Skip to main content
All Posts By

Tony Gill

Tony Gill is the outdoor and Park City editor for Salt Lake Magazine and previously toiled as editor-in-chief of Telemark Skier Magazine. Most of his time ignoring emails is spent aboard an under-geared single-speed on the trails above his home.

Apr 22
Love0
11hauzslmag

11Hauz brings Island Time to the Mountains

By Eat & Drink

Relax, you’re on island time!” The sentiment expressed on the board above the counter is a grounding suggestion in Park City where a restless sensibility often permeates the mountain community. 11Hauz is the antidote, a family-run restaurant where authentic Jamaican cuisine and a Caribbean vibe encourage you to let go of your responsibilities for a few minutes over a plate of jerk chicken.

Under One Roof:
The 11Hauz Family

11Hauz

The extended family at 11Hauz. Back Row, Left to Right: Tanisha Hamil Workman (partner); Nyesha Hamil (partner); Anita Hamil Reid (chef); Ricardo Reid (dishwasher); Yanique Bland (sous chef); Sheron Grant (partner); Vercelli (dishwasher); Henerieta Bay Davis (sous chef) Middle Row: Errol Grant (partner) Front Row: Aiden Reid (grandson)

“We wanted the restaurant to be a foundation to show how a family can build and be successful as a team,” Hamil says. “The people who know you best are family, so who better to partner with?”

11Hauz started out as a stand at the Park Silly Sunday Market where Sheron Grant and her husband Errol would set up the kitchen from scratch on Main Street each Sunday. Its origins, however, go much further back. Sheron grew up in Mount Salem Jamaica, where she learned to cook by watching her grandmother Florence Harding, a chef and the sole provider, make meals for the family of 11. Grant brought her grandmother’s recipes and techniques along when she moved her own family from Montego Bay to the U.S.

“My mom was a traveling nurse, and she spent some time working in Utah while we were living in Brooklyn, New York,” says Tanisha Hamil, Grant’s daughter and partner at 11Hauz. “She told us though it wasn’t tropical, the mountains reminded her of Jamaica. We flew out to see it and got a place here in Jeremy Ranch 12 years ago, all because of my mom.”

Though the recipes are each imbued with Harding’s fingerprints and Grant’s creativity, every family member contributes to the menu, the entirety of which is made from scratch. The Jamaican flatbread that comes with the roti curry is sweet, stretchy and outrageously tasty when soaked in the stew. The jerk chicken is a delectable mainstay with a side of rice and plantain, and the weekly specials—particularly Monday’s traditional ackee and saltfish and Thursday’s oxtail—are a great conduit to explore Jamaican cuisine. Of course you can wash it all down with a Red Stripe.

“We live in a five-star world, but for us it’s not about getting a five-star rating. All we care about is sharing good, authentic food and giving back to the community,” Hamil explains. Still, at the time of this writing, every single one of the 42 Yelp reviews for 11Hauz is a five-star endorsement.

See all of our Food and Drink coverage here.

Apr 15
Love0
IMG_86501

Utah’s Tony Finau Had Tiger By the Tail at the Masters

By Community

With a ker-plunk into the water on Augusta’s notorious 12th Hole Tony Finau went from contender to front-row spectator for one of the biggest sports stories of 2019—Tiger Woods’ miraculous comeback to win the Masters Green Jacket. But until that moment, Finau had Tiger by the tail trailing Woods by one just stroke. In the end, he’d tie for 5th, Finau’s best ever performance in a major tournament and be right there at the moment when the man who inspired him to take up the sport once again dazzled the world.

Not bad for kid from Rose Park.

