Sunday- The Canyons Ski Resort, Park City, Utah

Thursday we spent the night in Park City and had dinner downtown.  Silly me left my credit card at the bar we stopped at so we decided Sunday we would ski in Park City, a new terrain for Thatcher and a chance for Katie to get her credit card back. 

 Oops!

Park City is home to a few resorts, Deer Valley Resort, Park City Resort, and The Canyons.  Deer Valley is a Skier only resort (Thatcher snowboards) so it was down to Park City or The Canyons. The Canyons’ claim to fame is that they are the largest ski resort in Utah and Park City had some really mixed reviews so Thatcher decided on The Canyons.  

I didn't care where, I just wanted some snow, sunshine,

oh and my credit card back. 

The Canyons is a huge ski mountain.  Skiing the full day with a 45 minute lunch break we still missed the far left portion of the trail map and those three lifts.  

We started at the far right on the Orange Bubble lift and worked our way across and skied a lot of the mountain.  We made sure to make it to the highest peak at the 9990 lift, elevation 9,990 with only double black diamonds down. I'm on top of the world, yep!  Well, at 9,990 feet anyway....

We packed a lunch to enjoy out in the sunshine, and made sure to bring a few beers to enjoy in the trees off of one of the double black diamonds off the 9990 lift. 

The deep powder was fun to ski in but not so fun to try and put your skis back on in....

Here is a funny GoPro video of a too loose binding (I rented) 

and a lost ski (and fall) in some of the powder. 

If you rent- I highly reccommend Ski-N-See.  They have several stores in Utah, downtown, and in Park City and have great coupons.  They had about 4-5 levels of ski packages to choose from and I got a coupon that turned my ski rental (top 2 most expensive) into $25 rental a day.

Oh and did I mention the lift tickets are SO much cheaper out there?

Brighton was in the $50's and The Canyons in the low $80s.

On the weekends!

I thought this lift and this idea of the orange bubble cover was so clever.   Perfect for cold windy days riding the lift. Several off the lifts also had a copy of the trail map right on the bar-  genius! 

Parking was kind of a pain in the butt, but they had a gondola you could ride up from the parking garage to the base mountain. 

Here is a little GoPro video of the gondola up from the parking lot.  

 My only other complaint is that this mountain was really resorty... like girls plastered in make up walking around in 6 inch heels.  I go to ski, not to look good, and trying to maneuver through crowds was a little less than ideal for me.  It had a Park City resort vibe that I wasn't into.  I really liked the laid back atmosphere at Brighton better than the resort feel at Park City.  If you want that hotel-y feel with the big pools and restaurants and base lodge, then you will like it here.  If you are visiting for the day for some good skiing, maybe somewhere a little more low key. 

A long day of skiing, with sunny skies and temperature in the high 50's.  We had a fun time at The Canyons.  We quit at around 3:45 when the lighting had gone flat and the trails by the base lodge had gotten a little icey.

Utah skiing was great, but I still have to say Jackson Hole, in Jackson, Wyoming is still my favorite mountain.  Sorry Utah :)  

We drove back to Thatcher's apartment downtown to spend the my last night relaxing before I had to leave beautiful Utah and head back to Siberia.  I mean Connecticut.