Canyons expansion is on schedule for opening day
The Canyons Resort
Patrick Parkinson
Of The Record Staff
An expansion underway at Canyons will make the resort near Park City the third largest ski area in the United States. The project includes a new lift and 300 new acres of skiing in the Iron Mountain area.
Canyons is already the largest ski area in Utah. With the new terrain the resort will rival Vail Resort in Vail, Colo., and California's Heavenly Ski Resort, according to Todd Burnette, the vice president of marketing at Canyons.
"Everything that we're doing here is really designed to try to improve the guest experience," Burnette said in an interview at the resort. "They can now get on the snow much, much quicker."
Before the expansion "there were a lot of qualifiers that came with people describing what they thought of the Canyons," Burnette said.
"We're blessed with some of the best ski areas in the world," he said. "We felt we needed to make these changes in order to compete."
Crews have moved the base of the Flight of The Canyons gondola nearer to the Cabriolet lift, which shortens the walk dramatically, according to Burnette.
"The idea behind that is really to make it much easier for people to get up on the mountain in the morning," Burnette said. "It's a huge deal. It took a long time to get up on the mountain."
Meanwhile, some buildings in the resort village, which blocked access to the base area for skiers on the north side of the mountain, were torn down.
Canyons officials now call that area the "ski beach"
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"Now they can ski right down here into the village," Burnette explained. "It's going to be a huge improvement We're really borrowing a lot of ideas from Europe as far as nice furniture and little food carts."
A new restaurant is expected to open in the resort village during the upcoming winter season. The 4,000-square-foot eatery in the Grand Summit Hotel will be called The Farm.
"There are a couple hundred outdoor seats that will be part of this restaurant," Burnette said.
A new high-speed lift is being built where the base of the gondola had been.
"What you see there are the beginnings of the new lower terminal of the orange bubble lift," Burnette said, gesturing toward the construction site. "It increases the uphill capacity out of the base Now right here at the base area you've got two great options."
The lift chairs will feature heated seats and pull-down enclosures, Burnette said.
After a roughly nine-minute ride the new lift will unload between the Saddleback and Sun Peak areas, he added.
Those who choose to depart at a "mid station" will find "access to all of the old ParkWest ski runs," Burnette said.
"Now you can get to Lookout Peak," Burnette said.
The 300 new acres of skiing in the Iron Mountain area will have "good tree skiing" with runs for intermediates and experts, Burnette said.
Officials are also spending money improving the resort's ability to make snow. A reservoir under construction near where the new lift unloads "almost doubles our snowmaking capacity on the whole mountain," Burnette said.
"We didn't have the ability to make snow all the way down to the bottom early in the season," he said.
Officials began designing these improvements when Talisker Corp. purchased Canyons from the American Skiing Company about two years ago.
"There is so much happening," Burnette said.
He said the bulk of the work will be completed in time for opening day Nov. 26.
"With the exception of the reservoir, all of the rest of this is done by opening day," Burnette said. "The towers are in and the concrete is poured."
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