that Brighton’s general manager decided to experiment with them.

[Read also: Shedding some light on night skiing, Utah resorts’ best-kept secret]

Ski school instructor Bill Novak helped implement the tour. Prior to taking it to customers, he spent several evenings in the dark woods at Brighton working out potential snags and tinkering with his personal mega-watt headlamp that he used while guiding one of the initial groups.

“It is a little more intense when it is kind of dark outside,” Novak said. “You can’t see things as clearly. Your comfort level isn't there where it normally is.”

Twelve skiers and snowboarders, divided into three guided groups of no more than five, took a shot in the dark on the maiden outing. Among them were Kim and her friend Jack Gahlman, a lifelong snowboarder and park rat from Heber City. Galhman purchased their tickets, at $49 each plus the cost of a lift ticket for non-passholders, after he saw the expedition advertised on Instagram. As experienced snowboarders, he said they were looking for a new thrill.

Despite cruising two runs that during the day they might have considered mundane — Sunshine, a green and Pioneer, a blue — they found one.

Gahlman said the excitement came from riding via instinct rather than vision.

“Honestly, I’m feeling the snow underneath me,” he said, describing the sensation. “You can just see a little tunnel in front of you, but you can also hear the wind and just all the elements of nature coming to you.

“It’s a different perspective on the mountain,” he added. “To see the stars at night and have that solo feeling when you’re on a groomer is really, really cool.”