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Published: February 27th 2017
Our big travel day went remarkably smoothly. Waking up in Breckenridge at 8am and being at our condo in Park City by 6pm was a small miracle given we had to get down one mountain, fly to another state and get up another mountain. Obviously it was snowing when we left Breck, but not enough to impact our transfer. Our new condo was a little weird - I think the pictures speak for themselves. We think the place is owned by some skiing/fishing/hunting mad people. There are real, dead animals on the walls, I kid you not (again, look at the pics!).
The kitchen was ram packed with filthy kitchenware with not an inch of space for any food or drink. Even the oven was full of baking trays. Our first job was to select the nicest pots, pans and cutlery and run it all through the dishwasher, cram all the dirty stuff into one cupboard and clean another out ready to house the dishwashered stuff. Madness! It was so bad that Paul led the charge on the cleaning (even without his marigolds!)
On the plus side the condo was super quiet compared to our Breck unit. It helped
being on the top floor of a building with only eight units. The place felt massive when we walked in, moving from a studio to a one bed + two loft place it was to be expected. But the odd thing was that there was very limited storage space. I'm not sure where we were expected to store our snowboards and boots. After we cleaned we spent about an hour rearranging things, moving furniture around to make the place work for us.
The next day walking around the base of the mountain we noticed this weird green stuff on the ground, surely it wasn't grass! Where was all the lovely snow?? We were confused! As I mentioned in my previous blog the weather warmed up towards the end of our stay in Breck, but because of the altitude the snow had not been impacted. Park City is a whole 1000m lower than Breck and unfortunately the warm weather had taken its toll on the snow. Thankfully it was much better up the mountain but still very different to the conditions we'd taken for granted in Breck.
Our first morning up the mountain we learnt something new; not all
snow is equal. There had been fresh snow overnight but because it was 'wet' snow it felt very odd to snowboard on - like having carpet stuck to your board. This was mainly an issue on the flat stuff, so it gave Paul the perfect excuse to take us on some more 'adventures', firstly into a black diamond bowl and then on a crazy run through the trees where no one else had been. The latter ended above a bowl of snow which we had to straightline down (me with a scream as my stomach flipped!) and then hike out of in knee deep snow! A couple of snowboarders appeared as we were hiking out and thanked us for 'laying down the fresh tracks' which they had followed! Fools!!!!
By the end of the first day we were horrified to realise that only two of the eight chairlifts we'd taken had footrests. This will mean very little to anyone who doesn't ski or snowboard but basically it makes the 5-10 minute ride on the chairlift very uncomfortable. Having a numb foot when you get off a lift is less than ideal! We'd been snowboarding for four weeks when we
arrived in Park City so were match fit but still struggled with knees, foot and leg pain!
The only thing more horrifying than the footrest situation was the apres situation! On our second evening we ventured out for apres. One of the best things about Park City is that during the week it is so quiet, especially if you stay on the Canyons side of the mountain, which is where our condo was. We'd done two days and not had to share a chairlift once, which is great from a comfort point of view but not so good for getting the low down on a new resort - we had no idea where to go for apres. We ended up in a ski-in distillery on the recommendation of a lift operator. It was super cute but man, did we have a shock when the bar bill came. Probably five times more expensive than Breck. It turns out there are some crazy alcohol laws in Utah. Happy hour (which we literally built our lives around in Breck) is illegal! Draft beer can be no more than 3.2% strong. You cannot drink unless you order food. You cannot have more than
one drink at a time. It's like there is a 'sin tax' on alcohol which makes life challenging for budget travellers and anyone who is not willing to pay £10 for a vodka and £7 for a beer - we've had cheaper drinks in Dubai!
It's fair to say that we didn't have a great first impression of Park City and our first week was a mixed bag. We'd had a couple of nights of snow but the conditions were no where near as good as Breck and it was so difficult not to compare everything back to Breck and our previous trips to Colorado resorts. Utah was not winning any points. And then just as I came down with a nasty cold it started to rain because it was so warm. We had to admit defeat and take two days off (gasp!).
At the start of our second week Katherine arrived. She is spending six weeks with us, for her sins, and we were hoping she would bring some luck and good quality snow with her. Unfortunately she had a bad start as her ski bag got left behind in Denver and given her late arrival (at
11.30pm, about 2.5 hours after my bedtime) had little chance of getting it until the following day. With no skis, jacket and lots of other ski essentials it looked as though she would have to miss her first day on the slopes. Thankfully it arrived at 4am and luckily she heard the door because the next day we woke to 33cm of fresh (good quality) snow. Nothing like a powder day on day one of your holiday to test out those leg muscles!
Our second week was much better than our first with refreshed snow and sunshine all week. It was still remarkably warm so we saw even more of that green stuff at the mountain base but there was still good snow to be found on the mountain if you knew where the quieter runs were. One of our favourites was a run through the Colony, a development of super expensive houses. Not the most challenging run but it was always quiet and the scenery was amazing.
We spent more time snowboarding the Park City side of the mountain and again found some fantastic runs. The historic centre and 'main street' was located on that side of
the mountain - this was a bigger, more fisher price version of Main Street in Breck - all cute buildings and fairy lights. One of the week one successes was the discovery of O'Sheas, a bar which on a Tuesday does $3 burgers and $3.5 large beers (which held two pints!). It was a little rough around the edges - think the Irish in Nottingham - but it was good fun and most importantly we could afford it!
After seven consecutive days of snowboarding we were forced to take two days off, as we had black out dates on our lift passes due to Presidents Day / weekend, a national holiday in the US. This meant we had time for chores (laundry and food shopping), outlet shopping (to buy the obligatory pair of Levi's and Abercrombie hoodie) and a lovely meal out.
Our final week in Park City was short, with only four days on the mountain. This was the week of extremes in weather. We had fresh snow every day, but on Tuesday afternoon it had got so warm (11 degrees) that it had all turned to slush and we were wondering how they would keep some
of the runs open. Thankfully it started to snow heavily on Tuesday evening and didn't stop for the rest of our stay. On Wednesday and Thursday we finally got to experience the amazing powder that Utah is famous for and had the best two days of our time here. So much snow, on piste and off piste. There were more crazy Paul adventures and lots of time spent falling over in the powder (me) and running into trees (Paul). Even Katherine had some amazing falls (normally she never falls!) with skis lost up the mountain and buried beneath the snow!
I'm not sure we saw Park City at its best; it's amazing how condition dependant your view of a resort is. Whilst we've had a great time I'm not sure Utah, and all it's quirks, stack up against Colorado.
Yesterday we left a snow covered Park City and started our two day journey to our final resort, Big Sky in Montana. This has been on the hit list for years so we're hoping that the snow follows us from Park City, but that we leave behind the crazy booze laws!
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Born to travel
Sharon and Scott
Crazy Utah booze laws!
Wow those are insane! Can't believe you have to eat to order booze. Talk about making the overweight problem in America even worse! I've only been to Utah once (to Salt Lake City) but found it way too strange - no bars to be found and not even any coffee shops! How do people live like that?!