Park City, Utah Opens Saturday, November 21st As the Largest Ski Resort In the USA

Park City, Utah will open Saturday, November 21st as the largest ski resort in the United States with 7,300 acres of skiable terrain after Vail Resorts acquired the next-door neighbor Canyons for $182.5 million. Although Park City is the largest ski resort in the U.S., it doesn’t surpass Whistler with 8,171 skiable acres for the largest ski resort in North America.

“This is a historical year for us,” said Bill Rock, Vail’s chief operating officer. “People have been talking about connecting resorts in Utah for a long time, but we were able to make it happen.… Park City has all the ingredients to be one of the best ski resort destinations in the world.”

Vail isn’t stopping there with only spending $182.5 million on purchasing the Canyons, since then they have put in another $50 million for improvements. The resort built the Quicksilver Gondola with a 1.5 mile ride where you can get off on Pine Cone Ridge to ski the Canyons or Park city.

“We’ve talked about this being transformational, as the biggest resort in the U.S., people have big expectations, so we want to deliver,” stated Bill Rock, Vail’s chief operating officer.

Along with that, the Park City side of the resort built the brand-new Minors Camp Restaurant, the King Con lift’s capacity went from 4 to 6 per chair, and the Motherlode lift has went from a 3 to 4 person high-speed detachable lift. In Canyons Village, the Summit House and Red Pine restaurants were renovated, Chicane trail was widened, and snowmaking was increased on Iron Mountain.

Park City Mountain Statistics:

Average Annual Snowfall: 355″

Skiable Terrain: Over 7,300 Acres

Vertical Drop: 3,200 Feet

Terrain Parks: 7 including over 150 park features, 8 half pipes, 1 super pipe, and 6 natural half pipes

 Lifts: 41 lifts, more than 3,500 chairs, and 22.39 miles of lifts

Terrain: 300+ trails ( Beginner-12%, Intermediate- 47%, and Expert- 41%), 17 peaks, and 14 bowls

Interesting Statistics:

• Rental Equipment: 1,131 snowboards and 3,773 pairs of skis
• Snowcats: 38 in the fleet
• Snowmaking: Over 480 snowmaking guns
• On-Mountain Dining Locations: 16

In August of 2013, Big Sky Resort purchased neighboring Moonlight Basin and Spanish Peaks Resort to create the largest ski resort in the United States. The mega-resort offered 5,750 acres of skiable terrain and their reign as the largest ski resort in America went on for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 seasons.  Big Sky’s reign will end Saturday, November 21st when Park City Mountain Resort opens for the season offering 7,300 acres of skiable terrain.