Park City Mountain Resort Blog

Terrain and Holiday Storm Update

It's hard NOT to notice that Park City Mountain Resort has been getting hammered on. The weather forecast called for snow flurries, but I'm pretty sure those were some of the biggest snowflakes I've ever seen. It was absolutely dumping outside and the weather still has not let up. While the powder that this storm has brought has been nothing short of Christmas miracle, it has also brought along its share of problems.

The heavy wet snow, combined with high winds, took down several trees around the Resort. Multiple trees fell on the power line that feeds Jupiter lift, which ultimately took out the power. Rocky Mountain Power is sending several crews up tomorrow to repair the downed power lines. As a result, Jupiter lift, will be closed tomorrow. We will update you tomorrow afternoon (12/23) on the status of the repair.

Our storm total thus far is over 5 feet and we're still counting! See you on the slopes.

Holiday Dump Drops Over Four Feet of Snow at Park City Mountain Resort

Park City Mountain Resort received over four feet of snow in 72 hours from a big holiday dump that blanketed the Western part of the country. The recent storm follows a tremendous early season, with the Resort recording 146” of snow for the season and an 82” settled base depth from the Jupiter Snow Stake.

Please visit our Flickr page for more photos

“The early season snowfall and conditions are some of the best we’ve had in recent memory,” said Jenni Smith, President and General Manager for Park City Mountain Resort. “It’s the perfect welcome for our holiday guests.”

According to the National Weather Service, snow remains in the forecast through Thursday.

Please visit our Flickr page for more photos

Ski Utah Powderhound Matt Baydala filmed this video on Monday, December 20, 2010 and had this to say:

“Since the terrain was so limited this morning, I was forced to ski the old reliable Pioneer lift and my God did it deliver. I've never had so many face shots at that altitude, period. Take a look for yourself; go ahead count the face shots!”

Powder Watch via Park City Mountain Resort's Twitter Page

Mother nature has sent us a number of storms in the past week and it seems as though we've had a return to Winter. Our base is currently at 110" and the snow is epic. We couldn't be happier with the conditions and our guests have been blowing up our Twitter Page bragging about the amazing snow at Park City Mountain Resort. We love talking about how great it is up here, but this time we'll let you do the talking. Here are some recent tweets from the past week we'd like to call "Powder Watch" from Park City Mountain Resort's twitter followers.

@80sMovieQuotes: Just got back from Park City @Pcski. 3rd year in a row - best snow conditions ever!!! Thanks - See you in 11 months and 22 days!!

@HerwigD: Epic Powdr day at park city mountain resort. Come out and play!!! http://tweetphoto.com/17393307

@mdre21: Big smiles on another @PCSki powder day. http://twitgoo.com/n6hw3

@tedligety: gonna go rip powder @PCski

@jraines: It was waist deep in Scott's bowl this morning @pcski . . . gotta love living where you can routinely hear adults yelp with joy.

@Jride13: crazy, killer, unreal... skiing w/fam today @pcski was perfect! 8 yr. old said, to heck with egg-hunting http://ow.ly/i/Ycl

 

@fredcast: The calendar says April, but it's January up here @pcski! Knee deep fresh pow everywhere!!

@AndreaLemon: So far a wonderful Easter. Fresh powder skiing at Park City Mountain Resort.

@amandastewart: @pcski OMG! The skiing has been out of this world!

@ehliaslouis:  Epic day in Park City! 16 to 20 fresh, skied chutes and Jupiter bowl w/ Jess & PC crew.

@Dan_Macuga: 15-20 new inches of snow in Park City...uh...Gonna be a little late and little white from snow

@DwellTekEnergy: It has snowed 24 inches in Park City. Dwelltek is playing hookie to go ski some powder.

@mattgebo: Holy ridiculous morning in the powder @PCski ripping laps in McConkey's Bowl. So deep + no one there + high speed 6 pack=lucky me!

One more week of skiing and riding at Park City Mountain Resort!

I was lucky to 'escape the office' for an hour or so this morning to get up to Jupiter Peak for, what I think, was the best powder skiing of the season (so far). I'm not sure if it's some sort of April Fools prank or what, but the skiing and riding the past few days has been epic...and because of that we are extending our season by a week, with our scheduled closing day now pushed back to April 18, 2010!

Here are the details on our extended season:

“Thanks to the recent return to winter and an 87-inch settled base depth, the current conditions are the best they’ve been all year, which is why we’ve decided to stay open for an additional week,” said Peter Curtis, president and general manager of Park City Mountain Resort.  “We will continue to deliver an exceptional guest experience, maintaining our grooming standards and high-level of guest service.” 
 
Beginning Monday, April 12, 2010 the resort will operate eight lifts including PayDay, Crescent, Bonanza, Silverlode, Thaynes, Jupiter, First Time and Three Kings. Pick’n Shovel, PayDay and King’s Crown terrain parks will also be open.   Lift ticket pricing for the extended week of the season is as follows:

       Adult (ages 13 and 64)         $ 65

       Seniors (ages 65 and up)     $ 45

      Children (ages  7-12)            $ 40

The Canyons and Deer Valley Resort season pass holders will be able to purchase a single-day lift ticket to the Resort for $25 when they show their current 2009-2010 season pass. 
 
