Utah Interconnect?

[RidgeRacer]

Looks like this is gaining momentum. The goal ultimately is to connect the Park City resorts with the Cottonwoods ultimately providing access to all seven resorts via tram. The initial stage (Canyons over the ridge to Solitude appears it may be a go soon).

 

http://liftutah.org/blogs/press-media

 

 

For two years, downhill skiers have been in a froth over a proposed gondola that would connect Utah's Canyons Resort to nearby Solitude Mountain, linking up 6,250 acres of terrain.Though the project has been slowed by concerns about environmental impacts, odds are that it will eventually get federal approval. Meanwhile, other Utah resort managers have been quietly discussing additional lifts and boundary openings that would bridge seven mountains throughout the Wasatch Range, creating a European-style network offering single-pass access to 17,000 acres. Here's a look at how and when this ambitious project could all come together.

1. SNOWBIRD <-> ALTA
Since 2001, the AltaBird ticket ($99) has allowed skiers to swipe passes at boundary turnstiles.

2. ALTA <-> SOLITUDE
PROPOSAL: A lift from Alta's base up to a cat-ski area known as Twin Lakes Pass, and another short lift from Twin Lakes Pass to the top of Solitude's Summit chairlift.
POLITICS: Alta's lift would be built in Grizzly Gulch, an area currently used for the resort's cat-skiing operation. Management needs to decide if closing that makes fiscal sense.

ETA: 2017

BONUS: Access to a 45-degree bowl full of open glades, cliffs, gullies, and ridgelines.

3. SOLITUDE <-> CANYONS
PROPOSAL: A gondola from Canyons to Solitude.
POLITICS: Backcountry skiers are upset that the gondola will cut through prime off-piste lines. Environmentalists are concerned that Canyons will develop land adjacent to the new lift, polluting the watershed. Since this is federal land, moving forward requires congressional approval; a bill made it through the House of Representatives and was expected to come up for a Senate vote in late 2012.

ETA: The gondola could be built in time for the 2013-14 season.

4. CANYONS <-> PARK CITY
PROPOSAL: A lift from Canyons to Park City.
POLITICS: Talisker, a Canadian company, owns Canyons and the land Park City operates on. But Talisker and Park City have been in a dispute over the terms of the lease. They expect to resolve it early this winter.

ETA: The lift could be built within two years of an agreement.

BONUS: Access to an open bowl and aspen glades.

5. PARK CITY <-> DEER VALLEY
PROPOSAL: Access points along the boundary between the two resorts.
POLITICS: Deer Valley and Park City execs are studying the logistics of a dual ticket.

ETA: 2013-14 season.

6. PARK CITY <-> BRIGHTON
PROPOSAL: Two lifts starting at Guardsman Pass, a seasonal backcountry road. One would carry skiers to Park City, the other to Brighton.
POLITICS: This is all private land, so approval hinges on Park City resolving a dispute with Talisker Land Holdings, its landlord. Environmentalists may try to halt construction over concerns that it will pollute the watershed.

ETA: The lifts could be built within two years of an agreement between Talisker and Park City.

BONUS: Trails down to the lifts would include everything from easy groomers to glades.

7. BRIGHTON <-> SOLITUDE
The resorts were linked in 1984. The SolBright Pass ($82) allows back-and-forth access through several gates.

ENDLESS TURNS
The numbers on a hypothetical ski-tour loop beginning and ending at Snowbird:
$105: Price of a lift ticket
15: Number of chairlift and gondola rides (includes existing lifts)
5: Hours of travel time

Link to Article: http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/north-america/united-states/utah/The-Most-Ambitious-Skiing-Project-in-the-United-States.html?page=all

Utah renews debate over Euro-style resort connections in Wasatch Range, some already in place

By Associated Press, Published: November 19

SALT LAKE CITY — This could be the next great leap forward for Utah skiing: Hopping from one resort in the Wasatch Range to another, with seven resorts already clustered so closely together some neighbors are separated by only a rope line.

