Why Park City may not be in the top 20 in next year’s Ski Magazine rankings

Every year Ski Magazine ranks ski resorts. This year, Park City Mountain fell to #13. This was unexpected since Canyons and PCMR had been combined into THE LARGEST SKI RESORT in the known universe the U.S. This ranking is also important for our town, because we share our name with the ski resort. While locally, Vail markets the resort as Park City Mountain, the resort is marketed as Park City elsewhere. So, the ranking not only impacts our resort but our town.

This morning I had the chance to go to PCMR with my kid’s daycare. We were in line at the First Time lift and two of the kids had to use the bathroom. So, I took them to the bathroom at PCMR. This is what I saw at 9:20 AM:

Note… people said they would stop reading if we kept the Vail toilet pics on the home page. We don’t want to lose our only reader, so click below to see lots of shit.

Every toilet was filled to the brim with shit. Three of the four urinals had at least two inches of pee in them (they are the non-water types) and the fourth had at least an inch. So, I sent the taller kid to the urinal with less urine, hoping he could pee without urine being splashed upon him. The smaller kid was too little and I held him up over one of the toilets, filled with shit, hoping he was far enough away that the shit would not splatter on him as he peed.

[Editor’s Note: You don’t write the word “shit” that many times in a paragraph about one of the best ski resorts in the country]

You, as a reader, may be willing to give Vail the benefit of the doubt on this one. You may say, “toilets sometimes clog.” Yes, that is true. However, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen 6 toilets clog. Also, I would have to point out that this was a few minutes after the resort opened. This had to be sitting for a LONG time.

But this was the topper…. After the kids had finished peeing in pee and shit… a Park City operations employee walked in. I said, “this doesn’t look good. My kids had to go to the bathroom in here.” How did the Vail representative respond? He said nothing and walked out.

Nothing.

Would that experience ever happen at Deer Valley? No. Shit would not sit around to be seen by visitors.

That said, I’m a local who won’t vote in Ski Magazine’s ranking. However, it does confirm what I’ve seen throughout the season. While you do run into some great people working at Park City, it’s not a Deer Valley experience … or even a Snow Basin experience. This is also reflected in random emails I’ve received from visitors expecting more from Park City than they got.

I imagine my relatives visiting (who usually stay at the St Regis). What would they think if they experienced toilets full of poo and pee? What Ski Magazine rating would they give to Park City?

Is there a score less than zero?

And that is why I wonder whether we should expect Park City to go DOWN in the rankings.