PARK CITY MOUNTAIN RESORT (UTAH) or BIG WHITE
I am planning on doing 2 months snowboarding at one of these resorts and I can’t really decide. I am going to be booking my flights on Saturday. Has anyone stayed at both? Which one do you recommend and why? PRO/CONS? Which is easier to find long term accom?
I have never been to Park City but Big White is a really good mountain. The snow and terrain quility is world class. Their park has also improved a lot over recent years, they now have a lift servicing the park.
Big White
Pros: Very quiet during the week, no lift lines, completely ride-in ride-out, very convenient to get around (no need for buses etc..), snow quality (interior pow), excellent tree runs, good terrain overall, good park.
Cons: Busy on the weekends (but most mountains are), small village, not much nightlife (only a few local bars), not so much big mountain terrain like Whistler.
I was at Park City two days, but only rode one day.
The day that I was there not riding, I was watching the WSC (world Super pipe Championships). This is the “same” half-pipe cut and location as was used in the Olympics when it was in Utah a few years back. I was there a year after the Olympics.
I cant comment too much on the mountain, of course the snow was nice Utah snow.
If you’re going to be there for 2 months, the nice thing is that you have The Canyons right next door, and you’re only 45 mins down the road from Salt Lake Vity where you have a good handful of other nice resorts, like Snowbird / Alta, Brighton (they call it the ‘snowboard capitol of the world’), Solitude.
But in Park City you are also next to Deer Valley which is a ski only resort. There’s a lot of $$Money$$ in Park City. So if you’re going to possibly be a snowboard instructor, that means a possible better pay from tips! or for any other tipping type job.
As for Big White, I dont even know where it is.
I’ve never been to Big White, but have spent a day at Park City. I hear their park setup is really good (funnily enough, the name came way before snow parks), but personally I wasn’t a fan of the mountain. I prefer to do freestyle stuff on natural hits and play on terrain, then maybe take a few runs through the park sometime during the day. The terrain was okay, but kinda flat (in my opinion). I much prefer The Canyons or Brighton.
Park City seems like a cool little town, but also seems like cost of living would be much higher than Big White.
My 2 cents.
Either resort you’ll have fun at, it’s not like you can make a bad decision outta those two anyway.
I agree that The Canyons was much more memorable resort. Park City the town was right on top of the resort.
After talking with my wife who reminded me of what her memories were too.
Parking was like in the town, and we took a stand up lift, called the Cabriolet to the base of the mountain… kind of cool to have a lift from the car lot to the lifts though.
There was a lot of signs and paint on the mountain.
At the bottom of some trails where the lift lines would be, there was MAXimum signage… like not one slow sign, but 10.
There was also pain on the snow… (probably powder) saying “slow” or arrows where necessary.
I will look for a couple of pics.
The area is cool thought with some history all throughout the mountain. A lot of the towns old mining equipment and buildings are still on the mountain, I recall stopping and looking at an old decrepit building and thinking “what the heck is that doing there?”
I’ll look for pics to share.
Wife helped spark my memory of the mountain.
EDIT: Pics are on the other computer… when I get there, I’ll put some up here.
Images from Park City:
Tons of signs
Part of the village with ice skating rink
The town’s history on the hill - took me by surprise.
More history on the hill..
You my notice that there is a plaque to the left on one of the pics… should you ride up to the structure, you can read about it.
This is the Olympic superpipe…
They call it the same pipe, but of course it cant be.
Here they held the WSC World Superpipe Championships, which they began the year after the Olympics was at Park City. I was there the day before to watch the comp.
Funny - that slow sign pic? If you triple the amount of signs, you get an idea of what Northstar at Tahoe is like.
that is ridiculous to have that many.
I thought those at Park City was a lot…
The most I’ve ever seen… but more at Tahoe?
Geesh!
Tahoe is close to next on our list…
I think we actually had Canada as next on our list, and then it would have been Tahoe.
Now since my wife is ‘with child’ that will all be put on hold, if not stopped completely, and we will just stay in the region until many years later.
Thanks for all the replies. It looks like I’ll book tickets to SLC this weekend. Do you need a car to get to the canyons from Park City? Would long term accom be harder to source in The Canyons?
I’m not sure about accommodations.
We stayed 14 days in an extended stay hotel, that was in SLC. we bargained a pretty good price at the counter. He gave us hte monthly rate for only staying 2 weeks. and it was peak season.
I know a guy in SLC that may rent a room for a week at a time. Cool people.
SLC is about 45 mins from PC.
I think that the canyons is basically in PC, as I recall - maybe, Andy will provide more info on that.
Final question is the cost of expenses higher in Utah compared to Canada? Eg. food, drinks, etc
hmmm, I cant really help with that, as I’ve not been to Canada…
Jeremy?
Andy (Zed)?
anyone else?
Final question is the cost of expenses higher in Utah compared to Canada? Eg. food, drinks, etc
you have a worse exchange rate on your dollar by going to the US…
Big White is a great mountain
Yeah it’s mainly the exchange rate that gets you. I haven’t been to Utah but overall I have found US resorts to be more expensive than Canadian resorts.
Booked my flights today 
Big White it is!!!