What's New on Utah Mountains

(Courtesy Ski Utah)

Turning the corner into September is a sure sign that another incredible Wasatch winter is on its way. Utah’s 13 ski resorts have been hard at work all summer adding new terrain, on-mountain enhancements, luxury accommodations, programs and packages to complement the destination’s astonishing accessibility and 500 annual inches of The Greatest Snow on Earth®. Entering the 2010-11 winter season, Utah’s resorts boast some of the most significant resort improvements in the US.

NEW TERRAIN
The Canyons Resort will add new terrain to the southern end of its resort property. Iron Mountain, adjacent to Dream Peak, will open 300 acres of northwest facing terrain. Ten runs ranging from intermediate to advanced intermediate will be cut and nearly 300+ acres of naturally gladed tree skiing will be available. The new terrain brings the resort to 4,000 total skiable acres and makes it the fourth largest ski resort in the US.

Park City Mountain Resort will add three new Adventure Alley runs allowing intermediates the thrill of skiing or riding through the trees. The Resort has also continued to glade Crescent Ridge, enhancing the advanced skiing experience.

Powder Mountain will add 1,000 additional acres of expert chutes and bowls to the 2,000 acres of terrain already in use by the Snowcat Powder Safari. The new area, known as La Plata, is named after a nearby ghost town that was founded in the silver rush of the 1890s. Additionally, Powder Mountain will offer guests the opportunity to take a guided backcountry tour of Wolf Creek Canyon with more than 1,000 acres of pristine snow which includes wide open bowls, glades and steep chutes.

Snowbasin will add a 22-foot superpipe to its already incredible terrain.


ON-MOUNTAIN ENHANCEMENTS
Alta planted 1,500 trees, 500 shrubs and spread 500 pounds of indigenous mountain flower and grass seeds through its annual environmental vegetation program.

The Canyons Resort has installed North America’s first, and one of the most technologically advanced, chairlifts in the world. The Orange Bubble enclosed quad lift is like riding up inside a ski goggle. It also has heated seats. The new lift increases the uphill capacity from the base by 47 percent, and it whisks skiers to the top in just nine minutes. Additionally, The Canyons is rebirthing its base area by realigning the gondola. Guests at The Canyons can relax and enjoy an après ski cocktail on the Resort’s new après ski beach.

Deer Valley Resort again invested $4.5 million to refresh the interiors of its three main on-mountain day lodges: Empire Canyon, Silver Lake and Snow Park. In addition, it invested heavily in on-mountain equipment including high efficiency snowmaking, new snowcats, snowmobiles and a new winch-cat to groom the steepest slopes.

Park City Mountain Resort added new snowmaking on the highly popular intermediate Assessment run.

Park City Mountain Resort has also expanded its night skiing and riding with more lights and longer hours. Brian Head, Brighton, Powder Mountain, Sundance and Wolf Creek Utah also offer great night skiing.

Snowbird’s Cliff Spa (on the 9th and 10th floor of the Cliff Lodge) is currently undergoing its first major renovation since the Spa opened in 1987. Revamped areas include the reception space, salon and retail store, the men's and women's locker rooms, solarium, steam room and treatment rooms. Renovations are scheduled to be completed by December.

Solitude has installed three new quads over the past three years making lift lines even shorter.

Sundance will open its new Redford Conference Center with environmentally friendly 3,500 square feet of meeting space, wrapping patios, a large group fireplace and a full service catering kitchen. Sundance is also in the midst of a multi-million dollar lodging room renovation project.


GREAT PACKAGES AND VALUES
Alta Lodge and freeskiing champion Gordy Peifer team up to offer an All Mountain Ski Adventures camp for advanced skiers. Alta Ski Area continues to offer “Ski Free After Three.” The iconic ski area opens the RFID gates at 3 p.m. on the Sunnyside lift, allowing skiers to access five beginner runs, two intermediate and one advanced run for free.

Beaver Mountain continues to operate as one of the nation’s only family owned and operated resorts. The Resort offers great value, terrain and a laid-back atmosphere.

At Brighton Resort, kids 10 and under ski free when the adult buys any season pass or pack of discount tickets. Busy women will also love the new, one day all-women’s workshops.

Jump off the plane and ski. A same-day boarding pass lets visitor’s ski free that afternoon at The Canyons, Deer Valley or Park City Mountain Resort. The Park City QuickSTART program continues to capitalize on the incredible accessibility of Utah’s resorts, saving guests both money and time.

Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort’s Early Bird Stay and Ski Packages start at $99/person, based on double occupancy, and include lodging at the Cliff and a Tram pass. Valid from November 18-December 22, 2010, with a minimum three night stay. Kids 12 and under ski free for each night’s stay.

