Vail Resorts’ CEO Rob Katz has confirmed plans by the largest North American ski resort operator to physically link Canyons, which it has operated for several years, and its recently acquired Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) to create the largest ski area in the US.
“We expect to generate significant additional EBITDA growth as we implement our plans to combine the ski experience of Park City Mountain Resort and Canyons into the largest mountain resort in the United States with over 7,000 acres of skiable terrain,” wrote Katz in the company’s financial report. “(We) will be looking to upgrade or add new lifts, restaurants and snowmaking capabilities at both resorts,”
Full details are promised next March, it is not clear if the two areas will maintain separate identities or be merged.
Vail ski resort in Colorado was itself the largest ski area in the US with 5,200 acres until recently, when the merger of Big Sky and the former Moonlight Basin in Montana, overtook it with 5,800 acres.
Another Utah resort, Powder Mountain, is already disputing that the new combined-area will be the largest in the US however, claiming it has 7,500 acres.
Whistler Blackcomb in BC, Canada remains the largest ski area in North America with 8,171 acres.
