217 replies to this topic

[floridaskier]

The Facebook status update: "I can finally spill our re-creation of the resort! We are re-aligning the gondola for access directly across from the Cabriolet, new quad with heated seats and orange bubble to protect from the weather, ski beach between gondola and new quad, and Iron Mountain adds 300 acres of terrain. Plus-reservoir to add to snowmaking! Press release coming."

Well now we have to wait for the press release for details like whether the second stage is happening, and whether Iron Mountain is a high speed quad or not (my money's on not). This is really exciting though. I wonder what this ski beach is all about. Are they going to make snow out in front of the Grand Summit hotel and put beach chairs out there like Deer Valley has?

[iceberg210]

floridaskier, on 19 August 2010 - 10:39 AM, said:

Well now we have to wait for the press release for details like whether the second stage is happening, and whether Iron Mountain is a high speed quad or not (my money's on not). This is really exciting though. I wonder what this ski beach is all about. Are they going to make snow out in front of the Grand Summit hotel and put beach chairs out there like Deer Valley has?

Can't say I know what a 'beach' at a ski resort is outside of the one at White's Pass. However having said that and knowing both that the Canyons is in Utah, and that the Canyons is a completely different sort of ski resort, I'm pretty certain that we're talking about something completely different at the Canyons...


A while back I hiked a bit at the Canyons, back when there was still a few old Riblet towers up from the old lift, July maybe?, at any rate while it's quite an improvement I have to say there's something sad about losing the last Riblet lift in Utah (at least that I know of...)

[aimbrig]

Iron mountain is HSQ and second stage drops people off skiers right of the top of sun peak.

floridaskier, on 19 August 2010 - 10:39 AM, said:

The Facebook status update: "I can finally spill our re-creation of the resort! We are re-aligning the gondola for access directly across from the Cabriolet, new quad with heated seats and orange bubble to protect from the weather, ski beach between gondola and new quad, and Iron Mountain adds 300 acres of terrain. Plus-reservoir to add to snowmaking! Press release coming."

Well now we have to wait for the press release for details like whether the second stage is happening, and whether Iron Mountain is a high speed quad or not (my money's on not). This is really exciting though. I wonder what this ski beach is all about. Are they going to make snow out in front of the Grand Summit hotel and put beach chairs out there like Deer Valley has?

[aimbrig]

Canyons Announces First Bubbled Chairlift with Heated Seats in the United States, New Gondola Portal to Ski Village, New State-of-the-Art Quad Lift, New Terrain and Enhanced Snowmaking


Park City, Utah – In anticipation of the upcoming ski season, Canyons, a Talisker mountain destination, is pleased to announce the launch of two new, state-of-the-art lifts, a new direct-connect gondola, expanded terrain and vastly improved snowmaking capabilities. This is the very first phase of the re-creation of Canyons. Anticipate several future significant announcements including dramatic food and beverage news.



Orange Bubbled, State-of-the-Art Lift – First of its Kind in North America



Just outside the Grand Summit Hotel, the new lift is a marvel of engineering and will be the first of its kind in North America. One of the most technologically advanced chairlifts in the world, the bubble enclosed, quad lift offers unmatched visibility, safety, and design and includes sophisticated comforts such as heated seats. The weather protecting orange bubble will evoke the feeling of being inside a pair of ski goggles as it transfers guests from the steps of the Grand Summit Hotel to the mid-mountain Lookout Peak before continuing uphill to an ending point just south of the current Sun Peak lift. The new lift will be a visually stunning addition to Canyons and will increase the uphill capacity from base-mountain by a staggering 47%. Most importantly, the new lift will allow skiers to get to the very top of the mountain in just nine minutes – a far more timely, simple and elegant fashion than ever before.



New Direct Gondola Connection from the Center of Canyons Village – First Phase of Village Re-Creation



A new gondola portal has been created, located immediately across the village center from the Cabriolet Lift, it will create a direct-connect gondola that transports guests from the center of the village to the Red Pine Lodge. This will provide a far more simple and fluid process for transporting guests onto and off of the mountain. In addition, the gondola cabins will be upgraded.





300 Acres of New Skiable Terrain / Iron Mountain Lift



Utah’s largest resort is getting even larger and more exciting. The southern-most part of Canyons will see the construction of another new detachable quad lift, which will provide guests with access to an additional 300 acres of northwestern facing skiing and snowboarding terrain. Ten runs, ranging from intermediate to expert to gladed tree skiing will bring the total number of runs to an impressive 176. Timberline Lift will allow guests to ride in either direction and provide easy access to the south side of Canyons. This will allow guest to move around the mountain more easily.



