Deer Valley | The Official Blog of Deer Valley Ski Resort

August 26, 2010

Never Too Late To Go Mountain Biking!

Filed under: Biking — Tags: Biking, chairlift, deer valley, Labor Day, mountains, moutain biking, park city, singletrack, summer, trails, utah — JF Lanvers @ 9:54 am

I know how it feels; we’re now almost at the end of August and you haven’t ridden your mountain bike yet as you had promised yourself! Well, it’s never too late and in fact the next few weeks are likely to be the best in the entire summer for straddling a mountain bike and getting a taste of what a fun recreation it can be if you have never tried it before, or refreshing your memories as well as your skills if you have experienced it in the past. Deer Valley is the perfect place to do it, should you decide to take advantage of the resort’s lift-served mountain biking options by either riding the Silver Lake Express or the Sterling Express lifts, rent some great bikes and also receive some friendly advice.

Early fall is also the perfect season to do it; the weather is much cooler and the crowds are generally considerably thinner. In fact, the resort offers an impressive 55 miles of trails meandering through woods, canyons and meadows, offering a blend of the best vistas available and the most exciting terrain. In case you wondered, I’ve heard that Deer Valley Resort has been rated by some mountain biking publication in the top ten best destinations for mountain biking…

So now where do you begin? Check your mountain bike and make sure it’s still trail-worthy or doesn’t lack modern suspensions, decent tires and good brakes. If it has remained in your garage for more than ten years, you might be surprised to find out that technology has passed it by; if that’s the case, rent one at Deer Valley Resort, that will enable you to familiarize yourself with the new technology from modern gears to clipless pedals, and give you an opportunity to make up your mind should you decide to invest into a new machine. If your bike still looks the part, make sure to have it tuned up and have its tires and brakes checked before going out, and while we are on the subject of personal security, don’t leave home without your bike helmet!

Then, if you’re still a bit uneasy, there’s always the opportunity of taking a refresher course. Don’t think you need one? Well, this might in fact be a great opportunity to not having to relearn everything or re-discovering… the wheel. Deer Valley’s Mountain Bike School can give you that bit of extra-confidence that will make a huge difference. It’s open daily and someone’s available at either Snow Park Lodge or mid-mountain next to Silver Lake Lodge from 10 am to 5:30 pm to assist you if you really want to discover something new. There are in fact a host of things you can rediscover or learn, like sharpening your visual skills on single track courses, balancing and positioning your body according to the changing terrain, cornering like a pro, breaking smartly, descending and climbing more effectively and many more very valuable tips.

Lift-served mountain biking is also an excellent way to get you started without suffering too much and gaining some critical training before you can do the whole thing on your very own, if you decide to. The passes are quite affordable and your kids or grandchildren below five years of age will ride free. So enough procrastinating! You only have between now and Labor Day, plus the following weekend of September 11 and 12 to get back into, or get acquainted with this great sport while weather and temperatures are still ideal!

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July 26, 2010

Big Stars, Bright Nights- Wynonna

Filed under: Dining, Events, concerts — Tags: big stars bright nights, concerts, deer valley, eccles center, festivals, gourmet picnic basket, mountains, outdoor amphitheater, park city, park city performing arts, picnic, summer, utah, wynonna, wynonna judd — Erin Grady @ 8:05 am

I had the pleasure of seeing Wynonna perform this past Tuesday evening here at Deer Valley. As of now, it may have been the highlight of my summer. It was not the longest concert I have ever attended but between her vocals and personality it may be one of the best. She showcased her enormous voice that you expected but once she was done with a song she continued to engage the audience with her great personality. She called people out for their dancing, signed old tour shirts and even brought a few kids up on stage for a photo op. I am pretty sure she had not only herself but most the audience crying and laughing through out the evening.

