At Montage Deer Valley, the spa is a very big focus. Engaging with guests means building hotels around places where there is direct interaction, particularly the spa and its restaurants - they are not amenities, but the focus. There is an architectural component to this philosophy as well. “We are there to really engage with our guests.” “We help them with everything from explaining the pros and cons of each ski for the conditions on any day to the best places to ski on each day for every level of skier,” says Andy, the resort’s activities director. Compass Sports - the on-site shop wholly owned by the hotel - prides itself on its Montage-quality experience, including the ability to trade out rental skis daily depending on snow conditions. Using all that stuff on the snow is painless, thanks to ski valets who help guests on with their prewarmed boots and gloves, and skis and poles placed at the ready on the snow. The rooms are warm and welcoming, with a plush sofa and matching wing chair at the foot of a sumptuously made bed, a handsome mahogany desk on one side of the fireplace and a large mahogany bureau on the other - and yet there is still enough room to stow all the detritus of traveling skiers. There is a fresh classicism about its interior style and design, harmonious and handsome, a fine line between old and new. In a large hotel with 154 guest rooms and 66 private residences, there is a lot of wall space, and a lot of good art. Thanks to a profusion of art work, it is hard to negotiate the hotel quickly at every step there is another handsome oil painting of cowboys crossing a mountain pass, a fine Chinese ceramic, a classic flower or bird painting, or a handsome tapestry. Inside, the Montage is romantic, a place to amble through, to find one’s special corner by a fire, to pour and sip a fine tea or a brandy. Montage Deer Valley sits center stage in that extensive natural amphitheater, but the building itself is no less impressive. The addition of yet another mountain, Lady Morgan, and another express lift five years ago boosted the total skiable acreage in Empire Canyon to nearly 600, more than a quarter of Deer Valley’s total terrain. A real-estate building blitz followed, resulting in about 350 new high-end houses and condominium units in Empire Canyon. Soon, Deer Valley installed two lifts and a day lodge that added a hefty swath of terrain to the ski area, including much-needed black and double-black bowls and chutes. Fifteen years ago, neither ski trail nor lift existed in the area, only a state road that, in summer, connects Park City with Big Cottonwood Canyon. The hotel’s opening marked the culmination in the development of Empire Canyon, high in Deer Valley’s western reaches, as the resort’s most prized real estate. Montage Deer Valley has proved itself strong out of the gate. There is a certain logic to bringing a Montage to Deer Valley, Utah - the same logic, perhaps, that leads one to bring two thoroughbreds together in the hopes of a champion offspring. The Montage, a luxury ski hotel, and Deer Valley, Utah are a match made (and located) in heaven.
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