elks
Member
I was on business in San Francisco last week and on the way back to Boston, I did a quick stop in Salt Lake City. My flight arrived in Salt Lake City at 8:30AM so I took advantage of the free skiing with the Quick Start program (register in advance & simply present your boarding pass and out-of-state drivers license to receive a free lift ticket at Park City, the Canyons, or Deer Valley). I rented a small car from Advantage for $13/day and headed up to Deer Valley and was on the slopes by 10AM.
I had my boots, but had to rent skis. Unfortunately, at the Snow Park Lodge you only have one option provided by the Deer Valley itself. They only showcase Rossignol skis and only had two expert packages (S3 or e88) and the prices are frightening (over $60 for skis alone). I tried the S3, but ended up with the wrong size and completely overpowered the skis. When I arrived at Silver Lake Lodge (several non-Deer Valley rental shops exists at this location), I went to the rental shop to get a taller pair. It has to be said that service at Deer Valley is exceptional. They have mountain hosts all over the mountain and every service person greets you with a big smile.
After that I headed off for a day of bluebird skiing and warmish temperatures. The mountain had received 10-15" a few days before so it was in pretty good shape. I was certainly amused by the "thin cover" signs, which resulted in ungroomed runs with snow up to your calves. People complained of "icy" conditions on ungroomed surfaces, but to this New Englander I didn't see anything that even resembled ice.
Deer Valley is a weird resort made up of many peaks and frankly most are very similar. There isn't a lot of diversity and every mountain feels quite similar to the previous one. The only peak with a noticeably different terrain topography is the Empire Peak and hosts the some of the more expert terrain located in the Daly area. Accessibly by a short traverse from the Empire Express chair, the Daly area is steeper and more technical terrain with several chutes to choose from. The snow was pretty chopped up, deep, and messy (this was referred to as "icy" by the locals).
After Daly, I trekked back to Silve Lake Lodge for lunch. The food options are very good and you certainly aren't limited to burgers and chili bowls. What a change! I finished the day skiing various glades and ungroomed runs. A real pleasure. The resort was pretty busy for a Friday (especially on blue and green groomers). Maybe because they were hosting the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup. However, I never had to wait more than 30 seconds for a lift so their lift systems moves people around the mountain pretty efficiently. At the end of the day, I stopped to watch the men's aerial qualifications. I'm not sure what possesses these guys to want to do what they do... It's one of those thrills I'll never understand... And that's okay.
On Saturday, after staying at a friend's house overnight, I rented skis from Christy Sports, which had an extensive selection and downright great prices ($28 for last season's demo skis or a little bit more for this season's demos). I decided to head to Solitude, which I had only skied once before in a heavy snow storm. With bright blues skis and zero wind, it felt like a brand new resort. Solitude reminded me of Snowbird on a smaller scale, but with a similar range of very varied and easily discoverable terrain (if you don't have a local to show you around, you are still going to find some really great terrain off the groomers). After a few groomers to get a feel for the new rentals (K2 Aftershocks), I headed through the gates at the top of the Powderhorn chair to the steep glades of Middle Slope, Parachute, and Milk Run. Not too sure, which one I went down, but it looked like this:
After exploring that area, I took the Summit chair to Honeycomb Canyon, which had some really great runs in the area of Voltaire and Princes of Wales. Really fun and diverse terrain. After taking the Honeycomb Return chair, I ventured to do the Queens Bee glades, which still had lots of powder and ended up being surprisingly steeper than double diamonds in other parts of the mountain considering it was noted as a single diamond run, I believe. Halfway through the run, I took a nice 360 fall as I started skiing after a short pause to catch my breathe. Luckily the snow was so deep that I didn't start tumbling down the very steep slope and just found myself buried deep in powder. One annoyance about Queens Bee glade is that it ends on the Honeycomb Return traverse. And where I exited had a 6 feet high unstable bank with landing onto a totally flat traverse. Feels great on your knees.
