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Need Advice from Skiers familiar w/ Park City area Mountains

peas

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I need help planning a Christmas ski trip to the Park City area and since none of us have ever been.

We're a family of 2 adults & 2 kids (age 12 & 13) who normally skis I-70 Vail resorts on the Epic pass. We warm up blues and do blues and blacks of varying degrees depending on how our legs hold up. Only 1 of us does double blacks. We enjoy moguls and glades over speed. I would say as a family, we are a solid blue family with smattering of blacks sprinkled in -- especially when at a new mountain that we don't know as well.

For various reasons, we decided that the IKON pass makes the most sense for us this coming ski season. However, we will be at Hilton Sunrise Lodge at the Canyons (Vail resort) this Christmas.

Since PCMR/canyons is not a part of our IKON pass, we would have to pay out of pocket to ski Park City. We decided that we're willing to spend out of pocket for 1 or 2 days at PCMR since it's right outside our place.

We don't anticipate going to Utah very often, so we want to check out other places since we're there and take advantage of the IKON pass even though it seems silly for us to stay at Sunrise and not ski PCMR.

How would you recommend allocating our time?

We were thinking of allocating the 6 days in this order:
2 days Deer Valley because closer,
1 day Alta/Snowbird,
1 day Brighton or Solitude?,
1 day rest & check out SLC or 3 of us rest & 1 goes out by himself at PCMR to do what he wants to do,
1 day PCMR

Any comments/criticism? What would you do given our interests?
(IKON pass includes: Solitude, Deer Valley, Brighton, AltaSnowbird)

Does any resort get crazy at it nears Christmas/post Christmas that we should definitely avoid? Brighton or Solitude or 2 days at Alta/Snowbird instead? (We don't mind snowboarders. All we know is life with them and don't understand the appeal of a no snowboarder mountain.)

A few other notes. My kids hate Keystone because of the walk (regardless of the wagon). They are okay with Vail's walk since we park Lion's head side. They were okay with Taos but did get a little grumpy with the combination of drive and walk (we stayed 5 min south of Taos farmers market square). If we have a long walk after a drive to alta/snowbird or brighton/solitude, it may be an issue.

We have noticed that the few times we skied during Christmas, the greens and blues are filled with a lot more erratic/learning skiers which made us nervous, but it was fine once we got to the intermediate+ runs. Is there a resort where the lifts force you to all merge in the same place? I would like to avoid the crowds, especially if it funnels the beginners/intermediates together into a massive lift area. This may be a factor as well.
 

vacationtime1

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You don't need a car if you stay/ski in Park City/Deer Valley, but you will need one to get to Brighton/Solitude or Alta/Snowbird -- and each is an hour drive each way from Park City without traffic or snow (there will be traffic and you are hoping for snow).

Alta and Snowbird each have two parking areas; know where you want to be before you start.

It will be crowded over Christmas.
 
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ski_sierra

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With your current plan to stay at Sunrise in Park City, you are going to lose a lot of time in transportation and traffic if you visit the Ikon resorts.

If you want to go check out all these resorts, I don't think it makes sense to stay in Park City. Downtown SLC would be better. You could take a bus to all these resorts from downtown SLC.

Since you are staying at Sunrise, it might make more sense for you to get the Epic pass this year again. Park City is a very large mountain. I think it has more terrain than Alta/SnowBird/Brighton/Solitude combined.

There are several lifts that are uncrowded because you need to take 2 or 3 lifts to get to them. Iron Mountain, Dreamcatcher, Super Condor serve excellent blue terrain.

Other thing to note is Ikon is the best pass for Utah so a lot of people coming to Utah will have Ikon pass. Epic pass has fallen out of favor for visiting Utah. So the crowds will likely be lower at Park City Mountain than any of the other places.
 

Marathoner

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I ski at Alta, Snowbird, Breckenridge, Vail Arapahoe Basin and Park City every year.

I agree with the suggestion that you should try to move to a different lodge outside of the Park City base area if you can. Imagine how would your family feel about staying at the base of Breckenridge or Keystone every day but having to drive an hour to Vail or Beaver Creek? If your family won't handle it then your lodging situation at Park City will be similar.

You may just want to buy the epic local pass given where you are staying even though you already bought the ikon. I buy both each season since we all have to have our priorities. Without Epic, each PC day lift ticket is $180 per person.

Have a skiing battle plan but be ready to adjust at first contact. Snowbird and Alta become a feeding frenzy on a powder day so do not go there if it snowed 6 inches or more the prior night. On those powder days, Deer Valley is the best place to ski at. You should rent a car for your trip.

