The beauty of Ninety-Nine 90

Of all the lifts and hills around Park City Mountain and Deer Valley Resort, my favorite spot is Ninety-Nine 90, a 1,536 vertical drop, high-speed quad lift where I spend most of my good quality ski time during the winter. 

The name, “9990” stands for the altitude of the ridge above. It’s the best combo of difficult, steep and highly diverse terrain. It’s also a very fast lift (6 min 15 sec ride) with very limited crowds. 

There a lots of nooks and crannies, hard-to-memorize passages, limited-lines spots, plenty of trees to pay attention to, and the best snow quality around. I love to run laps on that lift, staying as close as possible to the chairlift line. 

On two occasions, in 2019 and 2020, I ran 25 laps on that lift non-stop at an average of 9 min 49 sec per lap. This is about 9,389 ft vertical per hour, less than some other lifts, but so difficult that it tend to make the vertical drop number meaningless. 

It keeps me in shape, engages me fully and forces me to pay super attention. I hope I can ski it for many more years to come...