217 replies to this topic

[floridaskier]

Here's a picture of the new snowmaking pond. Any guesses where it is? Maybe the lift in the picture is the Cabriolet, since it looks flat. It could be in that big empty area near the line turn on the Cabriolet.

[aimbrig]

The snowmaking pond is up near the current location of the terrain park. The lift is lookout express, second stage.

This post has been edited by aimbrig: 21 August 2010 - 12:52 PM

[Peter]

Another map

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[floridaskier]

Interesting, that's the second map we've seen that shows a sharp turn for the gondola instead of a gradual one. Maybe it will have an angle station? And it looks like the Golden Eagle lift won't end right next to the top of Snow Canyon, but rather a little farther downhill by the beginning of the terrain park. I guess there isn't enough room right next to the top terminal of Snow Canyon. Or that map could be as inaccurate as the Salt Lake Tribune's . We'll see. Where'd you find that one, skier?

[Peter]

It was from First Tracks but credited to The Canyons

[floridaskier]

Here's a youtube video about the transformation with a summary of the changes. One thing they haven't said yet is where they're going to expand lunch seating, but they did say more food and beverage announcements are coming

[SkiBachelor]

Does anyone happen to know what's up with the three new orange gondola cabins that were on the trailer?

I presume it's for added lift capacity, but at the same time, the windows are not covered in protective plastic. Therefore, are the cabins being repainted to distance itself from the old resort?

P.S. There sure were not a lot of attendees at that press release, although it was raining it looked like.

[jaytrem]

SkiBachelor, on 23 August 2010 - 09:05 AM, said:

Does anyone happen to know what's up with the three new orange gondola cabins that were on the trailer?

I presume it's for added lift capacity, but at the same time, the windows are not covered in protective plastic. Therefore, are the cabins being repainted to distance itself from the old resort?

P.S. There sure were not a lot of attendees at that press release, although it was raining it looked like.

I saw in one picture they also had some of the new (or refurbished) cabins on the line. I did hear they were changing the cabins, just not sure if they're fixnig up the old ones or splurged for new ones.

[Tin Woodsman]

SkiBachelor, on 20 August 2010 - 11:12 AM, said:

Another map overview.
dt.common.streams.StreamServer.cls.jpg

I think the SLTrib has things horribly wrong with that map. They've got the Sunpeak Express where Super Condor is. They've got the new and old Golden Eagle mostly cutting across the fall-line of the Golden Eagle runs and they've got Super Condor heading north to some place outside of the Canyons boundary.

[floridaskier]

I would guess they're replacing all the cabins. If they were just going to refurbish and repaint them, they probably wouldn't have brought three of them to the base area, but just one so people can look inside and see what they'll look like. The current ones are really beat up, with scratched up windows, broken window latches and torn seats, and they all smell slightly of pot, so maybe it's time for new ones after 13 years of heavy year round day and night use. But this is already a really expensive summer, and cabins ain't cheap, so who knows.

This picture shows three of the orange cabins on the parking rail, and one off to the side. Hard to tell if they're new ones or just recently repainted. Regardless of what's happening with the cabins, I would think they would want to wait until the bottom terminal is relocated to put them on the line. Won't they have to come off when the lift is relocated anyway?

[lastchair_44]

Those look like refurbished cabins to me. Didn't a few of the windows get kicked out when it broke down last month?

[floridaskier]

More of the http://howdoyoumountain.com/home/ website is up now. It says the Golden Eagle replacement will continue to 'just above Red Pine Lodge.' The elevation they give, 8429', is 300 feet above the Red Pine lodge at 8100. Sounds like it's going to end closer to High Meadow lift than Snow Canyon and the terrain park.

[floridaskier]

And here we go with more details, this time from the ridecanyons.com site. This says that the gondola cabins will be repainted, not replaced, and the Golden Eagle replacement will end where the old DJ hut was, wherever that was. Sounds like it's right in the Respect terrain park, does anyone know for sure?

http://www.ridethecanyons.com/?p=427

[aimbrig]

yes that is correct.

floridaskier, on 25 August 2010 - 06:19 AM, said:

And here we go with more details, this time from the ridecanyons.com site. This says that the gondola cabins will be repainted, not replaced, and the Golden Eagle replacement will end where the old DJ hut was, wherever that was. Sounds like it's right in the Respect terrain park, does anyone know for sure?

http://www.ridethecanyons.com/?p=427

[spunkyskier01]

Well I am always for ski area expansions/ improvements, but if history is any indicator, how long would you give them until they ditch the bubbles? I say 5 years.

[floridaskier]

spunkyskier01, on 26 August 2010 - 09:40 AM, said:

Well I am always for ski area expansions/ improvements, but if history is any indicator, how long would you give them until they ditch the bubbles? I say 5 years.

They do seem a little gimmicky. It's not like they have especially cold weather there, and most of the lift line is down in a bowl and at a low elevation. Who knows, though, maybe they'll be a big enough marketing advantage that Park City and Deer Valley will want some too

[TeleProphet]

Well, this announcement made me come back to this forum (it's been years since I last posted). I just couldn't help myself from posting:

The Canyons has been, and now continues to be, the poster child for one bad decision after another. Starting with ASC, the place has made one bizarre decision after another. The Park West days were no picnic either (they were chronically short on cash) but at least the mountain was fun to ski and made at least some sense to navigate.

