The Canyons, Utah
Imagine waking up on the East Coast, and making tracks in deep Utah powder by
noon. This is no dream, this is the reality of a Park City ski trip. Even
better, your first ski day is free with a Quick Start voucher from the
Park City Chamber, you
can be catching freshies at Deer Valley, The Canyons or Park City Mountain all
afternoon.
Greg
& I hopped an early Delta flight out of Logan, and by 12:30pm Utah time we had
ridden two high speed lifts to 9,400-feet and we were floating on a foot of
fresh powder. With a direct flight to
Salt Lake City airport, Park City’s three major ski resorts are just a 30-minute
drive, so you can be clicking into your skis by noon. We had our ski boots and
ski clothing handy for a quick change, and rented skis and poles from
SkiButlers.com (instead
of lugging our own across the country). Ski Butlers met us in minutes at our Lodge, and in five swift minutes, we were dialed in for six days of skiing. To
say things were clicking would be an understatement.
We started our five night /six ski day Utah odyssey at
Deer Valley for two days
of soft snow and sublime service. Then we skied
Park City Mountain
Resort on our three resort tour. In fact, Deer Valley abuts Park
City, which borders The Canyons – but ducking the rope is a no-no.
Saving
the biggest for last, we finished our Utah trip by conquering the vast
Canyons, all 3,700
acres – the largest single ski resort in Utah. Boarding the Flight of the
Canyons gondola from the Grand Summit Hotel (a bit grander than those at
Killington, Sugarloaf and Sunday River) before 9am gets you to mid-mountain where you have
eight peaks to explore. We inscribed our skis on Tombstone’s cruisers before
heading up to experts-only Peak 9990, named for the summit elevation. Here you
can hike to backcountry bowls or point ‘em down Magic Lines and Red Pine chutes.
No joke, this is avalanche prone territory so heed signage and patrollers.
Peak
5 and Dream Peak to the East offer up gorgeous glades, gentle winding trails and
more of those “real estate runs.” As you ski through The Colony, the largest ski
in ski out lots for sale in North America, you see one magnificent mansion after
another. Clearly this once sleepy ski area called Park West is transforming into
a mega-mountain for millionaires. Talisker is buying The Canyons from folded
ASC, this Toronto-based real estate firm has developments in Deer Valley, so the
champagne and caviar crowd will follow. Perhaps this new ownership will
interconnect with Park City, they could link by installing two lifts (I don’t
see Deer Valley participating by opening its borders, or allowing boarders,
anytime soon). A Canyons/Park City ticket would give skiers and riders a
7,000-acre network. For now, there is plenty to ski at each, and there all
within a 10-minute drive or free shuttle.
Lodging at the Canyons is all quite new, The Grand Summit Hotel or The Silverado Lodge offer condo style
suites and hotels rooms plus nice outdoor pools and hot tubs. You can walk to
restaurants in The Canyons convenient village, or take a shuttle to the fun frontier town of Park City, home to the annual Sundance Film Festival,
western boutiques and the best Utah restaurants like Fin at the Sky Lodge and Robert Redford's Zoom.
A
Canyon’s must for lunch is Lookout Cabin, take the Short Cut lift from Red Pine.
This mountaintop chalet has panoramic Wasatch Mountain views and table service
dining. Refueled, you are ready to explore the Canyon’s original ski terrain, in
Silverado, Rendezvous and Murdock Bowl. The Super Condor quad accesses chutes
like Yard Sale, groomed ridge runs with sweeping views, big bump runs or the
tight twisty Canis Lupis – one of six “natural halfpipes” on the mountain that
are banked, bumpy, loaded with turns and trees, offering an amusing alpine
descent (fun for kids and adults on short skis). To conclude our 3-mountain
6-day ski tour, we spotted a moose and her baby in the middle of the ski trail –
a sign it was time to return to Maine.
Skiers that want to ski waist-deep Utah pow, trademarked “the greatest
snow earth,” should make their way to Park City - one fun town, three
world-class resorts, all within a half hour airplane touchdown. By skiing on
your arrival and departure day – you can hit all three: Deer Valley,
Park City and
The Canyons.
Greg
& I hopped an early Delta flight out of Logan, and by 12:30pm Utah time we had
ridden two high speed lifts to 9,400-feet and we were floating on a foot of
fresh powder. With a direct flight to
Salt Lake City airport, Park City’s three major ski resorts are just a 30-minute
drive, so you can be clicking into your skis by noon. We had our ski boots and
ski clothing handy for a quick change, and rented skis and poles from
Saving
the biggest for last, we finished our Utah trip by conquering the vast
Peak
5 and Dream Peak to the East offer up gorgeous glades, gentle winding trails and
more of those “real estate runs.” As you ski through The Colony, the largest ski
in ski out lots for sale in North America, you see one magnificent mansion after
another. Clearly this once sleepy ski area called Park West is transforming into
a mega-mountain for millionaires. Talisker is buying The Canyons from folded
ASC, this Toronto-based real estate firm has developments in Deer Valley, so the
champagne and caviar crowd will follow. Perhaps this new ownership will
interconnect with Park City, they could link by installing two lifts (I don’t
see Deer Valley participating by opening its borders, or allowing boarders,
anytime soon). A Canyons/Park City ticket would give skiers and riders a
7,000-acre network. For now, there is plenty to ski at each, and there all
within a 10-minute drive or free shuttle. 