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Wowza. Utah is spectacular. I had always heard Park City was amazing, but it exceeded my expectations. Especially the Canyon side. During the trip, I think I heard myself saying it’s better than Hakuba and Whistler. (What!)

With my crew in tow, we arrived to Salt Lake City Airport and called a XL Lyft to take us directly to Park City. We stayed at a condo/hotel (Silver King) which was incredibly convenient.

Plus there was a giant jet stream bathtub (which I happily used nightly) and an in-unit hot tub that faced the mountain. Hell yeah.

In order to get to the chair each morning, all we did was walk through the back of the building, which spit us out in the parking lot! Besides that one time in Squaw, I had never stayed so close to the chairs. It was convenient and totally worth it.

Snow, snow, and more freaking snow

The entire three days we boarded, it snowed almost nonstop.

The snow was different than Colorado. It was slippery but dry. The snow reminded me of Japan… it’s the good stuff. Fluffier than Tahoe and more forgiving than Colorado.

Even though my board wasn’t freshly waxed, I was able to easily get through the flat parts.

Brrr… it was cold

We spent a lot of time on the chairs, and at times it got really cold. Park City felt way colder than Tahoe. Each day was in the 20s, but with the wind, it felt colder. I layered up and even wore a thin bubble coat underneath my snowboard jacket. At times, it was windy and sometimes the visibility was bad.

I tore open my hand warmers like they were going out of style.

Park City = Spending a ton of time on chairs

Park City has epic runs. Besides Whistler, Park City is the largest ski resort in North America. The mountain was huge and we spent a good amount of time studying the maps and figuring out how to maneuver our way from one side to the other.

There were so many blue runs. We carved our way up and down hills, through the trees, and even below some bridges. It felt like snowboarding through a really fun obstacle course. And because of all the fresh powder, we glided and floated our way down the mountain.

Main Street (sadly, no Robert Redford)

On the second day, we ventured into town down on Main Street. The city was buzzing with preparations for Sundance, which was starting on Thursday (we arrived on a Monday).

We ate at No Name Saloon and then walked passed some (ahem, interesting) fur shops, trendy dessert stores, and fashionable retail stores. We saw a few venues preparing for Sundance.

Park City next year, every year

All in all, Park City was so much fun. I don’t know if we just lucked out with the snow, but I would definitely return. Park City requires a lot of mental preparation — how many runs will we cover? Which side of the mountain do we want to be on (Canyon side, hands down). If you want to go to a humungous mountain with an endless amount of runs, Park City is your destination.

Check out this awesome video Greg made!

After this trip, a few of us kept going and landed in Colorado. We did Breck and Keystone.