Sundance: Stars and Slopes Forever

First woman scans teeming street, then looks up.

CAMERA TILTS, revealing chairlift.

CUT TO: Woman riding chairlift up still, white mountain, bumper-to-bumper traffic below her. Empty chairs rise in front of her and behind.

FADE TO BLACK

* * *

No, my screenplay, "The Parallel View," won't be coming soon to a theater near you. Hollywood has turned a cold shoulder on the ski movie ever since 1969's "Downhill Racer," a non-hit starring none other than the Sundance Kid himself, Robert Redford.

Too bad. "The Parallel View" (working title) would have been perfect for Redford's film festival. What with it being set at Sundance 2005, that whole cinema verite thing would have been kicking.

But since this film project has the proverbial snowball's chance of getting into production, I'll pitch the concept here. So cue title, bring up music:

For an ab-fab time on the slopes, head to Park City during the annual Sundance Film Festival, this year scheduled for Jan. 19-29.

Oh, sure, it's gridlock for 10 days as members of the movie tribe -- 15,000 a day -- schmooze, deal and see and get seen in the flesh and on the many screens set up all over the small mountain town. But approximately none of these people ski.

What's more, the locals aren't on the slopes much either during Sundance. Some are going to screenings and parties. Some are picking up extra work with the festival. (A bonanza for bouncers!) Others have hunkered down to wait out the invasion.

This leaves the mountains' majesty to the minority that comes to Park City in late January for the snow, which, by the way, is usually super -- an average yearly fall of 350 inches. Park City also has enough terrain to keep a skier or boarder of any level busy -- a combined 8,600 acres at Park City Mountain Resort, Deer Valley and the Canyons.