Ski Utah will continue to feature incredible packages and deals from its resort and industry partners on the “White Sale” microsite and “Hot Deals” section of SkiUtah.com


NEW HOTEL
Montage Deer Valley will open in December 2010 with true ski-in/ski-out access to America's No.1 ski resort, as rated by readers of SKI magazine three years in a row (2010, 2009, 2008). It features 154 deluxe guestrooms and more than 66 suites and private residences ranging from one to four bedrooms.


FEATURED EVENTS
The FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships come to Deer Valley Resort and Park City Mountain Resort from February 2-5, 2011. Aerial, moguls, dual moguls and ski cross competitions will be held at Deer Valley Resort, and the halfpipe competitions will be held at Park City Mountain Resort.

Snowbasin will host the final stop of the Winter Dew Tour, the world’s premier season-long winter action sports tour, on February 10-13, 2011 with top world athletes in both freeskiing and snowboarding.

Snowbird will host the Subaru Freeskiing World Championships March 9-12, 2011.


For more information on Ski Utah or its 13 uniquely amazing resorts visit www.skiutah.com.

EW Highlights PCTV Veterans

In the current issue of Entertainment Weekly, radio programmers from around the nation offered up their thoughts on the next big thing in music, and two of the picks are artists that have appeared on our show, once again proving just how far ahead of the curve we are here at Park City Television:

Utah's own NEON TREES

and HEY MONDAY

Get Some Pizza, Fight Cancer

(Courtesy USSA)

PARK CITY, UT (Aug. 30) – Bryan Fletcher (Steamboat Springs, CO), who makes his training home in Park City, is partnering with Red Banjo Pizza on Park City's Main Street to host an autograph party to help fight cancer Thursday (Sept. 2). The public is welcomed from 5:00-7:00 p.m. to meet Fletcher and some of his Olympic medal-winning teammates. Proceeds will go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

According to Fletcher, Red Banjo will match the money raised to make donations all that much more worthwhile.

"Since we have the dollar bill wall up at the Banjo, they have agreed to match the money raised," said Fletcher. "I think it will be pretty cool and we appreciate their support."

The 'dollar bill wall' is a section at the Red Banjo where people have been pinning dollar bills. Each year the money is collected and donated to charity. This year the wall is helping Fletcher raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

The U.S. Nordic Combined Ski Team made history in Vancouver, winning four medals including silver in the team event, plus a pair of individual silvers for Johnny Spillane (Steamboat Springs, CO) and gold for Park City resident Billy Demong (Vermontville, NY).

In addition to the opportunity to get autographs from the Olympic medalists Demong and Brett Camerota (Park City, UT), Olympian Taylor Fletcher (Steamboat Springs, CO), Eric Camerota (Park City, UT), Nick Hendrickson (Park City, UT) and Brett Denney (Steamboat Springs, CO) fans can also take advantage of special discounts from Red Banjo.

For more information on leukemia or lymphoma or to make an online donation, check out www.lls.org, or contact Bryan Fletcher through his blog at www.bfletch.weebly.com.

Utah Olympic Park Loses a Friend

Such sad news to hear this. Dave was a great guy, and did an amazing job year-in and year-out to get that track into world class shape. The sliding community mourns the loss of a friend.

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(Courtesy Utah Olympic Park)

The Utah Olympic Park and the bobsled, skeleton and luge community lost a valuable member of its family on August 25 when David Dinger, age 45, passed away at his home in Park City after battling renal cell carcinoma since last October.

Dinger, a devoted father to Jack, 13 and Joe, 10, always had an interest in international sports and was a great advocate of sport. He engaged to the fullest by participating as well as being a spectator. He became a fan of Indy Car Racing at age 12. The one word that is consistently used when it comes to Dinger is “passion.” His enthusiasm for life was inspiring and infectious. He loved to learn and loved to share.

His passion for skiing prompted him to move from California to Park City in 1992. He worked winters as Ski Patrol at Park City Mountain Resort and summers at Park Meadows Country Club. Attending “Greens-keeper School” to learn the science of irrigation would later prove to be instrumental in his knowledge of icing the track.

He became involved in sliding sports after receiving a Learn-to-Luge clinic for a birthday gift in December 2001. He immediately got hooked on the sport of luge which lead to his interest in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. He landed a job working on the track and was positioned at “curve 12” for the duration of sliding events. Soon after the Games, he applied for the Track Manager position and was accepted based on his experience that included his career in Public Relations while he lived in California. He dedicated himself to sliding sports, gaining a reputation worldwide of being an “Icemeister” and setting the bar for other tracks around the world.

“David has been our inspirational leader of the Olympic Park track. He had a special ability to bring out the best in his staff, the athletes, and a family of international officials who admired and respected his vision and leadership. It will be an honor and privilege for us to continue operating the track and developing athletes in a way that David worked so hard to see happen,” said Colin Hilton, President of Utah Athletic Foundation.

