BIG STORM (with a little locals secret)

WOW!! 50+ inches of snow since Sunday and it is still snowing. This is a great early Christmas present for everyone. With a big storm and limited time, locals are very efficient in their pursuit of fresh tracks. With no time to wait in the corral for the upper lifts to open after avi control, there are some secrets we are going to let you in on. At Park City Mountain Resort when McConkey's and Jupiter lifts are on hold, stay on Crescent on the lower mountain. 90% of the people will bypass the lower mountain and all the goodness they see under the lift. Ski Team Ridge is the most underutilized part of the entire mountain. It has long consistent fall lines, perfect spacing between the aspen trees and the best part....no one is there. Once you unload at the Crescent Lift, head right. Go to the left of the radio tower. Head down the cat track and you will see a sign for Erica's Gold and Willy's. Duck in to your right. The best shot's are if you continue skiers left and continue to traverse. The further you traverse, the less tracks. It opens into a great expanse of wonderful powder. With all this snow, we took our own advice and were able to hit 4 runs in an hour. And we passed no more than half a dozen other tracks in that hour. Simply put...AMAZING!

PS. Don't tell anyone we told you!

A little fall mountain biking and Crash Pads Owner/GM talks about Park City

Park City is a great place to live and visit. Last month, we sent out our Owner/GM Todd Hageman out with local photog/videographer/mtn. bike promoter/PC local Jay Burke to play around on some of the newest mountain biking/hiking trails in PC and talk about why they live in Park City. (We dare you to use more forward slashes in a 100 word paragraph!)

The snow is starting to fly. 20 to 30 inches forecasted for the mountains in the next few days as we get hit by a couple of back to back storms.

Here is a great little video about Utah.

Why do you live in Park City?

When people ask "Why do you live in Park City?" I think the best why to explain it is, we are all just big kids who refuse to grow up. Sure, we have responsibilities just like the next guy. But admittedly, we have our priorities a bit out of whack. I can't speak for every aging ski bum, but for me, there was a fork in the road, usually around the first few years after college. The much larger, well traveled straight road, with a wide horizon was for those who wanted a more traditional and stable road, based more on the pursuit of financial stability, family upbringing and close community. But for many ski town dwellers, we blew passed the big fork to the draw of the less traveled narrow twisting road. The desire to see what was around the next corner was too much of a draw. Like many have done before, we headed west. For us skiers, that meant, for the most part, the Rockies, Wasatch and Teton's. If you wonder which kids are more likely to move out west and gamble their financial future on the search for mountain powder and desert solitude, you need to look no further than the kid in class that the teacher continueally yelled at to stop looking out the window.

Today was a great example of why we live where we live. Here is a little video. The idea isn't that we ski the gnarliest lines and huck the biggest cliffs everyday (and quite honestly, our knees can't take it anymore). We don't live a ski movie. It's about friendship and sharing experiences. It's about being in a town where everyone had different starting points, but we all ended up in the same place, because we all a little different from the norm. We all have similar stories. We are the modern day, "Land of Misfit Toys". Today, three such misfits got together and had a great lunch! There were thousands of such "lunch meeting's" in mountain towns around the west. This is our idea of a "Power Lunch."

GAP DEALS!!!

In skiing terms, a GAP JUMP is a jump between two objects (such as Chad's Gap - see video)

In Crash Pad terms, its a KILLER DEAL between two reservations. Meaning if we have a gap between two reservations, we want to fill it and we will fill it for CHEAP.

We have our first GAP DEAL of the year.

GAP DEAL"
Loft at the Mountain Village #38
3 bedroom/ 3 bath
Ski in/Ski Out
Dates: 12/23-12/25/10
Regular Rate: $875/night
GAP DEAL: $300/night
BOOK NOW:

Tour of Utah takes over Main St.

The Tour of Utah professional bike race took over Main St Park City for the 5th stage.   Tour de France veteran (and SLC Rowland Hall HS graduate) Levi Leipheimer took the lead into the stage and held it to the end.  Wow, was it fast.  These riders flew up Main St and went down Swede Alley at 40+mph.  An estimated 15,000 people lined the course to see the racers. The final day took the riders from Park City to the Snowbird (via the long way thru Sundance and the Alpine Loop!).

The perfect Wednesday night concert

One of my favorite events in the summer time are the Wednesday night concerts at Deer Valley. They start at 6pm and are located at the Snow Park amphitheater. Regardless of the type of music you enjoy, you can have a great time at any of the shows. The music serves as the background music to the sounds of family and friends getting together to enjoy a wonderful night in the mountains. So if you are in Park City on any Wednesday during the summer, follow the mass of people walking, riding and driving towards Snow Park. More info can be found at http://www.mountaintownmusic.org/.