Deer Valley
Thursday 19 February 1998

Weather

Clear and sunny, started very cold. High cloud moved in towards the end of the afternoon.

Conditions

Packed powder.

The Story of the Day

After several days of discussion, for the first time in all the years of coming to Utah, we decided to go somewhere other than Park City.

Deer Valley promised something a little more interesting for Sue than First Time.

By the time we had stopped for breakfast and walked from the car park, we were a little later than on previous days. As we emerged from the lodge to buy tickets, we found out that there was a tour, a Black Diamond tour starting in just 15 minutes time. After Jupiter Bowl, this tour was a great attraction for Chris and I, but there was a need to orient Sue for the morning.

Chris and I raced to get in one run off the Carpenter Express lift to investigate the long top-to-bottom run marked green on the map. Success turned out to be virtually identical to Claim Jumper in terms of gradient and length. We just about had time to pass this information on to Sue before signing up for the tour.

In addition to the guide, there were four of us. The American couple, although in their early fifties were very strong skiers, so I was by no means sure that we had done the right thing. The guide promised us moguls, steeps and trees!

The first run was pretty comfortable (and probably used by the guide to check us out). Big Stick is a double-blue, which at Deer Valley generally means steep but groomed. Our guide was quick to point out that this would be one of the slopes used for the 2002 olympics.

Deer Valley is three linked hills around the Silver Lake lodge. From the base area, it is necessary to go up the Carpenter lift and the ski down to Silver Lake and we did just that, keeping going to the bottom of Wasatch Express a detachable quad lift to the top of Bald Mountain, serving a number of almost parallel runs, graded blue, double-blue and black.

At the summit, we headed straight on to what claims to be the most challenging area of Deer Valley. Taking the ridge, which separated Mayflower and Perseverance bowls, eventually we reached Orient Express, graded black, steep but groomed.

Mayflower brought us to Stein's Way, an even steeper groomed slope and the start of real tour. About half way down the run, we cut off the left down Finis a short, steep mogulled run, which was still in shade and not particularly soft.

Sultan took us back to the Summit of Bald Mountain. Cutting across the top of the broad intermediate slopes which lead back to Silver Lake, we skied through an almost invisible gap between trees and came into a wide open ungroomed and almost unskied field. Apart from one short section above a path, this was not particulary steep, and was a delight.

After a short section of Emerald, we cut left into trees. The trees were pretty widely spaced and we navigated our way down to where the easiest run down cuts thorugh. The drop onto the road was pretty steep and the drop into the next section of trees was even steeper. Finally we came to the top of what apparantly is a waste heap from the old silver mine. There didn't seem any way down, and as we edged closer and closer to the edge we still could not see the slope. Finally we saw the slope .. Not particularly long, but, we were told, approximately a 55-60º slope and moguls. There was no other way, so we had to go for it. Surprisingly, after a few careful turns we reached the bottom and the 5 foot wall down to the road at the bottom seemed almost trivial. This was definitely Double Black territory.

The next couple of runs were easy, as our guide showed us round Flagstaff Mountain, but he had one last challenge for us.

From the top of Ontario we followed a narrow almost flat track under the lift for a while, and then cut right onto a traverse through the trees to the East of Hidden Treasure. This was a roller coaster ride with rather large undulations which demanded flexibility in the knees. We came out in a steep mogul field Ontario Bowl. This was confortable wide at the top but narrowed to a couple of moguls wide at the bottom.

Here the tour came to an end and the guide wouldn't even accept a tip. As we were riding the short lift back to Silver Lake, we caught site of Stein Erikson, now in his 70s, but still skiing daily.

Meanwhile back at the base, Sue was enjoying the short slopes near the Snow Peak lodge. She did not try the longer run but spent the morning in the sun, enjoying the view of Silver Lake and the antics of children as the navigated a series of simple obstacle course.

After lunch, we alll took several runs together from the short Snowflake lift and then Chris and I set off back to Bald Mountain to get some mileage in on the groomed slopes. We did all of the runs off Wasatch Express at least once, a couple of run on th backside and finally returned to the bottom, pretty well exhausted.

Sue was still skiing the runs off Snowflake and clearly the day was much better for her confidence.

Runs

Lift Vertical Easy Runs Intermediate Runs Top Intermediate Runs Advanced Runs Expert Runs
Carpenter 1200 Rosebud, Success
Start of tour
Carpenter 1200 Big Stick
Carpenter 1200 McHenry Sunrise
Wasatch 1400 Orient Express
Mayflower 1400 Stein's Way, Finis
Sultan 1400 Ontario Trees, Emerald Unnamed
Red Cloud 800 Peeler
Red Cloud 800 Blue Bell
Northside 900 Ontario Traverse Ontario Bowl
Viking 200
End of tour
McHenry
Crown Point 550 Kimberley, Rising Star Big Stick
Lunch
Carpenter 1200 Wild West Solid Muldoon White Owl
Snowflake 200 Wild West
Carpenter 1200 McHenry
Wasatch 1400 Wizard
Wasatch 1400 Legal Tender
Wasatch 1400 Keno
Wasatch 1400 Nabob
Wasatch 1400 Perseverence
Sultan 1400 Tycoon
Sultan 1400 Perseverence Stein's Way
Mayflower 1400 Perseverence
Sultan 1400 Legal Tender
Wasatch 1400 Nabob
Crown Point 550 Rising Star, Kimberley Big Stick
Total vertical 28200

Last updated: 14/12/2000