New Snowmaking Enhancements



In addition to Canyons’ almost 400 natural inches of some of the best snow on earth and existing snowmaking capabilities, Canyons is constructing a 20 million gallon reservoir to ensure a consistent skiing and riding surface particularly in the early and late stages of the season. The reservoir and additional infrastructure investments will more than double The Canyons already significant snow making capabilities.



Canyons Ski Beach



The Ski Beach, located between the base terminal of the new direct-connect gondola and the new high speed, state-of-the-art quad lift, will become a gathering place for the beginning and end of the day. Along with Talisker’s award winning culinary team, Canyons will provide guests the ability to enjoy everything from breakfast to an après ski cocktail in a truly beautiful and breathtaking setting viewing up the mountainside. The Ski Beach will also prove to be a wonderful setting for concerts and other cultural events year round.

[mthornton]

Tell us how the heated seats work.

[SkiBachelor]

Photos from the press release.

 3590855.jpg (15.24K)
Number of downloads: 213  3589689.jpg (50.66K)
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Just wish they were larger!

[Peter]

Doppelmayr brochure on heated seats: http://www.doppelmay...2009_UK_def.pdf

[Peter]

Also just read that The Canyons Resort will be re-branded as just "Canyons" by the fall. New logo coming and slogan is "How do you mountain?"

http://www.deseretne...-by-winter.html
PARK CITY — Skiers and riders at The Canyons Resort this winter will be treated to heated seats and ski lift chairs covered in weather-protecting orange plastic.

The "bubble" chair lifts were purchased from Austria and will be the only ones of their kind in the U.S., said Mike Goar, managing director of Canyons.

"That heated chair — it changes your whole outlook on a cold day," Goar said.

The resort also plans to change its name to "Canyons," leaving off "The" and "Resort." It will re-brand itself starting with an ad campaign that asks, "How do you mountain?"

Some of the improvements will take place in about 18 months, but changes on the slopes could take five years or more.

Beyond the new-age bubble chairs, Canyons and its owner, Talisker, have purchased a snow-making machine and a 20 million-gallon reservoir, plus a lift to Iron Mountain that opens 300 acres of new terrain. If everything goes as planned, that would put the resort at about 4,000 skiable acres with a total 176 trails.

Those frozen acres, especially in high elevations, will allow an increase in the number of skiers who get to the top by 50 percent, due to the lift featuring the orange bubble seats. The new lift replaces the Golden Eagle.
Story continues below
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New amenities will come with "a small amount" of increase in both daily and season ticket prices starting this year, Goar said. The figures have yet to be announced.

Citing a privately held status, Canyons also declined to comment on how much was spent on the upgrades, how many visitors it has annually or how many more visitors it expects in 2010/2011.

However, resort managers said they plan to add about 100 employees during peak times, bringing the total to 1,700. This summer, it has had about 150 construction workers at the resort.

Park City Chamber of Commerce spokesman Craig McCarthy, himself a skier, attended Thursday's announcement. Like all other press conference attendees, he was soaked in a chilly rainstorm that broke out just as the orange lifts were unveiled.

"It's great news in a lot of ways," he said of the resort's plans. "It's good for Park City, for the ski industry and for employment."

McCarthy added that the increased uphill capacity will be great, especially during winter holidays.

Announcements in the near future will include news of additional restaurants and bars at the "Canyons ski beach." Additional parking space also could be on the agenda.

"We want to focus on the skier experience" said Paul Boardman, a new member of the Canyons executive team. "We believe that a mountain is a lot more than a pile of rocks."

[jaytrem]

Iron Mountain pic...

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Number of downloads: 148

[Skier123]

So the gondola is going to have a midstation that redirects it toward the cabriolet, right? And this is apparently a job by Leitner-Poma. So will the upgraded gondola use a Lietner-Poma design on the mid-station and just use the same bottom terminal, or... I guess what I'm trying to ask is how extensive will the upgrade be. Some type of custom job will have to be done by Leitner-Poma to make the mid-station terminal compatible with the old grips if they are going to do what I mentioned above.

[SkiBachelor]

Does anyone know why the ski runs coming down from the top left of Iron Mountain do not start at the top? The only reason that I can think of is that section of Iron Mountain is not owned by the resort.

