Park City Mountain Resort Blog

Visa Freestyle World Cup International

The Visa Freestyle International World Cup kicks off today with events at Deer Valley through Saturday, a free concert with Michael Franti and Spearhead on lower Main Street tonight at 7:00pm (fireworks at 9:00pm) and superpipe ski action here at Park City Mountain Resort in our Eagle Superpipe on Saturday from 9:30am - 1:30pm. See our events page for more details and be sure to come up and check out the action - it's all FREE!!!
BTW, I saw Michael Franti at our Music on the Mountain concert a few seasons ago, he puts on an amazing show!

Bonanza Lift will be Closed Tuesday and Wednesday

First let me say that the snow is absolutely amazing! It has snowed more than a foot in the last 24 hours and it is continuing to dump. It's about time we have a good size storm. The forecast is calling for accumulation totals of 24-36 inches by tomorrow afternoon! Did someone say powder days?!! Take a look at our mountain cams to see for yourself.

I wanted to let you know that Bonanza Lift will be closed this Tuesday and Wednesday for maintenance. Our observant lift maintenance team noticed an uncharacteristic vibration in the gearbox of Bonanza lift, which appears to be a manufacturing issue. As part of preventative maintenance and to mitigate any future problems, our lift maintenance team has implemented a plan of action to replace the existing gearbox with a new one.

As you can imagine, this is a very extensive process, which is why we have to close the lift for two days. Luckily with the new Crescent lift this shouldn't impact the way you navigate the mountain too much. Of course, you will want to use Crescent to Silverlode or Eagle/Silver Star to King Con to Silverlode to navigate the upper mountain. If you are coming from Town take the Town Lift and ski down to the Crescent lift and take it up to Silverlode lift to access the mountain. 

I'm happy to answer any questions or provide you with some good ways to navigate the mountain. Ski some pow for me.  

 

SunTweet at Park City Mountain Resort

If you haven't head of what a "Tweet Up" is, it's a gathering of people who have met up through Twitter - a rapidly growing online micro-blogging and social networking service. We're hosting a Tweet Up called SunTweet, this evening, January 22, in the Legacy Lodge at Park City Mountain Resort from 6:00pm-9:00pm and even if you're not on Twitter, you're more than welcome to attend, network a bit and perhaps learn about social networks. Another great thing about this evening is that although there is a small  cover charge to attend ($5 min.), all money collected will be donated to charity, and the really cool part is that anyone who attends will be able to vote to determine which charity that will be!
If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to us on Twitter and tweet us @pcski or leave us a comment. If you are planning to come, please try to RSVP but even if you don't please feel free to stop by this evening!
Thanks to @startuppprincess and @carysnowden for organizing SunTweet!

Black is the new black. Sundance has arrived.

The Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, kicks off tonight and we’re all bracing for the madness. Or will it be? The economy is one factor and the Inauguration next Tuesday could affect how many people and sponsor companies actually attend Sundance this year. But let’s be real…there will still be tens of thousands of people and hundreds of celebs descending upon our quaint, little town and the madness of Sundance that we all love, will ensue.

Last night I went out for the "last" supper – the one where I can go into town, find a parking spot, enjoy some sushi and then drive home without delay – for the next 10 days of the festival. First we had to find parking, but that actually wasn’t too difficult considering the town is already abuzz with movie lovers and Hollywood arriving in droves. We crossed lower Main Street, shimmying in between metal scaffolding and wooden planks, where construction crews are working through the night to complete a concert stage. It’s amazing to see how quickly the lights, the decorations, the swag booths spring up. And in just 10 days, it all disappears like Paris Hilton was never here. So what do we do at Park City Mountain Resort? We ski and we ride. This is one of the absolute best times to be on the mountain because everyone else is crammed onto Main Street and in movie venues around town. Plus the weather is supposed to be really nice for the next week, with bluebird skies and temperatures in the mid-30s to 40s.

A fact you may not know is that the X-Dance Film Festival, an action sports film festival, coincides with the Sundance Film Festival. The resort’s very own movie, "I Ride Park City" has been selected to screen at X-Dance. The movie was just one of 30 feature films out of hundreds to be chosen by X-Dance. If you are looking for something fun to do on Friday, January 16, join us at 6 p.m. at the screening of "I Ride Park City." The screening is located at: Off Broadway Theatre, 272 S. Main St., SLC, UT. Athletes from the film and Park City All-Stars will be in attendance. Tickets range in price from $5-$7 and can be purchased online at http://www.x-dance.com/. Go Jim Mangan! He is our director of action sports marketing and the movie's creator.

