Skilifts.org / SORT Forum

From Tuesday: "
Waldorf Astoria Park City The Canyons Resort opening day is Friday, November 26th, 2010. On Friday the ropes will drop on the new re-creation plans. We're excited about the Ski Beach, new trails and orange bubble chairs! Just a reminder that Waldorf Astoria is located next to the Frostwood Gondola for easy access up to the mountain.
Will we see the new logo, website, etc on Friday?

Orange Bubble terminal. That's one sharp looking lift. The orange tinted glass is a really nice touch. It's got a custom made lift shack too

Is that a recent picture? If so, they have 10 days to stretch the haul rope, attatch chairs and pass the load test among other technical tasks not known to the naked eye, can this be done? It also does not look like they have much snow, what are they planning to open?

It must be from a few weeks ago. From the looks of things on the webcams around Park City, there's plenty of snow right now. I'm more worried about the lifts being ready in time. There's a lot of snow at higher elevations now in the area, and a decent amount down below.

http://www.facebook....heCanyonsResort

Discussion on the facebook page doesn't make it sound like The Canyons is very confident about making their opening date, currently set for next Friday, the 26th.

Supposedly these were taken yesterday.

I don't think those were taken yesterday, there should be more snow. If they were, they're in some big trouble

Here's an article about the food service changes for this year
http://www.parkrecor...rce=most_viewed

The Facebook page says these were taken yesterday. They'll be lucky to open by Christmas with the gondola so far from being done. Without snow down there, they can't open Orange Bubble either, so the gondola is the only way to access the mountain. It looks like they have a ways to go on Orange Bubble too. If they did snap the angle station together yesterday, how long could it be before they were able to open it? Do they have to load test the gondola again? I would assume they tied down the haul rope somewhere uphill of the angle station so they don't have to pull it across the gorge again, but that means they still have to pull it over the last few towers, splice it again, and what else? I'm worried about them making for the holiday rush. Crystal's gondola seems to be farther along than this, and they're not opening that anytime soon either.

Opening is set for Dec 10th. WIll they make it? Maybe.

Kicking Horse, on 19 November 2010 - 05:08 PM, said:

serves them right for starting a bunch of major hill modifications after the end of the summer tourist season.

I hope they get dumped on early.

They should have completely bagged summer ops this year. It was ridiculous to not start on the gondola until September. Outrage all around from the passholders on the Facebook page.

I don't think the passholders should be that outraged. They are getting an unprecedented number of on mountain improvements and it's not even thanksgiving yet. The only things I would be upset about are that they waited so long to push it back and the press release was poorly written. Rather than saying "we're sorry we have to push back opening day because of X" they said "we are pleased to announe that opening day is 12/10!". No mention of a delay or regret.

Facebook outrage is a joke anyways.

Skier, on 20 November 2010 - 07:04 AM, said:

How so?

They should have, at the very least, offered an apology. There's quite a bit of evidence that this was mishandled--and it's going to be a PR disaster if they don't do something soon. Waiting to start on improvements until after the summer season (which, though important for the Canyons, is nothing compared to winter), an apparent lack of communications between the marketing department and management, and inability to keep customers informed of what stage they are in of construction--the list could go on. They should be posting about a dozen pictures a day of that day's construction progress; they should be posting videos every few days to keep everyone updated; they should have webcams for construction. It's been a total blackout--no transparency whatsoever. It appears that the marketing department needs a facelift more as much as the mountain does.

But while a delay until December 10 is unfortunate, it's not that long of a delay. The real question is whether that will be enough time to sufficiently complete projects.

agillskis, on 20 November 2010 - 11:56 AM, said:

Well Said.

There won't be a delay if there is no snow.

I think they're catching on to what they should have said the first time... "Friends of Canyons - We want to be skiing just as bad as you! But with all our new improvements we want to be able to offer our customers the best experience possible, and Dec. 10 is when we can do that. Are we working hard to create that experience? Definitely. Will you avoid beating up your skis on early season slopes? Yes! Stay with us friends, when those chairs start spinning Canyons is going to be amazing!"

An interesting post on TGR from someone who seems to be in the know: http://www.tetongrav...07&postcount=14

Skier, on 20 November 2010 - 02:28 PM, said:

Still no apology, though. Which they badly needed. A simple, "we apologize, we're doing everything we can to complete our projects in a timely manner" would have sufficed. It's amazing how far that would've gone. I do think it's ridiculous that the angry passholders are calling for "monetary compensation." They don't need compensation. They got a discounted season pass already. Not to mention the fact that December 10 isn't that late for a ski resort to be opening. It may be for Utah, but for the West as a whole? No.

Are there really permit issues about the Orange Bubble lift, or is that post just someone ranting? I didn't know they were trying to put up a building to store the chairs. If so, I sure hope it's not supposed to be near the bottom terminal, because there wasn't any sign of a building going up on those pictures they posted of the progress the other day.

The communication about this has sucked all summer. They should have announced the improvements early in the summer, found a way to run some other kind of summer ops that didn't require the gondola and eaten the revenue, and finished everything on time. Playing chicken with the snow gods on two absolutely essential lifts was not the best idea. They had a real chance to show that things were changing around there, and they're really close to blowing it with the people who were really excited to ski there this year. Hopefully they get things done by the 10th.

Does anyone know how Iron Mountain Express is coming along? Everyone seems to have forgotten about that with the gondola and OB so far behind. I would think they put all hands on deck for the gondola and Orange Bubble, but maybe they finished that earlier in the summer

Waiting to make the announcements isn't necessarily a bad idea, nor is keeping it very low key until they are ready to use it as a marketing tool. Having multiple major projects that are all starting simultaneously and late in the year is probably not a great idea. Making the those projects both essential to operating the mountain rather than staggering, such as doing the orange bubble this year and the gondola next year, is pushing the bad idea limit.

The real sin though, and I don't ski the Canyons and don't have any near term plans to, is that they made a grand announcement and failed to keep customers in the loop when it became clear that those plans were falling behind schedule. I believe it was a post about Crystal's gondola and someone said that the marketing department things that once the towers are in, the lift is ready. A lot of the general public probably thinks that way as well. When the general public sees that there is a disconnect or a problem, areas need to step up, take notice, and take action. "Die hard" skiers only make up a small percentage of your base, and though they can be loud their comments aren't generally noticed by a "normal" customer. The early season generally makes this group particularly vocal though. Everyone is an armchair quarterback when they have the itch.

This is a classic example of the marketing/PR strategy being great until it didn't work out.