Park City Skiing Recap

Six days of vacation just wasn’t enough! After getting back from Houston late Friday afternoon, I did laundry, ran to buy some last minute ski essentials, and tried to get the best night’s sleep before taking off for UTAH! Geez, I was happy I splurged with my miles and booked a first class ticket. It was wonderful to relax in first class with my friend Jim and have a little Bailey’s in my morning coffee. It was also fun playing in-seat trivia with everyone else on the plane. Apparently, my voice carries more than I thought as I could see on the scoreboard that the guy in 2A and I were tied for first place right when we were touching down and I yelled, “SUCK IT, guy in 2A… booo yaaa!” Unfortunately, we never got the last question but I would have totally wooped ass. Amateurs.

We get to Utah and meet up with a few of our group members flying in from other locations. I went on this trip just knowing Jim so I met a lot of new folks. Six days in a condo helps the getting-to-know-you process. The ride to Park City was pretty quick- only 35 miles or so. The men (in typical fashion) did not mapquest or ask for directions so we went based on my instincts and Blackberry navigation. HA!

We immediately start drinking and planning our week. We all agree to ski most days and maybe take a day “off” aka drink beer all day and watch movies. I hit the hay early in anticipation of a full day of skiing at Park City Mountain Resort.

Day 1 comes early. Luckily, Park City has a fantastic shuttle system and we have a stop right outside our door! Getting everyone out of the house is a chore but we are finally all outside waiting for the bus. I get to the equipment rental place and within the first 5 minutes of being there, I SEE MY BOSS FROM WORK!! Can you believe it, of all the places in the world… he has come to Park City the same week as me. I end up seeing him 4 or 5 times more all over the resort. CRAZY.



Park City Mountain Resort

I take the first day easy with a couple green slopes. See, I learned to ski at Paoli Peaks Ski Resort in Indiana. Yes, Indiana. What they called greens out here would have clearly passed as a black trail back in Indiana. Daaaaamn…

Skiing starts to come back to me… no problem! I brag to the guys about how I am really getting back into it, my turns are going well… and then I ski off down the mountain and totally wipe out. I mean, WIPE OUT. I then decide to keep my mouth shut.

The next day we took off from skiing. Most people were so sore they could not even move. I decide to get a run in that morning and the 7,000 ft altitude kicks my ass. A good 5 mile run though and some core work. I feel great! The rest of the people in the house think I am c-c-c-crazy for going out and running although they wholeheartedly cheer me on from the porch with Bud Lights in their hands. We spend the remainder of the day drinking downtown and enjoying the gorgeous weather.

We head back to Park City Resort the next day and I feel a little more confident. I warm up with a couple greens and then hit some easy blues. I am doing awesome! In a moment of complete confidence, I ask the guide at top about a couple of the blues that intersect from that point. I notice he is from Rock Hill, South Carolina. This should have been my first clue that this guy had NO idea about the trails and their level of difficulty. He tells me to go on “High Card”, a ‘signature run used in the 2002 Olympics but has since been scaled back to an easier level of difficulty’.

No problem! Bring on High Card!

I get to the top and look down, past the point of return. Holy shit. It is super steep. And moguls.

Moguls.

Moguls.

Moguls.

I don’t do moguls.

I freak out.

I see a guy skiing up towards me and wave him down. I ask, “Is this run hard? I did not know it had moguls.”

He laughs and says, “Well, does it look hard? Good luck!” and skies on.

It felt like I was on that mountain for an hour. I saw one other skier the entire time. I started crying at some point. I felt helpless. I took it slow. I fell at times. I was sweating bullets. But, I was not going down that mountain with the ski patrol.

I have never been so happy to get to the bottom. And who do I see? My boss. And his 6 year son. Apparently, they had done the run the day before.

Damn.

We ski the next couple days at Deer Valley, a gorgeous ski resort that does not allow snowboarders. I have to admit, snowboarders do not really bother me as a skier but some people hate them. One difference is the narrow, narrow trails at Deer Valley. I guess they assume skiers do not need a wide trail. Wrong. Most of the runs I went on at Park City were wide enough that you were still going to live if you ventured off trail, at least into the trees. If you go off trail at Deer Valley, you go off a ledge into a deep ravine. Scary!

Gorgeous scenery though. A true treat!




We broke for lunch at the top of the mountain and had a couple beers at lunch. I was heading down the signature green trail, “Success” after lunch and hear some lady behind me yell, “Get out of my way, I am out of control!” She wipes out right behind me and her pole comes flying towards me and gets caught in my skis. I wipe out too and hit my head on the snow. Hard. Eeekk! I took a couple minutes to get up, put my skis back on, and not kill her. Having decided that I was happy to be in one piece, I called the next trail my last as I did not want to get majorly hurt and I took this a sign.

All in all- I had an amazing time! It was so nice to get out West again and take in some beautiful scenery. I am hoping to tack on a couple days to my Colorado trips in the next couple months and do a little skiing… might try cross country next time around too!