Utah

Time to go skiing!

Five Mountains, Two Cities, and One Injury

08/02/2014: Welcome to Utah

We are staying in Park City Utah for the next couple of weeks.
We have met up with Mum and Dad and some family friends and will be hitting a few mountains around Park City and Salt Lake City. I can’t wait to get started!

Unlike a lot of Ski Resorts, Park City is a good sized town in the ski fields with lots of shops and restaurants. There are also free buses to get around the valley.

We had a bit of a stressful time getting here. Our flight from London to San Francisco was delayed and when we finally arrived, we arrived at the same time as four other international flights so it took to hours to get through customs. We had to sprint from the International to the Domestic terminals and across the tarmac to our plane (which was luckily delayed as well).
Finally after 6 months separation we finally got to see Mum and Dad! There were a lot of tears and hugging and cheering from other passengers on the plane.
Unfortunately my suitcase didn’t make it onto the plane but it was put on the next flight to Utah and arrived at the apartment at 2am the next morning.

Mountain One: Park City

Our first mountain is Park City . It was one of the mountains used to host the 2002 Winter Olympics and there are still Olympic Slalom courses up that you can go and test your skills in.

Park City statistics:

• Base elevation: 6,900 feet (2,103 m)
• Summit elevation: 10,000 feet (3,048 m)
• Vertical rise: 3,100 feet (945 m)
• Total mountain peaks: 8
• Total skiable area: 7,300 acres (29.5 km2)
• Average Annual Snowfall: 365 inches (930 cm)

One of the lifts up to the Ski Field was a five minute walk from our apartment and there was a bridge that you could ski across to get back to the apartment in the evenings.

Mountain Two: Deer Valley

The second resort we skied was Deer Valley, a skiers only resort in the same Valley as Park City. We couldn’t walk to the chair lifts from the apartment but there is a free bus that goes there from down the road. Deer Valley is were the rich come to play as it is a very high end ski resort with price tags to match.

It was cool to ski a skiers only resort as it is more set up for skiers, as opposed to trying to cater for both skiers and snowboarders. This means more rope rows and flat areas between lifts and terrain.

Deer Valley statistics:

• Base elevation: 6,570 ft (2,000 m)
• Summit elevation: 9,570 ft (2,920 m)
• Vertical rise: 3,000 ft (910 m)
• Total mountain peaks: 1
• Total Skiable area: 2,026 acres (820 ha)
• Average Annual Snowfall: 300 inches (760 cm)

Mountain Three: Snowbird

Today we hit our first mountain in Salt Lake City, Snowbird. Snowbird is one of the steepest mountains that I have ever skied on. The learners slope is steep enough to require people controlling the speed of skiers down it.

There is an Aerial Tram that runs between the two peaks of the mountains and a tunnel that runs through the mountain to the other side.

The interesting part of the day was when a thunder storm rolled in when we were at the top of the mountain, we had to get down but they had shut all the lifts (for obvious reasons). Luckily we had a guide with us that got us down safely.

We also saw a porcupine in a tree, I had no idea porcupines even lived in trees!

Snowbird statistics:

• Base elevation: 7,760 ft (2,365 m)
• Summit elevation: 11,000 ft (3,353 m)
• Vertical rise: 3,240 ft (988 m)
• Total Mountain Peaks: 2
• Total Skiable area: 2,500 acres (1012 ha)
• Average Annual Snowfall: 500 in (1,270 cm)

Mountain Four: Brighton

Our second Salt Lake City Mountain was Brighton resort.
Brighton is the smallest of the mountains that we have skied, half the size of Deer Valley and a seventh of the size of Park City. It snowed hard today. We were covered in snow by the time we got to the top of each lift and almost couldn’t see where we were skiing. Every run was a fresh tracks run as the snow was filling in between runs.

Brighton statistics:

• Base elevation: 8,755 feet (2,669 m)
• Summit elevation: 10,750 feet (3,280 m)
• Vertical rise: 1,750 feet (530 m)
• Total Mountain Peaks: 1
• Total Skiable area 1050 acres (425 ha)
• Average Annual Snowfall: 500 in (1,270 cm)

Mountain Five: Alta

Our last mountain of the holiday and our second skier’s only mountain.
We are back in Salt Lake City at Alta. The layout of Alta is very wide and there are a lot of rope tows to take you across the flats, you can see why they dont want snowboarders.

We had a great day until Mum crashed bad enough to require a lift down the mountain from the very friendly ski patrol. Luckily we are at the end of the trip because there won’t be any more skiing for Mum.

Alta statistics:

• Base elevation: 8,530 ft (2,600 m)
• Summit elevation: 10,550 ft (3,216 m)
• Vertical rise: 2,020 ft (616 m)
• Total Skiable area 2,200 acres (890 ha)
• Average Annual Snowfall: 514 in (1,305 cm)

American Extras

Of course now trip would be complete without a few extras off the slopes as well so went to a Hockey game, themost American Outdoor Store Ever, Snow Mobiling, and Tubing.

We have had an awesome time in Utah, can’t wait to go home to NZ now though!