If there was ever a skier tailor-made for Deer Valley, it is my wife. She loves to ski. Not too fast, always in control, not too slow, let's keep things interesting, not too far from a lodge to warm up the tootsies, no crowds, and...please...no snowboarders. That's why I never took her there: Once we went, I had a bad feeling that we would have to return trip after trip, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for one thing> $$$. Deer Valley has a product that appeals to a certain skier and they aren't afraid to charge for it.
We were not 100% convinced that Deer Valley was the place to go today. They reported 2" of snow overnight, and were expecting to see the snow continue until 9 AM, so we figured another inch of snow on top of that. Not something to write home about, but we thought, "hey, these are the groomers of Deer Valley we are talking about here. They've got magic in their Cats, or so we've heard." So we rolled the dice and headed out there. We were to be pleasantly surprised.
When we first walked into the base area to buy lift tix, we put our skis on the racks, and reveled in a beautiful sight: No snowboards. We both love to snowboard, but we don't like to ski with snowboarders. I know it's not logical, but what about skiing is logical?
One strange thing about Deer Valley is how you never really feel like you have left civilization. Many ski resorts give you the sensation of being out in the wilderness; this is something that Deer Valley doesn't bother with. There are houses and condos scattered throughout the resort, and there seem to be lifts on nearly every trail. That makes for short lift lines, but it leaves me wanting for more wildness. Here we ski past a house on a cat track:
The mild storm we expected turned out to be the "Little Storm that Could." It just wouldn't stop, it wouldn't slow down, which is makes for a great ski day in our eyes. I'd rather have a refresher of pow on each lap than a bluebird day in a lot of days. The nature of the trails at Deer Valley means visibility in a snow storm isn't a big issue, so we just enjoyed the freshies. Karrie shreds the pow here:
The facilities at Deer Valley are well known to anyone in the ski industry, and we made use of them to catch a quick lunch and to warm up by the fire. This is the Empire Lodge, looking out back to the slopes:
We had a great day at DV, and Karrie is sold. She is ready to make this our home mountain - she loved the seemingly endless blue terrain, the comfortable facilities, the friendly employees and other skiers, the lack of crowds; there was almost nothing that she didn't like, especially on a day where we expected 2 inches but got more like 8 inches. The sun even came out to say hello on our very last run:
After visiting Deer Valley, my fears were confirmed: I am going to have to justify going anywhere except for Deer Valley over the years.