Back in March, Alli and I went to Park City, Utah, for a week of snowboarding.  It was awesome!

I am still learning, but having great snow and great weather for a week sure helps one improve.  I just find it so reassuring to have soft powder for when I (inevitably) fall, that it makes me more confident, and thus I fall less, go faster, and improve.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

This trip came two weeks after our weekend at Stratton Mountain (Vermont), which was a great preview and warmup.

Park City is a nice, relatively compact little town.  It has one Main Street, named that way, which has a bunch of bars, restaurants, shops, and nightlife.

We stayed at the Treasure Mountain Inn, which is right on Main Street, and thus conveniently located for everyone.  In fact, we didn’t even rent a car, which is unusual for trips to the US West Coast.  The hotel staff were friendly and helpful, the room great (huge!), the location excellent, and in general this was a good choice.

We went to two resorts: Park City Mountain Resort, and The Canyons.  Both are huge and a lot of fun.  We liked PCMR better for two reasons: less flat sections (which suck for snowboarders like us), and easier accessibility via the Town Lift off Main Street.

The weather was great: 50s most days, sunny most days, cloudy one or two days, and a couple of snow storms at night!  Couldn’t be better.  They had gotten about 300″ of snow before we got there, and about another 10″ while we were there.

The restaurants are pretty good.  Not much to write home about, and expensive, but good food and good atmosphere.  One of our favorites was the No Name Saloon, with its buffalo burgers, recommended by our good friend Thanh.

One evening we went to the St. Regis Deer Creek Resort, a very fancy hotel at Deer Valley, a resort open only to skiiers.  We went for their famous afternoon Champagne sabering, where they break open a bottle with a saber.  It was fun, and the bar had great drinks and great live music.

All in all, this was a great trip.  We could see ourselves going back to Park City, and PCMR, again in the future.  Then again, there are so many awesome snowboarding resorts out west…