Before the performance even began I decided that my guests and I needed to be treated to the Deer Valley Gourmet Picnic Basket. I have not had one for a few years and am I ever so glad we decided to order them. We ordered two baskets a salmon and a beef and I am not sure which one I liked better. They were both delicious! The antipasto with the Creminelli truffled salami, steamed artichokes, olives, double cream brie and fresh baked French bread were enough to do you in. Then, if you can, finish with lemon pound cake and raspberry truffle tartlets. The whole thing was amazing and the best part was that I did not have to do anything but enjoy it!

I am now counting the days to my next concert which is the Utah Symphony’s performance to the 1812 Overture! I think I am going to have to order another basket!

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July 14, 2010

The Wild Flowers are Blooming!

Filed under: Biking, concerts — Tags: Biking, chairlift, concerts, deer valley, festivals, hiking, mountains, moutain biking, outdoor amphitheater, park city, royal street cafe, summer, trails, utah, Utah Symphony — Erin Grady @ 2:18 pm

With summer now in full swing in the mountains, you don’t want to miss seeing the wild flowers at Deer Valley. They are amazing this year and the colors are incredible. I am always up for a hike to check them out but the mountain biking trails are looking tempting these days.

I finally have my first concert, Wynonna, on the calendar for next Tuesday. Wynonna is coming as part of our Big Start Bright Nights series and it should be a great evening. I have already ordered my Deer Valley Gourmet Picnic Basket and can not wait to brag about it in my next post.

Don’t forget about our free Wednesday night concert series which start at 6 p.m. at the Snow Park Amphitheater. We have Wisebird, Shaky Trade and my personal favorite Bryon Friedman coming up. My family and I always pack a picnic but I was to lazy last night so we will be off to the concession stand. I am looking forward to the chicken ceasar salad and an ice cream sandwich for dessert.

For those of you wanting to come up for a long weekend make sure to check out our website deervalley.com. We have some great summer packages and some even some specifically for the different concert series.

Hope everyone is enjoying the warm weather!

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Park City’s 4th of July Parade

Filed under: Events — Tags: 4th, deer valley, fourth of july, parade, park city, silver, snow, utah — Erin Grady @ 2:10 pm

Deer Valley’s “From Silver to Snow” Float took 1st place in the big business category this year!

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Go catch a few concerts!

Filed under: Events, concerts — Tags: concerts, deer valley, festivals, outdoor amphitheater, park city, summer, utah, Utah Symphony — JF Lanvers @ 2:02 pm

Our summers are so fun that it make them hard to manage. There’s so much going on that between gorgeous weather, vacation time, gardening, festivals of all kinds and an almost infinite array of outdoors activities, we often get too forgetful about what to do when the sun is about to set. That’s precisely when the other face of town begins to wake up with a cornucopia of entertainment options that can only be found during summer months and here, I am specifically thinking about Deer Valley outdoor concerts, in the unique and super-natural Snow Park Outdoor Amphitheater.

The best thing about Deer Valley summer concerts is that there’s always something for everyone. From the Wednesday evening free concerts, featuring local artists, to the new classic “St. Regis Big Stars, Bright Nights Concert Series,” the always ultra-classic Utah Symphony, all the way to some
bigger-than-life artists brought to us by United Concerts, there’s absolutely no excuse for not getting out and enjoying a wonderful picnic while listening to music we enjoy. The last time I counted, I found at least thirty Deer Valley concerts waiting to entertain us!

If carrying your house and most of its contents on your back is your style, simply set up camp on Deer Valley’s green grass and take full advantage of the lawn-sitting option that allows you to spread all your belongings on a large blanket that will be your territory for the evening. If you have underestimated your appetite or if your significant other forgot to pack the sandwiches or add some dessert, there’s always the Deer Valley’s food and beverage concession stand that stays open during the entire concert and never fails to provide the extra something that you should have brought along.

