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DEER VALLEY — Deer Valley Resorts was named the best ski resort in the U.S. for the third consecutive year and is offering some new, revamped food options for this ski season.
Located about 35 minutes from Salt Lake City, Deer Valley Resorts was opened in 1981. The World Ski Awards recently named the resort as the United States' Best Ski Resort during the 2015 ceremonies held in Austria. Deer Valley earned the reward from more than a million votes cast across the globe by leading ski tourism professionals worldwide, as well as hundreds of thousands of ski and luxury travel consumers from 127 countries.
"The Ski Oscars is the definitive awards program within global ski tourism," World Ski Awards managing director Sion Rapson said in a statement. "The winners serve to define the standards of the ski industry, thus inspiring others to raise the guest experience and stimulate new demand."
The resort is probably best known for its delicious food options, according to senior communications manager Emily Summers. The resort has 12 restaurants, two of which are new additions this season: a taqueria and Bald Mountain Pho, which was formerly Bald Mountain Pizza.
The taqueria and Bald Mountain Pho are both located in the Silver Lake Lodge and offer a variety of cafeteria and sit-down options for Mexican and Vietnamese food.
Deer Valley Moments from Deer Valley Resort on Vimeo.
Summers said of the 12 available restaurants, five are fine dining, evening restaurants, the most popular of which is Fireside Dining. Fireside Dining is located within the Empire Canyon Lodge and offers a four-course meal where patrons move to different fireplaces for each course. Patrons can also take a sleigh ride around the restaurant before, during or after the meal.
"I kind of call it the epitome of a ski vacation," Summers said. "We call (the food) local's favorites from the European alps. It's definitely got that feel that you are at a ski resort with the sleigh ride and the cheese melting on your plate in front of the fireplace."
The resort offers 2,026 skiable acres with 101 ski runs and 21 chairlifts available. Summers said Deer Valley Resorts is one of only three resorts in the U.S. that only allows skiing — so leave those snowboards and snow bikes at home when you hit the slopes at Deer Valley; however, if you want to try a different winter sport besides skiing, Deer Valley Resorts also operates a snowmobiling operation.
"That's kind of something that maybe local people don't know (about)," Summers said.
Located in Browns Canyon, about 15 minutes from Deer Valley Resorts, Summit Meadows Adventures offers guided snowmobile tours along 7,000 acres of backcountry on Garff Ranch. The tours are one to two hours long and are offered daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The resort also offers extensive lodging options with its network of over 400 condos, Summers said. The condos range from a hotel-style room to a six-bedroom house. The Stein Eriksen Lodge was once again named the World's Best Ski Hotel at the Ski Oscars Award Ceremony, and a special accolade for Outstanding Contribution to Ski Tourism was given to the hotel's namesake, Deer Valley Director of Skiing Stein Eriksen.
While the current focus at the resort is winter sports, Deer Valley also offers a variety of summer activities. There are over 70 miles of mountain biking and hiking trails available and three chairlifts are open year-round to service the trails. A new 5-mile flow biking trail was opened during the summer of 2015 and Summers said the resort plans to announce new additions in 2016.
Deer Valley is also known for being the summer home to the Utah Symphony, Summers said. The Deer Valley Music Festival runs from mid-July to early August in the Snow Park Outdoor Amphitheater. The resort hosts more than 40 concerts a summer.
Location: 2250 Deer Valley Drive, Park City
Hours: The ski lifts are open from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. every day. There is no night skiing.
Prices: An adult lift ticket is $120. Senior lift tickets are for 65 years and older and are $85. A youth lift ticket for 5-12 years old is $76 and a child lift ticket for 1-4 years is $26.
