22-March-2024 Salt Lake City, Day 2 - Deer Valley

This morning I got up and walked the dogs and they were super well-behaved so they earned themselves a treat when we returned home. They have these adorable heart-shaped treats and I couldn't resist taking pictures of each dog with their treat; one pic with the treat in focus and the other with dog in focus. Wonder which one each of you prefer?

After dog duties I took advantage of being only 35 minutes away from some of the worlds best ski areas and headed over to Deer Valley - I have an IKON Pass which lets me ski at a number of different resorts so even if it's a short day I can take advantage of "free" skiing (paid fir the annual pass last June).

I figured that if I leave at 10 AM I'd be on the mountain by 11 AM, could ski until 2 PM and be home before 3 PM. That's one of the awesome things about Salt Lake City is the proximity of ski areas!

I was surprised that it was quite a bit chillier in the mountains and that the snow was still hard and crusty and had not softened up yet by the time I arrived. I headed over to the east part of the mountain which has more direct sun exposure and found some nice snow there. The mountain is not too big and the few hours I had were enough to explore it all.

I had been told that the lodges and restaurants at Deer Valley were top-notch and super high-end and that I had to check them out so I took a quick break and ducked into one of the larger lodges to see for myself. Sure enough – unlike the usual cafeteria line in most lodges here you had restaurant options where you could sit and order from a menu and be waited on - plus they also appear to have great cocktails! The weather was beautiful and lots of people were enjoying their meals outside, getting drinks from the mobile beer truck, and catching some rays in the Adirondack chair beach. Because my time was limited I had brought a sandwich which was waiting for me in the car and I strapped my skis back on and headed back out onto the slopes. There are some beautiful views of Sterling Lake and some cool overpasses where you either ski on a bridge over a road or ski under a road on the trail.

Deer Valley was one of the sites where the competitions for the 2002 Winter Olympic games were held -fun to see the trails where different events took place. You'll see a picture below about avalanche danger – yes I did go on that run and it turned out to be my favorite one of the day – some soft slushy moguls on the sunny side of the mountain - and no, not dangerous.

The craziest thing that happened is that I saw a child fall off a ski lift! I was on the chairlift and a mother and child (assuming 3–4 years old) were in the chair in front of me and when the mother lifted the safety bar the child fell forward and dropped about 12 feet to the ground in a horrifying bellyflop. I yelled to the lift attendant to call ski patrol and jumped off the lift and skied over to check on the child. Thankfully she had gotten to her knees and was crying but seemed to be OK. Ski patrol came within a minute and checked her out and it looks like she will be fine. I don't know if she or her mom will ever want to get on a chairlift again – I know I was shaken up just by having seen it! I always put the safety bar down because I'm afraid of heights and after seeing that I will always be be sure to keep the bar down as long as possible!

Enjoyed a few hours on the slopes and came back to sunny warm Salt Lake City (about 65° in the backyard) and enjoyed some fresh air and time with the dogs.