Respected by his team on the UOP track, athletes around the world and all those in the sport community, Dinger was recognized as a leader in the development of the bobsled, skeleton and luge sports. track. RJ Shannon of UOP said, “Dave was set apart by his passion for athletes. His legacy is yet to be fully realized as it lives on in the hopes and dreams of the athletes he touched.”

The camaraderie on the track, which Dinger considered his second home, was that of close family and friends. Carl Reopke, fellow luge slider and “voice of the track”, fondly remembers David routinely saying “See you at the bottom”.

His remarkable journey to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games where he worked on the track, was inspiring and prompted international media interest. In an interview with CTV while in Vancouver, Dinger said he was concerned about being able to perform, but when he arrived at the track, he thought that maybe it was the excitement that made him feel his old self. After the Gold Medal victory of the USA 4-Man Bobsled Team, bobsled pilot, Steve Holcomb said, “David, this medal is as much yours as it is mine. Night Train would not be what it is today without you”.

David worked tirelessly, in health and during his battle with cancer, to promote the sliding track sports at Utah Olympic Park as a facility where sliding enthusiasts and serious competitors alike could feed their passion for these sports. He had requested before his death that donations be taken in his name to fulfill the purpose and mission stated above, and specifically to purchase equipment so the track and the sliding sports could continue to grow.

PCMR Introduces Customizable Season Passes

(Courtesy Park City Mountain Resort)

Park City Mountain Resort unveils new season pass options for the 2010-2011 winter season. The Resort is introducing “My Pass. My Way.” that allows passholders to build their season pass with the options that are important to them. All season passes include unrestricted “Mountain Access” to Park City Mountain Resort’s 16 lifts. Users can choose one, two or three customizable options that include Fast Tracks (access to the express lanes at the Resort’s five busiest lifts), night skiing/riding (extended this season until 9 p.m.) and/or slopeside underground parking. The customizable season passes go on sale Tuesday, August 24, 2010.

“With the extension of our night operations we felt that this was a perfect time to unbundle our season passes,” said Jenni Smith, president and general manager of Park City Mountain Resort. “Our new pass products allow the guest to choose the options that are important to them at the price point that is right for them. If you only want access to our lifts your Adult season pass costs $699, but if you want all of the options (Fast Tracks, underground parking and night access) you will pay $1299. I want to have My Pass. My Way.”

Park City Mountain Resort’s adult (25-64) Mountain Access season passes start at $699. Options including Fast Tracks, night access and underground parking can be purchased for $200 each. Youth (7-12) Mountain Access passes start at $125. The Teen (13-17) Mountain Access pass starts at $175. Youth and Teen options include night access for $50 and Fast Tracks for $200. Children (2-6) receive free season passes.

With the purchase of any of the available options, passholders will also receive two complimentary friends and family lift tickets and discounts at any of the on-mountain restaurants, Park City Mountain Rentals, Legacy Sports and Park City Mountain Resort ski/snowboard school. A downloadable season pass pricing grid is available at www.parkcitymountain.com/pricinggrid.

With the extension of night operations to include the Three Kings lift and terrain park area, and the extended hours to 9 p.m., Park City Mountain Resort will also offer Night Only Season Passes. Night only pass pricing is as follows: Youth and Teen passes are $150, Young Adult/College passes are $225 and Adult Passes are $250.

In addition to the full season pass options, Park City Mountain Resort also offers 5 and 10 packs. Utah locals can enjoy five days of skiing/riding during the 2010-2011 season for $54 a day when they purchase the Utah Locals 5 Pack before October 31, 2010. The Utah Locals EZ Access Pass is available for $540 – that’s just $54 a day with included Fast Tracks and annual rollover. Utah property owners (non-Utah residents) can purchase an EZ Access Fast Tracks pass for $650. This pass provides guests with 10 days at Park City Mountain Resort to use during the winter season with access to our express Fast Track lanes at our most popular lifts. Utah Driver’s License, Utah State Issued I.D. or property tax receipt must be provided in order to purchase the EZ Access Pass and Utah Locals 5 Pack.

Additionally, Park City Mountain Resort offers college, senior and 70+ passes. Visit www.parkcitymountain.com/pass or call (800) 222.PARK for more information or to customize your pass. Pass prices are valid until October 31, 2010

Park City Mountain Resort is open for the summer season until mid-October, seven days a week. The Resort features a variety of summer activities including: the Alpine Slide, Alpine Coaster, ZipRider, the climbing wall, miniature golf, the Legacy Launcher, Little Miners Park, lift-served mountain biking and hiking and lift-served access to Park City’s historic Main Street. Legends Bar & Grill, the Resort’s premier restaurant, currently features summertime fare in both an indoor and outdoor setting. For more information visit www.parkcitymountain.com or call (800) 222.PARK.