Most people never would have expected Tony Finau to be battling it out with golf’s upper crust, standing on the 18th at Augusta with golf’s biggest star. Tongans are supposed to play football, right? Finau’s cousin, Haloti Ngata, provided the familial blueprint, growing up in Salt Lake City, making the NFL and earning a Super Bowl ring in 2018 with the Philadelphia Eagles. No person of Tongan descent had ever even qualified for the PGA tour, but after watching a 21-year-old Tiger Woods dominate the 1997 Masters, Finau figured if someone who looked different than the stereotypical golfer could conquer the sport, perhaps he could too.

tony finau

Finau wasn’t some cookie-cutter prospect who found success after riding an affluent upbringing through the Butch Harmon School of Golf. He honed his game under the tutelage of his father Kelepi—who was not actually a golfer himself. Alongside his younger brother Gipper, Finau would practice swings off of strips of carpet in the family garage and spend endless hours at the municipal golf course’s free practice green on Salt Lake City’s northwest side. When he enrolled at West High, the school didn’t even have a golf team. A year later, he and Gipper brought the school its first state championship.

Tony Finau

Finau turned pro after high school, qualified for the tour in 2014, and now he’s firmly entrenched in the upper echelon of the PGA Tour with an eye towards the sport’s biggest prizes. In the 2018 U.S. Open he finished the third round with a tidy 66, equaling the lowest score of the day and tying him for the 2018 US Open lead after 54 holes. Though he couldn’t hold off eventual champion Brooks Koepka down the stretch on that Sunday at Shinnecock Hills, Finau’s fifth-place finish matches his solid showing at this years Masters and is part of off a consistently improving game. He certainly got Woods’ attention.

“I mean (gosh) he hits it long,” Woods said in a post-match interview. “He makes a little half swing and still hits the ball 310, 320 in the air. It’s just remarkable. Tony’s made some leaps in the last couple of years. He’s starting to piece together a game that’s going to contend week in and week out out. With his length, it’s such an asset in today’s game that he’ll win multiple tournaments and I’m sure a major championship is definitely in his future.”

But beyond the bright lights of golf’s biggest stage, Finau’s greatest legacy may be how he’s inspired others with his unlikely path. He started the Tony Finau Foundation, which serves underprivileged youth in Salt Lake City and is funded with a percentage of his winnings.

“Tony realized when he made it to the PGA Tour it was the product of a family and community effort,” says Chelsea Fairbourn, Director of Operations for the foundation. “Tony’s goal is to help take care of basic needs, so kids can be kids and focus their energy on the things that matter most to them like academics, art and sports.” Visit the foundation’s website and help Finau inspire more kids from Rose Park to do what he did. tonyfinaufoundation.org

 

Apr 10
Love0
Goblin-Valley_Michael-Kunde-Photo_UOT_20151021_SlotCanyon-2564_Large-e1554927742591

San Rafael is a Swell Getaway

By Adventures, Outdoors, Travel

Frosty precipitation continues to pile up in the Wasatch as winter refuses to yield in April. This may be welcome news to die-hard skiers and snowboarders, but several Utah ski resorts are already past their use by dates and some folks are daydreaming of warmer temperatures and the season’s inaugural sun burn, which they’ll brazenly describe as a “base tan.” For those in the latter camp, it’s time to head south. A visit to Utah’s national parks will reveal the hordes had similar ideas, so beat the crowds and the cold by heading to the San Rafael Swell.

Credit: Utah Office of Tourism

In geologic terms the Swell is a sandstone and shale anticline about 30 miles west of Green River, but to sun-seeking outdoor enthusiasts, it’s a seldom-visited haven for camping, hiking, biking and exploring. An easy three and a half hour drive down Route 6 from Salt Lake City is all that separates you from enjoying a spring getaway in the Swell, so gear up and get going.

Three Ways to Play

Hiking in Goblin Valley State Park With surreal rock formations that could make Salvador Dali blush, Goblin Valley State Park is perhaps the Swell’s best-known area. Still, the three trails meandering through the endless maze of hoodoos offers limitless possibilities for exploration. You’re allowed to hike off trail throughout the valley, giving you free reign to chart your own path through an IRL Super Mario World. Just don’t be one of those imbeciles who vandalizes the natural wonders and ruins it for everyone.

Credit: Utah Office of Tourism

Just outside the park, Little Wild Horse and Din and Dang Canyons offer an excellent, non-technical introduction to slot canyons. Little Wild Horse is the easier, but longer of the two, though either are suitable for moderately strong hikers. As always, bring plenty of food, water and sun screen. The trails are well marked, but you’re still in the desert.

