SE4:EP4 - America's Ski Town

11/15/22 • 53 min

With two world class resorts boasting nearly 10,000 lift-served skiable acres, all nestled around an historic old mining town, Utah’s ski town of Park City truly is unlike anything in North America. Deer Valley Resort and Park City Mountain will open this season with new captains at the helm. Deer Valley’s Todd Bennett and Park City’s Deirdra Walsh represent a new generation of resort leaders who bring fresh enthusiasm to their respective mountains, and a keen sense of the uniqueness that has made the Park City community America’s Ski Town. They sat down with Last Chair at the Nelson Cottage at High West Distillery, in the heart of Park City’s Old Town.

As a community, Park City dates back to the late 19th century when silver mining made it a boom town. Throughout the early to mid 20th century, miners used skis to get around, often crossing the ridgeline into Big Cottonwood Canyon and back. The present-day Park City Mountain came alive in 1963 with the opening of a full resort, complete with a gondola. Known previously as Snow Park and Frog Hollow, Deer Valley sprang to life in 1981.

Park City’s historic Main Street, nestled between the two resorts, still boasts a 19th century mining town feel with hundreds of restaurants and shops, all within minutes to the two resorts.

Deer Valley’s new leader Todd Bennett grew up in Saranac Lake, N.Y. outside of Lake Placid, learning to ski at tiny Mount Pisgah. He worked a ski job in Colorado for three seasons before heading to an 18-year career with Walt Disney in southern California, looking for any opportunity he could to take ski trips with his family and friends. When the opportunity came up to move to Utah, he took advantage, settling into his new mountain home last summer.

Walsh is a native of St. Louis who came to Park City 18 years ago, learned to snowboard and rose up to a senior leadership role at Park City Mountain overseeing on-mountain dining. She left to run a California resort for a few years but returned home last spring. She brings pride in her company and a great depth of experience on the mountain.

Bennett and Walsh talk about the uniqueness of their resorts, and also that of the community. There are really no other similar models of two separate but adjoining resorts based around a central community core.

Here’s a sample of Last Chair’s episode 4 of season 4 with Park City’s Deirdra Walsh and Deer Valley’s Todd Bennett.

Todd, what was your pathway into skiing as a young boy?

We had a town run hill called Mount Pisgah – one run to the left of a tee bar and one run to the right of a tee bar and 500 vertical feet. That's where I learned to ski, I think at age four. I've always loved skiing. It was just one of those things that honestly was probably a little bit cooler than I was as a kid, and I just loved being around it.

Deirdra, your story is a bit different, right?

Yes. I grew up in the Midwest – I'm from Saint Louis. Our family vacation time was spent camping and always outside so I grew up with this love of the outdoors. In the summers I think my mom would literally send us out the door, lock it behind us, and we couldn't come home until she rang a bell.

Deirdra, what was your first introduction to skiing?

My husband had grown up skiing Stevens Pass, and he said, ‘let's move to Park City together.’ So I had almost no skiing experience until I came out here. He was a snowboarder, so I thought I'd be a cool girlfriend and learn to snowboard as well. My very first lesson was actually right at Park City Mountain in my mid-20s. I fell in love with the sport itself a little bit later in life. And it's been amazing to be a part of the community here and now have my kids grow up with skiing and riding as part of their every day.

Todd, what motivated you to get back into the ski industry? .

It was just kind of fortuitous. I saw the opening for Deer Valley come up and I immediately reached out to a number of folks that I knew in the industry. Park City had always been on our list, and I've just always been a passionate skier. So it was something that I wanted. And when that opportunity came up, I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to come work at Deer Valley.

Deirdra, how important is the community’s historic mining heritage?

When I think about Park City and that history, the word that always comes to mind is just how authentic this community is around the history that we have, the storytelling, the feeling that when you're on Main Street that these buildings and these neighborhoods and you look up the hill and you see all of these homes, you can't miss the history of this community. And it's really something that I think makes Park City so unique and so special.

Todd, how does Deer Valley Resort see its role in the community?<...

Park City’s historic Main Street, nestled between the two resorts, still boasts a 19th century mining town feel with hundreds of restaurants and shops, all within minutes to the two resorts.

