From lift to lunch, Utah ski lodge offers first-class treatment
You’ve probably noticed: It’s a do-it-yourself world and getting more so every day.
You pump your own gas and buy stamps from a machine. The automatic teller spits up cash, and a Web site takes orders for shirts and shoes. You can purchase an airplane ticket online, get a boarding pass from a computer and not speak to a single soul until you actually board the plane — and sometimes not even then.
Which is why Stein Eriksen Lodge at Deer Valley Resort in Utah is one of North America’s premier ski vacation destinations.
Partners in pampering since 1982, the dynamic duo delivers superior skiing and classic elegance, personal service and remarkable cuisine from the moment you drive into the parking lot to your last run down the mountain.
It starts at the lodge, where helpful ski valets rush to open your car door, carry the luggage and unload the skis. If you don’t bring skis, you can rent them in the lodge shop. A word to the concierge and your lift tickets appear like magic, ski lessons are booked and dinner and on-mountain lunch reservations secured. Tables for Sunday brunch at Glitretind, the lodge’s legendary restaurant, are in demand, but the concierge works magic here as well.
Tired from your trip but have a few free hours before dinner? You could relax in the heated outdoor pool, a misty hot water adventure surrounded by snow. Or you could visit the spa for a facial, a foot or hand treatment or a massage. The fitness room is right there, too, the very place to work out those post-travel kinks.
Or you could retire to one of 171 one- to four-bedroom rooms and suites, individually decorated and furnished with satiny linens, high-speed Wi-Fi, a CD/DVD music center, minibar, coffeemaker, bathrobes, electronic safe and scented lotions.
Finally, when you’re ready to ski, call for your gear and step out the door. Stein Eriksen Lodge is on the snow at the midmountain village.
For its part, Deer Valley Resort, recently named No. 1 in Ski Magazine’s annual rankings, earns kudos for, essentially, top-drawer management. Meticulously groomed slopes and high-speed quad chairlifts climb to each separate summit. Mountain hosts wait at each lift to help befuddled skiers. Even the lift operators smile while they work.
As ski mountains go, Deer Valley’s 1,825 acres are considered midsized. Because lift ticket sales are limited to 6,500 a day, crowds and lines are virtually unknown. The real reason for the cap is that 6,500 is the maximum number of diners who can be seated for lunch at any one time. Heaven forbid any skier might have to wait for a table.
They don’t, naturally, when they dine Wednesday through Friday nights at Deer Valley Resort’s “Fireside Dining,” at the Empire Canyon Lodge. This banquet of Tudor proportions, a four-course feast, matches waiter-served wines to a groaning board, where a sous chef in a toque melts Swiss raclette cheese over an open fire and his counterpart at another fireplace carves slabs from a leg of lamb on a spit. Beef and chicken fricassees, roast beef, vegetable dishes, sauces, salads, curried rice, dried and fresh fruits and desserts complete the meal.
For lunch, Royal Street Café at Silver Lake is the place to see and be seen, though it’s hard to spot a celeb behind the sunglasses. You can reserve a table inside, where it’s a little quieter and not so sunny. But the same menu is served outside on the deck, the perfect alfresco lunch.
If you’re lucky — and many are — you might spot Olympic gold medalist Stein Eriksen, Deer Valley’s guiding spirit, who helped launch the lodge. Eriksen, who celebrates his 80th birthday this year, is a familiar figure, seen chatting in lift lines or stopping to sign autographs. His occasional “Ski With Stein” forays are much in demand.
“He loves to ski with visitors,” says Craig McCarthy, a Park City spokesman. “But you’d better be able to keep up. Stein doesn’t wait.”
If it weren’t for Stein, lending his name to the lodge and his reputation to Deer Valley, things might be different. And we’d be the poorer.
Happy Birthday, Stein. Live long and prosper.
Deer Valley Resort: Even the snow pampers skiers at Deer Valley Resort in northern Utah.
The Stein Ericksen Lodge: Olympic gold medalist Stein Eriksen helped launch the lodge that bears his name.
Fireside dining: Leg of lamb roasts over an open fire on “Fireside Dining” nights at Deer Valley’s Empire Canyon Lodge.
TRAVELER’S CHECK | STEIN ERIKSEN LODGE
Stein Eriksen Lodge is on the slopes at Deer Valley Resort, near Park City, Utah. Salt Lake City International Airport is 36 miles away, a 45-minute ride by rental car or shuttle bus.
Deluxe rooms with one king or two queen beds (including full daily breakfast for all in a room) start at $610 a night in shoulder season, $735 in high season and $805 during holiday weeks. After March 30, the rate drops to $410. Adults can share, and children of any age can stay free. 800-453-1302 or steinlodge.com.