[Peter]

Skier123, on 19 August 2010 - 05:51 PM, said:

So the gondola is going to have a midstation that redirects it toward the cabriolet, right? And this is apparently a job by Leitner-Poma. So will the upgraded gondola use a Lietner-Poma design on the mid-station and just use the same bottom terminal, or... I guess what I'm trying to ask is how extensive will the upgrade be. Some type of custom job will have to be done by Leitner-Poma to make the mid-station terminal compatible with the old grips if they are going to do what I mentioned above.

The consensus on here thus far is that the line curve can be accomplished through canted sheaves. It remains to be seen how far up the curve will be.

[floridaskier]

I didn't understand why they were holding back all the details of the summer projects, but it makes more sense now, since these upgrades are beyond the typical summer lift replacement, and they were able to create a lot more buzz by keeping people waiting. If ever a resort needed a good rebranding, this is the place. They needed to really pour a lot of money into the mountain, and they're doing it. In one summer, without anyone knowing exactly what was going on, they fixed several shortcomings of the resort in one fell swoop:
- No more long walk between the car and the mountain. Deer Valley and Park City let you drive almost right up to the snow, and once the novelty of the Cabriolet wore off, it was one area where The Canyons fell short. They should have put the Cabriolet right next to the gondola from the beginning.
- No more gondola lines, because only half as many people need to take the gondola now. This was another problem with the place, that there was only one way up from the base, and it was at least three lift rides (Cabriolet, gondola, and Saddleback/Tombstone) before any actual skiing, compared to one ride at Deer Valley or Park City
- No more half-assed expansion. It was really important to put in Iron Mountain as a high speed quad. The Timberline lift is great because you can avoid endless rides to nowhere on Dreamscape and Peak 5
And the best part of it all is that now they'll blow snow and keep the Golden Eagle area open. It's the best part of the mountain (unless Iron Mountain tops it) but they hardly ever had it open under the last few years of ASC and the bankruptcy phase. I haven't been to The Canyons (the 'The' is gonna stick) for a few years, but I'll definitely be back this year, and I'm sure plenty of other people felt the same way

That diagram of the new lifts probably isn't drawn to any scale. What's more likely is the towers of the bottom half of the line will be moved over to the skier's right to move the line, and the current terminal will be relocated to the new place. It looks like they used Poma Satellit terminals for both the Cabriolet and the gondola in the base area rendering.

The upgraded snowmaking capacity is going to be a huge help too, even if it's not the sexiest resort upgrade ever. I bet every drop of it goes to the Golden Eagle area, which is at a pretty low elevation and could use some help early in the season. The whole resort is lower than Park City and Deer Valley and faces east instead of north, so the coverage has been worse there lately

One question they didn't answer today was whether or not you'll be able to get back from the Golden Eagle runs without riding the rope tow. I bet they can move enough dirt down there to make it work.

Didn't get enough suspense this week? Check this out: http://howdoyoumountain.com/

[ewillso7]

This "transformation" is an ambitious, bold and needed step for writing the Canyons' future.

I imagine they have more plans for the future. A glaring hole was getting skiers to the trails faster. You still need to take 3 lifts (Cab, Flight and Saddleback), but you shave 10 minutes if you can hop off the Cab and get right to the gondola. Having another high speed from the base will get the park rats where they need to be faster as well.

The next major concern that must be addressed is finding some sort of way to ski down to the base. As it stands, you have to take some kiddy tow rope to get back to the hotel from the Murdock and Sun Peak side. If you're mid mountain, you'd have to ride the Shortcut chairlift and ski down. If your on the Peak 5 side, it's riding Timberline, Tombstone and Lookout. It's certainly a challenge to get back to the base. It's challenging since they basically build a ski resort in a bunch of ravines, but it's a situation that needs to be addressed.

[floridaskier]

ewillso7, on 19 August 2010 - 07:31 PM, said:

This "transformation" is an ambitious, bold and needed step for writing the Canyons' future.

I imagine they have more plans for the future. A glaring hole was getting skiers to the trails faster. You still need to take 3 lifts (Cab, Flight and Saddleback), but you shave 10 minutes if you can hop off the Cab and get right to the gondola. Having another high speed from the base will get the park rats where they need to be faster as well.

