My Odyski is now in its third week, and yesterday was the first time I've enjoyed perfect weather. And Utah's Park City Mountain Resort was the perfect place to savor a calm, sunny day with temps in the 20s.

With poetic justice, my perfect day started on the Payday six-pack, one of the resort's many high-speed detachable lifts.

A network of high-speed detachable chairs is the backbone of Park City Mountain Resort's lift system.
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Skiing Park City is simply awesome -- and I use that over-used phrase with careful consideration. Skiable terrain comprises 3,300 acres spread over eight peaks and nine bowls served by 14 chairlifts. Difficulty ratings run from green circle learning areas to white-knuckle double black diamond glades, bowls and chutes.

Park City's terrain includes with this very scenic green circle run at the top of the Payday six-pack.
SCOTT ANDREWS PHOTO

A skier negotiates a mogul field with Jupiter Peak in the background.
SCOTT ANDREWS PHOTO

McConkey's Bowl, near Jupiter Peak, was one of several double black runs I took yesterday at Park City Mountain Resort.
SCOTT ANDREWS PHOTO

Park City itself is a rather swanky place these days, a far cry from the raucous mining town of the late 19th century, and equally removed from the depressing ghost town of the mid-20th. Much of the skiing terrain is located on old mine property, and many of the old structures remain, suitably marked with historical signs.

One of several long-disused structures from Park City's mining heyday of the late 1800s is located about halfway up the mountain.
SCOTT ANDREWS PHOTO

On an interesting historical note, the Creole mine dump, located on the edge of town (and on the current trail system) was the site of Utah's first ski jumping hill. Among those who jumped in 1923 was Alf Engen, a national champion whose memory is honored in a museum located in Park City.

Park City Mountain Resort is only about 45 years old, but it made its own mark on history in 2002, when it was the venue for several skiing and snowboard events of the Olympic Winter Games.

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