The early morning sun rising over the High Uintas cast shadows onto the rock-hard corduroy. A feeling of joy came over me as I set an edge in the snow, linking arcs down the frozen mountainside. It’s springtime in the Wasatch!
But after 158 straight days, the lifts have stopped spinning. Springtime has come to Park City. Now it’s time to say goodbye.
I love spring skiing! While I’ve never been much for the ski beach scene, costumes and revelry, it’s my favorite time of year to get out the groomer skis and rip turns every morning. These are the days of wide-arcing glory turns with an entire mountainside to yourself.
I spend endless hours looking at temperature profiles on Open Snow, calculating out the narrow window of opportunity each morning. It’s the rare time of the season to hit the lower mountain first, making laps on Solid Muldoon or Lookout Ridge, moving up to Parley’s Park, Nabob and Keno. You get to know run exposure angles, with just a few degrees of difference resulting in a softer set. You call lifties by name. And on a Saturday morning, there are just 28 cars in the cabriolet parking lot!
A few weeks ago, someone flipped the tourist switch and handed control of the ski runs to the locals. Parking was free and plentiful. Reward and Silver Skis are groomed. And pretty much everyone on the mountain is a good skier.
Friday, I snuck in one final run to Alta. I love the “MORE GROOMING” signs there every spring, and the unique corduroy routes through some of the best mid-winter powder terrain.
I watched every day as the Canyons Village golf course started to appear through the melting snow. All the while, Doc’s kept serving up fabulous springtime skiing every morning. I checked out the lift status at Deer Valley and Park City each morning, watching the numbers dwindle. Reveling in the morning sunshine, I left home earlier to catch those 8:45 a.m. starts on the Orange Bubble. And I excitedly grabbed Lot 1 parking at Deer Valley.
It’s the little things that make springtime special.
On closing Sunday at Deer Valley, I focused on skiing more than celebration. But I did love Elder Dave skiing in his finest Mr. Mac missionary white shirt. By noon, bikinis and shorts were out as paella was served and Sticky Wicket stalwarts held on to their last slopeside Offset of the year.
Park City Mountain stuck it out for a Monday closing, with locals taking advantage of an early opening on Crescent to make a beeline for Silverlode in 50-degree temps. Utah’s legendary ski band Pixie & the Partygrass Boys punctuated a gorgeous springtime day in the Mountain Village plaza. It was a day that brought me back to the ’80s, running into friends on every lift ride, plus an encounter with a Viking warrior on Crescent in full battle regalia.
While my season here in Park City has ended, my quest continues. Sometime about a month ago I decided it would be cool to ski the number of days equating to my age. So I’m now in search of 72, with five more days to go. Hello Solitude, Snowbasin and Snowbird!
It has been a memorable season. We fretted about snow in November, but it came in sufficient quantities. We were blessed with shiny new quiet gondola cars at Canyons, and an expanded terrain preview at Deer Valley.
But as we close out the season here in our special little ski town, I want to thank our resorts for getting the lifts moving every day, for patiently listening to our locals complaints, and putting out a great product for us to enjoy.
My thanks to The Park Record for finding space each week for 750 words about the positive vibe of skiing here in our hometown. And, mostly, to all of the Ridgelines readers. It means so much to me when you say hello in a lift line, on a chairlift, or at the Smith’s checkout to let me know you actually read this. Keep the cards and letters coming.
Now, by my calculations, it’s just 205 days until next season here in Park City!