Playing In Park City Skiing For All Abilities And A Downtown Brimming With Charm Nestled In The Breathtaking Wasatch Mountains

With the variety of challenging slopes in our own backyard, Northwest skiers sometimes have a hard time justifying an out-of-town ski trip.

But if you’re looking for great snow and endless runs without a lot of hassle and travel time, Park City, Utah, is a lot closer than you might think.

The area is hosting several of the 2002 Winter Olympic events, so now is the time for skiers to enjoy top level skiing before the rest of the world discovers Park City.

Nestled in the Wasatch Mountains, Park City is only 40 minutes from Salt Lake City Airport. Within five hours of leaving Spokane, you can be enjoying Utah’s famous powder. The historic mining town provides access to three world-class resorts that offer a full platter for skiers of all levels.

The names can be confusing at first. Park City (the town) offers access to Park City Ski Area (the resort), Deer Valley Resort and Wolf Mountain. Park City Ski Area and Deer Valley are both only a couple of miles from Park City’s historic Main Street; Wolf Mountain is about a 20-minute drive. Shuttles run from downtown to any of the resorts, making it easy for a family or group member to break from the pack even if you don’t have your own individual transportation.

Park City, the town, has a charm that not many destination ski areas could dream of duplicating. Historic buildings that once housed cheap rooms and saloons have been beautifully refurbished into a wide variety of restaurants, shops and lovely hotels.

The 1904 Imperial Hotel or the Washington School Inn are just two of the many bed and breakfast options right in the thick of the action. You might as well park your car for the weekend because everything you need is within a few blocks.

Unlike many destination resorts, it’s easy to enjoy the skiing without spending a fortune on lodging and meals. You can find a clean, comfortable room for as low as $30 and several fun restaurants, such as Park City Pizza Company or Texas Red’s Pit Barbecue, offer complete meals in the $10-12 range. Of course, if you want to go all out, Park City can provide as much alpine glitz and glamour as you can afford.

But despite the great extras, the real appeal of Park City is the incredible quantity and quality of skiing. All three of the area’s resorts offer the amenities you would expect - day care, top-notch instruction and overnight ski tuning, for example - but each of the resorts has a distinctive personality and style.

Deer Valley

Customer service is the name of the game at this upscale resort. From the minute the parking lot shuttle whisks you from your car to the interior of the lodge, you know you’re in for an alpine treat. If you want to familiarize yourself with the ski area, green-clad mountain hosts will take you on a morning tour of Deer Valley’s three peaks - Bald Mountain, Bald Eagle Mountain and Flagstaff Mountain.

The resort’s 67 runs are serviced by two high-speed quad lifts, nine triple chairs and two double chairs. The $49 lift ticket provides access to 1,100 skiable acres with a vertical drop of 2,200 feet.

The mountain tour can be helpful for the more timid skier, and to learn the slightly complex lift system for accessing three different mountains. More adventurous and advanced skiers should skip the tour and head for the slopes - especially if you enjoy long cruising runs.

Known for its meticulous grooming, Deer Valley is the type of resort that makes an intermediate skier feel like Jean-Claude Killy. The Northern Exposure lift on Flagstaff Mountain offers nice runs on wideopen runs - most people don’t seem to find the backside of the resort. Another useful feature for the sport skier: At the top of each lift, the resort posts which runs have been groomed the previous evening.

An expert skier will find plenty of runs, but it can be somewhat difficult to find challenging bumps - the Red Cloud lift offers two decent mogul runs and top-level competitions take place on Big Stick, but these bumps aren’t open to the general public.

In the second week of January, Utah was suffering from the same snow shortage that plagued the Northwest, so some of the black diamond runs weren’t open at that time. To address the need for more difficult runs, Deer Valley is expanding into the Empire Canyon area. This year, you can explore that new area of extreme skiing by catching a snowcat for $5 a trip. The resort plans to install lifts to it next summer. At Deer Valley you won’t forget you’re at one of the country’s most upscale resorts - just peek through a window. Million-dollar (and up) homes dot the mountain.

Skiers looking for that pristine wilderness experience may find Deer Valley a bit disconcerting. But if you’ve ever caught yourself watching “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” be sure to take the Kimberly run. Huge homes line the narrow run, making it feel like skiing on a golf course.

When you’re ready for lunch, nothing beats the dining options at the base of Deer Valley, as well as the Silver Lake Village area at mid-mountain. Try a bowl of the turkey chili or dish up a plate at the Natural Buffet, a gourmet salad bar. These are available at the Snow Park Lodge at the base of the mountain.

