Great Outdoors: Epic Skiing at Park City, Utah

Overnight, a foot of snow blanketed the Park City Mountain Resort. By morning, the storm drifted north, leaving the sky a stunning sapphire blue. One can’t be too early in the lift line on such a day, even in Utah, where powder and blue skies reign. It took about a half-hour to get to the top of Jupiter Bowl, Park City’s highest point at 10,026 feet. A handful of other enthusiastic powder hounds had gotten there first, but there was still plenty of untracked snow on Main Bowl, our destination.

“No friends on a powder day!” shouted my friend, Edie, as she launched into the fluff. I followed, matching her turns a few feet to her right. The snow brushed my knees at the apex of each arc. It was featherlight. What a delight!

After a couple of dozen turns, Edie and I stopped to catch our breath. Was it the elevation or because we were laughing from the pleasure of the moment? “How do you like Park City?” asked Edie, who had moved from Vermont to Park City a few years earlier. “Epic!” I exclaimed.

For expert skiers, some runs are indeed epic for the sheer joy of their steepness and deep snow. Main Bowl was one of them, a long, broad, double-black diamond. Standing at the top of it, the view of the Wasatch Mountains makes one pause in anticipation of gravity’s pull. Then it’s all downhill, literally, left and right, turn after turn, grins and giggles.

By Lisa Ballard

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