If the season starts with substandard snowfall, you'll want to ski at Alta, Solitude and Brighton because the snow conditions will be best there. Don't bother to ski at Park City in a bad snow Christmas because the base is only 6500 feet and conditions will be quite poor. Moreover, even though the ski resorts are so close to each other as the crow flies, the microclimate variety and snowfall variability between the resorts are considerable so check the local mountain snow conditions every day of your trip if the weather pattern is active.

Don't visit Snowbird, it is a very challenging mountain and many intermediate skiers do not like it because of the lack of terrain for their ski level. As an example, Snowbird is home to the world's hardest green trail called Emma which some say should be reclassified to a black. Emma is also a big funnel of the type that you mention you hate.

Do visit Alta. It is a sublime ski experience that has no equivalent in the world. A bit like Arapahoe Basin but Alta has much more ski terrain variety, better food, and is more fun.

Do visit Deer Valley. Excellent groomers, excellent service, excellent food, you are treated like royalty. No crowds. Decent moguls and trees. Host to both the Olympics moguls as well as World Cup competitions. The place may remind you of Beaver Creek.

Do visit Solitude and Brighton. They get great snow and are much less crowded than Alta despite having similar snow conditions.

Do eat out on Main Street at Park City. If you like the town of Breckenridge, you'll like the Main Street area of Park City.

I would suggest skiing at those 4 places in that order and then decide where you want to go skiing the rest of the week based on how your family liked each mountain. There are no boarders permitted at Deer Valley or Alta.

You may also want to consider skiing at Deer Valley daily during your trip with only a day off to ski at Alta and then another to ski at Solitude. Deer Valley is only a 15 minute drive and you can also take the free town bus.

If you get to each of the the resorts by 8am, I don't see the parking lot walk being much of an issue. Crowds on the slopes at Christmas time is much more dictated by quantity of recent snow fall than the holiday itself. So, I wouldn't worry about crowds over Christmas unless it snows considerably.

You made the right decision to ski Utah. Overall, I like Utah resorts more than Colorado for a variety of reasons.

Good luck!

Sent from my LG-H932 using Tapatalk
 
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peas

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Thank you, Marathoner, for the great advice. Totally makes sense. Great tips on where to go w/ fresh powder (so counterintuitive but makes sense). I appreciate the analogies to the CO resorts. We have driven from BC to Breck chasing snow so it's been done though not preferred. But at least I can prep the kids psychologically with that analogy. The curiosity and novelty may be enough to keep everyone in check. Of course, there is always the possibility that the kids are going to revolt and start loving Deer Valley even before the trip starts.

The family loves Blue Sky Basin at vail (the kids consider the bowls just a means to get to blue sky -- tho they like sundown bowl somewhat). Any equivalent to blue sky type of terrain in Utah?

We're thinking IKON due to a spring break ski commitment at Taos with another family & everyone telling us we'd love Alta. That & DH's friends tell him he has to go to Snowbird & they're tentatively planning Revelstoke for a guys trip is what's pushing the IKON.

We haven't pulled the trigger on the IKON yet, but we're about to in the next couple of weeks. I guess we'll have to figure out if we should just get him both passes and maybe the rest of the family piggy back off the buddy/discount passes or pay out of pocket. We're committed to Sunrise lodge because we have to use our Hilton points which are expiring, and I already know that if DH is given a choice between driving the hour+ & using funds for another ski pass or using the ski pass funds to stay at a closer location for part of the week to get to Cottonwood Canyon area faster, he'll always pick the pass. I'll have to run the numbers.

Best websites for road closures/conditions aside from udot?
Any favorite car rental companies that maintain good tires or put on snow tires?
How often do you see chain laws in effect / enforced - similar to I-70? I'm not sure how the elevation plays into Utah roads vs CO roads.

The advice has been so awesome. Thank you.
 

Marathoner

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I think that the terrain at Alta and the Honeycomb Canyons at Solitude are generally similar to Blue Sky Basin. Its a bit difficult to say because every mountain is fairly unique. You could consider getting the Mountain Collective pass instead of Ikon and save a couple hundred per pass that way. If you get the husband both passes and use his 6 buddy passes, I think a buddy pass at Park City is $120/person. As compared to $180/person for a walk-up rate.

Snowbird is a great mountain with very challenging terrain. If the family was solid black skiers, I would say go for it. Otherwise, wait until the family become stronger skiers before spending time at Snowbird

Rental car companies - just use costcotravel.com if you are a Costco member and pick the least pricey car company amongst the four. Rental car companies do not use snow tires but I've not had problems with the M+S designated tires on rental company 4 wheel drive cars. I've never had to deal with chains on Utah roads as long as you have a 4x4.
 

peas

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Thanks again for the great response. It was way more helpful then all the internet searching I was doing.
 

