Our First Ski Trip to Park City, Utah

Since our past approach to family skiing closer to home hasn’t worked well in recent years due to mild winters in the Mid-Atlantic, we decided to travel further afoot this year. Using the Vail Resorts Epic Day Pass, we decided to ski less days overall but visit bigger mountains. 

We planned for 2 days of skiing at Park City Mountain Resort with our three kids – a daunting venture anytime (IYKYK). We stayed off the resort so we could use our Marriott Bonvoy Points for a  6 night free stay. Coupled with free airfare from Baltimore using Rapid Rewards on Southwest Airlines, we were economizing our late holiday family vacation like most families would. 

Unfortunately, our much anticipated trip to Park City coincided with a much publicized strike from their ski patrol. After visiting the area, I can sympathize with their frustration for higher wages as it appears that skiing and life in ski towns are becoming out of reach financially for many these days. 

While we didn’t ski any peak or blackout days (holidays), we did visit the mountain on the tail end of the holiday season so the mountain was packed. It’s unclear if the crowded lifts had anything to do with the strike, but we definitely experienced long wait times since many lifts were closed. We were also frustrated by many blue, or intermediate, slopes being closed because they were ungroomded, as opposed to their being lack of snow. We have seen reporting that the Salt Lake City area has received less snow than usual this year, so that could have something to do with the lack of opened slopes and trails. It was also relatively early in the season (the first week of January) so the ski season is just ramping up. 

Overall, we felt like we were experiencing lots of bottlenecks and overcrowded slopes due to the mountain operating below capacity. There was a general sentiment that a lot of the crowding was due to lack of adequate staffing and cost saving measures by Vail Resorts. I also personally witnessed a couple of bad collisions between skiers and snowboarders likely a result of the crowded conditions. I am not an expert in mountain management, but I definitely overheard these conversations in the lift lines and dining areas. 

I hate to talk about the bad, when there was lots of good skiing to be had. The views from the slopes, especially when the sun was shining, were spectacular and reframed most of the negative vibes and hassles of skiing with children. It’s hard to describe or compare that feeling of happiness and exhilaration when swooshing down the slopes under blue sunny sky with loved ones. We enjoyed one particularly long and leisurely trail, the green Home Run slope, in particular.

As always occurs on these trips, there were a few snafus and mountain fails when skiing with a group. We didn’t learn our lesson the first time we precariously went down an open, but ungroomed, blue slope named Silver Queen and repeated the drama and near disasters by following other rebellious skiers and snowboarders past a closed off area to ski a blue called PayDay. And pay we did, when we found ourselves in knee deep snow drifts trying to navigate towards tracks left by other skiers. 

Overall, I liked the compactness of the Mountain Village area, as well as the retail and dining offerings in proximity to the reserved parking. However, the prices were “epic” like the Epic Pass alluded to and made me sad to see skiing beginning to feel out of reach for families like us. 

Other positive things I saw were the use of transit in and around town. The system seemed reliable, well-used, and able to navigate around heavy traffic compared to the long line of cars, ours included, clogging the road system. This system will probably be helpful when the winter Olympics return in 2034. 

I have to note that traffic was pretty unbearable. We decided to quickly visit historic Park City but ended up being stuck in bumper to bumper traffic as we traveled through the quaint ski town. It reminded me a bit of Charlottesville, VA near UVA but also felt more like a tourist trap than anything else. Traveling towards the highway was slow and frustrating too. I think Park City, at least at the time of our visit, was the definition of over-tourism at times we felt literally trapped. 

Based on our two days at Park City, I am not sure I would make the trip from the East Coast again, especially with kids. I am less tolerant to waiting in line than I probably should be, and Park City felt too crowded. I did appreciate the beautiful views and fresh snowfall both days. Since I only get to ski a few days a year, I think I’ll try a different resort, or perhaps steer clear of the Epic Pass resorts, going forward. No shade to Park City, but our family wasn’t up to the challenge this time around.