Then there was ASC and now the current owners: First and foremost is the poor choice of the village location. The one thing they should have learned from the Park West days was that the base is at an awful exposure, which is a very poor location for snow preservation. Every spring, The Canyons looks horrible with dirt/mud at the base while their two neighbors (PCMR & DV) look like they have mid-winter coverage. Don’t tell me that they had to due to the existing infrastructure; the old lodges were in such bad shape there was zero value in keeping them. The much more logical place for the new base should have been the area where Tombstone / The Colony starts. It holds snow well and has a very appealing mix of aspen / conifers with nice low angle terrain naturally funneling everyone into the base area. No ugly scrub / semi desert like the current base area. To compound matters, they built the Grand Summit lodge with a horrible wedge shape that masses the building in the wrong direction, away from the center of the village.

Then they built a Gondola that is located in a strange position far off to the corner of the village area and it goes over a ravine to essentially nowhere. Now they want to correct it with a strange angle thingy a couple of towers up. What a waste of money in the first place. Now I see that the Golden Eagle lift is rumored to also go to essentially nowhere (at least they have an unload at the old top terminal).

After the bad base decision, they built one crappy lift after another that does nothing to encourage skiers to yoyo a run pod. Instead, the lifts are just used to transfer across the mountain. Have you ever spent more than one run on any of the lifts on the left side of the mountain? An interesting lift pod should inspire you to come back to the lift and yoyo a few times. I have never done that on Peak 5, Day Break or Dream Catcher/Scape. There is some excellent terrain in that area that is just useless with the current layout. To make it even worse, they bought used lifts that were too short and don't even extend all the way to the ridgeline. Done right, that whole left side of the mountain could have rivaled parts of Snowbird/Alta.

Now, the icing on the cake: Iron Mountain. That area could have had fantastic long runs, like a mini Sun Valley. Instead, they chop up the mountain and only use only part of the vertical.


I just don't know how they could have screwed it up worse, but they just continue to amaze me. The Canyons (or whatever branding they think will change their image) will never be a decent place to ski until they pretty much rip up every lift installed since ASC (Super Condor excepted) and start over. Think about it: most resorts would die to have the money they’ve had the last fifteen years to buy and install lifts. How could they have screwed up every lift install? All in all, The Canyons *should* have better skiing than PCMR and DV, but it doesn’t – because they still don’t get it.

OK – rant over.

[Keymech]

floridaskier, on 26 August 2010 - 11:15 AM, said:

They do seem a little gimmicky. It's not like they have especially cold weather there, and most of the lift line is down in a bowl and at a low elevation. Who knows, though, maybe they'll be a big enough marketing advantage that Park City and Deer Valley will want some too

I know the pot smokers will like them, easier to light up

[boardski]

When I go to the Canyons, I always find myself spending most of the time in the Peak 5/ 9990 area. Probably the most irritating thing to me is how everything on that side of the mountain funnels to Tombstone lift which usually has a line at any time of the day and closes at 3:30pm when it should close at 4:30pm to allow people to catch the last runs of the day. Hopefully they will do something about that in the future.

The thing I will be most amazed about though is if this project with the gondola relocatoion and the quad chair is finished in time for ski season to start. Wouldn't they have to have either the quad chair or the gondola ready to load public to be able to open the mountain? Are they sure the tilted sheaves will throw the needed curve into the gondola line? It is odd there are no footers for the new gondola tower locations and the gondola is still running for Summer tourism at nearly the end of August when many areas seem to be wrapping up lift maintenance and those who are installing lifts have their concrete work completed already. Is it possible to get projects like this complete in such a short time?

[floridaskier]

Here's a little money-is-no-object fantasy map I drew of The Canyons, dated June 2007, designed to fix everything I thought was wrong with the place at the time, and mostly still is:

1. Abandon the village for day skiers. Realign the Red Hawk lift to start right in the middle of the hotels, and I realigned the gondola and Cabriolet to be by the bottom terminal of the Golden Eagle HSQ to the right of the village. Build a real base lodge for day skiers down there like every other resort has.
2. Sunrise lift is a transfer to Tombstone. It's not very far. Alternatively, just build a road and a parking lot there
3. Snow Canyon lift realigned so it's much longer and doesn't go from nowhere to nowhere. Build a new lodge on the site of old Buffalo Bob's at the bottom of Super Condor to replace the head-scratcher location (and terrible menu) of the Sun Lodge.
4. Silverado lift added to make it easier to do laps on the north-facing side of Lookout Peak. ParkWest had a lift in this alignment.
5. Lookout lift is renamed and realigned to start right next to the gondola summit and end at the same place for two-way transfers. This was the best lift ASC ever installed.
6. Extend Saddleback to the top of the ridge and add more terrain.
7. New Red Pine lift starts at the Red Pine Lodge and makes use of the wasted north-facing space behind and above Tombstone and below 9990. It's not too steep in this area, and it would add some nice mid-mountain intermediate terrain, which is sorely lacking right now.
8. Tombstone, Super Condor, and 9990 remain exactly as they are. ASC got these right.
9. Peak 5 lift replaced and extended uhigher up the ridge. This would be some tough terrain up here, and a green cattrack back to the bottom of 9990 would be needed
10. Dreamscape lift replaced with a high speed quad starting below where Dreamcatcher is now. Build a lodge down there. Day Break high speed quad goes from there to the top of Peak 5 to make it easier to get back and to add some good skiing there.
11. Dreamcatcher lift would be up the other side of Iron Mountain from the new lift.
12. New base lodge where Iron Mountain and Timberline lifts are now, with parking and a restaurant. From there, the Royal lift adds skiing along the actual fall line in the vast wasteland currently traversed by the awful Harmony run. the Tranquility lift has a midstation to take people back to Tombstone from the south side of the resort.

Give me $100 million and I'll make it happen. What do you all think?

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