Park City, UT – Utah’s Deer Valley Resort will kick off its winter season with the 22nd annual Deer Valley Celebrity Skifest on December 7 and 8. The invitational ski event pairs former Olympic ski legends with television and film celebrities for a weekend of skiing, live music and fundraising for the Waterkeeper Alliance.
“The start of another ski season is always an exciting time at Deer Valley Resort and hosting the annual Celebrity Skifest is the perfect way to kick-off another year,” said Deer Valley Resort President and GM, Bob Wheaton. “It is a great opportunity to show that the resort is once again ready for its skiing guests and we are able to help support the Waterkeeper Alliance, a non-profit organization we feel strongly about.”
The Deer Valley Celebrity Skifest is a three-day event that includes giant slalom races on both Saturday and Sunday on Deer Valley’s Birdseye ski run. Races are free to the spectating public and can be viewed from the Silver Lake area at mid-mountain. The Skifest’s host property, Montage Deer Valley, will be the location of additional evening events throughout the weekend with all proceeds to benefit the Waterkeeper Alliance, an environmental organization committed to protecting rivers, bays, lakes and streams from pollution on six continents across the globe, believing that every person should be able to safely swim, drink and fish in local waterways. The event has raised over $4 million since the partnership began in 2006.
Festivities throughout the weekend are featured in the number-one rated winter sports television special on CBS, broadcast to more than one million viewers. The 2013 Deer Valley Celebrity Skifest is scheduled to air on Sunday, December 8 at 5 p.m. EST (after the NFL).
Some of the best-known legends of U.S. skiing are scheduled to compete in this year’s event, including Steve Mahre, Phil Mahre, Tommy Moe and Deer Valley’s own Ambassador of Skiing, Heidi Voelker. Previous guests have included Academy award-winning actors Glenn Close and Marcia Gay Harden, Emmy Award-winning actors Larry David and Neil Patrick Harris; Paul Mitchell Systems President John Paul DeJoria; Grammy award-winning artists Mary J. Blige, Train, Melissa Etheridge and musical talents Natasha Bedingfield, Gavin DeGraw, Gavin Rossdale and James Blunt. This year’s Skifest promises a group of supporters including Christie Brinkley, Rachael Harris, Cheryl Hines, Larry David, Bobby Farrelly, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Edward James Olmos and a special performance by Grammy award-winning country music artist Miranda Lambert.