logo ×

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

GREAT SNOW YEAR IN PARK CITY

Check out the story in the Park Record regarding our great ski season in Park City and Deer Valley. The best part is that it is not over! We just got 10 inches of fresh snow at Deer Valley. Today is a great blue-bird ski day, and we are going to get more snow this weekend and next week!

Take advantage of the discounted Park City vacation package deals, and our Deer Valley lodging discounts at https://www.abodeparkcity.com/park-city-rentals . Please find the article below:

Last October, in the middle of an unseasonably warm spell, Park Record columnist Tom Clyde delved into local folklore in an effort to predict the upcoming winter weather.

“An elderly neighbor once told me that the hornets could forecast the winter, Clyde wrote in his column. “If they built their nests low to the ground, it would be a light winter with little snow. If they were at the tops of the trees, there would be a lot of snow.”

The only hornet nest Clyde could find was way up in the top of a tree. So, using that gauge, he speculated that northern Utah might be in for some serious precipitation.

Score one for the hornet-nest theory.

December snowfall in northern Utah was more than twice the average. February was another banner month. By the beginning of March, Clyde was moaning that he was running out of places to put the snow. Weather stations in the Uinta Mountains east of Park City were measuring snow depths at 130 to 140 percent of normal. All three Park City-area ski resorts were reporting base depths of more than 100 inches.

So is this one for the record books?

Brian McInerney, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service (NWS), which measures the water content of snow at a station next to the Thaynes Lift at Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR), says this year is on track to be the second best since the station was established in 1988. Through March 21, 2011, there were about 31 inches of water in the snow at the Thaynes station. On this date in

the record year, 2004-05, the snow held about 35 inches of water.

On Tuesday, Park City Mountain Resort was reporting a season total of 354 inches of snow and a base of 123 inches at its Jupiter station, at an altitude of about 10,000 feet. By comparison, in March 2005, PCMR measured a base depth of 156 inches, according to spokesperson Meisha Lawson. She said the resort’s all-time high for snowfall in a season came in 1992-93, when it received 512 inches.

Emily Summers, communications coordinator at Deer Valley Resort, said this is the best winter for snowfall at the resort since 2007-08. “At this time that year we had a larger base depth,” she said. “That was our all-time record season for snowfall.” (Deer Valley opened in 1981.)

On Tuesday, Deer Valley had a 109-inch base at its station at about 8,800 feet on the Ontario ski run on Flagstaff Mountain on Tuesday. The resort does not release year-to-date snowfall totals.

Meanwhile, Canyons was reporting 108 inches at its summit stake Tuesday, which is in the 9990 area, and 88 inches at its mid-mountain stake at about 8,800 feet off the Kokopelli run. Nothing special, according to Caitlin Martz, Canyons communications coordinator.

“This season’s snow totals are pretty normal,” Martz said in an email Monday. “For example, (in) March of 06 we averaged about 91 inches at mid-mountain. March of 09 we averaged 63 inches. Nothing out of the ordinary for this year, maybe slightly above average as we still have more time for snow to fall in March.”

After checking with the ski patrol, Martz reported that the resort measured its all-time record snowfall of 417 inches in 2005-2006. On Tuesday, the resort website listed its year-to-date total as 315 inches.

“Apparently there was more snow in 82-83 (when Canyons was known as ParkWest), but there was a shorter season then and no one to measure from November to April, so we don’t have a number.”

Ah, yes. The winter of 1982-83. Now that was a banner year, Tom Clyde, who was then the Park City attorney, might tell you. According to a newspaper story, on May 16, 1983, two weeks after the Park City Ski Area (now Park City Mountain Resort) had closed its lifts, there was still enough snow that skiers could have gone all the way to the base of the resort. But only three weeks later, so much of that snow had melted that Salt Lake City had turned some of its streets, including State Street, into makeshift canals.

But was it really a banner year?

NWS hydrologist McInerney said that snowfall in the winter of 1982-1983 was actually close to normal. What was unusual, he says, is the way the weather stayed cold and wet until late May, holding the snow in place. When the weather finally warmed up, it did so in a hurry, and the snow melted in torrents.

“It depends how it comes off, McInerny said. “In ’84 we had bigger snow but it came off in an orderly fashion.”

