Park City Mountain and Canyons Resort, UT 11/23/12

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Day 6: Groomed cruising

With some of our ski posse out of town for the holidays and others working, I was going to be skiing by myself today. Given that I figured that I'd head to the Park City resorts for a change of scenery and to see what's going on over there.

First up was Park City Mountain Resort, which has open Homerun off of the Bonanza summit, Homerun and Treasure Run off of PayDay, plus the First Time bunny slope and the 3 Kings terrain park. Surfaces were decent for manmade snow, and while there was some human slalom involved at times people came in waves so you could just pull over and wait for a gap in traffic if you wanted more elbow room.

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I then went over to Canyons for a few runs on their opening day. They have basically two runs open off Saddleback/High Meadow: Snow Dancer, and Kokopelli/Painted Horse/The Meadow, with uploading and downloading via the Red Pine Gondola.

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The lifts at Park City were basically ski-on. By contrast, Saddleback at Canyons developed a fairly healthy liftline.

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Coverage was a bit less at Canyons than at Park City, and surfaces were more granular in nature. Some water bars, particularly on Snow Dancer weren't quite filled in. Painted Horse skied the best.

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I headed home after a few runs.
 
jamesdeluxe":1xw3asct said:
No fancy-pants cuisine at Marc C's afterwards?
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Karen limits my invitation quota to once per calendar year. I should be good to go again after January 1.
 
I can't say I'm surprised by this report, but the difference between the Cottonwood Canyons and the Park City group in early/late season is like night and day. Anyone who flies into SLC and chooses to stay in Park City before Christmas or after March 15 is just plain ignorant IMHO.
 
Tony Crocker":19cak0io said:
Anyone who flies into SLC and chooses to stay in Park City before Christmas or after March 15 is just plain ignorant IMHO.
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Whoa now, that's a rather broad, sweeping statement, don't you think? Some folks have different priorities than you do and you seem to have a hard time remembering that sometimes.

For example, I rode Bonanza with a man and his pre-teen son who flew in from Burbank. His wife and daughter were skiing/riding PayDay. All were decidedly intermediate.

I was curious about what brought them here, so I started asking questions which he was more than happy to answer. He found on eBay someone who sold him their timeshare in the Marriott right next to the base of PayDay for $75 per night - unit price. He said they do it every year or two over Thanksgiving, and while he recalled much better snow two years ago they were nonetheless having a great time.

They were skiing, they were staying slopeside and able to walk downtown Main Street. They wanted to get out of Dodge, stay in a ski town for the atmosphere and ski a few groomers for a relative bargain price. They found what they were looking for, and it's a combination that the Cottonwood areas simply don't offer because Park City is Utah's only true ski town. He also noted that he could fly here in less time than it would take him to drive to Mammoth, which was another priority for him. He had no interest in driving to the Wasatch Front for more snow and more open terrain.

His priorities were different than yours. That doesn't make them wrong, and certainly not "ignorant." He knew full well what he was getting and he was perfectly happy with it.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II using Tapatalk 2
 
jamesdeluxe":3n69kqq5 said:
No fancy-pants cuisine at Marc C's afterwards?
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We left for Vegas on Friday morning and just got back about a half hour ago (and I'm still too wired after 5-1/2 hrs of 80+mph driving, hence this post).
Dinner Friday night was at Tom Colicchio's CraftSteak at the MGM Grand. http://www.mgmgrand.com/restaurants/craftsteak-steak-house.aspx and http://www.craftrestaurantsinc.com/craftsteak-las-vegas/

Because it was hideously expensive, we called it my birthday dinner. The primary reason we were there though was....

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/40622571[/vimeo]

Our 19th time over the past 30 years seeing the nice boys from Toronto.

No, we didn't gamble at all (other than the gamble that simply being in Vegas entails).
 
Marc_C":nxxa3eic said:
Our 19th time over the past 30 years seeing the nice boys from Toronto.
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I saw them on the Hemispheres, Permanent Waves, and Moving Pictures tours. Who woulda thunk that they'd be playing real venues three decades after their commercial peak?
 
Dinner Friday night was at Tom Colicchio's CraftSteak at the MGM Grand.
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I ate at Craft in NYC around 5yrs ago. I was very disappointed in the food and the heinous price..

I'm a big Rush fan and also a big fan of Neil Perts writing. Pert has a hell of a story to tell..
 
jasoncapecod":21080la6 said:
Neil Pert has a hell of a story to tell.
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Spelled "Peart," pronounced "Peert" =; and that's ^^ an understatement.

I wonder if Neil is still an Ayn Rand fan after the recent jibba jabba by our friend Paul Ryan.
 
Admin":2hryth4y said:
Tony Crocker":2hryth4y said:
Anyone who flies into SLC and chooses to stay in Park City before Christmas or after March 15 is just plain ignorant IMHO.
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Whoa now, that's a rather broad, sweeping statement, don't you think? Some folks have different priorities than you do and you seem to have a hard time remembering that sometimes.

(snip)

His priorities were different than yours. That doesn't make them wrong, and certainly not "ignorant." He knew full well what he was getting and he was perfectly happy with it.
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Great response Admin!

Why were the lift lines so much longer at The Canyons?
 
Sorry, getting on an airplane to ski the WROD makes no sense to me unless you're completely price insensitive. They could have had the same ski experience at Big Bear. Now if you're an addict like Patrick and want to ski all the time, that's a different scenario. But if you're destination skiing at Thanksgiving and NOT in every month January to March I will continue to define that as ignorance.
 
I agree with Tony about thanksgiving, but disagree strongly with the after march 15th statement. My experience says there is still plenty worthwhile to ski in the park city group of mountains late season (hardly WROD).
 
My experience says there is still plenty worthwhile to ski in the park city group of mountains late season (hardly WROD).
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No it's not the WROD, but it's pretty sloppy most of the time after March 15. You were with me at Deer Valley March 31, 2011 and then the next day at Snowbird and the difference in snow conditions was huge.

My observation is that intermediate skiers are more sensitive to variable or challenging snow conditions than advanced skiers. The Park City group has great terrain for intermediates but best viewed as a core of the season (mid-January to mid-March) destination. Later than that Mammoth, Bachelor and most Colorado resorts are much better intermediate destinations, as well as LCC and BCC.
 
Tony Crocker":1sduvvmi said:
No it's not the WROD, but it's pretty sloppy most of the time after March 15. You were with me at Deer Valley March 31, 2011 and then the next day at Snowbird and the difference in snow conditions was huge.

My observation is that intermediate skiers are more sensitive to variable or challenging snow conditions than advanced skiers. The Park City group has great terrain for intermediates but best viewed as a core of the season (mid-January to mid-March) destination. Later than that Mammoth, Bachelor and most Colorado resorts are much better intermediate destinations, as well as LCC and BCC.
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Fair enough, but conditions aren't the only factor that make the experience. Nix was scared stiff on Snowbird, although she was happy at Alta (actually she loved Alta).

That being said, you are right about Colorado, she would've enjoyed Breck, but that would've cost quite a bit more in airfare, time, lodgings, and lift tix.
 
Snowbird is generally a terrible choice for beginners and not a great one for low intermediates. My personal observation of Nix skiing was that she was well above the level of skiers who do not belong at Snowbird.
 
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