Park City
Sunday 20 February 2000

Weather

Started cold and bright, with the temperature below freezing. Gradually the cloud cover increased through the day and by mid afternoon, the temperature was in the mid 40s (F).

 

Description

The first day of the family ski holiday 2000. This time round there were five of us: Sue, Chris, John, myself and the Teddy from Sue's class. One of our challenges was to take photos of Ted so that Sue could take them back into school.

We had rather more time at Gatwick than we planned. Our flight was delayed by about three hours which meant that we missed our connection in Dallas. We were rebooked on a connecting flight via Albuquerque almost 24 hours late, but the Platinum desk managed to get us on a flight that did not mean missing a day.

It was was after 11pm when we finally arrived at our condo at Powderwood.


 
Despite the late arrival we were awake bright and early. After breakfast at the Mountain Air Cafe, we were waiting at Breeze Ski Rentals at 8am when it opened to collect our skis. 

We spent most of the day cruising blue runs, with just the occasional foray into easy black terrain. [One innovation since our previous visit was a map and list of runs groomed overnight.]

It was a holiday weekend and with pretty good weather there was the prospect of crowds and long queues for the lifts. The advice of one of the Park City hosts was to get as far back on the mountain as we could as early as possible.
 


We took him at his world and after one run from Three Kings to gain height, we took the two six-packs up to the summit and an easy run down to the bottom of the new McConkey's Lift.

Chris and John are pictured at the top of the lift before we headed down the beautifully groomed Tycoon run, the only easy way down.

It is not clear why McConkey's lift is a six-pack. There were rarely queues all week, even at the busiest times. However, this is where Park City meets Deer Valley and maybe there is provision for interchange between the resorts at some stage in the future.
 
We took one run down Sampson from Pioneer lift, only to find it ungroomed and frozen, so we went back up McConkey's.

These photos were all taken from McConkey's lift. The top two show Woodside, the easy run out from the Pioneer runs. The bottom two show McConkey's Bowl at the top of the lift.



 


The bottom of McConkey's lift from Pioneer

Looking down to the resort center from the top of Thaynes lift

 With only one cruise run from McConkey's we spent some time skiing various runs off Pioneer. ft were taken from Pioneer lift.

For variety, we switched to the backside and Keystone into Thaynes Canyon.
 

We gradually moved down Thaynes Canyon, taking Thaynes and Motherlode lifts once each,  finishing up at the bottom of King Consolidated lift.

We just about had time for one run down Seldom Seen and then headed down Gotcha Cut-Off to meet Sue for lunch.

 



Looking towards Thaynes lift and Jupiter Bowl from Motherlode Lift
 




We met Sue (and Ted) at the base area for lunch. Sue had an easy morning, with a few runs off First Time, but the queues for the two lifts at the bottom were dreadful.

The base was in the process of being rebuilt, with an enormous tent in the middle of the main plaza. We went to the outdoor barbecue in the corner, a familiar haunt from previous years.

Everyone was pretty tired, so we had a relatively easy afternoon, finishing up just after 3 o'clock. We started off with a couple of runs off Payday and the headed for the summit area.
To finish off the afternoon, we took one easy black run, Belmont, from the top of Bonanza lift and then took the familiar run down Claimjumper and Silver Queen down to the bottom.



The top of Silver Queen on the last run of the day

The last run of the day was from the plaza level down to the car. Teddy got a ride attached to my Camelback (water carrier).

A good day and we were very tired and slept well.

Runs

Lift Vertical Easy Runs Intermediate Runs Advanced Runs
Three Kings 465 Silver Hollow
Payday 1278 Bonanza Access
Bonanza 1122 Mid-Mountain, Homerun
McConkeys 1193 Tycoon
Pioneer 965 Woodside Comstock
McConkeys 1193 Tycoon
Pioneer 965 Woodside Sampson
Pioneer 965 Woodside Red Fox
Pioneer 965 Mid Mountain Cut-off Hawk Eye
Pioneer 965 Keystone
Thaynes 875 Single Jack, Thaynes Canyon
Motherlode 1265 Parley's Park, Broadway, Hot Spot Prospector
King Consolidated 1200 King Con Ridge, Hot Spot Seldom Seen
King Consolidated 1200 Gotcha Cut-off, Ladies' SL, King Con Ridge
Lunch
Payday 1278 Payday
Payday 1278 Treasure Hollow Nail Driver
Ski Team 1480 Silver Hollow Willy's Run
Payday 1278 Bonanza Access
Bonanza 1122 Homerun, Bonanza Belmont
Bonanza 1122 Homerun Silver Queen
Total vertical 22174

Last updated: 21/02/00