Park City Utah is a vibrant cosmopolitan town that has the fantastic Park City Ski Resort sitting above the main street. Even though the ski resort is world renowned, many people wouldn’t think of Park City as a ski town. Plenty of well heeled vacationers visit the town for reasons other than skiing (including during winter), which speaks volumes for the many attractions of Park City. In addition to the famous Sundance Festival, the town has an abundance of activities and events on offer. The town is a shopping mecca and there are plenty of restaurants to delight any eager epicurean. Also, despite misconceived rumours that Utah is a dry state, the nightlife is reasonably lively.
Pros and Cons of Park City Ski Resort
Pros
- Park City Utah skiing is massive, especially now with the interconnection with the former Canyons Resort to form one large ski area with 7,300 acres of skiable terrain.
- The town is also home to Deer Valley (if you’re a skier) and it makes a great base to visit other Utah ski resorts.
- PCMR has phenomenal intermediate groomed runs and great snow quality.
- PCMR is well renowned as being great for families, but others will enjoy it equally. It's a great all-rounder!
- The lift infrastructure is of high quality.
- The town has so much to offer such as shopping, restaurants, people watching and other activities (you can even go bob sledding!).
- Park City has a lot more nightlife than any other ski area in Utah.
- Like some other Utah ski resorts, it’s quick and easy to access from the SLC airport.
- Powder hounds can score an abundance of fresh tracks out cat skiing with Park City Powder Cats.
Cons
- PC is inexpensive in comparison to Deer Valley ski resort, but not when you compare it to other Utah ski resorts. The non-skiing related costs are generally high particularly if you are drawn to the glitz of Main St. If you stay and dine on the outskirts of town, a Park City skiing vacation can be affordable.
- Experts may not find adequately challenging terrain at PC. The steeps are not as terrifying as those at Alta, Snowbird or Solitude.
Pro or Con Depending On Your Perspective
- The ski area is now accessible on the Epic Pass which also provides access to lots of other ski resorts in the US and other parts of the world. Like other Vail Resorts, this contributes to PCMR being rather busy.
- The quality of accommodation is generally very good to exceptional, but it can be very pricy especially if it’s conveniently located.
Park City Utah Skiing
Park City Ski Resort is inter-connected with the former The Canyons Resort via a gondola to form one huge resort accessible off the Epic lift pass. Vail Resorts continue to invest heavily in both sides of Park City Mountain to make major improvements.
There is also another ski resort in the town of Park City;
Deer Valley, a skiers only mountain. Skiing at Deer Valley is great, but Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) has the major bonus that it can be conveniently accessed from downtown Park City, and it doesn’t ban snowboarders.
There is also Woodward Mountain Park which is a small area serviced by one chair lift which specialises in freestyle zones. It’s a terrain park junkie’s dream because Woodward Park City also has an indoor area that includes a ramps, rails and stairs with foam and airbags.
Park City Mountain Ski and Snowboard Terrain
Park City Mountain Resort has the benefit of amazing infrastructure that includes an excellent lift system. Park City is also well known for its amazing terrain parks and pipes where you can watch the pros at work.
Even just the
Park City side of PCMR is large. And then when you consider the PC side and
Canyons side terrain combined, the resort becomes uber with 7,300 acres (2,954) of skiable terrain, 41 lifts, 341 marked trails, and 8 terrain parks plus a couple of pipes.
The official stats for Park City Mountain for the terrain split are 8% beginner, 41% intermediate, 28% advanced and 23% expert, which are very indicative of the reality of the ski resort. The Park City Ski Resort is pretty good for beginners and absolutely perfect for intermediates with an abundance of highway-wide groomed runs, and an average of 115 trails are groomed each night. There is lots of variety for advanced riders in amongst the trees, the alpine and on-piste, and the resort has some steeps for experts.
Park City Snow
One of the best things is the superb quality of the dry Utah snow. The resort receives a lot of quality powder (360”/9.1 metres on average per season), although this isn’t as much powder as the ski areas over in the Cottonwood Canyons. PCMR supplements Mother Nature’s bounty with snowmaking across 500 acres.
Where is the Park City Ski Resort?
It’s really easy to get to Park City Utah because it is only 37 miles east (45 minutes) of the Salt Lake City international airport, which is serviced by many flights. Ground transportation companies operate regular transfers from the airport to the town.
PCMR is located within the town of Park City, and the primary base of the ski resort is about a mile from downtown Main St. The Canyons Village (ie the base of the Canyons side) is only 4.6 miles from downtown Park City Utah.
Lodging
There is a wide range of
Park City lodging available ranging from luxury hotels to condos and B&Bs. Most of the accommodations are upscale, but there are also some options for moderate budgets.
Some of the accommodations near the main base of PCMR are ski-in ski-out or just a short walk from the slopes. Downtown around Main Street is the other main lodging area, and many of the accommodations here are also in close proximity to the slopes. A town bridge enables skiers and snowboarders to ride directly from the ski resort to Main Street, whilst uphill access is provided by the Town chairlift that rises up from the heart of Main Street.
Park City Accommodations Listings
The other option is to stay in
Canyons Village accommodations on the other side of the resort.
History
Park City skiing was pioneered by the miners, and there are still various old mining structures dotted around the ski area. The miners took mining cars along Spiro tunnel deep into the Thaynes shaft and took the elevator to the top of the hill at Silver King mine where they skied down. Much slower than a chair lift, but the miners obviously thought the snow and skiing was worth the long trip. They discovered that silver ore wasn’t the real treasure of the mountain when there was ‘white gold’ in the form of legendary snow.
The ski area was initially called Treasure Mountain, and then later became Park City Ski Resort. In PC you’re supposed to be PC, and in 1996-97 snowboarders were allowed on the mountain and the resort name changed to Park City Mountain Resort. The new name also reflected the year-round activities of the resort.