So, if you’re looking for a consensus, it seems to be that we’ve had better years in the recent past, but no one year stands out. Peoples’ memories, it seems, tend to coalesce around individual events related to their own experiences.

“In November of 2001, we got 73 inches in one storm and went from closed to 100 percent open in one storm,” Canyons’ Martz recounted. “It was one of the biggest snow events in history at this resort.”

ANOTHER BLUE-BIRD SKI DAY AS SPRING BREAK BEGINS IN PARK CITY

 

The great skiing conditions continue in 2011 here in Park City and Deer Valley. Today was a day the Chamber of Commerce would have been proud of!

Spring Break is kicking off this week and a late Easter this year will likely mean fewer international visitors on Park City’s ski slopes this spring, but the three resorts are expecting a busy two- or three-week window as spring break revelers get in one last trip.

Deer Valley typically enjoys destination visitors from Latin America when Easter is in March or early April. Because the calendar is different this year, they saw a few more around New Year’s Day but will miss most of that clientele.

Spring Break crowds mostly grade-school children and their families are creating a busy period from March 13 to 25. Skier services and lodging reservations are near capacity.

Park City Mountain Resort also sees more young spring break vacationers than college students. They’re expecting a busy three-week window. Families will continue to book late-season vacations as long as the snow falls.

Canyons Resort targets the older crowd with two heavily publicized events.This Saturday is College Daze. Students with college identification enjoy free or discounted services like free entry into the second-annual Oakley Zone Madness and a free concert by the band Swagger.

The 10-day festival Spring Gruv begins March 25 with highlights including Pond Skimming, the Red Bull Schlittentag and free concerts.

SKIING IN PARK CITY

 

Are you planning on doing some skiing this winter? Visit Park City, UtahAbode Park City has luxury homes and condos for rent with every amenity you need. Come on down, ski all day and be pampered all night. Enjoy your winter vacation skiing in Park City with Abode Park City.

SKI PARK CITY

 

Skiing in Park City, Utah is something you have to do. When you visit the majestic town in the heart of the Rocky Mountains you forget about all your troubles. Everything you need is here. Forget your troubles and come and ski Park CityAbode Park City has amazing homes and condos for vacation rentals all over the Park City and Deer Valley area and they all come with a full suite of amenities such as personal chefs and concierges. Visit Utah this winter and ski Park City!

PARK CITY POWDER ALERT! GREAT MARCH SKIING.

 
March is off to a great start, and we are getting pounded by snow as we speak! We have gotten about 8 inches already and will get about another foot tonight. Tomorrow looks to be a great powder day here in Park City and all the surrounding resorts.

We still have a little availability in late March…ask fast as lodging is filling up quick! Call or email us for the great deals in Deer Valley and Park City.

Here are 2 cool articles featuring Park City and Deer Valley:

http://www.onthesnow.com/news/9/a/15718/ots-special-report-utah-resorts-absorb-olympic-bounce-recession-hits-consumers-win

http://www.luxist.com/2011/03/04/the-best-ski-resorts-in-utah-with-video/

MARCH IS SHAPING UP TO BE A GREAT MONTH OF SKIING IN PARK CITY AND DEER VALLEY…

 

March has roared in like a lion, giving us exceptional ski conditions. The first part of the week we had great Utah sunny, blue-bird ski days. Now in the back half of the week, it looks like the snow gods are going to dump on us again! Tree skiing at Deer Valley has been great lately and the groomers have not been too shaby either! With the amount of snow we have and what is on the way, March and April should be great skiing here in Park City.

Lodging is getting full for March in both our Deer Valley and Park City ski home., For what we do have available, we are offering some great end of season specials, as well as Park City and Deer Valley ski vacation packages. Some of our Park City and Deer Valley luxury ski packages include: fully stocked refrigerator upon arrival, private car service, private chef service, lift tickets, ski lessons and child care. Just let us know if you are interested in learning more.

On the restaurant front, check out this great review of the High West Saloon by Parkite Lisa Dang

Spring skiing here in Park City and Deer Valley is going to be epic, so don’t wait until the last minute to book!

BLUE BIRD DAY IN PARK CITY

Skiing conditions don’t get much better than this in Park City and Deer Valley! The town is a buzz and crawling with President’s Day vacationers whom could not be happier with the skiing conditions. This is what happens when it snows over 2 feet in 48 hours then clears right up for a Blue-Bird day. More snow is on the way so the next few weeks should be great.

