This ski resort is only 30 mins from an international airport
It has more than 330 runs and 40 lifts spread across 3000ha of snowfields. We show how to navigate it as a first time visitor.
Park City in Utah is the full package. Just 35 minutes’ drive from Salt Lake City International Airport, it’s home to two world-class ski resorts, the Sundance Film Festival and the best restaurants, bars and boutique shopping in the state.
The town centre is both intimate and hectic, the buzz is infectious, the beauty bewitching. And despite Utah being the Mormon state, the apres ski is outstanding. Park City makes Utah cool.
But this mountain resort can be overwhelming for the first-time visitor. With more than 330 runs and 40 lifts spread across 3000ha, the sprawling ski resort in the Wasatch Range is the largest in the US. Throw in adjacent Deer Valley and you have a bewildering choice of activities and attractions. Here’s how to tackle it all, on and off the slopes.
In the beginning …
What began as a raucous mining town in the 1860s was reborn as a slightly more refined raucous ski town a century later. Miners built the original ski infrastructure, or in some cases repurposed existing equipment. One of the first ski lifts in the 1960s was the “skiers subway” – an underground tram that ran through the old Spiro Tunnel. Skiers would then transfer to a hoist and get yanked up a mining shaft into daylight. It’s long been decommissioned (it was damp and terrifying, by all accounts) but you can sit in the old subway cars in the museum on Main Street.
How it works
Park City Mountain Resort bought out neighbouring Canyons Resort in 2015, and quickly installed the Quicksilver Gondola to link them. The merger made PCMR the largest ski resort in the US.
Don’t think, like I did, that you can nip quickly from one side to the other. While the lift infrastructure is generally excellent, some are painfully slow, and it does get crowded. It’s more manageable to pretend they’re still two resorts, and stick to one side each day.
The two base areas of Mountain Village and Canyons Village are serviced by free shuttle buses, and you can launch directly on to the slopes from Main Street via the venerable Town Lift (line up early to avoid queues).
Deer Valley Resort is a couple of hills over, and is a different proposition entirely, not linked either physically or commercially with PCMR. The two resorts share similar terrain but have a vastly different vibe. Where Park City is casual, Deer Valley is exclusive, peppered with five-star ski-in, ski-out accommodation, and has capped capacity, manicured grooming and fastidious service. Oh, and snowboarders are banned.
Which resort to choose?
This will largely depend on the type of season pass you hold, and whether you’re a snowboarder. Park City is on Vail Resorts’ Epic Pass, giving unlimited access to Australian Epic Pass holders. Deer Valley is on Alterra’s Ikon Pass, which grants seven days’ skiing that must be booked in advance due to the resort limiting the number of skiers each day. Day tickets for both resorts range from $US199-$US299 ($290-$440).
The main event
Park City’s historic township is not so much adjacent to the ski slopes as an extension of them. I arrive to the astonishing sight of skiers being hoisted above rooftops on the Town Chair, and skiing back down straight into Main Street, practically spraying passing cars with snow. It even has the world’s only ski-in whiskey distillery (High West).
With more than 100 independent boutiques and just as many restaurants, it’s worth dedicating a whole day to exploring Main Street, but it looks even better at night, when webs of fairy lights strung above the street illuminate the historic facades and falling snow. The whole street is a sensory overload.
A visit to the interactive Park City Museum is a must. If fine art is your thing, check out Ashley Collins’s hauntingly beautiful horse images at Prospect Gallery, or the deeply textural landscapes at Lunds Fine Art Gallery. Your eyes may boggle at Sitka Fur Gallery, where you can take home a lynx fur coat for $US25,000 ($36,630), or a grizzly bear-skin rug for $US30,000.
Best spot for a night cap is the quiet and slightly clandestine Alpine Distilling.
Off-mountain fun
The legacy of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics lives on at Utah Olympic Park, where I experience the most exhilarating 51.79 seconds of my life, pulling multiple G-forces in a four-person bobsled speeding down the Olympic track. Woodward Park City is a year-round indoor/outdoor action sports facility where you can go tubing or hone freestyle ski or snowboard skills on lift-accessed terrain parks. At Swaner Nature Preserve you can snowshoe around 16km of trails, discover wildlife and learn about the local ecology. For affordable outlet shopping, head 20 minutes out of town to Kimball Junction.
