 Poster: A snowHead
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America may get it's first giant ski domain if plans to connect a number of well known resorts in Utah come to fruition. Most ski areas in the US are very limited compared to the super-domains which Europeans are becoming used to, each stretching between a number of resorts...
Although Europeans tend towards slope side accommodation, most people in the US are used to staying away from resort and driving each morning to that day's choice of domain.
According to this article from USAToday, only five hundred yards separates the four resorts of Solitude, Brighton, Alta and Snowbird. Another pair of chair lifts could link these four to Park City and Deer Valley, creating North America's largest skiing complex.
But if it really is going to be European style maybe they'll have to start referring to kilometers of piste - not acres. Apart from pure back-country areas, I've never thought measuring a resort by square area made much sense anyway. I bet the acres figures mean absolutely nothing to any snowHead who hasn't actually been to several US resorts to get a feel for what they actually represent in terms of skiing scope. As usual, commercial reasons are behind the plans for interlinking
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Overbuilt, the Utah resorts are itching to attract more vacationers and chip away at Colorado's lead. Utah logs about 3.3 million skier visits a winter; Colorado leads the nation with 11 million.
An interconnect would bring together 12,000 acres of resort skiing on some of the finest powder snow — more than twice the size of either Vail or Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia, making for a Euro-style ski experience and powerful marketing draw. |
And of course there are many who don't want things to change. Anything which reduces our American cousins' reliance on gas guzzling SUVs to get onto the slopes cannot be all bad. Park once and ride many lifts ++ good.
Any snowHeads have any views on the proposals?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Depends on the price of the lift ticket.
I have skied 5 of them.
I liked Alta and Brighton the best and they were the two cheapest.
A link between the Cottonwood resorts and Park City would save a car trip though.
Then again, it will never be the 3 valleys because they do not really have the number of lifts or the focus on pisted runs.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Whether the North American link their resorts together or not is up to them but kuwait_ian is right in saying let's have a measurement of the total length of pistes. Why hide behind the acreage? At least we can have the like to like for comparision with Europe, even if have to overlook the number of chairlifts available.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the Trois Vallees was at least 30,000 acres of skiable terrain, which somewhat qualifies the "Euro-style experience" that is mentioned in the article.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I have commented in this forum that Tignes/Val D alone is much bigger tha Whistler/Blackcomb which is ranked the biggest in N America. Tignes/Val D has 300km piste. Thus doubling the size can just matches 3 Vallees' which has 600km pistes. I doubt if the number of chairlifts in the American resorts, when fully linked together, can match the 3 Vallees' 600 lifts. If the lifts are not fully linked then they will have a long way to go to rival the claimed 1200km in Italian's Dolomites.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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the biggest difference IMHO is that in the US when you are "in bounds" of the ski area, you are covered by ski patrol/avalanche cover, no matter where you ski, compared to Europe, where if you step 1m outside the piste you are out of bounds and on your own.
If they could link some Utah areas, and still keep the "in bounds" skiing, which us Europeans would call off piste, then it's a great idea IMHO
cheers,
greg
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...as long as they leave Alta out of it.
Alta is special. Let's keep it that way.
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Wear The Fox Hat, not sure that they can do it without Alta. Doesn't the itinery from Park City go through Alta?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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john wells, unfortunately it would end up there:
Park City to Brighton down to Solitude, then over to Alta
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And another article from USA Today on problems in Utah. This time on the conflict between the heliskiers and those who want to keep areas free of noise pollution and slopes cutup by the 'drop in' wealthy.
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Wasatch Powder Guides was forced out of more remote wilderness areas created in 1984, which only diverted more flights to the more accessible bowls popular with day skiers. The result is a battle as much over terrain as over Saturdays, when skiers of all kinds swarm the slopes.
That's the way things could stand for another five years after the Forest Service renewed a permit. Neither Save Our Canyons nor Wasatch Powderbird Guides is satisfied with the terms. Both are appealing the decision.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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The US resorts generally aren't too bothered about comparisons with European resorts, because 90% of their clientele is domestic, and very few Americans ski in Europe. But if the Utah resorts were to link in this way, Colorado resorts would certainly take it seriously. Maybe Vail and Beaver Creek could link. There has been talk for ages about a gondola from Minturn on to Vail Mountain, and Minturn is separated only by a fairly low ridge ("Meadow Mountain") from the Rose Bowl section of Beaver Creek.
But the environmental lobby is extremely strong - there are actually plenty of people who care about the environment in the US, and most of them live in the mountain resorts. So I don't see the Utah link, or the Vail/BC one, happening for decades.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Martin Bell, that's an interesting point about the green lobby. NZ has the same problem limiting it's resort expansion (as well as a lack of a sufficently large and increasing international market, but that's another topic entirely...) On the one hand it's nice to think the great outdoors is getting protected. On the other hand it's a pain to know that possible links or expansions, which would make for access to a hell of a lot more interesting skiing, ain't ever gonna happen in my lifetime.
As a matter of interest, if the Utah linkage ever eventuated in your lifetime, would you as a "local" want to ski it? Or are Americans/Canadians not fussed by miles of linked pistes?
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