On the lodging front, we are busting at the seams this week and 100% occupied. However  if you are looking to come after this week, check out our new Spring rates. Some properties are up to 35% off!

In other news around town, a new restaurant, Silver, has opened on Main St. Check out a great review from local Lisa Dang.

BLUE BIRD POWDER SKIING IN PARK CITY

 

We received what seemed to be over a foot of snow last night, and today turned out to be an epic blue bird powder day at Deer Valley! The slopes were not too crowded, but everyone out seemed to be getting their powder fix. It looks like things will warm up for this weekend, then a bunch of new snow on the way before President’s Day weekend here in Park City.

On the Park City and Deer Valley lodging front, there are still some availabilities leading up to President’s week, but everyone is pretty much sold out for President’s week. The following week, the first week of March, is getting booked up as well. People are jumping all over our Spring skiing specials. Even in the typical “down/non-peak” weeks, occupancy has been pretty solid this year.

We have some great local events going on in March, so check out our calendar. If you will be around over March 10 – 12, 2011 here is one can’t miss event: Red and White Snow. This three-day event celebrates some of the nation’s top chefs and finest vintners. The event offers a unique opportunity for culinary and wine connoisseurs, vintners and skiers from across the country to mingle in an extraordinary setting. All proceeds go to the National Ability Center.

PARK CITY NAMED #9 OF TOP 41 PLACES TO VISIT IN 2011

 

In a recent article by the New York TimesPark City was named the #9 place to visit in the world in 2011. You can take a look at the article here

The opening of Park City’s new hotels, the Montage Deer Valley, St Regis Deer Valley and Waldorf Park City played a nice role in the top ten ranking. Oddly enough, the article does not even mention that Deer Valley is the #1 ski resort in North America….regardless it is a great distinction!

On another note, Sundance is in full effect here in Park City and the town is slammed. However, the ski slopes are empty…making for a great weekend, as you can hit a few movies and parties at night then have the slopes to yourself the following day. We have a few last minute specials for your lodging needs…just give us a call. It looks like next week will give us some gorgeous Utah blue-bird ski days.

RESORTS FOCUS ON YEAR-ROUND FAMILY FUN

Mountain resorts focus on attracting families year-round By: Jeri Clausing August 04, 2010 BRECKENRIDGE, Colo.

— At the base of this ski mountain’s popular Peak 8, RockResorts has just opened its newest luxury ski resort, One Ski Hill Place. The condo-hotel is next to a gondola that provides free rides to town. Out front is everything a family needs for winter or summer fun: ski lifts, bungee jumping, miniature golf, even an alpine slide.

Next year, there will also be an alpine coaster, a low-to-the-ground roller coaster of sorts. The resort, one of only three in town offering room service and the only one that will offer it around the clock, also features a pool, a bowling alley, movie-viewing rooms and a game room. On its face, the new One Ski Hill Place might sound like just another in a long list of luxury resorts that have opened in recent years at Western ski destinations. For Breckenridge, however, it marks the opening of this mountain town’s first five-star property. And for the Western ski industry as a whole, it symbolizes several levels of a multitiered strategy for attracting new generations as the core group of big spenders that fueled the industry’s growth over the past 30 years starts thinking about hanging up its skis. “The industry’s economic well-being is based on a transition of skiing passion from the baby boomers across the bridge to the millennials,” said Ralf Garrison, whose Mountain Travel Research Program tracks lodging trends for ski resorts in western North America.

 

Fortunately for the ski industry, baby boomers, who wield the bulk of the country’s discretionary income, don’t act like their parents. With 60 being the new 40 (and with the aid of technology ranging from easy-to-maneuver parabolic skis to knee replacements), many will ski well into their 70s. So resorts like Breckenridge and its parent, Vail Resorts, are working aggressively to make sure they offer everything aging baby boomers (and their children and grandchildren) might want, even if sore knees start to limit the amount of time they can spend on the slopes. “The most important thing to keep baby boomers coming back is to make sure their kids want to come back — and their grandkids,” said Rob Katz, CEO of Vail Resorts, which owns the Breckenridge, Keystone, Vail and Beaver Creek resorts in Colorado and Heavenly at Lake Tahoe. The company also has a lodging arm, which includes RockResorts. “If you can take the kids and the grandkids on vacation, you know it’s probably going to be a huge success. “Properties like One Ski Hill Place are really an interesting place, where people and families can congregate and come together,” Katz said. “It really is providing a comprehensive experience. You have luxury opportunities, but you also have family opportunities, things for everyone to do on the mountain. That allows the baby boomers to come back, because everyone in their family wants to come back.”