  • Goblin Valley State Park: Goblin Valley Road, Green River, UT, 84525
  • Little Wild Horse Canyon Trailhead: Co Rd 1013, Green River, UT 84525

Mountain Biking the Good Water Rim Trail

Overlooking the yawning Little Grand Canyon, The Good Water Rim Trail flat out delivers some of the best views in Utah. The singletrack itself features continuous turns, grade reversals and ledge-filled climbs and descents over its 15-mile length, though it never becomes difficult enough that it should deter intermediate riders.

The Good Water Rim Trail starts at the Little Grand Canyon’s Wedge Overlook, and because it follows the rim of a canyon there’s only 800 feet of elevation change over the course of the ride. That said, it’s exposed and can be hot, so bring plenty of water, especially if you plan to follow the six-mile dirt road back to the trailhead you started at.

  • Start at Wedge Overlook: Castle Dale, UT 84513

Credit: Utah Office of Tourism

Exploring the Past on Buckhorn Wash (Draw) Road

Indulge in a bit of history while you’re in the swell, starting with the Buckhorn Draw Pictograph Panel. The pictographs are more than 2,000 years old, painted by people of the Barrier Canyon Culture with powdered hematite pigments. The pictographs are accessible from a parking lot right by the wall, making the site a great late-day stop after a hike or bike ride. Follow Buckhorn Wash (Draw) Road south for 5.8 miles, and the pictographs will be on the left side.

For a more modern and cryptic historical experience, spend some time exploring the MK Tunnels. The tunnels were created with explosives by the Morrison Knudson Company under supervision of the Department of Defense, purportedly as part of an exploratory process to build a complex similar to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado, though ultimately the area’s sandstone was unsuitable for such a structure. Traveling South on Buckhorn Wash (Draw) Road you’ll see an informational sign at a small turnout. From there, a trail leads up a hill towards the tunnels.

  • Buckhorn Draw Rd, Green River, UT 84525

Where to Stay

There are innumerable camping areas near the swell, including a wealth of primitive, dispersed sites on BLM land. Here are a couple easy to find established camping areas for different budgets.

  • The Wedge at Little Grand Canyon:There are 10 numbered camp sites in the area. The first-come, first serve camping is free and features a pit toilet and picnic tables.
  • Goblin Valley State Park: Camping at Goblin Valley is a bit more developed. The 24 camp sites are $30 per night, and there are two Yurts you can reserve for $100 per night. All sites feature centrally located restroom and shower facilities.

See all of our outdoors coverage here.

Apr 02
Love0
Snowbasin-Spring-e1554226558460

Utah Ski Resort Closing Dates and Spring Events

By Adventures, Outdoors

With April Fools’ Day in the rearview, we’ve entered full on shenanigan season at Utah ski resorts. A monster winter has left us with the fattest spring snowpack in recent memory, which when combined with sunshine, live music, costumes and pond skims should make for some epic late season shredding and festivities. Resorts are finalizing closing dates for the 2019, with some like Snowbasin taking advantage of all that extra base to extend the ski season while others like Park City are sadly sticking to the status quo and shutting down in the coming days. Here’s an updated roundup of Utah Ski Resort closing dates and special springtime events to help you close out the season in style no matter where you hit the slopes.

Utah Ski Resort 2019 Closing Dates

Many Utah resorts are shutting down this coming weekend, so get some turns in while the getting’s good. Snowbird always rides the season out until the bitter end, so you’ll be able to get your ski fix well into the warmer months if that’s your thing.

Spring Special Events

Pond Skims

  • Park City Mountain – Saturday ,April 6, 2019 at 12:00 p.m. at top of Red Pine Gondola. Entry fee is $35.
  • Snowbasin – Saturday April 6, 2019 at 11:00 a.m. There’s a $10 entry fee, and all proceeds will be donated to a local nonprofit.

Officially Sanctioned Closing Day Parties

  • Powder Mountain – Saturday, April 6, 2019 from 6:00 p.m. to 12.00 a.m. The End of the Year Party at Bower Lodge is only $10 and includes all-you-can-eat pizza and live music from Sarah DeGraw and The Pranksters. There’s a cash bar for those over 21.

