Back to Park City (with Style!)
Park City was so nice, we’re doing it twice! Back from Vegas and in maybe our best house sit yet.
Casa y Gatos
The house we’re sitting is dope – 4 bed, 6 bath, and 4,500 sq.ft. Other than the obvious amenities of a gorgeous mountain chalet (like a nice kitchen, large master bed/bath, and a hot tub), there is a sweet Boston Sports themed man cave with pinball and foosball.
The real kicker though is the ease to resort: 10 minutes drive to our own private parking. Despite the resort’s name, there are not good parking options at Park City Mountain. Fortunately for us, we have our own private parking pass in the garage, just an elevator’s ride up to the base of the mountain.
Zo and Snoop are our fluffy roommates. Zo is an absolute chonker and we’re charged with helping him manage his diet. Overall the cats are easy and good company in the evenings.
Park City Resort
Park City Mountain Resort is pretty awesome and has a ton of cool terrain. Of course, it helps that we’ve had so much fresh snow! My favorite zones are McConkey’s (Black Forest trees) and Jupiter (Scott’s Bowl). The photo at the top of this page is Stacey exiting Scott’s Bowl, which is accessible after a short hike.
I’ve met a few friends on the mountain: Jodi was skiing with an Israeli flag jersey, so I had to grab a chair with her when I saw her. Turns out she’s an unofficial Jewish events coordinator in the area and invited Stacey and I to a (delicious) Shabbat dinner. I’m glad that I befriended Andrew on the way to McConkey’s because he dug me out in the Black Forest trees on a powder day when my skis went under a large felled branch and had me stuck. Due to the nature of my tele skis, I was very stuck and if he wasn’t there I would have been in a very tough spot. I met Rippin’ Rick on the way to Jupiter on a powder day – he’s 63 years old but had no problem keeping up (on the uphill or the downhill). On a different powder day, I met Amanda, who has similar ski preferences to me and we quickly became powder day buddies. Turns out Amanda is Jewish and she and her husband, Jon, invited us to a shabbat dinner also! Folks out here are so friendly and it’s been easy to make new friends.
Every powder day brings really fun and unique lines. I’m sharing some pictures of a line down Jupiter peak below. This peak can be hiked from McConkey’s or Jupiter but is often closed due to avalanche risk. I caught it at the end of a powder day and it was still barely skied. Some guy at the top sold me on a technical shoot down the middle, starting with a mandatory ~10ft drop. Because the line was hard to access and pretty technical, it was virtually unskied and a ton of fun.
One of Stacey’s friends, Kelcie came to SLC to visit some family and she joined us for some Park City turns. We took her around most of the Park City side and some of the Canyons side. Logged 20k v.ft., which is a big day, and even had time to check out the mountain yurt for some beers.
Backcountry w/Tim & Michelle
One of my oldest ski buddies, Tim, and his girlfriend, Michelle, came out to Utah for a huge trip with some friends. I think they skied every resort in the area and even joined us for a couple days of backcountry.
On Saturday, we had blue skies and a big crew. Stacey and I took the crew out to Powder Park III, a zone that we really like and gives good views of all the skiable terrain around it. The snow, nor the weather, could have been much better and it gave us a leg-up on planning a larger tour for Sunday.
Sunday was a smaller crew of Tim, Michelle, and I. Our tour plan took us up one side of the mountain (Japan Trees) and down into the other side (Short Swing) before we hiked back up to ski down Japan Trees on the way home. The weather was more than a bit blustery at times but we welcomed the fresh snowfall and wind-depositing.
The weekend tours totaled over 5k v.ft. of skiing and countless turns of fun. Like always, we had the best time skiing with Tim and Michelle.
We have several more adventures left in the tank before we leave Park City, so stay tuned!
