Day 26: Blue skies, warm sun
Tony Crocker and I headed over to Deer Valley for Sunday. I've admittedly only skied there once since moving here four years ago now, so I was long overdue for a visit.
Deer Valley does what it does extremely well. Customer service is second to none. Ditto for the food. Miles and miles of groomed cruisers are lined everywhere...and I mean everywhere...with slopeside lodging ranging from hotels to condos to $25 million trophy homes.
What I hadn't counted on, however, were the crowds on the trails. In past years, Sundance was a prime time to visit neighboring Park City Mountain Resort because even though the town was packed, the slopes were empty. Not so with Deer Valley.
Why? I've got a couple of theories. Perhaps it's because so many Sundance attendees rent houses at Deer Valley. Maybe their target demographic fits most closely with the typical Sundance attendee. Whatever the reason, though, while liftlines were minimal to non-existent thanks to Deer Valley's ample uphill capacity, many runs featured the human slalom, which isn't likely to be admitted as an Olympic event any time soon. Not unexpectedly, trails directly beneath or within sight of lifts were the most crowded, often with a nearly deserted run right next to it.
With all of that traffic, many of Deer Valley's famed corduroy cruisers were worn down to the scratchy man-made base by mid-afternoon. It's admittedly been a challenging weather week here in Utah, but surfaces felt inordinately scratchy to me. Maybe it's just me, for some chair companions disagreed with my assessment. Most off-piste areas were too stiff to be pleasant, including what we found during an ill-conceived foray into Ontario Bowl.
Food, as always, was to die for, including a grilled salmon filet on ciabatta bread for lunch at Empire Canyon Lodge.
We spent most of the day working from one end of the resort to the other. The new Lady Morgan Express has some truly "sporting" lines directly beneath the chair. The Daly Chutes are as steep a bit of terrain as you're likely to find anywhere, although there was still some vegetation poking up here and there, and midway down they were speckled with sharp bumps, not something I was looking for with tired legs and skis with a 32m turning radius. We even got down to the base of the Jordanelle Gondola, gawking all the while at the trophy homes with their own private ski runs (complete with snowmaking and grooming).
The mountaintop St. Regis Deer Crest hotel under development is mind-blowing, complete with a funicular railway that will connect the hotel with Deer Valley's Snow Park base area below.
Views from Stein's Way on Bald Mt. stretched as far as the eye could see.
Tony finished up with a trip through the bumps in Empire Bowl as I took a cruiser before working our way back to Snow Park by 3:30.
All in all it was a very good day, albeit quite different from the other Utah experience. For those looking for luxury and comfort, Deer Valley delivers in spades.
Tony Crocker and I headed over to Deer Valley for Sunday. I've admittedly only skied there once since moving here four years ago now, so I was long overdue for a visit.
Deer Valley does what it does extremely well. Customer service is second to none. Ditto for the food. Miles and miles of groomed cruisers are lined everywhere...and I mean everywhere...with slopeside lodging ranging from hotels to condos to $25 million trophy homes.
What I hadn't counted on, however, were the crowds on the trails. In past years, Sundance was a prime time to visit neighboring Park City Mountain Resort because even though the town was packed, the slopes were empty. Not so with Deer Valley.
Why? I've got a couple of theories. Perhaps it's because so many Sundance attendees rent houses at Deer Valley. Maybe their target demographic fits most closely with the typical Sundance attendee. Whatever the reason, though, while liftlines were minimal to non-existent thanks to Deer Valley's ample uphill capacity, many runs featured the human slalom, which isn't likely to be admitted as an Olympic event any time soon. Not unexpectedly, trails directly beneath or within sight of lifts were the most crowded, often with a nearly deserted run right next to it.
With all of that traffic, many of Deer Valley's famed corduroy cruisers were worn down to the scratchy man-made base by mid-afternoon. It's admittedly been a challenging weather week here in Utah, but surfaces felt inordinately scratchy to me. Maybe it's just me, for some chair companions disagreed with my assessment. Most off-piste areas were too stiff to be pleasant, including what we found during an ill-conceived foray into Ontario Bowl.
Food, as always, was to die for, including a grilled salmon filet on ciabatta bread for lunch at Empire Canyon Lodge.
We spent most of the day working from one end of the resort to the other. The new Lady Morgan Express has some truly "sporting" lines directly beneath the chair. The Daly Chutes are as steep a bit of terrain as you're likely to find anywhere, although there was still some vegetation poking up here and there, and midway down they were speckled with sharp bumps, not something I was looking for with tired legs and skis with a 32m turning radius. We even got down to the base of the Jordanelle Gondola, gawking all the while at the trophy homes with their own private ski runs (complete with snowmaking and grooming).
The mountaintop St. Regis Deer Crest hotel under development is mind-blowing, complete with a funicular railway that will connect the hotel with Deer Valley's Snow Park base area below.
Views from Stein's Way on Bald Mt. stretched as far as the eye could see.
Tony finished up with a trip through the bumps in Empire Bowl as I took a cruiser before working our way back to Snow Park by 3:30.
All in all it was a very good day, albeit quite different from the other Utah experience. For those looking for luxury and comfort, Deer Valley delivers in spades.