Late Season Specials

  • Brighton Night Skiing discount – Night skiing at Brighton wraps up this weekend, on Saturday, April 6. Tickets for night skiing are available for just $25 between now and the end of night skiing operations.
  • Snowbasin discounted tickets – Beginning on April 8, Snowbasin will offer discounted $49 lift tickets to current season pass holders from other resorts. That’s a killer deal for a ticket to explore a new resort after yours has shut down for the year.

Live Music

  • Park City Mountain – Both Canyons Village and Park City Base Area will wrap up the season by hosting Spring Gruv concerts this weekend.
  • Snowbird – Live music on the Tram Plaza Deck every weekend day through the end of April.
Mar 27
Love0
IMG_7178-e1553708890937

Parkites Once Again Rally to Preserve Open Space

By City Watch

Snyderville Basin’s “Green Heart” will be spared from development. The Summit Land Conservancy completed its fundraising campaign over the past weekend by raising the final $375,000 to secure a conservation easement for the 158-acre Osguthorpe Farm on Old Ranch Road. The farm represents the last major tract of undeveloped land in the center of the basin and ensures views of the surrounding mountain peaks will be preserved into the future.

The final fundraising push was the culmination of a two-year effort to save one of Park City’s last working farms ahead of the March 31 deadline to leverage federal funding towards the conservation effort. In 2017, the land trust entered into an agreement with the Osguthorpe family to purchase a conservation easement for $17,856,000. $8.8 million came from a federal grant as part of a Farm Bill program, $500,000 came from a Summit County grant, and the Osguthorpe family contributed $3.9 million towards the cause, which lets them retain rights to the house currently on the property. The easement prevents any future development on the property and allows the farm to remain operational.

Summit Land Conservancy, a non-profit dedicated to saving land in Summit County, spearheaded the effort to preserve the farm.

The final $4.5 million came from more than 1,100 individual donors, which included many Park City residents and second home owners. As with the recent approval of a $48 million bond to preserve Treasure Hill and the $38 million bond to acquire Bonanza Flats in 2017, Parkites have shown quite the appetite for footing the bill when it comes to preserving open space and public land.

As the deal came down to the wire, the community rallied in the name of conservation. A group of Old Ranch Road residents calling themselves “Defenders of the Ranch” helped raise awareness about the land deal, and a large donation from the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation in addition to a challenge grant from the Willow Creek homeowners’ association helped drive fundraising efforts across the finish line.

Another slice of Park City is protected from the endless march of development, and once again it’s largely thanks to the efforts and contributions of residents.

See all our community coverage here.

 

Mar 19
Love0
gkdjlafj

Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz Delivers Public Remarks to Parkites

By City Watch

When Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz took the stage for the 25th annual Park City Community Leadership Lecture, more than 400 Parkites were packed in the Public Library’s Jim Santy Auditorium to hear what he would say. As the chief of publicly traded ski industry behemoth valued at more than $8 billion, Katz seemed an obvious choice to deliver some innocuous remarks about corporate leadership, but most in attendance on Monday evening were substantively interested in the public question and answer session that followed.

Vail Resorts’ takeover of Park City hasn’t been without its controversies, and Katz’s public appearance provided area residents a welcome opportunity to engage in a discussion about the intersection of the company, the town and how the two will be indelibly linked into the future. It’s easy to pick allegiances forged by personal biases—see the dueling opinion pieces from Outside Magazine vacillating on whether corporate ski resort consolidation is saving or killing skiing and mountain communities—and the evening’s forum would provide fodder for either side.

Parkites packed the Jim Santy Auditorium to engage with Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz on Monday, March 18.

After Leadership Park City director Myles Rademan mildly implored the assembled crowd to “avoid diatribes” and be “gentle” with their questions, Katz emerged to deliver his prepared speech. The 40-minute presentation consisted largely of harmless but perhaps uninspired lessons on leadership—like empowering everyone within an organization to be a leader and the difference between being a leader and a friend—along with a few anecdotes about Katz’s path to becoming CEO of Vail Resorts that may not have landed with the degree of relatability he had hoped. Nevertheless, the remarks highlighted some of the benefits and drawbacks Vail Resorts has brought Park City.