Here’s a sample of Last Chair’s episode 4 of season 4 with Park City’s Deirdra Walsh and Deer Valley’s Todd Bennett.

Todd, what was your pathway into skiing as a young boy?

Deirdra, your story is a bit different, right?

Deirdra, what was your first introduction to skiing?

Todd, what motivated you to get back into the ski industry? .

Deirdra, how important is the community’s historic mining heritage?

Todd, how does Deer Valley Resort see its role in the community?<...

Previous Episode

SE4:EP3 - Peter Landsman: Our Love of Lifts

As skiers, we love ski lifts. They get us quickly to the top of mountains so we can slide back down. But what would you think about visiting every single ski lift in America? 2,381 of them! Well, that has been the life of Peter Landsman, a lift supervisor and founder of liftblog, a popular website and network of social channels. Today Last Chair chats with Peter about his adventure across America, the unique lifts he found and what we can expect for new lifts this winter.

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest (Snoqualmie), Landsman became infatuated with lifts early. “Immediately, I loved to ski – I think I was about four years old when I first started. Very quickly with the skiing, I realized the lifts were also really interesting machines. Ever since then I've had an interest in both the skiing and the lifts and tried to get to as many ski areas and lifts as I can.”

As a lift supervisor at Jackson Hole, Landsman works long shifts three to four days a week, then heads to the airport to fly around the USA, hopscotching to ski resorts in a rental car winter and summer to ride lifts, hike to lifts and photograph them from every conceivable angle.

In 2015 he started a small blog (liftblog.com) documenting his travels and indexing ski lifts. It was slow at first but with some love and car on social media, it took off.

There is probably no individual in America who is so knowledgeable about, literally, every ski lift in the country. He can rattle off stats and show you photos on his phone.

Here’s a sample of Last Chair’s episode 3 of season 4 with Peter Landsman.

How old were you when you began an infatuation with ski lifts?

One of the earlier memories I have of a ski trip was to Sun Valley. I was five or six and asking my parents if I could stay late and watch them turn off the ski lift and like, somehow that would be interesting. They probably thought it was kind of a funny thing to ask, but they let me stay and watch and I ended up talking to the lift operators and I still do that kind of thing today.

You’ve been to nearly 500 resorts. You must have some interesting stories?

The ski industry is incredibly broad. I have been to a ski resort that's inside. There are ski resorts run by schools. There are ski resorts that are run by the US military. There are ski resorts that are run by nonprofits. So they come in all shapes and sizes. And it's really remarkable how many different types of lifts and ski resorts I've been to.

How do you plan?

I study the map. Usually I have an idea in my head of what the ski area is like from my prior research. But the night before, I review the map, figure out what I think is going to be the most efficient and fastest way to go up and down every lift. It really varies on the resort, how many runs you have to do for each lift to really photograph them properly and ride them and then get between the different lifts.

Do you have a pipeline to the lift manufacturers to learn about new lifts?

I do have a good sense of what lifts are coming online. It actually mostly comes from the U.S. Forest Service in Utah and a lot of other places. Many resorts are on public lands, so they have to go through a permit process through the Forest Service before they can even build the lift. And then a lot of times resorts will tell me that they have an announcement coming up and keep me in the loop.

Have you seen some unusual lifts?

Every one is different. One that comes to mind is in New Jersey, an actual lift that was built here in Salt Lake City but sent over to New Jersey. It's inside this new indoor ski resort in a shopping mall called Big Snow. They have a quad chairlift that instead of coming out of the ground it actually hangs from the ceiling. So as you ride up, the lift towers are coming down from the roof. And that's a pretty unique lift. And then another one that comes to mind is a single chair up in Alaska. Cordova, Alaska, has a single chairlift still operating. It's actually from Sun Valley that got sent up there after they were done with it in Idaho.

Do you also try to track the lineage of lifts, like where they started and ended up?

I do. So some of them have moved two or three or four times. As an example, Deer Valley's old Homestake Lift went to my home mountain in Washington – Crystal Mountain, where it's now operating again. So if lifts are not that old and being removed, there's a good chance that they will end up at another ski area down the line.

