Built by women: Park City’s homegrown business owners

Park City from a distance at sunset. Photo: Park City Chamber/Bureau

PARK CITY, Utah — This International Women’s Day, the Park City Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau is spotlighting the women who don’t just live in this community, they run it. From backcountry ridgelines and mountain trail systems to Main Street tables and specialty shop counters, these five business owners represent the full range of what makes Park City worth visiting and worth calling home. What they share is rarer than any single industry: businesses rooted in place, shaped by years of hands-on experience, and driven by genuine love for this town.

Park City Powder Cats

Rebekah Stevens moved to Utah from Vermont in 2003, chasing powder for a season. A newspaper ad for a reservationist at Park City Powder Cats changed the trajectory of her life. Over the next two decades, she worked through every facet of the company as office manager, marketing director, photographer, guide, operations manager, and, currently, as its director.

“It’s an incredible responsibility to lead an operation like this,” she said. “The mountains demand humility and teamwork. Those values define our culture at PCPC. My commitment is to protect and grow what makes this place so special: our culture, our people, and the one-of-a-kind experience we offer our guests.”

Powder Cats operates on private land in the Uinta Mountains, unaffiliated with any resort or corporation — no lodges, no lifts, just terrain. About 80% of guests are returning clients, and many guides have been with the company 10 to 20 years.

“It’s not just about skiing,” said Stevens. “It’s about connecting to the mountains and the experience as a whole. It’s definitely a family vibe at Powder Cats.”

Snow cat-assisted, guided backcountry tours are available through early April.

Mixers and More

Polly Baykova’s path to running a specialty beverage shop in Park City winds through chemical engineering, a stint as the first woman to scan pipe in North Dakota, a high school robotics classroom and a career in project engineering. Her Russian parents immigrated to Salt Lake City in 1992, and Baykova grew up steeped in the belief that understanding how things are made is the foundation of invention.

The idea for Mixers and More came after she was laid off in September 2024. She noticed a genuine gap in what Utah’s state-run liquor stores offer: no mixers, no garnishes, no zero-proof options, the kinds of things shoppers from out of state expect to find right alongside the spirits. With an SBA loan and a lease at the Gateway Center in Park City, she opened Mixers and More to fill exactly that need.

“So many tourists come to Utah, go to the liquor store and are surprised,” said Baykova.

The shop carries cocktail mixers, bitters, syrups, citrus, snacks, garnishes and a robust selection of zero-proof spirits, de-alcoholized wine, non-alcoholic beer and mocktails. Local makers are well represented, including Honest John’s Bitters, produced by Park City-area resident and former longtime Salt Lake bar owner Sara Lund. Baykova also keeps a whiteboard for customer requests, aiming to stock any item that earns more than one tally mark within a week. She’s also toying with the idea of a custom 3D printer at the shop, if customers are keen on the idea.

Stop in for everything from old-fashioned supplies to margarita mix, and don’t be shy about the whiteboard. Find them at the Gateway Center in Park City.

Inspired Summit Adventures

Shaun Deutschlander recalls being 8 years old the first time she cried looking at the Rocky Mountains. On a family ski trip from suburban New York, she was so overwhelmed by the scale of the landscape and its beauty that her mother gave her a nickname: The West Waiting to Happen. More than three decades later, she runs Inspired Summit Adventures, a year-round guide service she founded in Park City in 2012.

“I’ve had the goal of having my own guide service for most of my life,” said Deutschlander.

Her path ran through the University of Colorado Boulder, competitive telemark skiing, guiding stints at White Pine Touring and Park City Powder Cats, and years of avalanche education. Before launching Inspired Summit, she consulted with colleagues and mentors to ensure her new venture would be collaborative rather than competitive.

Today, the company offers backcountry skiing and splitboarding, avalanche education, backpacking retreats, rock climbing, mountain biking, and corporate retreats. Its most ambitious project is the Western Uinta Hut System, a network of backcountry yurts that, when complete, will be the first year-round, hut-to-hut system in Utah. The Castle Peak yurt was rebuilt in 2021; Smith and Morehouse followed in 2023, with additional yurts planned through 2028.

“We meet people where they’re at and take them where they want to go,” said Deutschlander. “It’s literal, but it also means really listening to our clients and teaching them the skills to achieve their goals on their own.”

Slaydees women’s backcountry camp out of the Castle Peak yurt is scheduled for early April, with spots still available.

Red Banjo

Red Banjo opened on Main Street in 1962, when Park City had roughly 800 residents and only a handful of bars and restaurants. Park City Councilwoman Tana Toly’s grandmother, Mary Lou, was 24 years old when she opened it alongside her husband. In the 1970s, after a divorce, Mary Lou took over the building and the business on her own and ran it for 50 years, raising her children and grandchildren inside its walls.

“She basically taught me everything I knew to become a strong and amazing woman in this community,” said Toly.

Mary Lou, now fully retired and known within the family as chief decorating officer, is also Park City’s oldest living native: the oldest person born in Park City who still lives here. Four generations of the family live on the same street in town. When Toly was laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic, she stepped in alongside her father to take over the restaurant.

Now, Toly is leading Red Banjo into its most ambitious chapter yet. The restaurant is in the process of a major expansion, growing from 2,600 square feet to roughly 9,000, that will add a rooftop bar and dining deck, a family-friendly event and arcade space, workforce housing and a small retail shop opening onto Swede Alley. The project cleared a historic planning commission hearing, and construction is expected to begin this year.

“We’re going to continue this family-friendly environment and have a whole new generation of people who will experience Red Banjo,” said Toly.

Mary Lou was in the audience at the most recent planning commission meeting, alongside Toly’s 5-year-old niece, four generations present. When ski season wraps in April, Red Banjo will bring back its longtime local special: 50% off a single pizza. The outdoor dining deck opens shortly after the warm weather arrives.

Park City Yoga Adventures

Julia Geisler grew up in western Maryland, where her father managed a ski resort for 40 years. She came to Park City 18 years ago with a snowboard and not much else drawn partly by the mountains and mainly by the public bus system. She found climbing, fell in love with the trails, and eventually discovered yoga as a way to keep moving after years of dance.

The idea for Park City Yoga Adventures grew out of work Geisler did at a therapeutic boarding school in Oakley, where she took teenagers on weekend hikes paired with yoga. The response was immediate.

“Those teens loved it,” said Geisler. “I was like, Park City visitors would do this too, so it all started with yoga hikes, just getting out of the studio and into nature.”

Founded in 2011, the company has expanded well beyond its yoga hike roots. Park City Yoga Adventures now offers snowshoeing, silk hammock meditation in the Aspen groves, and guided experiences at some of the area’s most distinctive venues, including the Crater at Homestead Resort and private yurts on properties not open to the general public. The company has partnered with 4U Ranch, Blue Sky Ranch, and Washington School House Hotel, among others.

Right now, Geisler is especially keen to promote a hike and snowshoe yurt trips a year-round offering that can be tailored with charcuterie, sound baths and silk hammock meditation. Geisler also serves on the board of Summit Land Conservancy, a cause she sees as directly tied to the business.

“We really depend on outdoor access and conservation,” said Geisler. “These places that we all like to get out on the trail are not a given unless there’s some kind of protection in place.”