Powder Mountain

SNOWBASIN -- While many shoppers arose well before the crack of dawn today to take advantage of Black Friday shopping deals, Marshall McGonegal and his friends opted for Black Thursday.

McGonegal, of Eden, was first in line to board the Needles Gondola at Snowbasin as it opened its lifts for the 2011-12 season -- his reward for arriving at the resort around 3:30 a.m. Thursday.

Now even its bathrooms are turning heads, with the Italian marble day lodge restrooms recently voted top five in the U.S.

Plenty has changed since the 2002 Winter Games put Utah's ski industry on the map.

The state's 14 resorts have undergone roughly a billion dollars in improvements, from high-speed lifts and bubble chairs to the construction of high-end global hotels such as the Montage Deer Valley and Waldorf Astoria Park City.

OGDEN -- The family of a Nevada teen killed on the steep approach road to Powder Mountain Ski Resort two years ago has sued the resort for wrongful death.

Tanner Krahenbuhl, 16, of Henderson, Nev., was pronounced dead at the scene of the Aug. 30, 2009, accident when the brakes went out on the motor home he was riding in and it crashed near 6910 E. 6800 North

EDEN — A motocross rider practicing for this weekend’s racing at Powder Mountain died Thursday when he crashed and sustained serious injuries.

Dylan Perkins, 16, had traveled from his hometown of Surprise, Ariz., to Eden for the third annual Monster Energy Powder Mountain Motocross racing event. The ski resort transformed its ski runs into a motocross stadium for a full weekend schedule of events.

Thursday was designated as a warm-up time for riders. The teenager was in his third practice lap on the track when, at 11 a.m., he took a serious spill.

EDEN -- They've got a lot of snow and a big hill.

OGDEN -- The storm that blew through the Top of Utah on Thursday inconvenienced thousands of residents and at least several drivers.