The Surmas and Fingals made a joint ski trip to Park City, Utah. It all started because Deanna was on semester break and we all needed something exciting to do. Claudette, Ron, Deanna, Laura and Dan (Fingal), all drove to the San Francisco airport for the trip to Salt Lake City. Dan's sister Jen flew from her home in Orange County, Ca. to Salt Lake City. We all arrived at the Salt Lake City airport within minutes of each other, then rented the biggest Chevy Suburban ever and drove about 30 minutes to the Marriott Summit Watch hotel on Main St. in Park City. Our room was the biggest we have ever stayed in, partially because they put us in a handicapped room which had extra space around the beds and in the bathrooms, especially the showers.
Dan and Laura had been to Park City skiing the year before, but none of the rest of us had ever been there. It was obvious that the city had been way rebuilt for the 2002 Winter Olympics that were held there. Main St. had more upscale shops and restaurants than is usual for ski towns. The Park City mountain is spectacular but the skiing is noticeably better and more scenic at the very nearby Deer Valley ski area. We skiied 3 days at Park City and only a single day at Deer Valley. We would have favored Deer Valley but they do not allow snow boarding, which is the only snow sport that Deanna will do.
Deanna took a bad fall her first day out snowboarding at Park City, then took a few days off. Dan took a pretty spectacular fall, but came out of it in the correct number of pieces. Ron took only 1 fall the whole trip, but it happened on a slow stop on a steep hill. Shouldn't have happened. Dan and Claudette took a 3 hour lesson at Park City on the last day. We never got to see if they learned anything. We will have to judge their success on the next ski trip.
Jen isn't in to skiing, she made the trip mostly to hang out but also to see a friend she has known since 4th grade, who now goes to school in Logan, Utah. Dan and Laura took Jen in the Suburban one day to see the friend.
The snow was on the skimpy side, but plentiful enough on intermediate hills. The first day out we had a bit of cloudiness, but overall every day was as sunny as we normally get at Squaw Valley. Park City, and especially Deer Valley are going to be a favored place for all of us on our next skiing adventures. The 2009 trip to Breckenridge was great, but it was hard to take the altitude there.