Virtues Katz highlighted include Vail’s career-oriented employment aimed at internal promotion—a rarity among seasonal workforces—lower season pass prices and the organization’s history of charitable giving and environmental advocacy. Shortcomings Katz discussed included the admission everything Vail Resorts does—regardless of how it will be perceived—must be good for business, so community needs are going to be overlooked from time to time.

This was reinforced during the Q&A when he repeatedly declined to engage on local-centric topics like the elimination of night skiing and the mountain host program by saying those decisions are made at the local level, though each resort is likely dictated to adhere to a bottom line set at the company’s highest level. Katz deserves credit for acknowledging the need to address interrelated issues of high-housing costs, sub-adequate wages—though Vail Resorts did recently raise the minimum wage for entry-level jobs—and the inability to operate Park City Mountain at full staffing levels, though he offered no viable solutions beyond being more prepared to secure additional affordable housing for staff in the wake of the next recession. Still, fair play to Katz for willingly taking questions from an opinionated crowd.

Most people’s takeaway from the evening will likely informed by the opinions they came with: either Vail Resorts and their CEO are out of touch with local needs and are in the industry solely for their financial gain, or the company is merely breaking a few eggs to democratize skiing while running a profitable business for their shareholders. Parkites are wrapping up one of the snowiest winters in recent memory, but they remain conflicted about the town’s future and the corporation to which it is tied. Meanwhile on the Vail Resorts website, season passes for next year are already on sale.

See all our outdoors coverage here.

Mar 15
Love0

Olympic Hype Can’t Fix Park City Housing Woes

By City Watch

Three items are seemingly ubiquitous in Park City homes: a pair of skis, a bike and a for sale sign out front. The housing market in Park City is booming, a boon for sellers looking to turn a profit. Others, however, are feeling the pinch. The dearth of affordable housing in and around Park City is pushing workers and families further from town and has the community feeling cascading effects. School enrollment is decreasing, traffic clogging the roadways is increasing and help wanted signs hang in local businesses struggling to fill jobs. Local government and non-profits have come to the rescue, but is it too little too late?

“Using the excuse of an Olympics to justify building affordable housing is probably going to result in very expensive and relatively few units being built.”

–Ron Kneebone,
University of Calgary Economics Professor to CBC News in November 2018.

The Olympic Impact

Salt Lake City won the US bid to host the 2030 Winter Olympics, and advocates support converting the Olympic Village developments into affordable housing after the event. It’s an admirable goal but similar proposals have fallen far short of expectations. Vancouver and Calgary both sought to use Olympic development to confront growing housing shortages, with limited, if any, success.    

2010 Vancouver:

The Proposal:
252 affordable housing units in Vancouver
The Reality:
135 affordable housing units in Railyard Housing Co-op in Olympic Village
The Aftermath:
Cost overruns led to remaining units being sold as luxury developments to Vancouver Canucks Owner Francesco Aquilini for $91 million

2026 Calgary (Proposed)

The Proposal:
2,800 affordable housing units in Calgary
The Reality:
Financial negotiations for the games stalled, housing budget was slashed more than 20% and proposed affordable units were reduced to 1,800
The Aftermath:
Bid ultimately withdrawn in November 2018 and entire plan scrapped

“It’s not a new problem,” says Scott Loomis, Executive Director of Mountainlands Community Housing Trust (MCHT), a non-profit organization addressing housing availability and affordability. “Recently it’s caught on as a high-priority issue, but there’s no magic bullet. All we can do is a little here and a little there.” Housing prices in Park City and Snyderville Basin have been steadily climbing since economic recovery began in 2009, and metrics from the past year show a continuation of the trend. The median sales price for a single family home within Park City limits was $1.95 million in 2018, compelling more buyers to purchase in Snyderville Basin, where the median sales price skyrocketed 22 percent to $1.2 million.

