January 30, 2005, Park City, Utah

Down here for a week of skiing. This is my first time skiing outside of Washington. Although the skiing here is great, I really appreciate the real mountains we have in Washington. <br><br>Today we did easy recreational skiing on the Park City Slopes. This ski area is vast. Fun to watch the hotdoggers in the terrain park. Crowds weren't bad. I read that the slopes are less crowded when the Sundance Film Festival is in session. <br><br>Weather is Winter cool, snow is piled up off the parking lots and streets are bone dry - free of snow and ice. Partly cloudy, some blue sky, some sun.<br><br>Snow is plentiful and groomers are perfect - hard to make a mistake here. It dawned on me that destination resort skiing makes it easy for folks that don't ski all the time. However, there is something for everyone here and it's all about having fun and playing on skis and boards. I just did some easy ripping of intermediate slopes. <br><br>Talking to a ski patroller... says he used to patrol Crystal Mt., said that lots of patrollers are pulling out of the Northwest and showing up down here and other Utah resorts. <br><br>Pretty sites: Snow falling through the city lights last night and seeing the sun shining down on Park City from high up on the slopes.

Traded Crystal Mt. for Park City? Must have pretty low expectations for terrain . . .

You should head over the pass, into the city, then up into either Little or Big Cottonwood Canyons. The best skiing in the continental US, imho, for quality of terrain, consistency of excellent snow and access. You pretty much can't go wrong with any other ski areas over there (Brighton to a lesser extent). Personal favorites - Solitude on a powder day and of course Alta. Snowbird has some excellent terrain too. Don't be persuaded by the joint ticket for Alta and Snowbird - it is very expensive and you can't possibly ski even one of these areas in a day, let alone two. Alta doesn't allow snowboarders, something to consider if you have boarders in your group. Enjoy!

LCC absolutely. I spent a season living in Sandy and got the goods on a regular basis. Park City is a different story.

I didn't bring any BC gear with me. I am down here with my wife for vacation and rec-skiing. So I am going to stick around Park City. And it is a lot of fun. <br><br>Yea, the terrain is not like the Cascades. However, the views from the top looking down on the town are spectacular.<br><br>Today (Monday) - Just got back from skiing Deer Valley. A beautiful sunshine and blue sky day. Great snow, perfectly groomed slopes. Deer Valley is vast. Both Park City and Deer Valley are a maze of runs. The DV slopes were fast, I can see where they can do some racing here. Every once in a while there are signs saying what Olympic Event took place there. DV doesen't allow snowboarders and there million dollar homes and condos lining the runs. I've talked to several Washington people here. Even though I am doing fine on my Pocket Rockets, these slopes are for carving skis - you could pretend to be "Downhill Racer".<br><br>If I can get a chance to ski by myself, I hope to find some ungroomed areas. I noticed some non-groomers at Deer Valley that looked inviting, but they were roped off. I was skiing down a cat track and noticed plenty of tracks that went over the side down into the trees. I didn't feel comfortable dropping into stuff where I couldn't see where I would be going.

I don't doubt that Park City is fun - I've had fun days skiing there in Jupiter Bowl. I even had a fun day way back when trying to learn to telemark at Deer Valley. But the Canyons are have a completely different feel - much more like Washington. Quite a bit more rugged, but enough intermediate terrain for a day of skiing. There are two ski areas in each canyon - Solitude and Brighton in Big CC, Alta and Snowbird in Little CC. Probably 1-1.5 hour drive from Park City, even though they are only a valley away (from the top of Park City, you should be able to see Solitude and Brighton, as Big CC is the next valley over). Alta is one of the most famous ski areas in the country and quite historic. If you rented a car, it's not a big deal - take I-80 toward Salt Lake, go south on I-215, follow the signs. If you didn't rent a car, then forget it.