sundance-film-destival-park-city-utah-2015.jpg

Ski season and the Sundance Film Festival are in full swing, and—in an effort to recruit the many swells who descend upon Utah at this time of year—Park City hotels keep dreaming up ever-more outlandish attractions. New for this winter, these are the latest over-the-top diversions:

A Speed Skating Lesson with an Olympic Athlete

Park City has been a home base for Olympians since the 2002 Winter Games, which means the town is overrun with professional athletes. Starting this month, Travis Jayner, a short track speed skater who was a member of the U.S. Olympic Team in 2010, will host private skating lessons for guests of the Waldorf Astoria Park City. Sessions are held at the Utah Olympic Oval, the indoor speed skating rink built for the 2002 Winter Olympics, and the Park City Ice Arena. Lessons are tailored to the customer, encompassing basic drills or advanced corner strokes. "The best piece of advice I have for beginners is to be patient," Jayner says. "Speed skating is an insanely technical sport." $300 per hour (up to two hours), plus $10 for skate rentals.

**Thermal Paddleboarding

**

Washington School House, Park City’s newest luxury boutique hotel, recently unveiled yoga lessons deep inside a 10,000-year-old crater. Instructor Julia Giesler of Park City Yoga Adventures demonstrates yoga poses from the dock while practitioners emulate the moves on paddleboards floating in a 65-foot deep, 100-degree therapeutic pool. "I had wanted to incorporate a paddleboarding element into my repertoire, but you can’t really use them in the traditional sense in Park City," she explains. "I went down to the crater and they said I could go for it before and after tourism hours. So we practice at 10 a.m. and at 11 o’clock at night. It’s a really cool experience that you can’t get anywhere else in the city." $110 per person.

**Helicopter Skiing and Ziplining

**

Alongside a change in management and a massive renovation last year, Canyons (Utah’s biggest ski resort) has partnered with Powderbird helicopter tours to offer guided skiing excursions that drop you in the untracked backcountry ($1,190 per person). "No chairlift goes to these parts of the mountains," says Ron Neville, vice president of lodging for Canyons. "There’s no ski patrol, and you’re far removed from the heavily trafficked areas." For non skiers, the hotel also offers a mid-mountain zip lining tour ($49), which starts on a small demo line and ends at a snow-covered canyon that’s 200 feet high and half a mile wide. You control the speed, which can be as fast as 100 miles per hour.

Related Stories for GQSundanceGQ SportsTVMovies