Additional Park City Mountain Resort hours of operations scheduled for the extended week of the season include the following:

       Kristi’s Coffee  Café             7:30am – 5:00pm

       Legacy  Sports                     8:00am – 6:00pm

       Legacy  Café                        10:30am – 3:00pm

       Summit  House                    10:30  a.m. – 3:00pm

       Legends Bar and Grill           11:00 a.m. – 7:00pm

       Alpine  Coaster                    noon  – 4:00pm

Park City Mountain Rentals will be fully operational through April 18; however the Demo Center and Ski Valet will close as regularly scheduled on April 11. 
 
The long-range weather forecast is calling for snow off and on through April 18, 2010.

Time to Catch Up

Another Wednesday slipped by and I did't get my in weekly post. Apologies; I took the day off and met my Old Man (father) in Salt Lake at good old Carl's Cafe for some breakfast and catch-up time. Despite my folks living only 20 minutes away at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, I haven't seen much of them lately. A two week storm cycle can do that.

Speaking of which, I ran the numbers for the cycle and from January 18 to 28 we picked up 79 inches in Jupiter and 60 at the Summit. Then a few days later we had a little "freshener-upener" storm that gave us 10 more inches. With the opening of Lower Pinecone last Friday and Gobbler's Knob on Monday, we are 100% open. Well okay, almost 100%; there are a couple gates that allow upper access to areas open below that are still closed, but these are obscure. I will stick with my "100% of our ridable terrain open" statement.

The backcountry situation is still a bit of a dangerous crap shoot. The Utah Avalanche Center has lowered it's advisory to a "scary moderate." Translation: while many of the large paths have released and other areas are settling out, the avalanche dragons are still lurking out there just waiting for the right trigger. Especially sketchy are upper and mid-elevation ENE-facing bowls and knobs. Last weekend folks got out as they often do and there were two avalanche fatalities. Now it's again Friday afternoon, it's looking to be a fairly nice weekend with some small storms, traveling conditions have greatly improved (no longer slogging through waist-deep snow) and again I say with grim confidence that there will more more accidents. I can also say however that I have been spending some time skiing low-angle north-facing trees and meadows and finding lovely conditions. If you are touring or riding your sleds, may be another good weekend to stick to such spots.

One final good-karma story for the week. Yesterday we had a call that a guest had dropped his watch in the closed area under the bottom of Silverlode. The liftie asked for permission to go in there and help him (right thing to do, thanks). Then a few moments later the guest himself called panicked that he had lost his very $$ watch. Jimmy went down with the metal detector to offer a hand. Mission was accomplished, guest was very pleased, Jimmy was rewarded with a generous gratuity. Happy to say we'll be closing-out our week at the Corner Store tonight spending said gratuity. Thank you sir and we were glad to help.

A quick morning powder 'mission'

I met Thomas at Crescent lift at just after 9:00am this morning and headed up for a quick mission to get some turns and photos in (in that order, or course). We saw that snow safety work still being conducted on the Crescent Ridge runs so we headed directly over to Pioneer lift where we hooked up with Todd and made several sweet runs before heading down to Silverlode for one more and then back down for a really fun hour and a half jaunt. But, enough of this, check out the 'goods':

It just keeps snowing!

I really don't know what else to write - the snow keeps coming and the skiing and riding just seems to get better and better (ok, maybe not quite as good as last Thursday, but still epic). So, if you weren't up riding over the past week or so, hurry on up, because closing day is Easter Sunday. And be sure to swing by on April 12, for our annual big and little kids Easter Egg hunt!

The powder day of the year?!

Ok, so my last post was about the spring conditions that we've enjoying for the past two weeks or so, blue skies and corn snow. Scratch that, reverse it, it's winter again. Actually it's now more winter than what I've ridden pretty much all season. Words don't really do it justice, just check out this gallery and get up and enjoy :

More powder pix

Geez, I almost feel bad posting this, but wow, once again it was an epic powder day up here at Park City Mountain Resort. Our snow safety team was very quick this morning and had Jupiter Peak open before 10am and all of Pinecone Ridge open not much later. The over three feet of snow that we've gotten in the past week made for some sweet turns, check them out in this gallery, and as always, please upload any photos that you may have from PCMR so that they can possibly be selected for our photo of the day!

Why I Waited to Ski Until Today

Typcially by this time of the year I have already skied a handful of times. However, with my current condition (read: 5 mos pregnant) I decided I was only going to ski a handful of times. Well today happened to be the first of the handful of times. I had to go out for "work" to shoot a quick video (posted here soon) on the best way to experience the mountain during our busy times. We started filming a couple segments around the Base Area in very cold temperatures (single digits) and I wasn't so sure that I picked the right "first day". That all changed when I received a call from my boy Brent, our Director of Mountain Operations, at 9:30 am. He informed me that our wonderful snow safety team was finishing up Avalanche Control work on Ski Team Ridge and they were going to drop the rope line for the first time this season!

My videographer Erik and I quickly jumped on Crescent Lift (my favorite lift on the mountain) for a speedy ride to the top where we eagerly waited 30 minutes at Erika's Gold, recruiting others to join us, for patrol to drop the rope. And boy was it worth the wait! There is just something about being knee deep in powder, snow flying all around you with a big grin on your face that takes all of your worries away. You can forget about the work piled high on your desk or the big stresses of this crazy world. For just that moment, nothing else matters. You're just floating on top of the world! I've come to realize that for me, I don't need more "cowbell" as Bruce Dickinson recommends in my favorite SNL skit. I need more "POW" bell. Do you agree?!

Although my legs are still burning and the baby is crazily kicking, I couldn't have asked for a better first day on the mountain. Another affirmation as to why I love my job!