Deer Valley
Thursday 25 January 2007

Weather

Conditions

The Story of the Day

Three days of skiing before an Open Group meeting in San Diego. I am a bit worried about the condition of my legs; I have done no specific exercise and haven't visited the gym for more than a year.

One factor in choice of resorts is the quality of the day lounge; Sue is not skiing. So here we are at Deer Valley.

We got into our hotel in Salt Lake after 9pm on Wednesday evening, so didn't make it out quite as early as normal. After picking up skis at the usual Breeze outlet on Foothill Drive, I made it on to the slops just before 10am, leaving Sue settled into the comfort of the Snow Park lodge.

First of all a run to loosen the legs. After almost a year, skiing was not quite natural, but no problems.

Under Carpenter lift	Under Carpenter lift
One of the runs down to Snow Park	The top of Bald Eagle Mountain

I decided that today would be a day of cruising around the resort, so the plan was to make it to the top of Empire Canyon (the area bordering Park City) and get back to Snow Park in time for coffee around 11:30.

Solid Muldoon run

Near the top of Carpenter chair

From the top of Bald Eagle Mountain, I skied down to the bottom of Wasatch to get to the top of Bald Mountain. There were no lift queues. The runs under Wasatch lift showed how little snow there was this year, with rocks and vegetation showing through. When we visited in the summer we hiked down from the top of Bald Mountain and saw construction of a new lift, the Sultan Express. Tycoon run down to the bottom of the lift is a relatively steep groomed run, given a Double Blue rating. My legs were burning at the bottom, reflecting how stiffly I was skiing.

The top of Bald Mountain from Wasatch chair

From the top of Bald Mountain it was necessary to ski down to Silver Lake and get the Quincy Express lift to the top of Flagstaff Mountain to get across towards Empire Bowl. Bandana run down to the base of Empire Bowl has been changed to make room for yet more condos and what was an isolated lodge is now surrounded by new building work.

Looking down over Park City from Bald Mountain

The top of Flagstaff Mountain

As usual, the views from the top of Empire Bowl lift were breathtaking, but somewhat spoiled by the smoggy haze arising from a temperature inversion over Salt Lake City. The bowl itself was heavily mogulled, not for me today; I settled for two cruises down the runs around the bowl. I think I was beginning to loosen up; the skiing was getting easier and more natural.

The top of Empire chair	Empire bowl
Supreme run at the top of Empire Bowl	The top of Empire bowl
From near the top of Empire bowl	The top of Empire bowl

Now it was time for a coffee break, which meant retracing tracks across Flagstaff Mountain and taking Crown Point lift to the top Bald Eagle Mountain for the run down to Snow Park base.

Nearing the top of Flagstaff mountain on Ruby Express chair	Sparse cover under Crown Point lift
McHenry run

The weather forecast was for extreme cold. The sun had not read the forecast. When I got down to the base at around 11:30am, Sue was sitting outside enjoying the sun. I stopped for about 15 minutes for a cup of coffee and then got back out onto skis before my legs stiffened up.

For the second part of the morning, I decided to head back towards Flagstaff Mountain and ski off two lifts I had missed earlier. Red Cloud is an old slow chair going part way up Flagstaff Mountain and gaining enough altitude to get further across the mountain. Silver Strike is a high-speed quad built to service a new area of condos. Unfortunately it has been built through Sidewinder what was a very pleasant winding tree-lined run. Northside Express remains the main lift serving runs on Flagstaff Mountain. Its base is now surrounded with new condos.

Moguls under Red Cloud lift	New condos surround a new chair lift
Silver Strike chair through the trees

I missed Mayflower lift earlier in the day, so next I returned to the top of Bald Mountain and skied down Stein's Way to the base of the lift and then Perseverance to the base of Sultan Express to get back to the top. By now my legs were telling me that I had almost done enough for the day.

Looking down towards Jordanelle reservoir

Under Mayflower lift

I planned one last run down to the base of the Jordanelle gondola. The run was not open all the way down because of poor snow cover, so I had to settle for a shorter run and Deer Crest chair to get to the top of Little Baldy Peak and the cruise back down to Snow Park base.

Little Baldy Peak	Homestake nearing Little Baldy Peak
Bald Mountain from Little Baldy	Looking down on Snow Park from Little Stick
Looking down on Snow Park from Little Stick	Convergence of runs near Snow Park

I finished skiing at approximately 1:30pm, a surprisingly long morning, although I was not exactly skiing demanding runs.

We stayed at Deer Valley for lunch - their rather good Grilled Cheese sandwich. The chef cooking on the grill counter looked familiar, he has been there for 20 years.

Runs

Last updated: 4th February 2007