I’ve always wondered, how do the ends of lift cables get attached to each other?

It's called a splice, and it's a very technical marriage of two ends of a haul rope. There are specialized specialists whose only job is to go around the country and ...

Next Episode

SE4:EP5 - Tim Hawkes: Saving the Great Salt Lake

When you fly into Salt Lake City from the north, you get a poignant view of the vanishing water in the Great Salt Lake. The problem is real. So what is Utah doing about it? Last Chair traveled to Antelope Island, in the heart of the lake, to speak with Utah state representative Tim Hawkes, a passionate advocate, on the very realistic steps the state is already taking to save the Great Salt Lake.

In today’s world of polarized politics, Hawkes stands out as a leader who works across the aisles. He laughs as he describes himself as a conservative who advocates for natural resources. In fact, if there is any one issue in Utah that truly unites politicians, it’s saving the Great Salt Lake.

Hawkes grew up in Brigham City, Utah, learning to love the outdoors as a young boy, hiking, fishing, hunting, cutting school to go skiing. He followed his passion into law, becoming a water rights attorney with a thriving career in Washington, D.C. Over time, he missed the Utah outdoors and moved back to his home state, working first with Trout Unlimited protecting waterways.

Today, Hawkes is a leading advocate saving the Great Salt Lake, working closely with his fellow legislators to seek real solutions. In his day job, he serves as legal counsel for the Great Salt Lake Brine Shrimp Cooperative.

How real is the problem? For our podcast interview, we drove across the causeway to Antelope Island. What used to be a roadway surrounded by water, now has only a few small pools. Birds that used to flock along the highway are now relegated to small patches of water. To find water along the shore of the island, in some places you would need to travel a mile.

Can the lake be saved? Hawkes thinks so. He’s a positive, forward-looking leader focused on solutions.

Here’s a sample of Last Chair’s episode 5 of season 4 with Utah state representative Tim Hawkes on how Utah is working together to save the Great Salt Lake.

What is it about being out in nature that's so compelling to all of us?

There's something deeply human that appeals to us about wild things and wild places. And I think it's important for our mental health, for our spirituality, sense of well-being and connectedness, just presence.

The Great Salt Lake is an amazing place, but often taken for granted in the past.

It's easy to see the lake as kind of an oddity. I grew up in Utah and you see it as out of sight, out of mind. It's been interesting as an adult to get to know it better, to understand the ecology. That's part of my job – to learn about it. But just to get out to Antelope Island and see the amazing wildlife that's out here, it feels otherworldly.

The Great Salt Lake is a terminal lake – what does that mean?

A terminal Lake is basically a lake that sits at the bottom of a watershed and it doesn't have an outlet. So there are rivers flowing in. There are no rivers flowing out. And so the only way that water is lost is through evaporation. That tends to concentrate salt and other minerals in that system. And that's where you get these unique systems where you need uniquely adapted critters that can survive in them because the conditions are very harsh salt, salt content very high.

Why has the lake attracted so much attention recently?

For those that have been engaged in protecting the lake and trying to conserve the lake, we've all been astonished by just how much interest has kicked in over the lake in recent years. And I think that has everything to do with these low lake levels. So the low lake levels have driven concerns about how that can affect the state and can affect the ecosystem that's driven media attention. And that largely then accounts for the public starting to gain more and more awareness of, ‘oh my gosh, the lake does touch us in ways, really important ways that we didn't fully realize we've got to do something to protect it.’

Is this an issue with Mother Nature, climate change, population growth?

It's really human caused. And one of the interesting data points that I don't think people realize, is they assume because we're in the middle of a very significant drought, that it's just we're getting a lot less precipitation and the science actually doesn't back that up. If you take Salt Lake Valley or Cache Valley, important watersheds that feed into the Great Salt Lake, and you just measure them over time, you just look how much rain and snow is falling and you plot it out – it's largely flat. It hasn't changed. It's hard to make the argument that we're getting less precipitation. So the only thing that can account for these dramatically low levels are really two things. One is that our climate is getting warmer. And as it gets warmer, then it takes more water to keep crops up or keep your lawns green or whatever. So we use more water. But the second way that ...