And if you’re wondering how I feel about Sundance? I’m just a local and this is what we gab about…all the people in town, the private parties, the celebs we might catch a glimpse of. It’s like our right of passage…to gripe about Sundance with our friends albeit we secretly love the fact that Robert Redford bestowed our town with the greatest movie festival of all time. (The New Yorker in me will never admit that out loud.) Oh wait, I just did. I guess that makes me a real Parkite.

Pinecone Thursday

It's late, it's been a long week, I have to get up early; I'm going to make this short. My wife's folks have been in town all week so there's been much enjoyment of food and wine. Tonight was no exception. Except for the cold, cloudy, windy days over the weekend, they've had pretty good weather with great conditions. Always nice to have them here. My Father-in-Law gives me grief every year because it usually snows feet while they are here and I keep him busy with the snow blower. He was pleased to have clear, sunny days. Anyway, on to the main purpose of this post:

We hiked up Pinecone last week to shoot the upper end before opening all of Scott's Bowl. We were able to release some large slides that ran all the way to our rope lines in the Scott's run-out (if you've ever wondered why those ropes are there, take a look at these pictures).

 

Then today, thanks to Christian and his groomers, we were able to get back up to Pinecone to evaluate the area for opening. We did extensive shooting in Homelite and the lower Moons (and some skiing of course) and liked what we found. The cover is thin, the natural avalanche cycle we had over the last few weeks cleaned out most the major paths, but the skiing wasn't too bad. Slightly re-crystallized slightly crusty "loud powder"....a fun alternative to the groomers, moguls, and crud we've had lately. Tomorrow morning we'll be up on the ridge at sunrise (one of my favorite parts of this job) with a strong crew. We'll finish shooting, evaluate the snowpack, get the area set up and HOPEFULLY get the entire area open by mid-day. If we find something unexpected, we may delay until Friday, but we would love to get it open while we have this window of high pressure (dry sunny days). Keep an eye on the Jupiter signboard and our gates in Scott's Pass over the next day or two and be ready to make the first Pinecone hike of the year. As I said, it's honestly pretty good up there.

Ski Utah attempts fate and skis 13 resorts in one day...we're # 4!!

Ski Utah set off this morning at 5 a.m. to complete a mission that no other group has attempted before - to ski all 13 Utah resorts in one day. Park City Mountain Resort was happy to join in the fun and was the fourth resort that the Ski Utah team skied today. After taking a quick interview with Utah's Fox 13 and KSL, they boarded PayDay lift and skied down Payday run. The members of the team included Jake Bogosh of Skiing Magazine, Park City TV, Deseret Morning News, a freelancer for the Boston Globe and Ski Utah members and employees. It was really thrilling to see it all unfold. I came out to get some photographs and assist the media. My pictures are a good effort but I definitely need some practice. I'm better with creative shots, than action. The best part of the whole ordeal is that I am wearing my cute Italian suede boots today (remember, I'm the New Yorker) and forgot to bring snow shoes. I ended up borrowing my co-workers DC kicks and he's a guy and I'm a girl. Good thing I have big feet! I looked pretty goofy but at least I didn’t ruin my shoes and my feet stayed warm. Here’s a little slide show from this morning.

Silverlode Lift Update

1/10/09 5pm Update: Silverlode Lift is off maintenance hold and scheduled to open tomorrow at 9:00am.

Silverlode Lift will not be operating again today due to a maintenance hold. Check out Krista's post from yesterday for some great tips on navigating around the mountain and I see that our groomers changed up their schedule a bit last night and buffed out a bunch of our Signature runs, including: Silver King, Silver Skis, Crescent and Sunrise!

I've also posted some photos below from yesterday - conditions are truly excellent on the mountain right now, great snow

Please check back as we'll keep you updated as soon as we have any new information.

