A dynamite blast on Ski Team Ridge Monday afternoon kicked off the party as the last hardcore locals slogged their way down Homerun through spring corn snow with temperatures in the 70s. The mandolin-pickin’ strains of Pixie and the Partygrass Boys filled the Resort Plaza as our community celebrated a season like none other.
Over the weekend, I hung up a half-dozen snow shovels, began the spring ritual of cleaning out the barn and grabbed a pair of skis, heading to the mountain for one last morning on the ridgeline.
We made it to May!
The hyperbole of records has been well documented in a bombardment of social media posts over the last month. It came early, kept coming and, finally, the only thing that stopped the ski season was everyone’s desire to get on with spring, stop shoveling and find tickets to the Follies. In the end, our little mining town was spinning lifts for 167 days this season – nearly a six-month span!
Our only issue now is when the mountain biking season can begin. And that might be a while!
A week earlier, Deer Valley Resort called it a season – its longest ever. On closing day, I headed to Sultan for one final hurrah. There’s something special about arcing turns under a bluebird sky down Stein’s Way. Your eyes are transfixed on the Jordanelle Reservoir down below, with the snow-covered peaks of the Uintas serving as your guidepost.
Stein’s is a quintessential closer at Deer Valley. After a season that brought a record 606 inches of snow with weeks on end of deep powder days, the clear blue skies on closing day were a special treat. It was a busy day with local passholders and IKON visitors reveling in mid-February temps and surface conditions.
The extended season at Park City Mountain had all the feel of a private country club resort. You could drive up any day, grab a parking spot for free and stroll over to the lifts.
For me, it was also a walk down memory lane with early morning runs on Kings Crown and Payday, waiting for the overnight freeze to soften just a bit in the morning sun. Rides up Crescent brought back tales of the early days of America’s Opening on Willy’s, and the old Ski Team double that used to take us up to the ridgeline.
Come Monday, it seemed like everyone I knew in Park City was there. It was a day no one wanted to miss. The snow was soft but it held onto a nice arc with rooster tails of white.
By all accounts, it was a remarkable season. We topped 600 inches of snow at Deer Valley and made it into May at Park City Mountain! Our creeks are running at a steady pace, the reservoirs are filling and the snow in our yards has turned into green grass overnight.
Locals seemed to have a decidedly more positive viewpoint this season – and why not, with Mother Nature doing her job. I thought back to a year ago, ending a pretty marginal snow year that was filled with community strife. There’s no doubt that this year’s snowfall improved everyone’s state of mind. But I would like to think it went further than that, with our community becoming more adaptive to changing times and putting the pure joy of skiing ahead of the inconveniences that evolution brings.
Our new resort leaders warmly embraced the community and were out there frequently on the slopes, skiing and riding alongside all of us. We all had a lot of fun on our mountains this winter, didn’t we?
As we put the 2022-23 season into the record books, I want to thank my Park Record readers for following Ridgelines all year. It’s been fun to meet so many of you on chairlifts, around town and on closing day – thanks for saying hi. But now it’s time to set the skis aside and get the Jeeps and SUVs ready for summer highways and byways.
I’ll see you again next week, as Sunday Drive returns, taking you on road trip adventures across our western mountains and deserts.