217 replies to this topic

[alvin]

floridaskier, on 11 January 2011 - 06:26 AM, said:

I think it would appear more crowded than other places because only a small fraction of the mountain is worth skiing on. Tombstone, Saddleback, and probably now Orange Bubble and Iron Mountain lifts are the only ones that are interesting to most skiers. Half of their acreage of cattracks between the houses, so they can crow about being the biggest resort in Utah, but it feels a lot smaller than Park City, where all of the terrain is worth skiing

I think the Canyons has a lot more good terrain than you give it credit for. You don't think there is anything worth skiing off Super Condor, Sun Peak, Peak 5, Dreamcatcher or 9990??

I was there this past weekend, and was very impressed with the improvements. The bubble lift completely changes the way the front side of the mountain skis. And the tow-rope does make it MUCH easier to get back to the base from the northside of the resort. Iron mountain is great - long runs with nice pitch. My only issue there was that some of the runs were a little icey - but I skied it in the morning and given the exposure it will probably ski better in the afternoon after the sun is able to soften the snow a bit. I didn't see a lift line anywhere on the mountain all weekend. Cloud Dine hadn't yet opened, but looks almost ready.

As for the layout - I agree it's not the most intuitive, but to me that is also part of the charm. Anyone who can read a trail map benefits - as the crowds tend to stick to Tombstone and the Red Pine area, leaving the rest of the mountain almost empty.

Would still like to see them add or extend another lift or two up to the ridgeline (seems feasible at some point), add another lift out of tombstone with direct access to the base area (maybe terminating on the ridge above the Sunrise lift?), and ultimately, someday, connect to Park City or preferably Big Cottonwood. But until then, it's still my favorite of the 3 Park City areas, and only got better this year with the new changes.

[floridaskier]

Super Condor is great, but they hardly blow any snow or groom over there, and it's the last thing to open, so it doesn't really help distribute the crowds. Sun Peak has the one nice cruiser off of it, but it starts and ends in such strange places that it doesn't help much either. 9990 is great for experts, but it won't make a difference bringing crowds away from the Red Pine area.

Peak 5 lift is completely useless in my opinion, except as an access lift for Dreamscape. The only way back to it is on a cattrack, and there are better trees at The Canyons. Dreamscape runs are nice, but the fixed quad and lack of snowmaking keep people away from there too. My favorite runs at the whole place are off of Dreamcatcher, but it's so far away from everything else that it's keeps people away too. Maybe Phase 2 will address some of this.

I can't wait to check out Iron Mountain though. It's their first expansion done right in years. Does anyone have any pictures from over there yet?

[skierdude9450]

I guess the gondola is now called Red Pine? Flight of the Canyons was such a more interesting (and accurate) name.

[floridaskier]

It is. The top terminal sign still says Flight of the Canyons, but it's just called 'the gondola' anyway.

[floridaskier]

Cloud Dine, the new lodge at the top of Dreamscape, opened today. Boy they put that up fast. It was part of a foundation and mostly a hole in the ground covered by a tent when I was there mid-December

[DonaldMReif]

floridaskier, on 15 January 2011 - 07:57 AM, said:

Cloud Dine, the new lodge at the top of Dreamscape, opened today. Boy they put that up fast. It was part of a foundation and mostly a hole in the ground covered by a tent when I was there mid-December

Any pictures of Iron Mountain? Or will we all have to wait a while for photos?

Another question: Orange Bubble has footrests. Will Iron Mountain probably not have them?

This post has been edited by DonaldMReif: 23 January 2011 - 09:57 AM

[floridaskier]

Finally a picture of the completed Iron Mountain lift

[DonaldMReif]

Those chairs look like they have footrests, but the angle that the photo was taken from makes it hard to easily determine that.

[floridaskier]

I'm pretty sure they don't have footrests. Look at the chair that just unloaded, you can see the handles but no footrests. Nice orange seats though

[pcskibum]

DonaldMReif, on 31 January 2011 - 03:05 PM, said:

Those chairs look like they have footrests, but the angle that the photo was taken from makes it hard to easily determine that.

No footrests, sorry!

[SkiLiftsRock]

This is one nice looking lift I would like to take a ride on it someday.

[skidv]

Orange seat cushions?! The Canyons is really going all out with this new "orange" thing...

[floridaskier]

I wonder why the Orange Bubble terminals aren't orange too. Everything else around is orange these days

[DonaldMReif]

floridaskier, on 04 February 2011 - 10:41 AM, said:

I wonder why the Orange Bubble terminals aren't orange too. Everything else around is orange these days

The windows are tinted orange!

[Peter]

I skied Canyons 2 days this week and enjoyed it a lot. I'd never been before so I can't comment on how it used to be, but it didn't seem that difficult to get around. All of the on-mountain trail maps have been updated with the new lifts and logo. See pics of the new Iron Mountain lift below.

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[floridaskier]

Great pictures, thanks. I was there last week but I forgot to bring my camera. First time I'd been with Iron Mountain open, and it's a big improvement. It does a much better job connecting the Dreamscape areas of the mountain to the other side. You can now access Dreamcatcher without having to go anywhere near the useless Peak 5 area, and that's a big improvement there. The Timberline lift is a quick ride over and back. Iron Mountain has some nice runs that were much longer than I was expecting.

One thing that would have been cool if they had enough money would have been to make Iron Mountain a two-stage lift that started at the bottom of Tombstone, with a midstation where it starts now, instead of the Timberline-Iron Mountain combination.

Got a chance to ride Flat Iron and Sunrise too. There was not a single sign indicating the existence of Flat Iron if you didn't know it was there. The liftie was reading a book on a bench with his shirt off (it was in the high 50s) and said I was the first person he'd seen in hours. The second midstation and the end terminal can't be more than 100 yards apart

[Peter]

Well last year's projects were called Phase 1 of Canyons' transformation, so the question is what will be phase 2? Canyons recently posted this on their Facebook page: "We think you'll be excited about some of the improvements we'll have coming this summer . . . stay tuned!" Hopefully they won't wait until August to start projects and make an announcement. Anyone have any thoughts on what they'd like to see next? I would love to see Dreamcatcher replaced with a high speed quad and the old lift relocated somewhere since it's not very old.

[floridaskier]

I'd love to see Peak 5 replaced with a high speed quad and realigned so you can do laps on worthwhile terrain, not just the Power Alley cattrack. Use the Peak 5 quad as a return lift back to the top of Tombstone, or as a way to get from Red Pine up there without riding Tombstone