“The number of transactions is down 10 percent, but dollar volume is still rising,” says Erik Asarian, an associate broker at Keller Williams in Park City. “In the lower price bands it’s becoming increasingly easy to sell, but even harder to buy. The inventory isn’t there, half of the market is cash buyers, and families are having difficulty finding homes in their budget.” The trend is inextricably linked to declining enrollment in the Park City School District. Enrollment dropped nearly one percent this year—the incoming kindergarten class has 266 students compared with an outgoing senior class of 398—following the inverse pattern as home prices increase.

Coupled with nightly rental apps like Airbnb and VRBO, rising housing costs are also contributing to bloated rental prices in the area. Even with Park City property tax incentives—in which primary residences, including long-term rentals, are taxed at 55 percent of assessed market value—property owners are financially driven to sell high or join the lucrative vacation-rental market.

As a result, the available workforce living in Park City is being outpaced by business growth, leading to an employment shortage. This exacerbates local traffic congestion and parking issues as 14,000 vehicles a day flood the town. Simply put, the people who make the community run have no home there. Rising construction costs—including materials and labor—have further stymied affordable housing development. “We’re challenged to get layers of funds supplemented by tax credits and, in some cases, donated lands, to make our developments viable,” says Loomis. “It’s an uphill battle, but we’re working to make more available than there has been in a long time.”

Perhaps this is the grim reality of a tourist-driven destination, but it’s not stopping people from trying. “Only 15 percent of the workforce lives in Park City, and our realistic goal is to maintain that,” explains Jason Glidden, Housing Development Manager for Park City. “We have a goal of 800 affordable units by 2026, and 150 by 2021. Half will be done by the city directly and half through other means. It’s unusual to see a municipality become a developer, but we saw a need to jump in.”

Subscribers can see more. Sign up and you’ll be included in our membership program and get access to exclusive deals, premium content and more. Get the magazine, get the deals, get the best of life in Utah! 

Mar 12
Love0

Like the Swallows of Capistrano, Electric Scooters Return

By City Watch

They’re affordable and readily available. They reduce traffic congestion and provide flexible mobility without contributing to the state’s destructive air-quality crisis, and frankly, they’re fun. Electric-assist bikes and electric-powered scooters—e-bikes and e-scooters—are taking over Utah from the streets of Salt Lake City to the paths of Summit County. What could possibly go wrong?

Do the Side Hustle!

Bird Charging and Lime Juicing

Dockless e-scooters need to be charged from time to time, and therein lies the opportunity to increase your earning potential. Using the Bird or Lime app, switch into charging mode to see a map with scooters that need some juice. The closer a scooter is to empty, the more you can earn. Take a scooter home, plug it in, drop it off in a hot spot and enjoy your extra income.

 

For starters, things may have gotten too big too fast for the supply and demand balance. Two e-scooter companies, Lime and Bird have made scooters under riders zipping around the streets ubiquitous in Salt Lake City. Because the e-scooters don’t require a fixed charging station, they’re also littered across sidewalks, lawns and parking lots. Park City introduced the country’s first entirely e-assist bike share program, Summit Bike Share, in 2017. The program has been wildly successful by most metrics with riders racking up in excess of 100,000 miles, translating to roughly 17,500 trips from Kimball Junction to Main Street. In a municipality where the two primary concerns are traffic and parking, that’s no small feat, yet at peak times during the summer docking stations are frequently low on inventory.

Little public consensus exists on how and where to ride. It’s illegal, for example, to ride e-assist devices on sidewalks , but that hasn’t stopped riders from doing so. State code prohibits e-scooters from being used on roads with speed limits over 25 mph, which includes many of the Salt Lake City streets in which they’re currently popular. Revising the code to meet the standards set for bikes—30 mph speed limit and four or fewer lanes unless a bike lane is present—would help eliminate the contradictions between regulation and practical use.

Bird and Lime require both require users to upload a valid driver’s license to confirm they’re a minimum of 18 years age, though e-bike shares, including Summit Bike Share, do not. It’s hard to say whether users are purposely sidestepping regulations or are simply unaware of laws governing e-scooter and e-bike use, and authorities throughout Utah have prudently supported education over heavy-handed enforcement thus far.

electric scooters“It’s a classic case of innovation outpacing regulation,” says Jason Hargraves, insurance expert and managing editor for insurancequotes.com. Hargraves notes the dangers of having such a litigious society in which thousands of people are operating in an insurance blind spot within a regulatory gray area. Users agree to “binding arbitration” before using e-bikes and scooters, which leaves them with little to no legal recourse in the event they’re injured. 

