After the excitement of Celebrity SkiFest was concluded, my family decided to extend the fun, and celebrate Opening Week.

One of the great benefits of getting out on the second weekend is that it’s quieter than it will be for weeks to come. Honestly, If you can come here on an “off” weekend (i.e., non-holiday) do it.

On Sunday, we felt like we had the mountain to ourselves—the four of us were in ski school for the full day. Jeffrey and I had a private lesson with Letitia Lussier, the amazing instructor I met on my first Women’s Weekend, several years ago

Meanwhile, Seth spent the day in Reindeer Club, and Lance spent the day in Adventure Club. It was a treat to see Lance shredding Lost Boulder from our perch on Northside Express Chairlift—and the run was loosely –populated enough that we had the chance to spot him.

We bumped into friends, here and there, there was a Mahre Training Camp under way, so we said hello to Phil and Steve a couple of times on lift-lines. (I won’t name names, but one of those brothers may or may not have called me out for being too “matchy,” in my appearance—purple boots, purple-ish skis, white pants, jacket with a pattern that contained purple. I may or may not have retorted that I was owning it, so it was allowed.), and the overall atmosphere was both relaxed and festive, as staff and guests alike got our ski season on.

One of the best benefits was something that had not occurred to me when I booked the boys into their group lessons: it wasn’t at all busy in ski school. Hence, Seth was the only child in his group. As his instructor noted, “This week is the ‘value week,’ in ski school,” because you have a higher likelihood of one on one coaching. Lance had only two other children in his group (both of whom were picked up 90 minutes early), leaving him with, essentially, a ninety-minute private lesson at the end of the day.

Finally, the restaurants were not crowded in the least.

So, don’t tell your kids’ principal I told you to do this, but if you can sneak them out of school for a day or two and grab a long weekend at Deer Valley when everyone else is not on vacation, I highly recommend it.