The next major concern that must be addressed is finding some sort of way to ski down to the base. As it stands, you have to take some kiddy tow rope to get back to the hotel from the Murdock and Sun Peak side. If you're mid mountain, you'd have to ride the Shortcut chairlift and ski down. If your on the Peak 5 side, it's riding Timberline, Tombstone and Lookout. It's certainly a challenge to get back to the base. It's challenging since they basically build a ski resort in a bunch of ravines, but it's a situation that needs to be addressed.

The new high speed quad will let you take actual runs in two different areas in just the Cabriolet + Golden Eagle, either to the Snow Canyon area or the Golden Eagle area.

One of the issues with putting the main lodge on the opposite side of a ravine from the base area is that there won't be an easy way to ski back. Maybe one of these days they'll relocate Sunrise yet again to run from the gondola base to the bottom of Tombstone in both directions, so you can get directly back there from the south side. Aside from that, there's not much else they can do there.

[SkiBachelor]

Another map overview.
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[Andy1962]

One of the issues with putting the main lodge on the opposite side of a ravine from the base area is that there won't be an easy way to ski back. Maybe one of these days they'll relocate Sunrise yet again to run from the gondola base to the bottom of Tombstone in both directions, so you can get directly back there from the south side. Aside from that, there's not much else they can do there.
[/quote]


Canyons could just (do what Snowbird did from near the top Peruvian Gulch through to Mineral Basin and ) build a tunnel through the ridge that is in the way from the Main Lodge to the Base Area. -)

[ewillso7]

floridaskier, on 19 August 2010 - 07:43 PM, said:

The new high speed quad will let you take actual runs in two different areas in just the Cabriolet + Golden Eagle, either to the Snow Canyon area or the Golden Eagle area.

One of the issues with putting the main lodge on the opposite side of a ravine from the base area is that there won't be an easy way to ski back. Maybe one of these days they'll relocate Sunrise yet again to run from the gondola base to the bottom of Tombstone in both directions, so you can get directly back there from the south side. Aside from that, there's not much else they can do there.

I think one of the simplest things they could do is level out the small hill to the north of the base area. Right now, you need to take a 150' tow rope to get over it, then you tuck under the gondola and you're at the base. Leveling the hill would at least make it possible to pole your way back from the Super Condor area.

In regards to getting back from the mid mountain area and Dreamscape area, you have minimal options. Personally, I would have never built the Timberline lift that connects you to Tombstone. Instead of building a transfer lift to Tombstone, they should of considered bringing that lift to the base area. That way, you don't need to ride the gondola or shortcut lift back.

Additionally, I never understood why they've got the beginners area at the Red Pine lodge. They should relocate it to the base area and free some uphill traffic.

[ewillso7]

The Gulch Tunnel was built so beginners could get to the Mineral Basin greens. The problem with the Canyons is the distances between Point A and Point B are much greater. It's such a wide resort that tunneling would be a financial and engineering nightmare. I think the best scenario would be some type of transfer lift from the Timberline area back to the base. You could give skiers from Peak 5, Dreamscape, Iron Mountain, Daybreak and 9990 immediate access to the base by throwing a transfer lift from the Timberline bottom station back to the base area.

[floridaskier]

It would be nice if there was a way to drive and park at the bottom of Tombstone and start your day down there instead of at the gondola base. But I think they want people to have to walk through the village. Park City and Deer Valley have multiple access points to spread out the crowds. Having the new Golden Eagle lift will make access a whole lot better and eliminate the gondola bottleneck, but it would still be nice if repeat customers could avoid the Cabriolet.

Long shot idea for Phase 4 or 5 of the transformation: three-stage enclosed gondola to replace both the Cabriolet and Timberline, connecting Tombstone with the village like the BreckConnect.

For phase 2: I think a high speed quad running up the other side of Peak 5 from the useless Peak 5 lift would go a long way. As it is now, all the lifts lead away from the base area, leaving the 2 mile Harmony cattrack as the only way back. The next phase of the 'transformation' has to be some lift replacements and additions on the Dreamscape side of the resort. Dreamscape has nice runs (Day Break is another useless lift with hardly any vertical that should be removed) and it would be nice to see a real lodge and a good way to get back to Tombstone from the bottom of Dreamscape.

Have we heard what the name of the new high speed quad will be? Might be Lookout Express, but I'd rather see Golden Eagle Express to avoid confusion with the Short Cut lift, which used to be Lookout on the map and still gets called that.