Venter

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I got my kids the full Epic pass and we will piggy back of them using the buddy/discount tickets.
 

K2Quick

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If you're skiing with an IKON pass, I wouldn't bother spending any time at PCMR. The skiing's not different enough from Deer Valley to warrant spending more money. You go to Deer Valley more for the food than the skiing (but the food there is REALLY, REALLY good).

Brighton is primarily where my kids (7 and 10 now) have grown up skiing. I think it offers up a lot of great terrain for beginners and intermediates and enough to keep things interesting as you advance. It also has what I consider the best tree skiing in Utah.

Alta, despite its reputation, has some of the best beginner and intermediate terrain you'll find anywhere. It's legendary and must be experienced if you can. Snowbird, as others have pointed out, probably should be skipped. I'd rank Solitude as the 2nd most difficult in terrain after Snowbird. It's a little steeper than the others so just keep that in mind (it definitely has plenty for intermediates, but there's at least one run they label blue that most resorts would label black - it's all marketing).

If I were coming to Utah on an IKON pass, I'd probably do an AirBnB somewhere between the mouth of Big Cottonwood and Little Cottonwood Canyons. Just search for Cottonwood Heights. That puts you within a 15-30 minute easy drive of any of the Cottonwood resorts (and only 45 minutes to Deer Valley). If it's a powder day, plan on a significantly longer (but well worth it) drive.

The IKON pass has introduced a weird dynamic for holiday crowds. Christmas week was definitely less crowded than non-holiday weekend crowds this season (in Big Cottonwood Canyon anyway - can't speak for PCMR or Deer Valley). That's because a lot of people opt for the IKON base pass which is blacked out most of that week. If you can convince your family to do it, ski on Christmas Day. Most people don't think to ski on Christmas Day so you won't have any crowds (and you'll be skiing with a lot of guys in Santa suits).
 

peas

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Thank you all for your advice. They were spot on. I reread the post again since we're considering IKON again for 2021 season.

It was fun going through the thread now filled in with concrete memories behind the reading. We definitely took everyone's advice, and we stayed at the Hyatt Place in Cottonwood. We were always early to all the Big & Little Cottonwood Canyon resorts - parking first or second row. Traffic was never an issue. The roads were always clear.

I realize reading back, that in my head we were a blue/black family, but the actuality was that my son & daughter had started to do double blacks with DH the season before, and we pretty much do blacks. I just had not caught up to the actuality because I had a label stuck in my head. Also, I am traumatized by some of the "blacks" that the family gets me into (being the worst skier in the family, I am particularly traumatized).

We ended up going Christmas week as well as half week at the end of February. The big surprise for us was Solitude. We loved Honeycomb Canyon. Actually, we loved Honeycomb Canyon so much at Christmas. The beginning was fun and then there's a great finish on the flats with small bumps giving lots of bouncy jump opportunities at Christmas. But by Feb/Mar the snow had covered most of the bumps; it wasn't as fun later on in the season for us, but we still loved it. We also loved how quiet it was there. It was the must do resort on the return in spring.
Then we have a tie between Snowbird & Brighton & Alta for various reasons/sections.
The other surprise was Snowbird. Because we're not a speed family, I personally didn't expect for us to like it since I had heard Snowbird was just basically steeps and for the speed loving. We started on the back bowl but didn't really like it much, so we moved onto the front, but it was the speed steeps that don't do much for us (now reading back it was the main Emma thoroughfare) and weren't feeling much love for that either. Then they discovered the right side of the mountain on the trail map/Gad2 lift area. So Snowbird was a big yes but it took 1/2 a day to figure it out.

We thought Deer Valley was okay. We got a good family picture there. My daughter can't stop talking about the butter to this day. As mentioned, the food was very very good. DH & DS were at this narrow chute area (the kind where people all gather at the ledge mustering up courage or formulating a plan), and this guy yells, "Someone go!" Then he pushes through, goes, and falls. Others just ski past him. Due to the crowds, there was a lot of that vibe going on. PCMR (Canyons) was our least favorite; we never made it to the other side. Both places were crowded, but at this point we're at Christmas & day after with fresh powder falling. It was easier to avoid nervous skiers at Deer valley. I'm pretty sure our impression of PCMR and Deer Valley was clouded by the crowds, the aforementioned vibe, the larger number of beginner skiers (especially at PCMR), and the fact that there was no closer ski access to Sunrise Lodge because the lift and even the ski in access was closed. If we get the IKON again, we may not even bother going to Park City. I think DH is going to try going to PCMR at a normal time of the year to see how it is.

Thank you all for generously sharing what you know.
 
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