Deer Valley 3/5

[drjeff]

Resort Deer Valley

Date 3/5

Conditions On/Off sun and snow squalls

Report

Ahhh, Deer Valley. One of the resorts that truely seems to bring out the love/hate thing in many folks. Personally, I LOVE the place, and today just added to my love of Deer Valley! The weather today was low to mid 20's and literally about every 30 minutes all day long it would cycle between sunny and snowing. FABULOUS snow all over the place. There's more snow on the ground here than I've ever seen at this point of the season in the almost 10 years I've been coming out to Utah. Even "down low" by the base of the Jordanelle Gondola the resting snowpack ontop of various bridge abutments/electrical power boxes is well over 4 feet, and uptop the roads that they clear for all the folks with ALOT of $$$$$ to access their huge houses are lined by 8 to 10 foot high banks cut by the giant snowblowers they use for the roads that aren't heated.

The snow today ranged from perfect crusing soft corduroy all the way to almost knee deep, still untouched powder from a few days ago in the trees Anybody that bashes DV as being a wimpy groomers mountain just plain has never skied this place. I spent most of my day skiing all over the upper lifts (Mayflower, Wasatch, Sterling, Empire and the new this year Lady Morgan) in trees and bowls with hardly a person around (except my wife) to enjoy the terrain! The new this year Lady Morgan Express area (basically adjacent to the Empire Lodge and running maybe 1/2 way up the Empire Express liftline and then extending past the Empire lodge towards the area where the base of the Northside Express is) has just some flat out fun expert terrain. I took a good half dozen runs in the trees of Centennial there, and can't wait to get back in those trees tommorrow to enjoy the couple of inches of fresh that started falling here around 3:30PM.

The coolest part of the day though for my wife and I had to be seeing the reaction of our 4 year old daughter this afternoon when we picked her up from her ski program to ski with us for a few runs. Because it's not very crowded out here this week, and my daughter's skiing ability was more advanced than the rest of the 4 year olds in the program today (at Deer Valley their Kids programs for the 3 to 5 year olds are age specific - i.e. 3 year old ski with 3 year olds, 4 year olds with 4 year olds, etc and each has their own HUGE activities room too), her "group" lesson that came with her program turned into a 2.5 hour private lesson! When my wife and I picked my daughter up, the first words out of her mouth were "Daddy I want to go ski the pow pow in the trees with you and Mommy!" absolutely priceless as in no way shape or form would she have said this when we dropped her off this AM!

Going to be a chilly first couple of runs tommorrow AM as when I'm typing this, the local temp in Park City is about 5, and currently as I look out the window there's hardly a cloud in the sky. Back to Deer Valley again tommorrow!

[Talisman]

Deer Valley is a guilty pleasure of mine. Each trip to Utah my wife insists we go to Deer Valley one day so she can rip steep corduroy for a day. I fake reluctance and indulge her as she is good about spending a lot of time in LCC, BCC, Powder Mtn and at Snow Basin which I prefer. I always have fun in the nooks, crannies, trees, bowls and on the groomers at Deer Valley. The lack of competition for fresh snow is a constant source of amazement. Have a blast Doctah!

[drjeff]

Originally Posted by Talisman

Deer Valley is a guilty pleasure of mine. Each trip to Utah my wife insists we go to Deer Valley one day so she can rip steep corduroy for a day. I fake reluctance and indulge her as she is good about spending a lot of time in LCC, BCC, Powder Mtn and at Snow Basin which I prefer. I always have fun in the nooks, crannies, trees, bowls and on the groomers at Deer Valley. The lack of competition for fresh snow is a constant source of amazement. Have a blast Doctah!

5" of fresh this AM up in Empire Canyon - my wife and I were still getting untracked 30+ turn lines right down under the chairlift just before noon! I don't feel guilty anymore about DV, it's just too good!

Report to follow later

[MonkeyBrook]

Loved DV, first trip there this year. Normally ski the BCC and LCC resort. The buffet at Stein Erikson lodge is not to be missed. One of the better all around skiing experiences I have ever had.

[kingslug]

It's safe to say that no matter where I have gone in Utah it was always epic. I was skiing boiler plate at Squaw Valley when you where in powder!!!!

[drjeff]

Originally Posted by kingslug

It's safe to say that no matter where I have gone in Utah it was always epic. I was skiing boiler plate at Squaw Valley when you where in powder!!!!

The weather week my family had this year was particularly good, and as we were talking about it on the plane ride home yesterday, my wife and I both thought that overall this was the best weather week we had in the almost 10 years we've been going to Utah. We had just over a foot and a half on snow(mainly at night) - lots of nice sunny days, and nice temps - cold enough to keep the snow nice and yet not too cold so that you needed to break out LOTS of layers!

[ccskier]

I was also out there this week. Two days at Solitude, 1 at Alta and then a Atla/Snowbird day on Friday. Skied Tues-Friday and took the red eye home Friday night. Was my first time skiing in Utah. Have to say that I was impressed that we were still getting fresh turns even 3+ days after the snow with not too much work. Of the three resorts I visited, I have to say that Solitude was my favorite. They have a lot to offer and I think is sometimes overlooked.