The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Snow time for the Silicon Valley set
Home to Facebook executives and lovers of the good life, Park City ski resort in Utah is ‘having a moment’, says Amber Gibson
Back in 1963, Park City opened its first ski resort, Treasure Mountain, with a single gondola, chairlift and two J-bar lifts, funded by a loan from the federal government. It was a desperate attempt to save the floundering mining town.
Even the most optimistic remaining residents could not have foreseen the area’s success since, with Park City becoming home to the annual Sundance Film Festival in 1981 and the hosting of the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympics. What was once a quaint ski area has ballooned into the largest liftaccessed ski terrain in the country.
On a sunny winter’s day there these days, you’ll find so much more than just skiing. Live music, shops, art galleries and queues of people waiting for a trendy plexiglass yurt at the St Regis Deer Valley.
The Utah city is having a moment, increasingly recognised as the mountain destination in North America. Just ask all the techies moving from San Francisco’s Bay Area to Silicon Slopes. The state’s booming tech industry and low cost of living have lured companies such as Facebook in recent years. While many other parts of the country floundered during the pandemic, Park City has thrived.
The combination of gorgeous mountain landscapes, ample outdoor activities, a young and healthy population and a surprisingly cosmopolitan culinary scene create a quality of life that makes this mountain town of less than 10,000 people one of the most attractive places in America to live, or visit. New data such as record sales tax for the 2020 fiscal year shows that Park City is hotting up in a big way.
Luxury resorts such as the St Regis Deer Valley (stregis.com) and familyowned Austrian ski lodge Goldener Hirsch (goldenerhirschinn.com) have built new multimillion-dollar residences to meet the demands of these monied new denizens. The strikingly modern residences at Goldener Hirsch are a sharp departure from the original lodge’s antique Alpine milieu, swapping warm wooden tones for floor-to-ceiling windows and a lighter, brighter colour palette. A glass sky bridge serves as the glissade between the two, and the Goldener Hirsch boîte still retains its old-world charm, with hot cheese fondue and Bavarian pull-apart bread – ideal après-ski comfort food to share among friends.
For skiers and snowboarders, Park City is home to two of the most renowned ski resorts in America. Park City Mountain, managed by Vail
Resorts, has the distinction of being home to the largest lift-accessed ski terrain in the USA. For a more exclusive ski experience, Deer Valley Resort is the better choice, and one of the few ski resorts left in the world that forbids snowboarders. The new Mid-Mountain Lodge (parkcitymountain.com) at Park City Mountain hosts a lively on-mountain après-ski scene in a lavish restoration of a 19th-century miner’s boarding house, while RIME Seafood & Raw Bar (rimerawbar.com) offers skiers a 360-degree view from its cabin atop Deer Valley Resort.
Last winter, ski and snowboard offerings were expanded with the opening of Woodward Park City (woodwardparkcity.com) – a year-round action-sports park featuring winter activities including an exceptionally popular snow-tubing hill, as well as biking activities in the summer and autumn. The Utah Olympic Park (utaholympiclegacy.org) is another venue thrill-seekers should explore, built for the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002. Visitors can watch Olympians training daily on slalom, moguls and freestyle ski jumping from the parking lot – it’s truly mesmerising to watch world-class athletes up close.
The Salt Lake City Olympics marked the first Games where women competed in bobsled and brave guests can try the hair-raising sport on the Olympic track with a professional pilot. I had a go one morning when I was there last winter, shrugging my shoulders to keep my head from lolling and discovering that G-forces woke me up quicker than the strongest coffee.
Many Olympians call Park City home,
including skier Lindsey Vonn who is often spotted at Atticus Coffee (atticustea.com) and Java Cow (javacowparkcity.com) for ice cream. The culinary scene here is impressive for a small town. Traverse multiple continents in just a few days between finedining newcomer Courchevel Bistro (courchevelbistro.com), Asian fusion hotspot Wahso (wahso.com) and Aussie breakfast at Five5eeds (five5eeds. com). For the American West experience, order the trio of wild game – buffalo, venison and elk – at Riverhorse on Main (riverhorseparkcity.com).
Business has been booming for local small businesses such as bean-tobar chocolate maker Ritual Chocolate (ritualchocolate.com). “Our café in Park City had its best summer ever,” says chocolate-maker Robbie Stout, who recently opened a second, larger factory and café in nearby Heber Valley to expand production. Ritual makes the best mocha in town, and became part of our morning ritual. Take a few bourbon barrel-aged or juniper lavender-infused chocolate bars home as gifts.
When the US opens its borders to Britons (tipped for November), Park City can offer that far-flung winter holiday so many have been dreaming of. Its first settlers in the 1860s came for the silver, but today you come for the snow – and so much more besides.