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Originally Posted by RISkier  How did you like The Canyons in comparison to Deer Valley. When we were there, we actually liked The Canyons better. I was surprised. I need to go back to DV and give it another chance. |
Depends on what you're looking for. I have close to 15 days now at both The Canyons and Deer Valley over the last almost 10 years. I really like each place. My wife and I now will typically ski at the Canyons early in our week out in Utah and at Deer Valley late in the week (now that we're bringing our young kids with us, our kidless days of skiing at 6 different Utah resorts in 6 days are done for a few years - atleast until the kids get out of daycare/early ski school).
I love the HUGE amount of trees and steeps at The Canyons. There's so much acreage of really good terrain that it's real easy to find untracked snow on great terrain for days after a storm. On the flipside a decent portion of this great terrain has a Southerly exposure and is susceptable to getting some "crust" if the sun comes out
Also, getting up on the hill in the AM (for now atleast) can be a pain with the lines that build for The Flight of The Canyons Gondola. Apparently, one of the 1st things that the new MGT there (Talisker) will be taking care of is putting in a 2nd base area Gondola from out back of the Westgate/ Sundial Lodge properties(the buildings to the left of you as your getting off the Cabriolet in the AM) upto the base of the Tombstone 6 pack - this will not only help things in the AM, but will allow you not to have to traverse back and forth in the AM to get out to Dreamscape/Dreamcatcher areas and then get back to Redpine late day to head back to the base area.
Deer Valley - The more and more I ski there, the more I find new things that I like about it(ontop of the already big lists of likes I have for it) The way they cut the trails there, especially on Bald Mtn, and how they groom them to perfection make for just about as good a high speed GS experience you can get. Plus, there steeps and trees are WAY underrated and uncrowded and hold fresh snow for days after a storm. Another thing that goes without saying is that when you take a break and get a bite to eat, the food is OUTSTANDING! The lift system at Deer Vally DEFINATELY beats The Canyons current lift system. Deer Valley on the flipside, can get crowded(especially on Bald and Flagstaff Mtns)and in someplaces on the mountain you almost feel like you're skiing through a valley of townhomes rather than out in nature.
If you forced me to choose between the 2, it would be a tough choice, but I'd probably pick Deer Valley