Need Info about Park City area and a company there, Backcountry.com (Salt Lake City: ski resorts)

[RockyMountainMom]

I found this forum while researching Park City and Backcountry.com on the Internet and I could not be happier with the blunt and concrete answers here.

First, let’s get a sticky issue out of the way. While we are not LDS, we have absolutely no worries about the LDS influence in Utah. I have had co-workers and neighbors who are LDS and I know them to be just really, really good people and frankly, we actually look forward to living near and working with such good people, again. I am done with rude, self-centered people who do not value themselves, family, or much else.

Second, I will own the blunt questions I am going to ask here. I need answers and being blunt is the only way to get concrete ones.

Anyway, here is our situation. My husband is thinking of applying to Backcountry.com at the executive level if and when such position comes available. (He has had a lot of experience and success at that level in the outdoor retail world.) This means a possible move to the Park City area from the Denver-metro area for us and for me get on board with him just applying, I need insight .

So here are my questions:

1. Does Backcountry.com, as a whole, have a reputation for being a pressure-cooker, expanding too quickly, and/or underpaying executive-level employees?

2. Does any member of the Backcountry.com management team, executive and lower, have a reputation for being passive-aggressive, volatile, tyrannical, and/or micro-managing?

3. As a couple of now pudgy (to say the least) former ski addicts who still buy and use season passes, but now enjoy hanging with our 8-year old son on the mountain and did so 20 full days last year, do you think we would we fit into the current and future Backcountry.com culture?

4. Besides Backcountry.com, who are the employers in Park City who might have a job for a technical writer/web content manager like myself, if any?

5. Is it a reasonable commute to Park City during all seasons from Salt Lake?

6. Are there any neighborhoods, subdivisions, towns, or just areas near Park City in which housing prices are not ridiculously elevated due to the resort(s)?

I know your time is valuable, but I would really appreciate your help. I want to know what people are really saying about Park City and Backcountry.com and I cannot get that information from the actual city or company.

Thank you so much for your time and help!

[Blondie-Rabbit]

Hubby at one time worked in Park City. I know nothing about backcountry.com But I do know Park City. Right now everything in a reasonable distance that is not a major commute up the mountain is not cheap. Check out Kamas. It is only a few miles away. The road up the mountain in the winter, can be a bear to deal with. Storms can and do hit that make it extremely hazardous. There were times I got trapped in SLC during a storm and had to spend the night rather than try the frwy.

As to hanging with your son, that would be very good. The schools there give the students during the ski season a half day off to go ski. They also provide a cheap season pass to all students. With three major resorts in town, you have a variety of ski options. There is a free bus service that runs most months of the year. Down time is during spring after the ski resorts close for the winter, and in the fall after the resorts close for the summer months. At the altitude that PC is, you will not be pudgy for long. There are walking/biking/hiking trails all over town and the moutains around them. Main Street is on a very steep grade. Just walking up main street is a challenge. Those in fit shape use it to run up and see if they can handle it. As for technical writer, most those jobs will be down the mountain.

It's a wonderful place to live, but it is extremely expensive too. I would move back in a heart beat if we could afford it.

[RockyMountainMom]

Blondie-Rabbit, thank you. The fact that you and the rest of this forum’s members do not seem to know anything about Backcountry.com may be a good thing. Companies who are a pressure cookers and who expanded too quickly and/or have tyrannical, volatile, or passive aggressive executives and managers who micromanage tend to become widely infamous rather quickly because people who have something bad to say tend to speak the quickest and the loudest. Given that Backcountry.com has been around for over a decade and seems to have achieved their unusual level of success rather quietly, they may be the rare start-up who has done things the right way. Actually, the more I read about them in trade magazine sites, the more I am convinced of that. Anyway, thanks for the commuting info. We may just have to bite our lip and pay through our noses for a home in the Park City area if we end up moving there for my husband’s career.

[BorderGirl]

I don't know much about Backcountry, but I do know that they were looking for employees back in the earlier part of the summer. I was going to apply but decided I didn't want to commute from Salt Lake every day and I can't afford to live in Park City. If I remember correctly, they were filling several positions so they just might not be available right now.

I don't know about you but I certainly wouldn't want to be driving to and from Park City from Salt Lake every day in the winter. I'm from Minnesota originally. Driving in the snow is what we do and we're pretty good at it. However, we're driving on pretty flat land and not up and down mountains. Plus my experiences with Utah drivers have been less than stellar. I just wouldn't want to go through that headache every single day.

