Park City Mountain Resort Ladies Club
DAY 4 — There are second acts in life—and in ski country,
Just ask Vicki Martell, a Harvard MBA with a successful career in banking behind her. She’s now an instructor at Park City Mountain Resort and has dedicated herself to getting moms—and women–back on the slopes.
Welcome to Park City Mountain Resort’s new Ladies’ Club, offered certain days of the week. Women who hadn’t skied in a while, said Martell, “didn’t want a high powered clinic. They just wanted an opportunity to get back on the mountain in a non-threatening way.”
Thus Ladies’ Club was born—two hours rather than three, starting at 10 a.m. so that moms could get their kids to ski school and join the club without rushing. It also is significantly cheaper than a three hour lesson.
And taught by female instructors with no more than five in the group, it is designed to be as much about a shared experience (complete with tips on where to eat, shop and spa in Park City) as about ski instruction. “It was supposed to be time for themselves with other women like themselves,” Martell explained. It’s offered Saturday to Tuesday from 10 to 12 with local women invited to join. “Women tell me it is the best thing ever,” she said. There are at least two instructors assigned so women can be divided among abilities-whether they want to graduate to intermediate terrain or ski bumps. And you don’t need to be a mom either—the idea is to “have fun for a couple of hours—to have time for yourself!”
We all know ski trips are tough for moms. The idea here is to insure that moms have fun too—at least for a couple of hours. Martell says she knows the dads do. “They get out there and find the challenging terrain.”
This is for the moms—or any woman—who otherwise would be sitting in the condo when she could get outside and have the time of her life,” Martell promises.
For two hours, you don’t have to think about all of your responsibilities—getting groceries, picking up the kids, mediating squabbles. “This is your time, to get outside and enjoy the outdoors.”