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SALT LAKE CITY — After serving as a ski guide in Utah’s backcountry for more than two decades, a Park City woman is being recognized by Outside Magazine as 2015’s Best Ski Guide.
Deb Lovci grew up in Colorado and began skiing when she was 5 years old. She eventually moved to Utah and said she fell in love with the backcountry of Wasatch Mountains. Lovci has now served as a Ski Utah Interconnect guide for 27 years.
“Anything that you slide on snow, I’m in love with,” she said. “Don’t I have the best job on the planet? I have the best job on the planet.”
Lovci leads ski tours through the backcountry of six different resorts located in the Wasatch Mountains. Lovci said she typically takes a group of eight to 10 people on a ski tour each day, and on average, she takes 300 clients on tours through the backcountry each season. She said she loves showing off Utah’s wilderness.
“I love the back country,” she said. “I love the snow science behind it. I love the safety... I just love it.”
Along with leading ski tours, Lovci also runs a bed-and-breakfast in Park City, the Old Town Guest House. A jack-of-all-trades, she also alpine skis, Nordic skis competitively, snowboards and leads mountain bike tours during the summer.
Outside Magazine selected five travel guides in various outdoor fields to name as the best in their Best of Travel April issue. Lovci said she was really surprised when she was selected as Outside’s Magazine Best Ski Guide for 2015.
“We all work really hard in what we do and we love it and it’s really nice to get acknowledged,” she said. “I work with a lot of amazing guides and the award could have gone to anybody — any one of us. I just thought that was awesome. I was super surprised. I had no idea.”
Ski Utah director of communications Paul Marshall said Lovci was very deserving of the award.
"Deb is one of the most passionate, focused, knowledgeable guides in the industry,” Marshall said in a news release. “Without her as the forefront of our Interconnect Tour, we would not have the success we have. She has been an avid part of the Interconnect Tour for 27 years and this award is more than well deserved."
The full list of best guides will be released in the April issue of Outside Magazine and is also available online.