It would make for a Euro-style experience in in the mountains that loom over Salt Lake City. By combining 25 square miles (65 square kilometers) of terrain, the Utah resorts could offer North America’s largest skiing complex — three times the size of Vail and twice as big as Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia.

Canyons Resort has given the concept new attention with a proposed first step: a $10 million gondola traveling two miles (3.2 kilometers) over the 10,000-foot (3,000-meter) Wasatch ridge and dropping into Solitude Mountain Resort for customers of both resorts.

Many skiers are delighted at the prospect of open travel along some of the best skiing terrain in the West, with the reliability of dry Utah snow.

“It would give Utah the marketing edge it needs,” says Jon Weisberg, a retired Bristol-Myers Squibb executive from New York who moved in 2000 to Utah for the skiing and redrock canyons. “Stringing these jewels together will make it even better.”

It’s not clear Canyons will succeed, but the Park City resort has opened a debate that lay dormant for decades. The discussion could bring in other resorts, and it’s already spurring studies of transportation and route options involving rail, cable cars or dedicated bus lanes.

“The whole idea of connecting resort has taken on renewed discussion and debate. We’re happy to be a part of it,” said Mike Goar, managing director of Canyons. “It’s consistent with the bigger picture of connecting resorts.”

Going over opposition from the U.S. Forest Service, Canyons asked Congress earlier this year to sell a corridor of land for the gondola, raising an avalanche of protest from backcountry skiers, wilderness advocates and municipal water officials.

“We need to curb development and keep the pristine beauty of the Wasatch mountains that draws people to this place,” said Carl Fisher, executive director of Save Our Canyons, a preservation group that says it’s open to lower-impact options for resort connections.

Solitude recently stated that it hopes to see construction of the inter-resort gondola begin in summer, but aides to Utah’s Republican Congressman Rob Bishop don’t expect any action until the new Congress is seated in January.

[Justo8484]

pretty sure the skilink thing hit a major roadblock by not getting in front of the senate last year. i believe they need to start the process over because of that, and the politicians who were elected in this past november are not in favor of the legislation. if you read any message boards or comments on websites from that region, the skiing population is overwhelmingly opposed to skilink. not sure if you've ever skied canyons, but he logistics of that chairlift or tram or whatever they want to build make absolutely no sense for the regular skier and will do nothing to lower traffic up BCC. my math might be a little off, but i believe it would take 5 lift rides to get from the canyons base over to solitude, which would probably take over 2 hours, at least, and you'd have to buy a joint ticket on top of that. it's pretty clear it's a land grab on talisker's part to get access to the guardsman are for condo development.

[RidgeRacer]

 

This guys provides the tour from the Canyons Ridge to the base of Solitude. - interesting.

[AtomicSkier]

there was a thread about this a few months ago....johnny law had some strong opinions.

[Johnny Law]

Its fucking bullshit, the interconnect is a 20 year pipe dream of land developers and idiots everywhere. It doesn't make life better for skiers and it ruins classic BC lines and areas in an already super crowded area.

 

Long story short there is bullshit between the lease holder for Park City, and the lessor. Essentially Park City pissed off a canadian company called Talliskier, Talliskier then purchased the lease rights to some of the land Park City needs to run its operation. It was a 99 year billion reup type lease but PC fucked around and Talliskier acted like dick faces too and the whole thing got pretty nasty, my recollection is the courts worked it out.

 

This all stems from the same problem, the Canyons in comparison to BCC/LCC is a shitty place to ski but the only place were you can really do new construction. So a bunch of real estate guys pretending to open a ski area blow up housing and shit at the Canyons around 02 when the olympics were in town but people don't want to ski or live there so they have a big fucking problem particularly when the greater housing market is in the shitter.

 

Very smartly they figured out if they run a lift from the Canyons to BCC which is actually very close now people will want their shitty condo's for 1.5mil and they can be very happy. First off this kills prime fucking touring, real UT classics and second of all its very stupid.

