Help with my ski bum season - park city or nah?

Moonshine

Moonshine

Member
This winter I'm chasing my dream and heading out west to ski bum for a season. I've been super indecisive about where to go with places like Banff, Tahoe, and crested butte in mind. But a pretty solid hookup in Park City just fell in my lap and now PC has been thrown in the mix. My roommate's family has a fully furnished apartment I could rent for $600/month all-in, 15 min from PC and Canyons. I'll also have contacts to some real good jobs in the restaurant industry, which is my plan for working wherever I go.

I really want to have a winter living in a new place, meeting good people, filled with skiing as much as i can. I'm just a bit worried the Park City/salt lake area is already too built/touristy and won't have the vibe I'm looking for. But, having like 10 mountains within an hour is hard to beat.

Thoughts? Help me out homies, thanks!
 
i unfortunately have no experience in utah but i can tell you that there's def a sick scene there. personally for my ski bum years i went to tahoe cause im obsessed with squaw and although they were two bad snow years it was still amazing. super super sick place.

that said, banff is unreal but personally id want some in the US to make things easier plus idk shit about banff-- but maybe you do

anyway, what i can offer is this: utah is sick as hell and so is tahoe. but tahoe hasnt been doing amazing lately (though last year was good and maybe the snow will return this year) and if you have a place and some connections in utah, id say do that... housing, jobs, knowing people... that's 3/4 of the challenge of the whole ski bum endeavor. and youll meet so many sick people regardless of where you go
 
Utah is great. PC is awesome if you are a park skier, but you will have to deal with gapers and Vail. If you want to switch up your terrain you only have to drive like 40 mins so that's a plus.

People are chill, mountains are sweet, and the town is pretty cool. The only thing is Mormons haha.

Honestly as others have said, getting a hookup is invaluable to ski bumming... and it sounds like you have a pretty good one!
 
13737368:NightFantasies said:
People are chill, mountains are sweet, and the town is pretty cool. The only thing is Mormons haha.
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i'm really curious to hear about what interaction or occurrence you've had with a mormon/mormonism in park city...that doesnt involve clickers on liquor bottles or 1am cutoff

...or are you going strictly off what everyone else on newschoolers who doesnt live here has said?
 
topic:Moonshine said:
My roommate's family has a fully furnished apartment I could rent for $600/month all-in, 15 min from PC and Canyons.

I'm just a bit worried the Park City/salt lake area is already too built/touristy and won't have the vibe I'm looking for. But, having like 10 mountains within an hour is hard to beat.

Thoughts? Help me out homies, thanks!
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damn that's a deal and a half for wintertime livin in PC, and you can't really compare the valley with actually living in PC, even though they're 25 min apart they are way different. If you're worried about torists just leave town during Sundance, or ski. Nobody comes to Sundance to ski so it's the perfect time
 
13737436:Titsandwich11 said:
que?
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in utah, by law, bottles of liquor at the bar have these plastic clickers on top that measure out one single shot, and also record the number of shots poured. that way, the DABC can run the number of clicks on the device against the number of shots sold/drinks poured in a single night, to ensure that they're not pouring alcohol for free, or overserving. basically, you pay for what you get. there's no greasing the bartender for free pouring you a heavy drink. there are some loopholes though. for example, you can get a double if one shot is "flavoring." so for example you can order a bloody mary with one shot of straight vodka and one shot of pepper flavored vodka. that being said, you can still take a million shots or have a million drinks.

liquor-clickers-11.png
 
13737525:danbrown said:
in utah, by law, bottles of liquor at the bar have these plastic clickers on top that measure out one single shot, and also record the number of shots poured. that way, the DABC can run the number of clicks on the device against the number of shots sold/drinks poured in a single night, to ensure that they're not pouring alcohol for free, or overserving. basically, you pay for what you get. there's no greasing the bartender for free pouring you a heavy drink. there are some loopholes though. for example, you can get a double if one shot is "flavoring." so for example you can order a bloody mary with one shot of straight vodka and one shot of pepper flavored vodka. that being said, you can still take a million shots or have a million drinks.

liquor-clickers-11.png
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oh wow, never seen that before. thanks for the great explanation man
 
Having all that thrown at you is pretty hard to beat. But if you are looking for a locals only feel Crested Butte is the place. Plus Gunnison, which is a college town is super close, so there are lots of opportunities for restaurant jobs.
 
If you decide to ski park city you have the nation's largest resort down the street. My only complaint with PCMR/Canyons is that they can get obsurdidly crowded. Especially when it snows. And that was before the Epic pass has had more mass appeal to utahns. I only suspect that it is worse now. And to be fair - although you have your choice of both those resorts you will find yourself picking one and sticking with that one most if not all the time.