Navigate the Mountain without Silverlode Lift

Last night I fell asleep on the couch watching the BCS game (what a great game eh!). I woke up at 10 pm to go into my bed and happened to check my phone (I have a technology addiction) and saw I had missed two calls from my Boy Brent, our director of mountain operations. He was calling to tell me that Silverlode would not be open today as it was on a maintenance hold. Apparently yesterday, after we closed, the lift sounded weird and so they checked it and realized they needed a new part. We did not have the part so we called the lift manufacturer in Salt Lake and they delivered the new part this morning (Brian, our operations manager, just came into my office to tell me the part arrived at 7:30). Long story short, Silverlode will not be open today but we anticipate it will open tomorrow morning.

You can look at this two ways:

1) Be upset because your entire ski day on the mountain includes lapping Assessment run 20 times and now it will take a bit longer to do that (you will have to ski from the top of Silverlode to the bottom of King Con, Up King Con Lift to Gotcha Cutoff or Erika's Gold and down to PayDay or Crescent lift to Bonanza Lift and repeat.

OR

2) Plan out one of the best days on the mountain enjoying fresh powder (it snowed 5 inches overnight) and exploring parts of the mountain that you typically neglect. If I were skiing today (and felt like having a groomed intermediate day) this would be my route:

1. Take Crescent Lift up to the top and take Shortline to McConkey's Lift.

2. Exit McConkey's Lift to the right and take a run down Sunrise, a fantastic Signature Run that was groomed for the third time this season last night.

3. Ride McConkey's Chair and exit left to Tycoon. Take Tycoon run to the bottom of Pioneer.

4. Ride Pioneer and exit right. Take Homerun to Mid Mountain Meadows to Pioneer Lift. 

5. Ride Pioneer and exit right. Take Keystone run to Thaynes lift. 

6. Ride Thaynes and exit left. Take Parley's Park to Sunnyside.

7. Ride Motherlode and exit left. Take Parley's Park to Carbide Cut. 

8. Ride Motherlode and exit straight. Take Homerun to Silver Skis, another groomed Signature Run.  

9. Eat from the Salad Bar in Legacy Cafe on the second floor of the Legacy Lodge.

10. Go back to my office and do some work!

Now of course, if I wanted to ski great untracked powder all day, I would probably do the first option but hit up Dynamite, Newport, Powder Keg and Assessment off of Silverlode.

What would your day look like? I'd love to hear how you would ski/ride the Resort differently. Have a great day out there! The sun is starting to peak out so it looks like we are going to have a powderlicious blue-bird day!

Jupiter Peak is Open!

It was awful chilly this morning so I waited until about 11am to head up to the mountain and boy was it ever worth it!

I thought that I'd get take some nice cruising runs with some bumpers to try to keep warm. But, once I got off Crescent Lift and saw Jupiter Peak looking as if it might be open, I quickly traversed to McConkey's Lift where I found that the "Pearly Gates" were indeed open. From there, I did a quick hike over to Pinyon Ridge where I got in some nice turns while scoping where the real goods were - Puma Bowl. Two laps of Pioneer to Jupiter to High West to Puma and I was a very happy camper - with the pics below to prove it (just Scotts and Pinecone to go!):

Jupiter New Year Update

So it finally happened!

After a week of hard work, some stressful days, and several hundred pounds of explosives (I'm not exaggerating) Jupiter Chair along with Main Bowl and the West Face opened for the season at 1:45 this afternoon. January 1st is not the latest we ever opened (Colin looked that up and found out we have opened Jupiter as late as January 7), but it sure feels like it has taken forever. I have say the area looks a bit 'shamble-ized' with all the shooting, ski cuts and avalanche crowns and debris . To quote Colin on the radio this morning, "War Zone looks like, well....a war zone."  One guest I spoke with at the top of Main Bowl looked a bit concerned after the view from the chair and said, "so I see all these avalanches you guys triggered. Can you guarantee me that more won't come down while I'm skiing?" "No," I replied, "I'm not going to guarantee that, but I can tell you we've done everything we can to minimize the chance of that happening." He took off into the bowl and returned later with a smile on his face for several more laps. There is good skiing/riding to be found.

I have to say here again that this is a partial opening. The Scott's Side is not ready and is considered a Closed Avalanche Area. Please obey our ropes and signs and stick to the open terrain. We'll get more open as soon as we can.

Yes, with the thin cover in places and piles of avalanche debris in others Jupiter is less than perfect right now. Despite first impressions, everyone who made it up this afternoon sure seemed to be enjoying themselves. It is after-all Jupiter, the best little chair in the Wasatch. As I was hiking out the High West Road this evening after sweep, it sure felt good to be back. It feels like winter at last.