Just returned from 5 days of Skiing in Park City with my Daughter and non-skier wife. This was from Monday 3/24 through Friday 3/28. Did one day at Park City Mountain and 4 days at Deer Valley.

We chose these resorts thanks to advice from a few people on this site and especially The Colonel. After hearing about our abilities The Colonel recommended Deer Valley and I am sure glad we listened.

Here is a link to some photos:

[url=http://glennkeller.com/][/url]

Here is my report:

First Park City Mountain. This being our first out of Virginia Skiing experience we were completely blown away by the size of the resort, the trail lengths and the scenery. We each had a 3.5 hour private lesson. It was not cheap, but well worth it. My instructor, a retired gentleman named Don, helped me firm up some technique I had been working on and greatly increased my confidence level. I thought we would start on Greens but he took me right to Blues and some Double Blues and told me to just start focusing on how much fun I was having. My daughters instructor was good as well and they went off and found some powder and played in the trees.

I also had the opportunity to interact with a customer service person at the resort and was favorably impressed.

Snow was a little crunchy early but later on was corn snow but was nice to ski on...if anything it was a little too warm for my tastes.

One thing that I did not dwell on but needs to be mentioned is that I was almost injured due to someone loading the lift wrong and an inattentive lift operator. I tend to let things like that blow over but will be glad to give detail if anyone is curious.

Despite the lift incident I greatly enjoyed PCM.

Deer Valley was a whole different kettle of fish. I had heard a lot of things about Bogner Jackets and snooty people...and I saw some Bogner stuff but never ran into any snoots.

As for the skiing...first day was too warm but we loved the trails and the resort. It gradually got colder and we had enough snow to give us a taste of skiing through a little bit of fresh powder. Some of the trails were a little crunchy but compared to the ice we are used to they were a piece of cake. We had flat light for a few hours one day, but because the trails were groomed so smooth it was not really scary.

On one day we had whiteout conditions for about an hour on the mountain tops which was fun although I kept losing my daughter.

We skied on Greens and Blues and one Double Blue for the most part. We saw lots of people skiing moguls and through the woods. My daughter, of course, could not resist the trees and every chance she got skied off the trail and cut through a few trees.

Even though it was a spring break week for part of the country we never waited on a line in the 4 days we were there. We stayed in the upper parts of the resort which I am sure helped.

Crowds were never a problem on the trails either...people on the Blues were few and far between and only on the greens did you sometimes have to slow down or work around a ski-school class or a group skiing together. But most of the time the way was wide open.

We started at Silver Lake which is their mid-mountain base and is mostly for people staying on the resort and went up from there. We parked in a small parking garage at Silver Lake and took an Elevator and were about 50 steps from the complimentary ski-storage. We got our skis, stepped in and skated a few feet to the nearest lift and off we went.

I had heard also that we would be surrounded by condos and McMansions on the trails but really, we found very little of that in the upper parts of the resort.

Everywhere on this resort we found attention to detail...lift operators that always held the chair for you to the food in the lodges to the bathrooms where somehow the water always came out at exactly the correct temp. to wash your hands.

A piece of advice about eating there is that the lodges get very crowded...eat early or eat late.

For people with our level of experience, and for people with families that need those little extras like a ski-valet to make things a bit easier I highly recommend Deer Valley.

GRK,
Great photos! Here is the link that DCSkiers should paste into your address line to see the picts http://glennkeller.com/
The Colonel

Thanks Colonel...I was struggling with getting the hyperlink to show up as such. Appreciate you providing it.

Deer Valley was built on the premise of being the most opulent ski area in the US, and they have delivered on that promise. Expensive, yes; but what service, mid-day grooming, great terrain, fast lifts, the food (oh the cafe food - this is a ski area?), etc. I vividly remember my first visit and driving to the mountain base, pulling up to the curb in front of the lodge, and having my car swarmed on by green jacketed DV employees taking the ski equipment off the roof rack and carrying it a little way to a temp. storage facility by the lower lift. Heaven forbid that I, a CUSTOMER, had to carry my own equipment. And when you finished booting up, the attendant handed you your skis by the lift. There was a time when here in the east such an act might have evoked a counter attack against the people trying to "steal" your skis. By the way, one of the problems with the Park City resorts late in the season, and at a lower base elevation, is the warmer temps. Part of this though is the simple fact that the sun is higher and out longer than in the dead of winter.
The Colonel