 

Who the fuck is going to leave Brighton/Solly to ride at the Canyons ? Its going to take an hour full round trip so add that in too. Its going to be alot of one way traffic, peeps that want to live at the Canyons but ride at Brighton or Solly, neither of which by the way need more PC fuckers. Never mind that if you take a piss in the woods at Solly they pop you with a watershed ticket but they'll let Dick Bass and friends run diesel trucks all over the fucking place and string a lift up every possible square inch because well they have $$$.

 

Its stupid, it is another real estate deal sold as having something to do with skiing. UT is not the Alps, it doesn't ski like that, there is very little advantage to being able to go from Alta to the Canyons and there is alot of downside.

 

Unfortunately conservation is not exactly our strong point and the buffoons and land developers will probably eventually win this battle....

[guitar73]

yup, that's a strong opinion....

 

JL, i always appreciate your commentary: highly informative and entertaining at the same time!

[Johnny Law]

A ticket for pissing in the woods...damn I'd need to be wearing my best cockring to get out of that charge.

 

Its the fucking sheriff, now I will never be a huge fan of cops but this shit was fucking disgusting.

 

Dude is sitting in an unmarked SUV in the moonbeam lot at solly, its snowed like 12", Christmas break so non-UT people. Some random walks out of the lot and into the woods right next to the giant snowcat path and takes a piss. As he is walking back to the car sheriff dude comes running with a water shed ticket, random's got a beer in his hand and turns out he's 20. So he gets an underage and a pissing ticket, his dad gets a supplying to a minor all because he wanted to have a beer with his kid at the end of a good pow day.

 

That's the difference between a pig and a cop, a cop realizes these aren't criminals tells them to keep that shit on the DL and go does actual cop work. Pigs load these two people up with tickets and shit because he can even though they aren't hurting anyone. Meanwhile back in reality as the sheriff is writing all these tickets about 1000 snowcats and snowmobiles come flying by belching diesel fumes and shitty two stroke exhaust but that pee is just too much man gonna fuck up the watershed.

 

It would be funny if it wasn't true....in NH at King Ravine there is a real nice BC cabin that has an outhouse. Somebody has to go out in winter and break that shit up as it freezes and causes problems. Big ass sign on the door to the outhouse says this is only for shitting, if you have to pee use the woods. Nature can do pee no problem, it has millions of years of dealing with pee but somehow in UT pee not millions of cubic feet of diesel exhaust is the problem.

[vinnyv11]

Certain states public urination gets you on the public state sex offender list regardless if anyone other than the cop sees you. When I was in Iowa for a game thats all they kept telling me was don't get caught peeing in public like its a common occurrence.

[RidgeRacer]

J-Law do you know where the proposed tram from Hidden Peak to West Twin currently stands (supposedly providing access to Mary Ellen Gulch). While the Ski-link is pretty asinine. I'm not sure how I feel about this one.

[Johnny Law]

J-Law do you know where the proposed tram from Hidden Peak to West Twin currently stands (supposedly providing access to Mary Ellen Gulch). While the Ski-link is pretty asinine. I'm not sure how I feel about this one.

 

Mary Ellen Gulch has been on Dick Bass's radar since at least 06, he swapped land to get UT on board, well and for that mtn coaster shit. He has lots of power via mining so the UT people pretty much suck his dick.

 

That area is ok, great views but they really like it because it has some low angle shit. The bird is kinda vertical, even big emma isn't really all the beginner friendly and the tram just straight up makes them piss their pants. Mary Ellen would provide somewhere for those riders to go. Its 800ish acres and maybe 3500 vert so not exactly minor. The other thing is you could theoretically still get the Bird when the LCC road is closed via American Fork but don't quote me on that as I'm not sure that is actually the plan.

 

In 2011 the US Forest Service accepted their plan which basically means they will now look at the 2-3 year environmental impact statements and watershed reports. Long story short I know Bob Bonar and he actually runs this shit, currently they have to get through the Gad Valley Improvement impact statements first and then do the two year dealio with Mary Ellen Gulch so what would that be 2015. In reality they have the Gad $ which is night skiing, magic carpet and new quad, they don't really have the Mary Ellen $$$ lined up yet so you won't be skiing there until 2020 probably.