Although adding luxury was key for a resort like Breckenridge, the economic realities of the past few years have largely put any new development on hold. Still, the new resort here, and this mountain town as a whole, offer a glimpse into what ski resorts, particularly in the West, are doing to prepare for the generational shift that some predict could create a 10-year trough in demand. It’s summer up there One of Colorado’s best-kept secrets, many residents will agree, is that its famed ski mountains are even more fun in the summer. When it’s 90 degrees-plus in Denver, locals can hop in the car and, just an hour later, find temperatures that are often 20 degrees cooler. The resort areas like Breckenridge that are lined up off Interstate 70 offer everything from hiking, biking, rafting and golf to horseback riding and hot-air-balloon rides. There is also a variety of music, arts and family festivals throughout the summer, and lodging rates are often a fraction of what one would expect to pay during ski season. On a recent Thursday in Breckenridge, tents offering bicycles repairs were set up in the town square for Breck Bike Week. Families milled around the streets, hanging out by the stream that runs through town, shopping, dining and generally enjoying the cool summer weather. The crowds were respectably thick, considering it was the off-season amid what many consider to be a lingering recession.

Although Vail is North America’s largest resort, Breckenridge has a few things in its favor. For one thing, it is a 100-year-old mountain town with the character and attractions that come with that kind of history. Vail was developed around the ski resort, with a center that, in terms of both lodging and shops, focuses on a higher-end consumer. Breckenridge is a half-hour to an hour closer to Denver, depending on traffic, and it offers a wide variety of more affordable lodging right in the heart of town. It boasts an old-fashioned, Main Street feel, and its dining options have grown increasingly diverse over the years. Just a few miles outside of town is the Breckenridge Golf Club, the only Jack Nicklaus-designed public course in the country. Those attributes seem to be paying off for Breckenridge in both summer and winter.

Although Vail Resorts doesn’t like to publicize the fact, Breckenridge for three of the past four years has drawn more skiers than the company’s flagship property. Last year, Breckenridge was the most visited ski area in North America, hosting 1.6 million guests. And in the summer, Donna Horii of the Breckenridge Convention and Visitors Bureau said, lodging occupancy averages 60%, a respectable showing that the locals attribute to the historical, hometown feel. Developing a real luxury resort at the base of the mountain, locals agree, is key to helping Breckenridge evolve, as it is clear that even in the winter, families are looking for more than skiing when they choose a resort. “No one buys those six-day passes anymore,” Horii said of skiers, noting they opt for fewer days on the slopes in favor of activities such as dogsledding, shopping and spa treatments. Because of that, Garrison said, increasing summer business at ski resorts is absolutely crucial to the larger goal of keeping boomers and their offspring coming back. Garrison said a strong shoulder season is crucial to maintaining the labor force, restaurants and attractions required to attract guests who are interested in more than skiing. Those businesses “have to be able to keep their doors open during the summer,” he said. “These collateral services are more and more important as baby boomers grow older, because boomers use more and more of those.”

Although Western resorts have been growing summer business for most of the past decade, it is more challenging out West than for places like Stowe Mountain in Vermont, where the manager of the Stoweflake Resort & Spa said the destination gets 60% of its business in non-skiing months. “We have always been a big summer attraction,” said Stoweflake General Manager Chuck Baraw. “Stowe itself has been a summer tourist town for a couple hundred years. People used to come by stagecoach.” It has remained a summer and fall destination because of its cool temperatures, green mountains and fall foliage, he said. “Why do you need to go to a ski area in the West in the summertime?” he asked rhetorically. “I love where I am in the summer. It’s one thing to travel that far for the best powder in the world. … But they will never fill in the summer. They are way overbuilt for that.”

