Ski Utah’s Discover Winter program expands experiences at Deer Valley

Ski Utah's Discover Winter participants at Deer Valley. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

PARK CITY, Utah — Ski Utah wrapped up the fourth season of its Discover Winter Program at Deer Valley Resort last week. The program, which seeks to make skiing more accessible, allows participants four complimentary ski or snowboard lessons at its partner resorts during the months of January and February.

“The program’s goal is to have the state of Utah be more inclusive and welcoming through winter snow sports,” their website reads. “It aims to foster a life-long love of skiing and snowboarding amongst Utah’s ethnically diverse community.” 

Ski Utah also provides ski and snowboard rental equipment and proper clothing for participants to stay warm as well as transportation to the resorts.

The following represent merely four of the approximately 25 skiers who participated in Discover Winter this season at Deer Valley. They may have begun in January as never-evers but now in February, they’ll never ever be never-evers again.

Hilda Oliverez grew up in Mexico and now lives in Oakley, she works for a house cleaning business and laughs as she says she really simply wants to be able to keep up with her kiddo. Her daughter attends South Summit High School and through years of learning to ski and learning to love skiing via Youth Sports Alliance (YSA) is now working on getting her Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) certification license. 

Adela Eschlerova is taking a gap year, or three, from university in her homeland of the Czech Republic to live and work as an au pair in Park City. She verbalizes via voice and shows with her smile that she feels lucky for these lessons.

Gui Santos is from Brazil, lives in Salt Lake City where he works at Morgan Stanley of Utah, one of the multiple sponsors of the Discover Winter program. With his weekdays spent in the Valley, he likes to spend weekend days in Park City. He’d exclaim that any day is a good day to learn to ski, even on the days he struggled a skosh down his first blue square run or the ones in which weather dumped snow in a white out.

Azucena Sanchez’s family in Mexico misses her but is proud of her as she lives in Park City and works for a property management business. Her daughter, attends Ecker Hill Middle School and didn’t just learn to enjoy skiing through SOS Outreach of Park City. but is now a mentor for younger Latin locals. One of the four days her mom was learning at Deer Valley, she was working as babysitter at the Stein Eriksen Lodge.

At the conclusion of the four lessons, participants receive a Ski Utah Yeti Pass which provides one day of skiing/snowboarding at each of Utah’s 15 resorts allowing participants the opportunity to practice their newfound skills. 

Ski Utah states it is their hope that participants will have discovered a lifelong love of skiing and snowboarding and will return to the slopes for years to come.