 

BC wise I think peeps are worried this will allow the Bird to control access to Baldy Bowl and White Pines but they will probably not push that. Watershead people are pissed as always. The BC people don't want White Pines becoming the next Scotty's bowl and are maybe worried about the increased potential for slide related problems.

 

I'm not a huge expansion guy but this at least relates to skiing, they are only doing this to improve skiing...well mostly.....so I'm not exactly for it or against it. More they are going to do what they are going to do and this one doesn't really fuck up the neighborhood.

 

If it was my decision and it ain't, I build the Alta/Brighton tunnel and put massive underground garages at the bottom of LCC and BCC. Everyone must take the train which is mostly above but goes underground for the big slide paths. This light rail uses the aforementioned tunnel to move between the two during high slide activity. The roads are only for emergency vehicles. Rail connects to SLC/Airport and maybe eventually to the Ogden/Snowbasin area.

 

Too many cars in the canyons, particularly LCC so you gotta do something but stringing up a billion lifts just doesn't seem reasonable.

Edited January 23, 2013 by Johnny Law

[RidgeRacer]

Doesn't look like this is gonna happen...

 

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/2013/08/08/congress-withdraws-land-sale-proposal-for-utahs-skilink/

[toast21602]

it's a waste anyway.

[RidgeRacer]

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/2014/03/19/utah-ski-resorts-unite-behind-interconnect-concept/

 

Ski areas seem to be on board

[Justo8484]

While it's awesome that they figured out a way to connect everything without having to build on public land, I still don't see the point. The argument that it will cut down on traffic in the canyons is absurd to me. How many people are staying in park city and driving to alta, bird, etc? If you're staying in PC and trying to ride Brighton, ok, you could accomplish that with 2, maybe 3 lift rides. But traffic isn't an issue in BCC; it's an issue in LCC, which would take those 2-3 lifts from deer valley, at least one from Brighton, then at least one at soli to get to alta. So that's 4-5 lift rides just to get to alta, let alone bird. Double that for the journey back and I'd be willing to bet you'd get 3-4 runs at alta. If they're banking on people doing that and claiming it'll cut LCC traffic as a justification to ram this thing through, they're delusional.

[GSSucks]

While it's awesome that they figured out a way to connect everything without having to build on public land, I still don't see the point. The argument that it will cut down on traffic in the canyons is absurd to me. How many people are staying in park city and driving to alta, bird, etc? If you're staying in PC and trying to ride Brighton, ok, you could accomplish that with 2, maybe 3 lift rides. But traffic isn't an issue in BCC; it's an issue in LCC, which would take those 2-3 lifts from deer valley, at least one from Brighton, then at least one at soli to get to alta. So that's 4-5 lift rides just to get to alta, let alone bird. Double that for the journey back and I'd be willing to bet you'd get 3-4 runs at alta. If they're banking on people doing that and claiming it'll cut LCC traffic as a justification to ram this thing through, they're delusional.

 

 

The new 10 year plan that is circulating here has a single chair to Pow Mow, with a mid station exit and a T-bar to Snow Basin. The study's show it taking 3 days to get to Pow Mow and 2.5 days to get to Basin.

[toast21602]

 

 

The new 10 year plan that is circulating here has a single chair to Pow Mow, with a mid station exit and a T-bar to Snow Basin. The study's show it taking 3 days to get to Pow Mow and 2.5 days to get to Basin.

So many lift beers can be consumed. Very pumped for this!

[Justo8484]

 

 

The new 10 year plan that is circulating here has a single chair to Pow Mow, with a mid station exit and a T-bar to Snow Basin. The study's show it taking 3 days to get to Pow Mow and 2.5 days to get to Basin.

I'm assuming this involves a trax extension and the mythical cabriolet from main st up the back side of mt Ogden? I'm not interested until they build the monorail link down to Brian head though.

[GSSucks]

I'm assuming this involves a trax extension and the mythical cabriolet from main st up the back side of mt Ogden? I'm not interested until they build the monorail link down to Brian head though.

 

You're close, a T-bar will also connect Ogden to Mt Ogden, of course it will start at the Salmon Center because where else would you want to go in Ogden?