Deer valley is out of the question unless you want to drop $2000 on a season pass.

Big Cottonwood Canyon has both Solitude and Brighton and is just a few canyons south of Parley's (which is where you'll be living). Both would be fun places to spend a season. Both resorts have unique but different vibes. Brighton caters to snowboarders really well and so if you have friends that board that might be a good choice. Solitude is almost difficult to fathom just how uncrowded it is. Especially if you're there bumming during weekdays. Solitude also has arguably has the best skiing in all of Utah with honeycomb canyon.

Little Cottonwood Canyon has Snowbird and Alta and is a few more canyons south of Big. This means it's even further away from you, which is something you may want to consider and try to figure out gas expense etc. I suspect it would be about 45-60 minutes for you to get to Alta from your place up Parley's. And that's without issues with avalanche control work. Either one of these resorts would be alltime for a season.

BCC has less of an issue with avalanches which can block traffic up the Canyon for sometimes a few hours.

LCC has more due to a few specific zones that are the perfect aspect for slides and thus need to be controlled more frequently.

Parley's never gets shut down. That road is an interstate highway and was designed to be way more manageable in storms. The worst that will happen here is that you'll be required to 4x4 and/or chains in really bad weather. The state troopers will pull everyone over and check and then deny passage if you don't have it.

If you want my opinion - Solitude or Alta would be my top two in no particular order. I think equally high of both of these ski resorts. Alta is becoming more crowded just in the last 6-7 years that I've been skiing there.

Lastly, if you're planning to ski park at all, neither of those two resorts will cater to that. Alta for sure doesn't have a park and I cannot remember is Solitude built one recently or not but they didn't ha e one the last time I skied there. Brighton does put a lot of effort into their parks and have a little bit of everything for that scene.

Good luck!
 
I say do it in PC. The very best thing about seasonal jobs is they are seasonal jobs. It's not permanent unless you want to make it permanent. Sounds like you got the housing hook-up (which is the hardest thing to find in a busy ski town I would say).

To some people that is a serious life problem (Seasonal job). For me personally it's always a little sad(awesome people always come and go), but then a new adventure starts a few weeks later. And then you meet even more awesome people.

Then the cycle continues...
 
13737391:danbrown said:
i'm really curious to hear about what interaction or occurrence you've had with a mormon/mormonism in park city...that doesnt involve clickers on liquor bottles or 1am cutoff

...or are you going strictly off what everyone else on newschoolers who doesnt live here has said?
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To be completely honest they haven't bothered me that much.. aside from a few trying to get me to convert on the lift haha.

Overall they have all been very nice and polite, and I didn't mean that comment as the general NS bash on Mormons.

Rather it's kind of good to know that yes there are Mormons, and yes things are a bit different there.... because in the beginning I didn't know and I was taken by surprise.
 
alright so in my head I was like "live in park city and ski PC, canyons, Alta, Snowbird, Solitude, and more!" I guess I kinda thought more Utah mountains were on the epic pass, but this is not the case. suggestions for being able to shred multiple mountains? I don't think I'm down to be restricted to just PC...
 
13737935:Moonshine said:
alright so in my head I was like "live in park city and ski PC, canyons, Alta, Snowbird, Solitude, and more!" I guess I kinda thought more Utah mountains were on the epic pass, but this is not the case. suggestions for being able to shred multiple mountains? I don't think I'm down to be restricted to just PC...
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Yeah there arent a ton of options for getting mutli-mountain passes. Solitide/brighton have a shared passed for like $1000, Alta/Bird have a shared pass for like $1800. PC is the only mountain on the Epic Pass.

TBH you won't have as much fun at PC as other ski towns unless you love skiing park every fucking day. PC terrain is subpar at best and you will have to buy another pass and drive 50 mins to that resort.
 
13737956:eheath said:
Yeah there arent a ton of options for getting mutli-mountain passes. Solitide/brighton have a shared passed for like $1000, Alta/Bird have a shared pass for like $1800. PC is the only mountain on the Epic Pass.

TBH you won't have as much fun at PC as other ski towns unless you love skiing park every fucking day. PC terrain is subpar at best and you will have to buy another pass and drive 50 mins to that resort.
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yeah, this is kinda the conclusion i've come to as well. thanks for the input. so where should i go eheath?
 
