Month: November 2018

Welcome back to Skiing Through Life! In my last post I’ll be sharing the largest ski resort the US has to offer with over 300 trails. Park City Mountain Resort, located in Park City Utah is one of the most well-known ski resorts to the average person. Park City hosts some of the biggest ski races of the year and is home to the Sundance Film Festival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Level of Difficulty

While skiing at Park City, it may be a bit difficult for beginners to adjust. This mountain is tailored for intermediate and mostly advanced skiers with only 8% of their trails being

beginners trails and over 50% of the trails marked as advanced. 41% of the trails are intermediate runs, so if skiing for the first time, especially as an adult, this may not be the best mountain to try to teach yourself to ski. If you’re an advanced skier, this mountain is perfect for you with so many black diamond runs. The mountain also has 8 different terrain parks which is almost unheard of at other mountains. Their longest run is 3.5 miles which you’ll definitely be feeling in your legs the next day if you decide to take on that trail. With 7300 acres skiable terrain, this monster of a mountain is certain to excite higher-level skiers.

Family-Friendliness

Although there are so many advanced trails, Park City is certainly family-friendly. As one of the top places in the country to take ski lessons, Park City has a program for every level no matter what the age. One of the stand-out programs Park City offers is a family lesson where the whole family can get ski instruction time together. Park City also offers children lessons, adult lessons, and of course, private lessons. The Park City resort also includes a Little Adventures Children’s Center at Canyons Village. This center provides child-care for children 6 weeks old to 6 years old. It’s a state-licensed year-round facility and it provides arts and crafts and other activities. The center is also located near a gondola which can take kids up to a snow play hill during the winter.

Apres Ski Activities

During the day, this resort provides many fun activities such as riding the alpine coaster or the flying eagle zipline. They also offer historic mountain tours which go into detail about the resort’s mining, skiing, and local history. In Canyons Village, scenic, 30 minute sleigh rides are offered that include big blankets for the ride. I looking for more extreme activities, snowmobile tours are also offered next to Canyons Village and these tours will take you on a ride through the Red Pine Canyon. When you get hungry for dinner, there are multiple places at which you can stop. In the Park City Base Area, there’s Legends Bar and Grille, in Canyons Village, there is The Farm, Red Tail Grill, and the Umbrella Bar. Most of these places will serve food such as sandwiches and hamburgers.

Weather/Snowfall

With being located out West in Utah, Park City certainly receives a lot of snow. In 2017, the resort got most of its snow in mid-March. The snow started around early December ad even continues into April which is always great for Spring skiers. Last year, the resort received 167 inches total of snow with their heaviest snowfall happening in March at 14 inches. Surprisingly, April is their second snowiest month compared to the main winter months. At one time they even had 63 inches of snow at the top of their mountain! As mentioned before, Park City is out West so powdery snow is almost always a guarantee when you compare conditions to the icy slopes we have here on the East Coast. To find out  how much snow your resort might get this year, click here.

Accessibility

Within the US, Park City is probably the closest resort to a major international airport. Salt Lake City International Airport is just 40 minutes away from the resort making this mountain extremely accessible. Like most airports, this one has car rental services and Hertz offers an increased amount of specially equipped vehicles for winter driving. The resort can also reserve a shuttle for arriving guests that will bring them to and from the airport after a short call with their reservation specialists.

 

Breaking away from the norm this week, we”ll focus on a few other aspects of skiing rather than just the resorts.  Some things we’ll talk about are the types of ski racing, well-known/famous skiers, alternative skiing, and ski movies, so let’s get started!

Ski Racing

To get involved in racing, the general process is finding a mountain that you want to race for (it’s typically the one closest to where you live) and then trying out for the team as you would with most other sports. The same principles apply with skiing as they do with a lot of sports, where mountains that are bigger or more well-known usually have more competitive skiing teams. For example, the mountain I go to, being in the Poconos, probably would not have a ski team that’s as competitive as a mountain up in Vermont. So, after you go through tryouts and you’ve made the team, there are different events to choose from. On a ski team, you can either race in the slalom or you can race in the freestyle section which includes a course with obstacles like moguls (bumps), aerials (jumps) and sometimes a halfpipe (used at larger competitions). Basically, when racing for a specific mountain team, alpine racers will only ski slalom courses. But, if you make it to the olympic level, that’s where they have giant slalom racing and even the super giant slalom racing (I kid you not, it’s actually called the super giant slalom). With freestyle skiing, you’re still racing, but you are not placed on the scoreboard just for your time, but also for your technical skiing skills, especially in the aerials.

Famous Skiers

Moving on to some famous skiers, Bode Miller was an American icon back in the day, known for his amazing performance in the 2010 olympics, winning the super-combined gold. Although Bode did stir up some trouble with the press because of his love for partying, he was featured in a big Nike campaign because he was so well known. One of the other biggest names in the ski world is Warren Miller. Although he was not known for his skiing skills (although they were great), he was so big because of the entertainment company he created. Shooting mostly ski documentaries, Miller would rent out venues near ski resorts and charge admission to watch his latest films at night. During the day he would shoot footage for a new movie at the resort. Lastly, we have Lindsey Vonn, who has won 82 World Cup races and 2 world championship races. Her specialities are the super giant slalom, giant slalom, and combined. In her races, Vonn has reached speeds faster than 70 mph on skis!

Alternative Skiing

Only recently coming into light is the new sport of speed flying. This involves simply skiing off of a cliff and then parachuting the rest of the way down. Sounds crazy right? It is. Multiple people have died doing this, as there can be complications with the parachute if it gets caught on something or you hit into rock/trees/obstacles before you’ve fully landed. But, people are still out there doing it! One spot that’s become particularly popular for speed flying is in the Dolomite Mountains in Italy. Some mountain resorts even have designated runs for speed flying because it’s become so popular with Swiss and French skiers. Want to watch the craziness happen? Click here

Ski Movies

As mentioned above, Warren Miller is famous for his ski films and many of them are well-known in the ski world. Other ones more known to the general public are Aspen Extreme, a love story about a young (very attractive) ski instructor who falls in love with an Aspen local (Aspen being a high-end Colorado ski resort). Chalet Girl is lesser known but still attracts attention as a charming ski love story. For those who need a bit of inspiration, Eddie the Eagle, which is the most recent movie to come out, is the story of an underdog ski jumper representing the British in the Winter Olympics. The main character ultimately places last every time he jumps, but becomes a national hero for representing the British in the ski-jumping category after they didn’t have someone for 6 decades.