Day 5 - Park City

Tuesday, February 5, 2008 - What a difference a day makes! After being buried up to our chests in deep snow at Powder Mountain the day before, with snow falling all day and low visibilities due to clouds covering the mountains, it was nice to see the sun. And then we stepped outside. The temperature in our rental Subaru Outback said 2 degrees! Ouch. But with the sun shining, the cold temperatures did not last very long. By the time we got up to the mountain it was in the mid-teens.

Chad was already up on the mountain getting some high-speed groomers, and we headed up to meet up with our host Jeff and get some lift tickets. I was immediately impressed with how professional the greeters and lifties were at Park City. This was a different level of mountain for sure. We took the high-speed 6-pack Payday up to mid-mountain to meet up with Chad.

A high-speed groom run was in order for a warm up. Then we headed up another high-speed 6-pack to the Jupiter lift. We hit some trees down Thaynes to get up to Jupiter, and then up the Thaynes lift back to the ridge. We had already ridden as many lifts as at Powder Mountain, and the day had not even really begun!

The Jupiter double chair accesses Jupiter Bowl and Scotts Bowl to the west, as well as the west face of Jupiter Peak. There was still plenty of untracked powder in the trees, so we did a few runs down an area called Portuguese Gap. The snow was not as deep as Powder Mountain, but that only made it more rippable and less work. The consistency of the knee deep powder was perfect from the cold temperatures the night before, and we could tell that this was going to be another one of those days.

After a few more runs on Jupiter, we headed over to Mcconkeys high-speed quad to meet up with Jeff. It is very nice to know some locals when you have never been to a mountain before, and we were glad to have a tour guide. For the rest of the day Jeff showed us some nice glades through the trees with fresh powder on every run, even though it wasn’t a powder day! Park City is a HUGE mountain, and there is so much terrain that you can find stashes on every run where noone else has been.

We skipped lunch and rode until the end of the day, when we were tired and hungry and ready to relax a little. Thanks Jeff for showing us around and being such a great host. I had no idea that Park City was such a killer mountain, and I will definitely be back!