Park City & Canyons to Connect in 2015 | Largest Ski Resort in USA Being Formed

Park City was bought by Vail this year for $182.5 million after an epic legal battle with PowdrCorp.  Vail now owns Park City and The Canyons ski resorts and they sit adjacent to each other.  The logical next move?  Join them together and make the largest ski resort in the USA at 7,300 acres of skiable terrain.

Vail’s big move here is the Interconnect Gondola – an 8 person, high speed gondoal that will go from the base of Park City’s Silverlode chairlift to the Canyon’s Flatiron chairlift.

The next big move in Utah will be to connect all 7 Salt Lake area ski resorts:  Park City, Deer Valley, Canyons, Brighton, Solitude, Alta, and Snowbird.  This 7 resort connect is starting to look inevitable.  You can already ski between Alta and Snowbird, between Brighton and Solitude, and between Deer Valley, Park City, and The Canyons.  To connect all three they just need to put in a few lifts to get people from the Park City zone to the Big Cottonwood zone to the Little Cottonwood zone.

Vail will be putting $50 million into the two resorts.  Projects include a new gondola, a new restaurant, improving two chairlifts, snowmaking, and more.  This is all slated to be completed before next season starts.

PARK CITY PRESS RELEASE:

The Interconnect Gondola. An eight-passenger, high-speed gondola running from the base of Silverlode Lift at Park City to Canyons’ Flatiron Lift. When conditions allow, gondola passengers will be able to unload at the top of Pine Cone Ridge and ski or ride directly down to Park City’s Thaynes Canyon trail. This gondola connection will create the single largest ski resort in the United States.

Upgrades to Park City’s King Con and Motherlode Lifts. King Con will be upgraded from a 4-person to 6-person high-speed detachable chair, meaning increased lift capacity. Motherlode will switch from a fixed-grip triple to a 4-person high-speed detachable, similarly improving the number of guests it can carry.

New Snow Hut Restaurant and Summit House Restaurant Upgrades at Park City, Red Pine Lodge Expansion at Canyons. A completely new Snow Hut restaurant, replacing the current Snow Hut, next to the base of Park City’s Silverlode Lift and the Park City terminal for the Interconnect Gondola, will include 500 indoor seats and a top-of-the-line kitchen and culinary experience. Meanwhile, upgrades to Summit House will improve the flow of diners and increase seating. At Canyons, Red Pine Restaurant will be renovated to the tune of 250 more indoor seats.

Snowmaking and Other Improvements. The plan rounds out with additional snowmaking on two trails in Canyons’ Iron Mountain area, and a widening of Chicane trail, to handle increased skier traffic for Interconnect Gondola access. We’ll also be putting another $5 million into various other maintenance projects around Park City Mountain Resort.