Amber's Trip Diary Day Four: When Snow Cuts the Trip Short

Posted in Trip Diaries
by Amber on January 1, 2011

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The entire point of a winter ski vacation is to have snow. However, an overabundance of it causes problems, which is exactly what happened to my family.

For our final day at Park City Mountain Resort,  my two kids aged six and four were enrolled in ski school. My husband and I planned to meet them for lunch and ski together that afternoon, letting them show off their new skills.

But when we awoke in our condo, all we could see was snow accumulating fast.  Normally, I would welcome a snow day on vacation. There's nothing like snuggling up  with the kids in front of a fire, drinking hot chocolate, playing games and having a movie marathon.

This is exactly what we would have done if the storm had arrived in the middle of our stay. However, our dilemma was we were supposed to  fly out the next day.  And with a forecast that predicted upwards of three feet of snow, we faced the very real possibility of getting stuck and missing our flight.

We decided to leave early. That news was not met happily, as the picture shows.  But as we slipped and slid through near white-out conditions along Parley's Canyon to Salt Lake City, we were convinced we’d made the right decision.  Eastbound traffic to Park City was at a standstill as police turned away any vehicle that did not have four-wheel drive or chains.

This is not the first time I have had a vacation interrupted by the weather. Last summer, we had a family reunion in the Outer Banks, which was derailed by Hurricane Earl.

I'll take a storm that brings several feet of fresh powder any day.  And despite the storm in Utah and another in Denver where we live,  we were able to fly out the next day.

We'll be back, Park City Mountain Resort!