By Rachel Bartz
Miles of hiking trails and premier ski resorts have long drawn outdoor enthusiasts from far and wide to Park City, Utah. With decades of experience as both a visitor and full-time resident, Michael O’Malley (ΦBK, Pomona College) has published a jovial guide to the area filled with the sort of insight and care only a local can provide.
Since his New England childhood, the outdoors has been a love of O’Malley’s. He spent hours with his family skiing, boating, and hiking. O’Malley moved to California in the 1970s to attend Pomona College, and Park City became a natural meeting point for him and his parents to ski. Eventually, O’Malley and his wife, Lauren, moved to Park City full-time. Over the years, he has engaged with the community in a variety of ways, from guiding hikers and skiers at Deer Valley Resort to leading tours as a Park City Museum docent. When O’Malley and his wife recently moved part-time to Olympia, Washington, they received a local guidebook that sparked his desire to write something similar for Park City. “It occurred to me that no one had written a humorous travel book about Park City,” O’Malley said. “It was an opportunity that suited my background.”
O’Malley’s contributions to a local paper, The Park Record, meant he had already collected information on numerous aspects of Park City history that were ripe for inclusion in a guide.
Knowledgeable and lighthearted, Attitude at Altitude: The People’s Guide to Park City and Summit County approaches the guidebook genre with the conversational tone of a good friend. This was O’Malley’s goal, he shared.
“I had a long, professional career in marketing and public relations in a variety of industries, but my side gigs were guiding people on skis, guiding people on hiking trails, guiding people on rivers, and you have a lot of time for conversations in that milieu,” O’Malley said. “The challenge in writing this book was how could I capture that informality and warmth on paper that you have when you’re floating in a river or sharing a trail with a group of people? So, it was really that feeling of community you get on a river trip, hike or day of skiing that I was trying to capture on paper.”
In hindsight, publishing a book was inevitable for O’Malley. He developed an early love of reading and writing, and learned the craft of journalism through an internship at a local newspaper while pursuing an English degree. O’Malley expressed that his liberal arts background equipped him to think critically and interrogate sources, skills that were crucial in the creation of Attitude at Altitude. Regarding the importance of Phi Beta Kappa and an education rooted in the liberal arts and sciences, he said, “The liberal arts background that Pomona College is built upon had a very deep impact on how I approached my career and how I approached writing this book. I used the words, the discipline, the methodology, and the questioning that a good liberal arts education gives you…it was fundamental in the process that I followed.”
Ultimately, when reflecting on what he felt was the most important information to include about Park City, O’Malley asked himself, “What would I have wanted to know when I first visited or moved here full-time that would have made me care for this place from the get-go? In a way, this is a user manual for people who have moved to the Park City area, and a call for them to get involved…to find what is most important to you about the area and pitch in to preserve that or improve that.”
Ironically, there is one downside to O’Malley, or any local, sharing their knowledge of their small town—the potential for it to increase growth pressures. Having frequented Park City since the 1980s, O’Malley has witnessed much of the area’s transformation firsthand and believes there is hope for positive development and preservation.
“We’ve seen growth pressures, and at the same time, we’ve seen residents band together to protect open space and to preserve some of our mining history,” he said. “So, there are currents back and forth—the crowding that many wonderful places are feeling, but also a stepped-up urgency to protect what makes those places special.”
O’Malley also acknowledged that the issues Park City currently faces are not unique. “The threats to Park City are not uncommon to the western United States,” he said. “It’s water, it’s open space, it’s crowding on the roads, and how that interfaces with public transportation. We need to grow in certain ways to continue to support the recreational industries and opportunities that make Park City unique. Supporting both our residents and our visitors requires a workforce, and that workforce requires a place to live, a living wage, and a means to get around. Growth will always be a challenge, but can you do it in a way that is efficient, sustainable, and which doesn’t degrade the wonderful things that we love about the area, our peaks, and our 400 miles of trails?”
While Park City will inevitably continue to evolve, Attitude at Altitude: The People’s Guide to Park City and Summit County has captured much of the area’s history and natural wonders, and encourages visitors and locals alike to appreciate, learn, and preserve.
Rachel Bartz is a graduate of The College of William & Mary, where she studied international relations and economics. She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa there in May 2025. William & Mary is home to the Alpha of Virginia chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.