Recovering from a down cycle but the long-term strategy for Western resorts goes beyond drawing summer crowds. With real estate sales way down, new development is largely on hold for the foreseeable future. And while spring break visitor numbers made an impressive comeback this year, ski resorts, like much of the travel industry, are coming off two pretty tough years. So, while Breckenridge needed to add a little bit of luxury to keep its momentum, some Vail resorts are toning theirs down a bit. For example, at the Arrabelle, a luxury hotel that was developed at the height of the ultraluxury boom and which opened just before the global economy collapsed, Paul Toner, senior vice president and COO of RockResorts and Vail Resorts Hospitality, says the company has made some changes. There is less emphasis on amenities such as 24-hour butler service, he said. And the fine-dining restaurant was scaled down to make way for an upscale tavern. “That really hit a home run,” he said, explaining that RockResorts is focusing more on “smart, savvy” luxury.

The company is also working to offer more value-oriented packages that make the whole vacation easier. Two years ago it bought Colorado Mountain Express, which offers van service from Denver Airport and regional airports. That makes it easier for the company to package transportation with its offerings. Vail has also had a lot of success with its Epic Pass, which offers unlimited skiing at all of its mountains for just under $600 a season, less than half the cost of season passes at most major ski resorts. “The goal was really to build loyalty,” Vail CEO Katz said. “It’s a way to expand our season-pass membership base, to really reach out to folks and say, ‘If you are ready to commit to ski at our resorts all season, we are willing to give you a good price.’ ” Some resorts are finding other creative ways to keep luring back baby boomers. In Aspen, for example, former Apple executive Joe Nevin and physical therapist Bill Fabrocini have developed a “Bumps for Boomers” program to teach older skiers who might be frustrated by the crowds on the groomed runs to ski less-crowded mogul runs, without the knee pain associated with those tougher runs.

Challenges ahead To stay relevant for the long term, however, ski areas also have to rethink their marketing, said Art Webb of BCF Marketing, who consults for several East Coast ski areas and works with the Aspen Bumps for Boomers program. While the ski areas need to focus on the younger generations to build a future, he said, boomers are their most crucial audience in the present. “I think the ski industry is struggling right now with a little bit of a paradox, which is that the boomers are definitely aging out of the category but there are still a lot of boomers spending a lot of money,” he said.

Coming out of the recession, Webb said, boomers have been the least affected in terms of real wealth. He said Generation Y is saddled with high credit card debt, while Gen X is feeling the pinch of unemployment. At the same time, he said, “Unemployment [among] boomers has decreased. There are fewer unemployed boomers now than before the recession, so what you have is a group of people who still have a lot of money.” One of the problems for the ski industry, he said, is that it tends to market itself through the lens of youth, “and as a result, it is missing a pretty substantial mark.” “Twenty and 30 years ago, when the 80 million boomers in North America were in their 20s and 30s, and when the number of people under the age of 50 was nearly double the number of people over 50, you could get away with the bias of youth, because there were way more people under the age of 30,” Webb said. “Now there are as many people over 50 as there are under 50, and the people over 50 have the money,” he said. “Seventy-two percent of our nation’s wealth is in the hands of people over 50.”

Because of that, he said, ski areas need a dual-pronged marketing program to keep the wealthy boomers coming back while building interest among their children, who have cheaper alternatives, such as urban skating parks, than baby boomers ever had when they were seeking an adrenaline rush in their 20s. “They need a two-barreled shotgun,” he said of the resorts. “You need programs like Bumps for Boomers for older-skier retention because if you can get another two or three years out of that skier, you’re talking $20,000 to $30,000 in revenue … and they need to be thinking about what they can do on an industrywide basis to launch a greater effort in attracting skiers to the sport.” The ski resort industry, he said, enjoyed perfect market conditions with baby boomers when demand was high and supply wasn’t. Peering into the future, he sees the industry entering the beginning of a 10-year trough as boomers drop off and smaller and poorer successive generations are unable to fill the gap. “Skiing is not a rational proposition,” he said. “It is emotional. The industry as a whole tends to focus very much on what they’ve got: how many blue runs, how many blacks, how many quads [chairlifts] as opposed to the emotional payload of the experience. They’ve lost sight of marketing the magic of ski.”

This report appeared in the Aug. 2 issue of Travel Weekly