Tag Archive for: Deer Valley

Harriet Wallis

SeniorsSkiing Guide: Deer Valley Sets The Gold Standard

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It’s the Deer Valley Difference.

Deer Valley at the top with a view of Jordanelle Reservoir. Credit: Harriet Wallis

Deer Valley at the top with a view of Jordanelle Reservoir.
Credit: Harriet Wallis

When Deer Valley opened 35 years ago, it was a novel concept to commit to top notch service in skiing, dining and lodging. Today it’s the gold standard.

The resort is known for its impeccable grooming, incredible dining and attention to every detail. Senior skiers really like that.

How to start your day right. Uniformed valets will unload your equipment at slope side. No need to schlep it.

Ride the open air shuttle to the day lodge. Save your energy for the slopes.

Enjoy secure basket checking with unlimited access so you can change layers throughout the day.

You’ve been pampered, and you haven’t even reached the slopes yet. Little things really do mean a lot.

“We’re committed to excellence in everything we do,” says Bob Wheaton, resort president and general manager.

Where should I start? It’s a big resort with four peaks and 101 trails. If you’re an intermediate or advanced skier, you can take a complimentary ski tour with a Mountain Host and find new runs and learn about the resort’s history. You’ll discover powder stashes that you’d never find on your own.

Outdoor patio dining in high altitude sunshine at one of 12 DR restaurants. Credit: Harriet Wallis

Outdoor patio dining in high altitude sunshine at one of 12 DR restaurants.
Credit: Harriet Wallis

Lunch time. Deer Valley has 12 restaurants, including outdoor dining patios, plus five evening restaurants right at the resort. A lunch favorite is the signature Deer Valley turkey chili. I especially love the Natural Buffet with its exotic salads and hearty breads.

Terrain. Deer Valley’s manicures more than 60 trails nightly from gentle slopes to its long steep runs. But it also has gnarly mogul fields, glades and ungroomed powder. Take your pick.

When your legs fall off, check your skis at a complimentary ski check station. Then relax in a beach chair on McHenry’s sunny “beach”.

Don’t miss this. When you’re ready to wind down the day, take the Last Chance beginner trail to the base and enjoy the trailside sculptures at homes along the way. They’re absolute must-sees.

One of the many raccoon sculptures along the trail side houses near the base run out. Credit: Harriet Wallis

One of the many raccoon sculptures along the trail side houses near the base run out.
Credit: Harriet Wallis

One home is plagued by mischievous raccoons. They ski off the roof, snooze on the railing and look uphill through binoculars. My favorite skiing raccoon is the one that went splat when he hit the house.

A family of life-size bronze elk stand trailside at another home. There’s also a bear house, a totem pole house and a mountain goat house. The charming critters add a bonus to a great day on Deer Valley’s slopes.

Just the facts

  1. Easy access. Just 40 minutes from Salt Lake International Airport.
  2. Skiers only. Deer Valley is for skiers only. It does not allow snowboards.
  3. Dining: 12 restaurants including five evening restaurants right at the resort. My favorite is the Seafood Buffet.
  4. Limited lift tickets. To enhance your experience, Deer Valley caps lift ticket sales to limit lift lines and lodge lunch lines ,and it opens up lunch seating.
  5. Grooming. The resort has 101 runs from four mountain peaks. Over 60 runs are groomed nightly.

2015-16 Bottom Line

A day ticket is $85 for those 65+, but on holidays it’s $92. A season pass is $1,195 for those 65-71, and it’s $1,085 for those 72+. However, mid week season passes are $1,085 for all who are 65+. There’s a pre-season discount for those who buy season passes early. And locals are eligible for reduced prices. Click here for more Deer Valley information.

Trail Map

Web Cam

McHenry's sunny "beach", absorbing the bennies and waiting for the surf to come up. Credit: Harriet Wallis

McHenry’s sunny “beach”, absorbing the bennies and waiting for the surf to come up.
Credit: Harriet Wallis

mikemaginn

It’s Official: Deer Valley Owns Solitude

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Changes In Uphill Capacity For 2015-16 Already Planned.

As we reported last October, the deal is now done.  Deer Valley has scooped up Solitude Resort, put a new general manager in place and is announcing lots of capital improvements for next season. Read all about it here. 

Will Deer Valley Change The Sign? Credit: CityWeekly.Net

Big Changes Coming From New Lifts To Restaurant Renovations.
Credit: CityWeekly.Net

Jon Weisberg

Getting Fresh On The Mountain

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Deer Valley’s Seafood Buffet A Wasatch Institution.

Deer Valley in Park City consistently ranks at the top of SKI Magazine’s polls for guest service, on-mountain food and snow grooming. As a part time instructor there for several years, I came to understand that the resort has a unique hotel culture. Customers are treated as “guests.” As one executive advised us, “Treat them well. They might not be right, but they’re still our guests.”

DeerValleyBuffet2

Freshly shucked oysters are never-ending at Deer Valley’s seafood buffet. Credit: Deer Valley

The food choices are varied, the quality is terrific, and, considering Deer Valley’s posh reputation, reasonably priced. I used to joke that DV is a great restaurant with skiing as an amenity. Actually, DV offers a lot of varied terrain that most of its guests probably never get to. It’s a fine area with a fine reputation and really fine food.

One of its dining institutions is the Seafood Buffet, a ski season-only restaurant that pops up Thursday through Sunday evenings in the resort’s Snow Park Base Village lodge. During ski hours, the cafeteria serves DV’s daytime offerings: far more sophisticated and varied than what you’ll find in most day lodges in North America. Come evening, it transforms to a remarkable array of freshly shucked oysters, crab legs, shrimp, sushi, cooked entrees from sea and ranch, and sweets of every fresh-baked and otherwise concocted description. It’s on Zagat’s “America’s Top Restaurants” list.

You might associate the food choices with dressing for dinner. But given the lodge’s upscale rustic surroundings almost everyone is in jeans.

DeerValleyBuffet

A wide variety of seafood grace the Deer Valley seafood buffet, a ski season-only institution in the Wasatch. Credit: Deer Valley

Then there’s the service. With some exceptions, Utah restaurants are aggravating for their lack of quality service. Historically a culinary backwater, a growing number of excellent eateries in Park City, Salt Lake, tiny Boulder, and a few other locations are attracting attention and clientele from all over. The Seafood Buffet is all about superb service, and its international wait staff in topnotch. Leave your table for another plate of whatever, and you return — each and every time — to one tidied with replaced dishes, flatware, and moist cloth napkins for sticky fingers.

The wine and beer list is reasonably priced, with several whites clustered under the heading “Shell Fish Wines.” While the list has a range of options, our Marlborough (NZ) Sauvignon Blanc was available at a reasonable premium above the state wine store.

The buffet cost is $64 for adults/$34 for kids (11 and under), beverages excluded.

Deer Valley’s Seafood Buffet is a classic. Winter visitors to the Wasatch — the mountain range where Deer Valley and numerous other ski resorts are located within close proximity — have many dining options. But wherever you stay, at Deer Valley, in Park City, at one of the other resorts, or somewhere in the Salt Lake Valley, it’s worth a short drive to the mountains to enjoy first-rate cuisine from the seas.

Reservations advised.