Vail Resorts have announced a $50m investment at Park City Mountain Resort in Utah to merge the ski slopes with neighbouring area, Canyons, which they also operate, to create the largest ski area in the USA, scheduled to be ready for the 2015-16 ski season.
Vail won control of Park City Mountain Resort from its former owners in the autumn following a long legal battle.
The connection will be made between the two areas via the Interconnect Gondola, an eight-passenger, high-speed two-way gondola from the base of the existing Silverlode Lift at Park City to the Flatiron Lift at Canyons. The gondola will also have an unload at the top of Pine Cone Ridge to allow skiers and riders the opportunity to ski into Thaynes Canyons at Park City via gated ski access or to the Iron Mountain area at Canyons through new trails that will be created from Pine Cone Ridge. This will mark the first gondola at Park City Mountain Resort since “The Gondola” was dismantled in 1983.
The connected ski area will create the largest single ski area in the USA with more than 7,300 acres of skiable terrain, and will be second in size in North America only to Whistler Blackcomb.
Vail Resorts will re-take the ‘biggest in the USA’ title from Big Sky in Montana which claimed the title just this season following its take over of linked Moonlight Basin with 5750 acres.
Another Utah area, Powder Mountain, had started disputing Vail’s claim some months ago when it first became likely Vail would make it, as it claims 7,200 acres, thought to be more than the size of the two areas joined at the time. However some have expressed doubt that Powder Mountain’s 7,200 acres can be considered lift served and skiable in the same way as other resorts claim, and in any case Vail’s 7,300 acres claimed area size has turned out slightly larger anyway.
Canyons began life as Park West, a small local ski hill, but saw rapid expansion to become one of the largest areas in the US thanks to investment from, the American Skiing Company which was one of the largest US ski resort groups at the turn of the century before its collapse. It was briefly known as Wolf Mountain before being renamed The Canyons. The ‘The’ in The Canyons was dropped some years ago.
For the 2015-2016 ski season, the company intends to operate the two resorts as, what they describe as, “one unified branded experience” under the name Park City Mountain Resort. Canyons’ name will change once again and will be renamed “Canyons at Park City”.
In addition to the new gondola the King Con and Motherlode lifts at Park City Mountain Resort will be upgraded. The King Con Lift will be upgraded from a four-person to a six-person, high-speed detachable chairlift and the Motherlode Lift will be upgraded from a fixed-grip triple to a four-person, high-speed detachable chairlift, also increasing lift capacity.