If you enjoy outdoor music as much as you crave for great food, there’s another quintessential experience, the famous Deer Valley Gourmet Picnic Basket. Remember, this is Deer Valley, and a concert wouldn’t be the wonderful experience it can be without the resort’s epicurean food, its incredible variety and surprising twists. The baguette that sticks out of the wicker basket acts like a magnet on me, quite probably because I’m from France, but it’s only the tip of the… iceberg. If you adore nibbling on smoked salmon, chilled filet or on the contrary are set on a vegetarian fare, if you covet these delightful aioli-seasoned artichokes, can’t resist a salami that tastes as if it had been bootlegged from Italy or a piece Brie that could have been just purchased at a French country store, you may have a hard time paying attention to the performance, but whoever suggested that multitasking was easy!

If you drove a tiny-winy car like a Smart, rode a Vespa scooter, made it on your cruiser bike or better yet, arrived to Snow Park on-board the free city bus because you care so much about your carbon footprint, carrying lawn chairs around is never a convenient option; the best solution is to go for the
reserved seating that not only is comfortable but also provides you with the very best seats in the house. Now, that your only real hard work is to pick among these wonderful alternatives, and if you’re really serious about keeping your musical culture up where it belong, isn’t it time you got out and caught several of these great concerts while summer lasts?

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June 28, 2010

How Mountain Biking May Help Your Skiing

Filed under: Biking, Skiing — Tags: Biking, deer valley, handlebars, park city, singletrack, ski, Skiing, summer, trails, utah — JF Lanvers @ 2:16 pm

Skiing is a sport in which a vast majority of our cues come from what we see. Since this sport is second-nature to me, I’ve long learned how to look far beyond the tips of my skis to discover what’s ahead and plot my next moves accordingly. Somehow, the line I follow develops in my mind from the information I’ve been able to gather in the short time I was glancing ahead. My feet pivot, my ankles bend, my knees rotate just at the ideal moment, as if all had been carefully scripted and was now flowing as seamlessly and perfectly as planned.

Around six years ago, when I seriously began riding my mountain bike on single tracks, all my senses and attention were at first totally mobilized on keeping the bike going within the narrow corridor the trail forced on me. More than once, as my entire body was tense and I was trying too hard, I would over-correct, wobble, slow ridiculously down, become totally inefficient and get off track anyway. My field of vision was limited to my handlebar and my front tire, while I was micro-managing the moment instead of following the meandering pathway that was streaming towards me. Of course, I’m mostly talking here about coasting or descending. My climbing rate is still too slow to strategize about speed except for the occasional burst of energy required by a short, steep bump on the trail that can only be cleared through an extra burst of energy.

It took many rides to tame my attitude and force me into seeing farther and farther away down the trail. That longer view enabled me to estimate my rate of speed, plan when to hit the brake, assess how fast I could negotiate a hairpin turn in relative comfort, and little by little, my choppy pace became much smoother. Today, while it’s still lagging behind my half-a-century ski instinct, my bike riding has become a lot more fluid than it used to be. Both sports of course remain different; recreational skiing offers a maximum range of freedom as one can pick from an infinite array of lines on a fairly wide, open slope, through trees or across a totally open bowl. While skiing allows to marry terrain variations with a multitude of routes, creating for a smooth cruising experience, mountain biking also offers that possibility, albeit in much subtler increments, generally within the width of the track.

In fact, mountain biking is akin to going through an alpine race course that could alternatively resemble a slalom, a giant slalom or even a downhill. The pathway is clearly defined and the only other option is going off track which seldom is a good option. In all situations however, and in both sports, there’s always an opportunity to pick up special skills that will serve us well for the other. Mountain biking brings a special blend of speed, precision and anticipation that are priceless in skiing. So you have it right there; the more mountain biking you’ll do this summer, the more dividends it will pay for your skiing next season. With this in mind, don’t delay riding your mountain bike; your skiing demands it!