“For most two-wheeled vehicles that travel over 30 mph operators are required to carry liability insurance. Most e-scooters and e-bikes top out between 15-20 mph, so there’s no regulatory definition for them Homeowner’s and renter’s insurance won’t cover users, and auto insurance is typically only for four-wheeled vehicles. Currently the best protection comes from having your auto insurance provider write up a special policy,” Hargraves adds.

Beneath the surface a public health issue is growing. Though no national data exists on e-scooter injury numbers, reports from health care providers suggest a surge in associated accidents, and many users aren’t wearing helmets. Helmet-share programs present a logistical nightmare involving hygiene, fit, theft and more, and riders aren’t bringing their own. Both Bird and Lime have distributed tens of thousands of free helmets to protect riders’ gray matter, but they’re also lobbying against helmet laws that would limit ridership. San Francisco is proactively confronting the issue through Vision Zero Injury Prevention Research to study, quantify and ultimately eliminate traffic injuries including those related to e-bikes and e-scooters. Officials in Utah would be wise to emulate the Bay Area’s safety efforts.

Despite the issues, e-scooter and e-bike use isn’t slowing down any time soon. The industry has become so profitable that Ford jumped into the ring, spending a reported $100 million to purchase the relatively small e-scooter company Spin in late 2018. Ford apparently sees the profitability in collecting data on scooter-share users. When was the last time unencumbered corporate data aggregation went wrong?

Both Salt Lake City and Park City have been urging people to ditch their cars, and take public transportation, which when coupled with innovative mobility programs means more people can get where they’re going, with less congestion and environmental burden. Commuters are doing their part, and it’s time our municipal governments catch up to the e-bandwagon to help work out the kinks.

 

Subscribers can see more. Sign up and you’ll be included in our membership program and get access to exclusive deals, premium content and more. Get the magazine, get the deals, get the best of life in Utah! 

Mar 12
Love0
Pond-Skim-e1552367498279

Park City and Deer Valley Heat Up for Spring

By Arts & Culture

The first day of spring is just around the corner, which means its time to endlessly argue about the alleged merits of daylight saving time—trust me, late light is far more important than early light—and kick back for spring skiing festivities at Park City and Deer Valley. Thanks to this season’s massively-healthy snowpack, this should be a March and April for the ages on the slopes, and local resorts are gearing up to keep the good times rolling during après hours with live music and costumed shenanigans for all.

Celebrate St. Patricks Day the right way at Park City Mountain with live music at both base areas on Sunday, March 17. From 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Pennyland will perform at Park City’s Payday Deck with their meld of traditional Irish and Scottish folk music and dance tunes while Folk Hogan rocks the Canyons Village Stage with high-velocity, whiskey and humor infused punk/folk that will have the crowd tearing up the dance floor. If you’re out on the slopes before the concerts, check in with Epic Mix photographers to snap a few complimentary shots with festive holiday props.

Canyons Village is the place to be for spring apres concerts.

The following week things kick into high gear as Park City Mountain’s famed Spring Gruv Festival gets underway. This year’s Gruv features performances from local favorites like country/blues legends Lash LaRue and the ever-expanding funk collective Superbubble. Concert schedules for both Park City Mountain Village and Canyons Village are listed below, and you can check out the full lineup of events by visiting the resort’s events calendar.

CANYONS VILLAGE CONCERTS 

  • 3/16/19: Pixie & The Partygrass Boys
  • 3/23/19: Changing Lanes Experience
  • 3/30/19: King Cardinal
  • 4/6/19: Henry Hunter (2:00-3:30 p.m.), Dragondeer (4:00-6:00 p.m.)
  • 4/7/19: Metal Dogs (1:00-2:30 p.m.), The Breakfast Klub (3:00-5:00 p.m.)

