Jordanelle Ski Run, Stein Eriksen, and the Doofus

Above: Jordanelle Ski Run, Deer Valley, UT. 21 December 2024.

Until this year, Jordanelle was the ski run farthest east at Deer Valley. Jordanelle winds its way, east bound, down through the Deer Crest residential area to the Deer Valley gondola base adjacent to US 40. Redefining the eastern boundary of Deer Valley, East Village area, a Deer Valley expansion project to be opened his ski season, extends as far east as Jordanelle but is further south, also based near US 40.

I first skied Jordanelle ski run this season, yesterday, the first day it was opened. I returned first thing today (Carpenter Lift, Little Stick and Deer Hollow ski runs to Mountaineer lift) and did three exhilarating turns on Jordanelle, skiing into the glorious rising sun coming up over the Uinta mountains. The vistas to the east, as can be seen in the image, are spectacular. Steamboat Springs is about 350 miles due east, looking in the direction of the image.

I was alone on Jordanelle on the first of my three runs. There were only two or three other skiers that I saw the next two times I skied Jordanelle. The snow quality was fabulous. Corduroy, all three runs, softened a bit by the direct sunshine. Jordanelle is a 'blue' run, but, back when Deer Valley also used the double blue rating category, Jordanelle was rated double blue. Sections of the run are fairly steep, and the run is quite narrow, adding to its difficulty, particularly when the run is crowded. Jordanelle is one of those runs best to avoid when there are a lot of other skiers. But today, for me, lonely Jordanelle was ski Nirvana.

Codicil: I don't ski Jordanelle all the way to the gondola. I take the Keelty cutoff and ski back to Mountaineer lift. The gondola is too slow and there are often queues there.

Above: Stein Eriksen, Montage, and Bishop. Deer Valley UT. Circa 2004.
Stein in Bogner, Montage in Descente, and Bishop in L.L. Bean.

I have a story to tell about Jordanelle. Circa 2004 my friend, Montage, invited me to join him and a three of his ski guests from out of town, to ski a half day with Stein Eriksen. SpaGo, Montage's wife, had presented Montage with "A Morning with Stein" birthday present. Of course, I was happy to join. We rendezvoused with Stein at Silver Lake Village. Stein said, "I like to start the day skiing Jordanelle. You ski into the sunlight and the views are glorious over there." The Montage group followed Stein, who skis "the old way," with his feet close together, down to the Crown Point lift. From Crown Point summit we skied through residential area, under a tunnel, via Kimberly run to reach Navigator ski run.

The plan was to link from Navigator to Deer Hollow run and ski down to the Mountaineer Lift which would take us to the gondola summit and the start of Stein's favorite AM ski run, Jordanelle. In a group of six, with Stein at the lead, I was skiing sweep. Halfway down Navigator, a narrow green difficulty level track, Stein stopped to point out the north looking vistas. As I skied up to the group, I caught the proverbial edge and went down to the ground at everyone's feet. Doofus me was pretty embarrassed, but I quickly got to my feet, apologized and we all skied on to accomplish the Jordanelle ski run descent. Now I look at this incident differently. I mean, how many people who have skied with Stein, have fallen at his feet when skiing up to him? I feel special to have had this unique experience!

There were no further incidents that morning skiing with Stein. For the rest of the morning, Harry's ski guests (one of them owned several Baskin Robbins franchises in Hawaii) gave me some justifiable ribbing about my tumble. The highlight of the day, apart from learning about the desirability of skiing Jordanelle first thing in the AM was watching Stein ski. Few skiers seem at one with the mountain as did Stein that morning.

In the ensuing years, as I did today, I have often started my ski day at Jordanelle, thanks to a tip from ski legend Stein Eriksen and Montage's invitation to me to join his group. And I never ski Jordanelle without the skiing with Stein experience coming into my mind.