Skiing Utah: Sundance

Sundance: Robert Redford's ski mountain -- slopes amid a super-environmentally aware resort

Why would a Coloradan ski anyplace else?, friends ask when I go out of state (or out of the country) to make some turns. First (and really foremost), I travel so that I can write about ski resorts beyond the Centennial State's rectangle. But beyond that, I find that experiencing skiing and mountains and mountain resorts elsewhere refreshes my perspective on the Colorado Rockies. After all, when a person lives two hours from Vail and there are seven closer ski areas, it's easy to become jaded.

Why Sundance?

To reduce culture when leaving the People's Republic of Boulder, Sundance is a good place to start. In fact, if Boulder could design its own mountain resort, it would create Sundance. Just 450 acres of 6,000 that Robert Redford owns have been lightly developed for skiing. Sound environmental practices have gone into infrastructure and operations of the resort (an anti-resort, really). Smart building, conservation and recycling efforts have a high profile in the lodging and dining operations -- and it's Redford's founding philosophy, not just for show. For instance, the reusable shopping bag, right, contains a statistical reminder that unnecessary plastic bags are a major waste. The small print reads: "Use this bag twice a week for 2 years and each bag will SAVE 11 pounds of garbage, 832 plastic bags, enough petroleum to drive a car 60 miles."

Culture Under the Sundance Umbrella

Other Sundance efforts that are umbrella-ed under several intertwined entities. The Sundance Preserve, Utah's answer to the older Aspen Institute but with a lower-key public presence. The Sundance Preserve has hosted world leaders, Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, Academy Award-winning actors and directors, innovative scientists and accomplished corporate leaders to discuss public policy, social issues, art and the environment. The non-profit Sundance Institute is dedicated to the discovering and nurturing independent artists and audiences. It supports and inspires independent film and theater word introduces American and global audiences to their new works. The Sundance Channel provides further outreach. This cable television network airs independent feature films, world cinema, documentaries, short film, and original programs, all are shown uncut and without commercials. It is interrelated with the Sundance Film Festival (January 21-31 this year), which is now so big that it has spread to Park City and even to Ogden for enough venues. Then there's Sundance Cinemas, the commercial and educational arm of the Sundance film presence.

Skiing at Sundance

But what about the skiing, you ask? Sundance Resort's lodgings and public buildings tucked among the trees lie at the foot of a mid-size ski area with 41 runs, three chairlifts and a respectable 2,150-foot vertical. that, from the bottom, looks smaller than it skis. The only visible lift, a quad named Ray's after the pre-Redford owner, ferries riders to a midway unload for those who want to ski or snowboard the lower mountain, continues to the front-mountain summit and another unloading area and then drops into a low spot from which the Arrowhead triple reaches the area's highest lift-served point. Looking south beyond the signs and the safety fence is a long view past the mountains to the flat and across to the next mountains.

Skier's right leads to Sundance's most challenging terrain -- a landscape of ridges, gulleys and glades. Skier's left features some short, steep shots, a bit of gladed terrain and wonderful cruising runs. It is possible to yo-yo on Arrowhead all day long, mixing and matching blue and black runs. Back to the lower mountain, its tamest beginner terrain is served by a short handle tow, but beyond that, novices and intermediates can get a lot of mileage on the long green and blue runs measuring to 1,325 vertical feet. Most of these runs are again lit for night skiing  after many dark years. A handful of terrain features built  into one short blue trail (Montoya, I think) attract boarders. Up the road is the Sundance Cross-Country Center, with 26 kilometers of daily groomed trails for skating and classic track skiing and also 10 kilometers of dedicated trails through the woods.

Skiing Better at Sundance

I'm going out on a limb when I write that if you want to learn to ski or overcome a plateau on which you've been stuck, there's no better place to do so than Sundance. It is the home hill of Jerry Warren. His titles are director of mountain operations and director of skiing, but his real renown comes in ski instructor circles. Jerry, one of the country's top ski technique gurus,  used to coach the Professional Ski Instructors of America elite demo team. Last June, he received PSIA's Lifetime Achievement Award, only the sixth person so honored in half a century. There's simply no one better to identify and fix skiing problems -- and I'm betting that he clinics his ski instructors to do so too. My pals and I spent a few very productive hours skiing with him and taking his counsel.We didn't go through Warren's entire three-day Ski Performance Lab program (including videoanalysis and seminars), but those few hours were enough to fine-tune my turns.

I just wonder why I didn't get around to taking a picture of Jerry too. I guess I was too busy concentrating on my technique and practicing what he preached -- gently and with humor, of course.

Sundance Info

Sundance Resort is up in Timpanogas Canyon above Provo at 8841 North Alpine Loop Road, Sundance, Utah 84604. Phones: 866-259-7468 (main number), 800-892-1600 (lodging reservations), 801-223-4110(snow report), 801-223-4140 (ski/snowboard school and Ski Performance Labs), 801-223-6000 (activities and events), 801-223-4170 (cross-country center). Click here to sign up for Sundance's newsletter.