I don't think you'd have a problem fitting into the Backcountry culture. What I got from reading about their company and their job listings is that they like to go out and participate in the activities that are available in the area and they encourage more of it. You're the face of the company so you really should be a part of it.

[live2ski]

Originally Posted by EvolvingElevation

I found this forum while researching Park City and Backcountry.com on the Internet and I could not be happier with the blunt and concrete answers here.


1. Does Backcountry.com, as a whole, have a reputation for being a pressure-cooker, expanding too quickly, and/or underpaying executive-level employees?


2. Does any member of the Backcountry.com management team, executive and lower, have a reputation for being passive-aggressive, volatile, tyrannical, and/or micro-managing?

I don't know about this.

3. As a couple of now pudgy (to say the least) former ski addicts who still buy and use season passes, but now enjoy hanging with our 8-year old son on the mountain and did so 20 full days last year, do you think we would we fit into the current and future Backcountry.com culture?


4. Besides Backcountry.com, who are the employers in Park City who might have a job for a technical writer/web content manager like myself, if any?


5. Is it a reasonable commute to Park City during all seasons from Salt Lake?

6. Are there any neighborhoods, subdivisions, towns, or just areas near Park City in which housing prices are not ridiculously elevated due to the resort(s)?

I know your time is valuable, but I would really appreciate your help. I want to know what people are really saying about Park City and Backcountry.com and I cannot get that information from the actual city or company.

Thank you so much for your time and help!

I live in Summit Park which is at the top of Parley Canyon. This is the summit of the pass between Salt Lake City and Park City. I do not work at Backcountry.com but know two people who do; one in management and one in clerical. I am an old (58) ski bum with a real job in SLC and compute there every weekday year around. In winter I still drive down the canyon because I prefer skiing in the Cottonwood Canyons which are accessed from SLC.

Backcounty.com encourages and supports employees who like to play hard AND work hard but management style is laid back. Hours are flexible, "just get the work done".

Don't worry about being out of shape, you will be fine. There plenty of people just like you guys there. There are also plenty of hard core types which would also describe me.

You will have to commute to SLC if you cannot get a job with Backcountry.com. This is why we live in Summit Park. It is exactly half way between the two cities: 20 minutes either way. Btw, an article in the paper says they are going add 200 employees in the next year. Maybe you can find something with them.

Commuting to SLC all year round is not that bad, I have done it for years. Make sure you have a good safe 4 wheel drive car. Subaru's are the most popular. If you are not comfortable with driving in snow you soon will be. Parleys Canyon is I-80 and is very well maintained. In Summit Park, we receive as much as 9' of snow in one week. This happens almost every year and we drive on snow most of the time. But Parley is usually clear. The only exception to this is when it is exactly storming and it will be cleared within an hour after it stops. At least once a year, sometimes more, someone will drive too fast for the conditions and cause a wreck and close I-80 in one direction. If that happens to be your direction, you are screwed. There are cameras all the way up the canyon and you can get real time visual updates on the road conditions from a web site. If you are working in SLC and it will be storming for your commute home, and it is dark, this is the toughest driving conditions; very white knuckle. But you can count the times this happens in a given winter on one hand and everyone in the SLC is sympathetic and encourages you to leave early. As long as it is not dark and you have 4 wheel drive, you will not have a problem getting up the hill.

Park City is very expensive. Your average modest track home it 900K. But there other choices just outside of Park City and closer to SLC. Jeremy Ranch is 700K+, PineBrook ditto, and Summit Park 450K for a house that needs a little remodeling and 550-750K for great homes. There are two problems with Summit Park: most of the houses are on steep shady lots (we are luckily and have a sunny level place) and we get a lot of snow, as much as the Park City ski resorts get. If you like snow and don't mind shoveling it and snow blowing on a regular basis, then this is a good place. The plus side is we can ski, snow shoe, hike, and mtn. bike right out of the house.

In the opposite direction (longer drive to SLC), there is Kamas, Wanship, Francis, and Coalville. Prices for older homes are still reasonable but there are new track homes springing up every where and they are running up in to the 500K range mainly because they are huge.

Having said all of this, I have to say that moving here would be a big improvement over Denver in every way: traffic, skiing, life style, etc.

[RockyMountainMom]

Thank you so very much for all that detailed information. I really do appreciate it!