Work up an appetite for a gourmet dinner? Wild game is one of the specialties at the Stein Eriksen Lodge, or head for the popular seafood buffet at the Snow Park Lodge. But you will need to plan ahead - most of Deer Valley’s fine dining isn’t a secret and reservations are definitely required. Silver Lake Village at mid-mountain is accessible by car, which makes it easy to enjoy some of the outstanding restaurants even if you’re not actually staying in one of the rather pricey lodgings in the area.

Park City Ski Area

As Utah’s largest ski area (2,200 skiable acres), Park City Ski Area offers something for everyone and lots of it. The 89 trails are served by three quads, six triple chairs, four doubles and one four-passenger gondola. Lift tickets are $47 and the resort has a vertical drop of 3,100 feet.

Beginning and intermediate skiers will find a variety of long runs (up to 3.5 miles) for smooth cruising. If you occasionally like to push your skill level, many of the runs on the King Con, Prospector or Motherlode chairs offer ways to tailor-make a run to your specific needs. This versatility also comes in handy when skiers of different levels are spending time on the slopes together. At Park City, there are numerous runs that an intermediate can ride to with with an expert and still enjoy the lift trip together.

If you’re an expert skier, test your skills on Jupiter Bowl or McConkey’s Bowl. Steep slopes with plenty of powder are what Utah skiing is all about. Serious bump fans should head directly to the Thaynes chair for a myriad of mogul terrain.

The resort’s only real drawback? Unless you plan carefully, it can take forever to get to the summit of the mountain. The gondola takes you straight there, but at 23 minutes, it’s a bit slow. There are faster ways to get to the top if you know the correct series of lifts.

At a resort this size requires a spirit of exploration. Some skiers never find some of the best terrain because they’re just not adventurous enough to keep looking. A trail map definitely is required gear to navigate this mountain.

When you’re ready to park the boards for lunch, the Mid-Mountain Lodge is the perfect spot to enjoy a tasty lunch or an ice-cold beer on the sunny deck.

Once a miners’ boarding house, the Mid-Mountain Lodge was moved to a new location farther up the mountain and completely refurbished. Skiers can warm up with veggie lasagna, Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, or - a local favorite - mashed potatoes and gravy.

As the day moves on, sun chasers head to the west side of the mountain and then cruise to the base for a little socializing at Steeps bar and restaurant.

Wolf Mountain

Is there a snow boarder in your family? With five halfpipes, a night-lit snowboard park and miles of off-trail boarding, Wolf Mountain can be considered Utah’s snowboarding headquarters. The other resorts don’t allow snowboards, so Wolf Mountain more than adequately fills the gap.

Less “resorty” than Park City Ski Area or Deer Valley, Wolf Mountain offers home-style charm with its 1,400 skiable acres and 2,800 vertical drop. Seven double chairs serve 64 runs including 42 percent classified at an expert level. The wild and woolly skier in your group will enjoy the mountain’s challenges and - at $28 a ticket - Wolf Mountain is the definite bargain in Park City.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 photos (2 color)

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: IF YOU GO Getting there: Southwest Airlines and Delta both offer direct flights from Spokane to Salt Lake City. More information The Park City Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau offers a free color brochure with everything you need to know including resort descriptions, restaurant and lodging information and prices as well as a complete calendar of events in the area. Call (800) 453-1360. Other activities Park City offers the usual ski-town fun fare including sleigh rides and cross-country skiing, but the area also features a few unique extras. Learn to ski jump at the home of the 2002 Olympic freestyle and nordic ski jumping events. The Utah Winter Sports Park offers recreational ski-jumping lessons starting on friendly mounds of snow and progressing to K18 and K38 jumps. This is the only recreational ski jumping program offered in the United States. Or, catch Olympic hopefuls testing their mettle on the big nordic jumps and the freestyle hill. If you want to leave the snow completely behind and explore some of Park City’s mining heritage, check out the newly opened Park City Silver Mine Adventure. Housed in the Ontario Mine (a real silver mine that is operating at maintenance level until the price of silver rises again), the high-quality interactive displays accurately describe the mining process and the growth of Park City at the turn of the century into a booming mining town. But the best part of the $12.95 tour is donning hard hats and taking a multi-car elevator 1,500 feet underground into a mine shaft. A special train takes you another half-mile into the interior of the mountain where more displays are available. The tour has a few slow spots, but overall it offers a fascinating and real look at the daily working environment of a silver mine.