{"id":1821,"date":"2014-05-03T23:01:33","date_gmt":"2014-05-04T06:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/?p=1821"},"modified":"2014-06-01T08:28:26","modified_gmt":"2014-06-01T15:28:26","slug":"hit-the-slopes-in-park-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/golf\/offcourse\/1821\/hit-the-slopes-in-park-city","title":{"rendered":"Hit The Slopes in Deer Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wanted to ski like an Olympian \u2013 or, more realistically, near an Olympian, so I glided, via Delta, for a weekend at Deer Valley Resort, in Park City, Utah \u2013 home to the 2002 Olympic Games, former Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and movie star Robert Redford, whose Sundance Film Festival is staged here. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"DeerValley\"<\/a>

Deer Valley’s ski vista of Utah’s mountain ranges are worth pausing while you glide on the groomed trails. (Photo credit Harrison Shiels)<\/p><\/div>\n

SkiButlers.com had actually delivered my rental skis and accessories directly to my room, so I lost no time in taking a ski lesson. Marcel Radu, a transplanted Transylvanian, was appointed as my instructor. For three invigorating hours the Romanian guided me \u2013 a very average skier \u2013 merrily around the friendly, 9,500-foot mountain\u2019s 101 runs, stopping for photos which included a vista of three majestic mountain ranges that God himself must admire. Marcel loves resort and the natural terrain, and derided one visible structure as \u201cCommunist gray \u2013 it reminds me of home. But it\u2019s a pillow on the mountain that brings us more skiers.\u201d <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Those skiers can chose from runs that are 32-percent black diamond; 41-percent blue; and 27-percent green. But Marcel even guided me \u2013 a green-to-blue skier to onto a portion of a run used in the Olympics \u2013 then steered me away from the daring part. With patience and slope-side manner, upon approaching a dramatic ridge dropping off hundreds of feet, he stopped me and kindly said, \u201cMichael Patrick, in case you ever bring anyone to Deer Valley who is intimidated by narrow runs like the one we\u2019re about to ski, just tell them to \u2018stay to the left and snow plow slowly through the pass.\u2019\u201d The Transylvanian translation, as I figured it, was: \u201cMichael Patrick I can see you\u2019re about to wet your pants with fear\u2026so do as I say.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I played along, did what he said, and was rewarded with him singing a few bars of John Denver\u2019s \u201cSunshine on my Shoulders\u201d\u2026imagine that with a Romanian accent! <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We finally skied over for lunch \u201con-mountain\u201d at Royal Street Caf\u00e9, where <\/span>Michigan <\/span>State<\/span> alum Emily Summers, who is communications manager for <\/span>Deer <\/span>Valley<\/span>, talked with us while I sampled a blueberry Mojito, crawfish bisque, and tuna tacos. \u201cUnlike most <\/span>Colorado<\/span> ski resorts, you can fly Delta to <\/span>Salt <\/span>Lake<\/span> in the morning, be driven 36 miles from the airport, and ski the day you arrive\u2026and schuss the day you leave, too,\u201d she said. \u201cTime-wise, in terms of convenience and quality of experience, it\u2019s perfect. Her boss, <\/span>Deer<\/span>Valley<\/span> president and CEO Bob Wheaton, is, like her, a Michigan-native who headed west as a young man. <\/span>Michigan<\/span> business icon Roger Penske has long had a major ownership stake. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

One note \u2013 though wildlife at <\/span>Deer <\/span>Valley<\/span> includes moose, foxes, mountain lions, deer and more, they do not allow snowboarders, to the delight of most. But virtually adjacent to <\/span>Deer <\/span>Valley<\/span> and <\/span>Park <\/span>City<\/span> are ski resorts Canyons, Park City Mountain Resort, and Brighton (owned by Boyne <\/span>USA<\/span>), with Sundance Mountain Resort, a much more intimate, rustic experience, just down the road. See <\/span><\/span>DeerValley.com<\/span><\/a> or SkiUtah.com for more information. <\/span><\/p>\n

Michigan-based travel writer Michael Patrick Shiels may be contacted at <\/span>InviteYourself@aol.com<\/span><\/a> or via <\/span>www.TravelTattler.com<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>He may be heard and seen weekday mornings in <\/span>Lansing<\/span> on<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>92.1 FM and Fox 47 TV.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wanted to ski like an Olympian \u2013 or, more realistically, near an Olympian, so I glided, via Delta, for… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":1822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19164],"tags":[695,277,976660,451,976715,2655,976717],"class_list":["post-1821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-offcourse","tag-olympics","tag-colorado","tag-delta","tag-skiing","tag-mitt-romeny","tag-robert-redford","tag-parkcity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2014\/05\/DeerValley.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1821"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1837,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1821\/revisions\/1837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}