Skiing Sundance During Sundance

Ski conditions were perfect at Utah resorts on Saturday, with new snow, mostly sunny skies and mild temperatures. We skied at Sundance Resort and had a great time.

The Sundance Film Festival is in town and has brought crowds to Park City. There are also film screenings in Salt Lake City and at Sundance Resort, and there can be frenzied crowds near the screenings.

I feared the Sundance lifts and runs would be crowded because of the festival, but that was not a problem. Oh, there were plenty of people skiing and we did have to wait in lift lines, but never more than 5-6 minutes. Some of that could also be attributed to the fact that we were skiing over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend - always a busy time on Utah's slopes.

Parking was an issue, but even that wasn't too bad. The main lots were full so they routed us up the mountain a ways, but had shuttles running every few minutes to ferry people from parking down to the resort.

The Sundance area was incredibly beautiful with sunshine glistening off the powder, snow clinging to the evergreen trees, majestic Mount Timpanogos in the background.

I had some new skiers with me, recent imports from Florida. This was their first time skiing and they did great. They spent a couple minutes getting use to the equipment and then they were read to ride the lift.

Sundance is a good choice for new skiers, with about 20% of its terrain appropriate for beginners. But it didn't take long before these girls were on the intermediate runs.

And the film festival? Well, we ignored the screening because we were having so much fun playing in the snow.