13737563:.[sanhedrin said:
.]If you decide to ski park city you have the nation's largest resort down the street. My only complaint with PCMR/Canyons is that they can get obsurdidly crowded. Especially when it snows. And that was before the Epic pass has had more mass appeal to utahns. I only suspect that it is worse now. And to be fair - although you have your choice of both those resorts you will find yourself picking one and sticking with that one most if not all the time.

Deer valley is out of the question unless you want to drop $2000 on a season pass.

Big Cottonwood Canyon has both Solitude and Brighton and is just a few canyons south of Parley's (which is where you'll be living). Both would be fun places to spend a season. Both resorts have unique but different vibes. Brighton caters to snowboarders really well and so if you have friends that board that might be a good choice. Solitude is almost difficult to fathom just how uncrowded it is. Especially if you're there bumming during weekdays. Solitude also has arguably has the best skiing in all of Utah with honeycomb canyon.

Little Cottonwood Canyon has Snowbird and Alta and is a few more canyons south of Big. This means it's even further away from you, which is something you may want to consider and try to figure out gas expense etc. I suspect it would be about 45-60 minutes for you to get to Alta from your place up Parley's. And that's without issues with avalanche control work. Either one of these resorts would be alltime for a season.

BCC has less of an issue with avalanches which can block traffic up the Canyon for sometimes a few hours.

LCC has more due to a few specific zones that are the perfect aspect for slides and thus need to be controlled more frequently.

Parley's never gets shut down. That road is an interstate highway and was designed to be way more manageable in storms. The worst that will happen here is that you'll be required to 4x4 and/or chains in really bad weather. The state troopers will pull everyone over and check and then deny passage if you don't have it.

If you want my opinion - Solitude or Alta would be my top two in no particular order. I think equally high of both of these ski resorts. Alta is becoming more crowded just in the last 6-7 years that I've been skiing there.

Lastly, if you're planning to ski park at all, neither of those two resorts will cater to that. Alta for sure doesn't have a park and I cannot remember is Solitude built one recently or not but they didn't ha e one the last time I skied there. Brighton does put a lot of effort into their parks and have a little bit of everything for that scene.

Good luck!
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Alta for sure. Its literally so easy to work and live there.
 
600 bucks a month for rent on a dishdogging wage is a "hookup?" I must be doing this whole life thing wrong. You should be cramming yourself in a crawlspace for 100 a month. 600 bucks a month you should just buy a stony van and storm chase. park city is a fucking joke.
 
Park City is basically perfect, the weather is never incredibly cold, the snow quality here is better than anywhere else, if you ride park they switch up the features basically every week aside from the jumps, if you ride pow and aren't tryin to send it double black at 9am there's a bunch of intermediate stuff, main st is usually poppin, and there are a ton of other options for skiing if you get bored.Don't ski too fast though, vailyellowjackets will get you. Cops here are pretty much the worst and stuff closes early like dan said those two things aside I really don't think there is a better all around spot for kids our age. do it
 
Dude I've been skiing Tahoe for the past five years and it's awesome but it was nothing compared to Utah. Maybe I'm just used to Tahoe and like stoked on something different but if I was you I'd totally take that opportunity and ride it out in P/C
 
I go to school in Gunnison which is 35 minutes from Crested Butte and its pretty tight out here. Lots of job opportunities if you are just tryna make it by and the skiing is rad. If you're more into big mountain stuff this is the place but their park is pretty trash. Whole area has a super local feel and you get to know a lot of the people you see everyday. Just know that it is a humongous pain in the ass to go anywhere and you are incredibly far from typical society.
 
13739702:DSIMPSON said:
I go to school in Gunnison which is 35 minutes from Crested Butte and its pretty tight out here. Lots of job opportunities if you are just tryna make it by and the skiing is rad. If you're more into big mountain stuff this is the place but their park is pretty trash. Whole area has a super local feel and you get to know a lot of the people you see everyday. Just know that it is a humongous pain in the ass to go anywhere and you are incredibly far from typical society.
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They got rid of the MTB Hall of Fame. Its not worth living there anymore... aside from a skate park on campus.
 
Agreed about what's been said about PC, doesn't seem like your jam. Terrain is meh.

Vail is fucking awesome terrain wise, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Winter Park is a lot of fun, but smaller

Bridger and Big Sky are awesome, but Bozeman is heavily a college town. It may be different since 2006, not sure

South lake tahoe blows. North lake is better but snow pack isn't as consistent year to year as other places

Other places to consider - jackson, anywhere in BC
 
13739310:Moonshine said:
think i'm back to tahoe. suggestions on where to live?
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live in meyers or south lake and shred kirkwood or Sierra. kirkwood gets best snow in tahoe. havent been there since vail bought it tho. much better choice than pc.
 
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