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June 16, 2010

Summer in the Mountains

Filed under: Biking, Dining, Events — Tags: Biking, deer valley, hiking, outdoor amphitheater, park city, royal street cafe, spring, summer, utah, Utah Symphony — Erin Grady @ 10:08 am

With the long cold spring almost in the foreground, I think that summer is finally in the air. The snow has almost melted, leaves are coming out and the wild flowers are blooming, you have to love summertime in the mountains. Deer Valley is just a few days away from kicking off its summer activities on Friday, June 18.

My favorite part about summer is literally all of the music in the air. June 23, starts our free concerts on Wednesday nights which are great for the whole family. My husband and I love to bring our daughter up to have a nice picnic and enjoy the music. Then every Friday and Saturday evening through the summer the Utah Symphony plays in our outdoor amphitheater. Other concerts I know I won’t be missing this summer are Earth, Wind and Fire presented by Big Stars Bright Nights on August 20 or B.B. King Blues Festival on August 24. But the list of performances goes on and on.

I am also looking forward to Royal Street Café opening for lunch on the deck. I love to take in the whole experience by riding up the Silver Lake Express chairlift for a leisurely lunch. Then once I am there just sitting back to enjoy a blueberry mojito, the tuna tartare with the arugula truffle oil lemon salad and finishing it off with a piece of the frozen lemon meringue pie on a beautiful summer day.

One nice thing about Deer Valley and the Park City area is all of the hiking and biking trails. I love to hike, not so much bike, so hiking is something that I do year round but only get to enjoy Deer Valley trails during the summer. My favorite hike at Deer Valley is leaving from the Snow Park area and taking the Tour de Homes trail up to Silver Lake. There is nothing better than being outside taking in that deep breath of mountain air!

I hate to see winter leave but I have to say I am really looking forward to the lazy days of summer!

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June 9, 2010

A Painful Transition

Filed under: Biking, Skiing — Tags: deer valley, moutain biking, park city, ski, Skiing, skis, snow, utah — JF Lanvers @ 2:46 pm

In recent years, I have skied more than my share and this season was no exception. I believe that at last count, I have been 100 days on my skis; this, by my own admission, is an awful lot and I would need to travel back to my twenties to exceed that impressive attendance on snow. Over the past five years, besides skiing a lot, I’ve also experienced my share of mishaps; none of them too bad, but between some broken ribs and a snapped Achilles’s heel, I can’t say that my past seasons were totally pain-free. So once again, this ski season ended up absolutely flawlessly, without one single injury to report. I had dodged the proverbial bullet. As I put away my ski gear, my next move was to take our mountain bikes to the local shop for a full tune-up in time for another riding season. I was already picturing myself coasting amidst a sea of sagebrush and clearing hairpin turns almost flawlessly.

This was without counting on some real labor that was waiting for me between the skiing and the mountain biking seasons. I had been extremely ambitious and had set to repaint a deck composed of an endless metal railing wrapped around a large wooden floor. I’m not as good a painter as I’m a skier and even though I consider myself a medium-level mountain biker, I tend to ride the single track much better than I can pilot a paintbrush around intricate wrought iron patterns. This means that it takes me a lot of time to do an okay job, not even including all the contorting, bending and laying on my back that come with reaching these almost invisible and unattainable spots. After two days of doing that, my body began to revolt, my legs ached and I was visibly limping as if I had aged an extra 20 years! I was in fact so tired, that I took two days of pure rest. A wise move that very unfortunately, happened to be “too little, too late.”

The next morning, while standing up from my office chair, I must have snapped something and my lower back was elevated to a dire state of lumbago or acute back pain, as doctors like to call this ailment. I instantly visualized my ski career coming to a screeching stop and my anticipated mountain bike exploits vaporizing on the spot. I made an appointment with a physiatrist who listened to my story with extreme empathy, asked me lots of questions, ran me through a series of physical tests and reassured me that there would be more ski and mountain bike days in my future.

The morale of that story is that there are many activities more dangerous than skiing or mountain biking, but what I appreciated the most was that my doctor didn’t ask me if I wore a helmet at the time of the incident!

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