How many times do fellow readers have to tell you? A ski trip to Park City is about as easy as it gets. Easy to get there: rated No. 1 in Access. Easy to get around: The town’s free public transportation renders rental cars pretty useless, and the resort’s wise mountain guides make navigating your ski day a snap. Top 10 rankings in Weather, Off-Hill Activities and Terrain Parks combine to make PCMR an “ideal family resort.” We admit: Some of our rankings skew to family destinations. But that’s who Park City is best for: Mom, Dad, Junior and Kiddo, all looking for a range of experience, yet not necessarily shying from the extremes. Nightskiing, “fun bowls” and a “top-notch ski school,” with its Signature 5 program—five-kids-per-class max—are mere parts to a very inclusive whole. Those parts can also add up to a “crowded” mountain, and a lot of PC’s naysayers bemoan an alleged lack of challenging terrain. We call hogwash on the latter: Get on over to Scott’s and Jupiter Bowls for your double-black buzz; meanwhile, speed demons can carve up the resort’s Signature runs—black-diamond steeps groomed smooth for the non-Olympians among us. Granted, the “layout encourages folks to stay on one side of the mountain,” but the new Crescent Lift, running from base to Ski Team Ridge, should speed access to the mellow Silverlode, Bonanza and King Con areas while providing the intrepid easier entry to advanced frontside runs—and to new glades between Erika’s Gold and Willy’s. Let’s put a couple other mountain myths to bed while we’re at it: Yes, you can get boozy in Utah. Anyone who says otherwise hasn’t seen the nighttime Main Street crowds sliding off the sidewalks. And readers don’t give it a No. 5 for Après because they like quiet nights by the fire. And yes, you can get a decent meal on-mountain (try a burger at the newly renovated Midmountain Lodge), though a half-hour spent waiting for a peak-time table might be better spent hitting the town’s almost innumerable and generally pretty stellar eateries. For families especially, PCMR often receives the ultimate endorsement: “We always have a great time.”
/ What’s New /Crescent high-speed quad replaces the Ski Team lift; two new “Kid Adventure Trails” for kids in the Signature 5 ski-school program; Vista, a new blue run under the Silver Star lift
/ Mandatory Run / Black Forest Glades, skier’s right of McConkey’s Bowl
/ Local Secret / It’s PCMR-sponsored, but the new Snowmamas blog (snowmamas.com) is loaded with family tips and tales from the trenches.
Photo by Erik Isakson