Where to dine
If you can’t decide where to eat, Gourmand Tours can do it for you, on a progressive dinner to three top restaurants on Main Street, throwing in some good conservation along the way. Fireside Dining in Deer Valley serves hearty mountain fare straight from stone fireplaces on to your plate, and you can start your night with a horse-drawn sleigh ride. The Vintage Room at St Regis Deer Valley is legendary spot for an on-mountain lunch. For Utah’s most mythical donuts, make haste to Cloud Dine at the top of the Dreamcatcher chairlift on the Canyons side of PCMR. It sells out every morning, so don’t dawdle.
Deer Valley is famous for its turkey chilli – grab a bowl (along with the duck fries) at the Sticky Wicket, the nearest thing Deer Valley has to a dive bar, upstairs at Silver Lake Lodge. For a proper coffee on Main Street, head to the Aussie-owned Five5eeds. Also, don’t be shocked to see cheese deployed in strange ways, such as cheddar in a pecan pie, or parmesan grated on to an espresso martini. Americans will never understand coffee.
gourmandtours.com
deervalley.com
Smart stays
Park City Lodging has a wide selection of rental properties, from condos on Main Street to luxury lodges on the slopes. We stay at Rio Grande, a six-bedroom residence with a rooftop hot tub a snowball’s throw from the Town Chair. A more affordable option five minutes from Main Street is the Park City Peaks hotel, which has an indoor/outdoor pool, mountain views, a lively Italian restaurant, and a stop for the free public bus right outside the door.
Luxury lodgings abound at Deer Valley, and a stand-out is Goldener Hirsch Inn, owned by the local Eccles family, the closest thing to royalty in Park City. Inspired by the original Goldener Hirsch in Salzburg, Austria, the property comprises two buildings linked by a covered walkway: the traditional inn, soaked in Austrian charm, with hand-carved furniture and ornate, canopy beds, and the much newer residences, all dark-stained timber and marble, with steam showers, Italian cow-hide chairs and balconies with mountain views. Ski butlers carry your skis the 100 or so paces to the chairlift, and you can rent top-of-the-line Rossingnol skis, developed specifically for Deer Valley.
Park City Peaks from $US299. Rio Grande from $US1500-$7000 a night, depending on number of rooms. Goldener Hirsch from $US1200 a night.
What about the skiing?
From Mountain Village at PCMR, first timers should hit the aptly named First Time trail, while more confident beginners will love the long and loping Home Run trail, starting at the top of the Bonanza Express chair. On the Canyons Village side you can stay dry by taking the Orange Bubble chairlift or Red Pine gondola to the dedicated learners’ area, High Meadow Park, where you’ll find three introductory off-piste courses called Adventure Alleys (look out for these all over the resort, they’re great fun).
As an intermediate I spend most of my time on the Mountain Village side skiing the various blues off the Thaynes and Silverlode chairlifts. For the best views, take McConkey’s chairlift, coast down Georgeanna and weave between the trees in the Powder Monkey Adventure Alley. On Canyons side, make your way to the Peak 5 chairlift and carve languid lines on the blue cruisers of Serenity and Sanctuary.
Daredevils can duck into the double black diamond chutes off the Ninety-nine 90 chair on the Canyons side. Or seek out powder stashes in the steep trees off Super Condor Express. On the Mountain Village side, take the Jupiter chairlift and hike to Scott’s Bowl, or test your quads on the mammoth moguls in McConkey’s Bowl. If you’re super adventurous, try The Abyss off the Peak 5 chairlift.
The deal with Deer Valley
The resort has an unusual layout, spread over six mountains, with the luxury lodge enclave of Silver Lake in the middle. Staff are usually on hand to help, hand out tissues for sniffly noses, and ensure that ski racks are stacked with an OCD-like adherence to order. Expect a ticking off if you ditch your skis in the snow while nipping in to the loos.
If you’re an intermediate who loves tree skiing, Deer Valley is heaven, and the trees are generously gladed so there’s less chance you’ll wrap yourself around one. Take Sterling Express to the summit of Bald Mountain to soak up the views from Stein’s Way, then glide into the glades at Black Forest. For steeper blue and black groomers, venture over to the Lady Morgan chairlift. Beginners have plenty of space to play on the wide open Wild West run at Snow Park base. A new expansion will more than double the size of the resort when it opens for the 2025-26 ski season.
Ricky French was a guest of Park City.
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