Park City Is Not Vail

Courtesy of Travel Agent Central

“Did you go skiing yesterday?” was a question I was asked way too many times this weekend. No, I didn’t go skiing on Saturday, mainly because my boots weren’t in yet, but I wasn’t planning on skiing anyway. No matter how many times my mother tried to convince me that it was tradition to ski on the first day, I still was not going to ski. Don’t get me wrong, like most PC locals I love to ski and I’m on the Park City United Team. But I knew that skiing on opening day wasn’t going to get me anywhere. 

So on Saturday, I went on a trail ride, watched some tv, ate a pre-thanksgiving dinner with the neighbors, and saw the final Hunger Games movie (which was a pretty great conclusion to the series by the way). But I did no skiing whatsoever. And that worked pretty well for me. As the whole town was together skiing on six runs. 

I’m excited to be skiing this season at the new One, Park City. But I’m also a bit worried about Vail taking over. When Vail first bought Park City I didn’t think too much about it. I didn’t think Vail would really change anything. Recently, though, I’ve been hearing about all the changes that Vail is making. As my Mother works for Park City, I have been told over and over again that Vail’s upgrades will be great for Park City. She said this before she was handed a bright red jacket with an ugly letter “i” on the back, and told that she was a volunteer rather than an employee, and couldn’t go ski on employee day. One of my best friends wasn’t hired by Vail because they don’t want as many young employees as before, even though they are extremely low on employees. The high school student that camped out from Thursday night to get first chair was kicked out, because they didn’t want the tent making the place look bad.

If I had one thing to say to Vail, it would be that Park City is not Vail. They are taking the family feel out of Park City. They keep trying to turn Park City into something that it’s not. And in the process making the locals of Park City angry. Sadly, they are forgetting that while Park City is a tourist town it is also for the locals. Park City needs to stay Park City, and while bringing us all together may make a lot of money, I see it as a mistake that it is going to be very problematic.