PARK CITY MOUNTAIN VILLAGE CONCERTS

  • 3/16/19: Lash Larue
  • 3/23/19: Jamie Drake
  • 3/30/19: Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds (2:00-3:30 p.m.), Anderson East (4-5:30 p.m.)
  • 4/6/19: Brothers Brimm
  • 4/7/19: Big Blue Ox (1:00-2:30 p.m.), Superbubble (3:00-5:00 p.m)

The crown jewel of spring skiing is the 23rd annual pond skim outside of Red Pine Lodge at the Canyons on Saturday, April 6. The antics kick off at 12:00 noon as competitors try to skip across the 100-foot long pond in all manner of impractical attire. Sign up for the competition if you have the courage to give the skim a go, or sit back and enjoy the show free of charge.

Even the Judges get into the spirit during Pond Skim.

Deer Valley may not have the party-time pedigree of Park City, but the resort is hosting its own lineup of spring concerts for the après crowd to jam out to. The EBS Lounge at Deer Valley’s Snow Park Lodge is rolling out a rollicking lineup including Badfeather frontman Rick Gerber and cover masters Chris Bender and Fastback. EBS Lounge shows are listed below, and you can visit the Deer Valley Events Calendar page for the complete lineup and an up-to-date listing of après shows at Silver Lake Lodge.

EBS Lounge CONCERTS

  • 3/16/19: B.D. Howes (3:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.)
  • 3/22/19: Chris Bender and Fastback (3:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.)
  • 3/23/19: Chris Bender and Fastback (3:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.)
  • 3/29/19: Rick Gerber (3:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.)
  • 3/30/19: Ché Zuro (3:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m

 

 

Mar 08
Love0
DV-e1551809715137

Resorts Compete for Skiers in 2020

By Outdoors

We’re only a few days into March and staring down the barrel of an atmospheric river ready to clobber Utah with snow, but that hasn’t kept the ski industry’s big players from vying to secure skiers’ business by rolling out news and new products for the 2019/2020 season. Both Alterra’s Ikon Pass and Vail’s Epic Pass have gone on sale for next winter with each offering spring 2019 benefits for those who jump on board early.

The big scoop from Vail is the “Epic for Everyone” initiative, which features their newest product, the Epic Day Pass. Epic Day Pass is designed to deliver the same flexibility and benefits as a season pass, but it’s tailored to skiers who won’t ski the volume of days necessary for a season pass make sense. Skiers can purchase tickets for a set number of days next season, which can be used any time at any Vail Resort starting at just $106 per day—$125 per day without holiday restrictions. The more days you purchase, the better the value gets, and any pass that includes four or more days may also be used at partner resorts Telluride, Sun Valley, Snow Basin and resorts of the Canadian Rockies.

The Epic Day Pass is yet another entry in Vail Resorts’ value-oriented catalog of options, which includes the $939 full Epic Pass and $699 Epic Local Pass with blackout dates. Sweetening the deal, the cost of any day ticket purchased for the remainder of this season can be put towards an Epic Pass product for 2019/2020—Epic Day Pass must include at least four days to be eligible— by visiting a Vail Season Pass Office on the same day of purchase and ponying up for next winter.

Epic Pass Ikon Pass

Alterra’s investment will enhance Deer Valley’s already-impressive infrastructure.

Not to be outdone, Alterra has made 2019/2020 Ikon Passes available for purchase in the wake of announcing $181 million in capital improvements to their 14 North American mountain destinations. Locally, Deer Valley will receive $7.6 million for next season to add RFID lift ticket technology for direct-to-lift access, new digital signage at the resort base, snowmaking system enhancements, new Prinoth snowcats, guest transportation fleet improvements and facility and equipment upgrades to resort day lodges. Early Ikon Pass purchases include a $100 discount before prices go up for both the $949 Ikon Pass and the $649 Ikon Base Pass with blackout dates.

However you ultimately feel about corporate ski resort consolidation, the ceaseless two-party battle between Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company has given rise to a glut of flexible pass options to fit an array of budgets and needs. This week’s developments and early pass sales deliver added value and increased access at a time when day ticket prices continue to skyrocket, and it’s hard to be particularly upset about that.

See all our outdoors coverage here.