SE4:EP4 - America's Ski Town

Last Chair: The Ski Utah Podcast

With two world class resorts boasting nearly 10,000 lift-served skiable acres, all nestled around an historic old mining town, Utah’s ski town of Park City truly is unlike anything in North America. Deer Valley Resort and Park City Mountain will open this season with new captains at the helm. Deer Valley’s Todd Bennett and Park City’s Deirdra Walsh represent a new generation of resort leaders who bring fresh enthusiasm to their respective mountains, and a keen sense of the uniqueness that has made the Park City community America’s Ski Town. They sat down with Last Chair at the Nelson Cottage at High West Distillery, in the heart of Park City’s Old Town.

As a community, Park City dates back to the late 19th century when silver mining made it a boom town. Throughout the early to mid 20th century, miners used skis to get around, often crossing the ridgeline into Big Cottonwood Canyon and back. The present-day Park City Mountain came alive in 1963 with the opening of a full resort, complete with a gondola. Known previously as Snow Park and Frog Hollow, Deer Valley sprang to life in 1981.

Park City’s historic Main Street, nestled between the two resorts, still boasts a 19th century mining town feel with hundreds of restaurants and shops, all within minutes to the two resorts.

Deer Valley’s new leader Todd Bennett grew up in Saranac Lake, N.Y. outside of Lake Placid, learning to ski at tiny Mount Pisgah. He worked a ski job in Colorado for three seasons before heading to an 18-year career with Walt Disney in southern California, looking for any opportunity he could to take ski trips with his family and friends. When the opportunity came up to move to Utah, he took advantage, settling into his new mountain home last summer.

Walsh is a native of St. Louis who came to Park City 18 years ago, learned to snowboard and rose up to a senior leadership role at Park City Mountain overseeing on-mountain dining. She left to run a California resort for a few years but returned home last spring. She brings pride in her company and a great depth of experience on the mountain.

Bennett and Walsh talk about the uniqueness of their resorts, and also that of the community. There are really no other similar models of two separate but adjoining resorts based around a central community core.

Here’s a sample of Last Chair’s episode 4 of season 4 with Park City’s Deirdra Walsh and Deer Valley’s Todd Bennett.

Todd, what was your pathway into skiing as a young boy?

We had a town run hill called Mount Pisgah – one run to the left of a tee bar and one run to the right of a tee bar and 500 vertical feet. That's where I learned to ski, I think at age four. I've always loved skiing. It was just one of those things that honestly was probably a little bit cooler than I was as a kid, and I just loved being around it.

Deirdra, your story is a bit different, right?

Yes. I grew up in the Midwest – I'm from Saint Louis. Our family vacation time was spent camping and always outside so I grew up with this love of the outdoors. In the summers I think my mom would literally send us out the door, lock it behind us, and we couldn't come home until she rang a bell.

Deirdra, what was your first introduction to skiing?

My husband had grown up skiing Stevens Pass, and he said, ‘let's move to Park City together.’ So I had almost no skiing experience until I came out here. He was a snowboarder, so I thought I'd be a cool girlfriend and learn to snowboard as well. My very first lesson was actually right at Park City Mountain in my mid-20s. I fell in love with the sport itself a little bit later in life. And it's been amazing to be a part of the community here and now have my kids grow up with skiing and riding as part of their every day.

Todd, what motivated you to get back into the ski industry? .

It was just kind of fortuitous. I saw the opening for Deer Valley come up and I immediately reached out to a number of folks that I knew in the industry. Park City had always been on our list, and I've just always been a passionate skier. So it was something that I wanted. And when that opportunity came up, I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to come work at Deer Valley.

Deirdra, how important is the community’s historic mining heritage?

When I think about Park City and that history, the word that always comes to mind is just how authentic this community is around the history that we have, the storytelling, the feeling that when you're on Main Street that these buildings and these neighborhoods and you look up the hill and you see all of these homes, you can't miss the history of this community. And it's really something that I think makes Park City so unique and so special.

Todd, how does Deer Valley Resort see its role in the community?

Community is the right term and it's something that we've talked a lot about with my senior leadership team. We're all here. We're all local. We live in the greater Park City area. And I think not only the history of mining, but the history and the connection with the town and the community is very important to us. And I think that's the responsibility that we have. We are a big employer in Park City. We have a responsibility to be integrated with the community, to listen to the community, to understand the texture because it has changed. It started as a mining community. It has changed more towards travel and tourism. And even now it's continuing to evolve. So I think it's really important for myself and the team to be very in tune. And the best way to do that is to be local and to be engaged as members of the community ourselves.

The community of Park City is unique, with both Vail Resorts and Alterra ski areas. What are the distinguishing characteristics of your respective parent companies?

Deirdra: Being part of Vail Resorts for me has been an exceptional personal experience. It's a company that is really focused on employees first. You know, we talk about, you know, the employees don't work for Vail Resorts – they ARE Vail Resorts. And so I think having that point of view has really guided not just me, but I think all of the resort leaders to think about that in decision making, being able to make investments like $175 Million and the employee experience is pretty exceptional. What is really impressive when I think about our company is our point of view on accessibility. We have 41 resorts that make up all of the network. And by way of that, we are able to be in communities that are outside of urban areas like St Louis where I grew up, outside of Chicago, outside of Detroit, that really are creating lifelong skiers in some areas that perhaps they didn't have that accessibility and then now have accessibility into the greater network.

Todd: I'm 90 days into working for Alterra and Deer Valley. But what I’ve noticed already is that Alterra puts a lot of emphasis on the local community and giving the site leaders, such as myself, the flexibility to change and adapt what is needed in our community. So in particular for Deer Valley, number one is very similar to Park City Mountain and Vail Resorts. It's the employee experience. We have to be great employers. We have to create a great place for people to work. Number two is the community and the engagement with the community and how we continue to be great partners and very transparent in the way that we go after that. The third p...