I had to call it a day by 2PM in order to catch an afternoon flight back to Boston.
Utah remains one of my favorite places to ski and when you luck out with the sunny warm weather, it's really a slice of paradise.
I had my boots, but had to rent skis. Unfortunately, at the Snow Park Lodge you only have one option provided by the Deer Valley itself. They only showcase Rossignol skis and only had two expert packages (S3 or e88) and the prices are frightening (over $60 for skis alone). I tried the S3, but ended up with the wrong size and completely overpowered the skis. When I arrived at Silver Lake Lodge (several non-Deer Valley rental shops exists at this location), I went to the rental shop to get a taller pair. It has to be said that service at Deer Valley is exceptional. They have mountain hosts all over the mountain and every service person greets you with a big smile.
After that I headed off for a day of bluebird skiing and warmish temperatures. The mountain had received 10-15" a few days before so it was in pretty good shape. I was certainly amused by the "thin cover" signs, which resulted in ungroomed runs with snow up to your calves. People complained of "icy" conditions on ungroomed surfaces, but to this New Englander I didn't see anything that even resembled ice.
Deer Valley is a weird resort made up of many peaks and frankly most are very similar. There isn't a lot of diversity and every mountain feels quite similar to the previous one. The only peak with a noticeably different terrain topography is the Empire Peak and hosts the some of the more expert terrain located in the Daly area. Accessibly by a short traverse from the Empire Express chair, the Daly area is steeper and more technical terrain with several chutes to choose from. The snow was pretty chopped up, deep, and messy (this was referred to as "icy" by the locals).
After Daly, I trekked back to Silve Lake Lodge for lunch. The food options are very good and you certainly aren't limited to burgers and chili bowls. What a change! I finished the day skiing various glades and ungroomed runs. A real pleasure. The resort was pretty busy for a Friday (especially on blue and green groomers). Maybe because they were hosting the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup. However, I never had to wait more than 30 seconds for a lift so their lift systems moves people around the mountain pretty efficiently. At the end of the day, I stopped to watch the men's aerial qualifications. I'm not sure what possesses these guys to want to do what they do... It's one of those thrills I'll never understand... And that's okay.
On Saturday, after staying at a friend's house overnight, I rented skis from Christy Sports, which had an extensive selection and downright great prices ($28 for last season's demo skis or a little bit more for this season's demos). I decided to head to Solitude, which I had only skied once before in a heavy snow storm. With bright blues skis and zero wind, it felt like a brand new resort. Solitude reminded me of Snowbird on a smaller scale, but with a similar range of very varied and easily discoverable terrain (if you don't have a local to show you around, you are still going to find some really great terrain off the groomers). After a few groomers to get a feel for the new rentals (K2 Aftershocks), I headed through the gates at the top of the Powderhorn chair to the steep glades of Middle Slope, Parachute, and Milk Run. Not too sure, which one I went down, but it looked like this:
After exploring that area, I took the Summit chair to Honeycomb Canyon, which had some really great runs in the area of Voltaire and Princes of Wales. Really fun and diverse terrain. After taking the Honeycomb Return chair, I ventured to do the Queens Bee glades, which still had lots of powder and ended up being surprisingly steeper than double diamonds in other parts of the mountain considering it was noted as a single diamond run, I believe. Halfway through the run, I took a nice 360 fall as I started skiing after a short pause to catch my breathe. Luckily the snow was so deep that I didn't start tumbling down the very steep slope and just found myself buried deep in powder. One annoyance about Queens Bee glade is that it ends on the Honeycomb Return traverse. And where I exited had a 6 feet high unstable bank with landing onto a totally flat traverse. Feels great on your knees.
I had to call it a day by 2PM in order to catch an afternoon flight back to Boston.
Utah remains one of my favorite places to ski and when you luck out with the sunny warm weather, it's really a slice of paradise.
