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Wild Utah: What kind of visitor is best suited to patronize your resort?

Park City Mountain Resort: Park City Mountain Resort is geared towards all visitors. Each lift, aside from First Time Lift, services beginner, intermediate and advanced runs making it ideal for the family.

WU: What is your resort's number one feature?

PCMR: The Resort's number one feature is the accessibility. Park City Mountain Resort is the only Resort in town to have a lift linking directly to Park City's historic Main Street. It's easy to ski down to Main Street for a bite to eat at one of the fabulous restaurants or a quick stroll through the numerous boutiques. The Town Lift directly links our guests to the pulse of Park City.

WU: What causes the biggest headaches for visitors at your resort?

PCMR: There is so much terrain to cover in one day.

WU: What's new for the 2004/2005 season?

PCMR: Park City Mountain Resort has replaced its beginner lift with a new high-speed, four passenger detachable lift for the 2004-05 season. Park City Mountain Resort was named "Terrain Park of the Year 2005" by Transworld Snowboarding. The newest park is being built under the lights on Payday run for after-dark riding. Ranked a top ten resort by Ski magazine the last 17 years, Park City Mountain Resort has enough terrain to satisfy everyone. With 100 runs, you' ll get it all with groomers, bumps, bowls, powder, peaks and parks. We've got famous Utah powder, up to 50 runs perfectly groomed daily and award-winning terrain parks. The Park City All Stars provide input on the Resort's terrain parks and pipe that helps to keep PCMR the leader in the industry. The Park City All Stars for the 2004-05 season are Shaun White, Jeremy Jones, Frank Montoya, Tanner Hall, Pep Fujas, Jessica Dalpiaz, Chris Engelsman, George Oakley, Chris Coulter, John Symms and Ashley Battersby.

High Points: Lots of Terrain & Access to Park City's Main Street

Low Points: Very Commercial & Exceptionally Crowded

Free Tip: If you just hafta ski here on a weekend; during Christmas Week, President's Weekend or Spring Break, buy the Fast Tracks ticket.

Our review of Park City Mountain Resort could hardly be considered "unbiased." We've been employed by, and worked hard for the resort; we've befriended almost all of the tenured employees; and we've held season passes there for five years. The information hereafter is all true, but you may take it with a grain of salt.

If you're coming from out of state, Park City Mountain Resort will seem like a dream. Oodles of dry snow, lots of big mountain and terrain parks, plenty of restaurants, etc. We always find good skiing in Puma Bowl and Scott's Bowl, but you have to hike to get to either one. In contrast to the resort's answer to question number one, Jupiter Lift and McConkey's do not service any beginner terrain. Ride parks are everywhere (check your maps). And there are places for hot chocolate and food all over the mountain.

Compared to the other resorts, Park City Mountain is probably the busiest resort in Utah. Sure, they have all kinds of high-speed lifts, and the place is bigger than most-but on a powder day, the mountain gets tracked out before noon. During Christmas, President's Day weekend and Spring Break, the lines at the bottom of Pay Day (the lift that gets you on the mountain) are insane. Your only saving grace is to purchase the "Fast Tracks" option, which allows you to breeze through a ticket-reading turnstile.

The food at PCMR is stereotypical resort food: overpriced, but palatable. The Summit House would be our first choice. We like the Snow Hut for chili and such, but it gets pretty busy and hard to find a table. The best food at PCMR is at Wabo House in the mountain village (yummy Asian food), followed closely by Baja Cantina (Mexican). The Legacy Lodge is PCMR's marquee lunch spot. We generally avoid Mid Mountain, and actually had to shred the place in one of our "Screaming Restaurant Review" editorials back in 2001 because their service was so bad.

When most people get hungry, they forget that they can ski down to Main Street; this is a good option. Butcher's is nice, and it's right there.

Après skiing from Park City Mountain is fine. This is due chiefly to the funky old "mountain village" and access to Main Street. Our first choice for après ski is Legends on the third floor of the Legacy Lodge. We've also had lots of good times in the Pig Pen (above Renstall in the ice skating plaza), but it's a real bar where you stick to the seats and get too drunk. Beers can be had at the Corner Store, and the village restaurants (Wabo and Baja). Walking Main Street in ski boots (ride boots) is cool, although cumbersome; our choice for après on Main Street would be The Spur (get off the lift and wait for the Trolly).

PCMR has a great ski racing program, and Nastar Nationals will be held again there in March. The mountain also has some slope style and snowboard events, and evidently PCMR's terrain parks are some of the best around. Many locals feel like Park City has not stepped up to the plate as a 'community leader.' The resort axed the America's Opening World Cup ski race, which was our favorite event of the year. Jan's Renstall could be the best ski tuning shop in the country. We do not recommend Bootworks (think "Soup Nazi" with skiboots). Accolades to PCMR's ski school.

In a nutshell, you'll probably like it.