Category Archives: Outdoor News

Happy Endings in Park City Unlikely

I’ve been holding out hoping that this whole situation would work itself out; like kids on a playground finally figuring out they’ll have more fun if they stop arguing and get along. Then I would only get to write about the happy ending. I still might get to write about the happy ending but it won’t be anytime soon.

The hammer’s coming down this afternoon and either Park City Mountain Resort will be required to pack it in and make room for Vail Resorts to take over resort operations or 3rd District Court Judge Ryan Harris will stay VR’s eviction order to give PCMR time to appeal the May 21, 2014, decision.

Judge Harris heard motions from PCMR this spring, took time to mull over the evidence presented from both sides and ultimately ruled in favor of VR and partner Talisker Land Holdings, LLC. In short, Harris ruled the land lease between Talisker and PCMR expired in 2011. Last year, Talisker gave VR the right to operate both Canyons Resort and PCMR (pending the trial outcome) for the next 50 years for a whopping $25 million per year. With VR having no interest in extending PCMR’s lease or even issuing a new one, the Park City community has speculated on what will become of the business that just celebrated their 50th anniversary.

VR’s Rob Katz urged Powdr Corp. (owners of PCMR) to “do the right thing” and, what, walk away? Why is that the ‘right’ thing? That’s like someone who wants something from you calling you selfish because you won’t give it to them. That doesn’t make you selfish. It makes them selfish. It’s probably the legal thing, the pacifist thing, maybe even the smart thing to stop fighting this court battle. PCMR has the base area that will soon become a Woodward training camp for terrain park rats and they can lease to VR access to the rest of the mountain. Threats have been bantered around that PCMR will literally pull up stakes and leave the land bare of all usable chairlifts and lodges. According to last week’s court filing, PCMR plans to remove all of the Town, Crescent, King Con, Silverlode, Bonanza, McConkey’s, Pioneer, Eaglet and Silver Star lifts. Only the towers of Jupiter, Thaynes and Motherlode lifts would remain because they are “affixed to the land”. The resort estimates spending more than $7 million for the dismantling. There would be no 2014/15 ski season; instead there would be limited riding in the terrain park and off the lower terrain (Payday, Eagle and Three Kings would be modified for continued use). In the summer, there would still be hiking, biking, the Alpine Slide, an alpine coaster and a zip line.

 

Options

It doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom for Park City (although it’s more fun to pretend it does);

VR could buy the structures; if PCMR were willing to sell them.

VR could pay PCMR damages for the millions spent improving the resort during the time between when the lease had expired and VR spoke up about it… and then buy the structures off them.

VR could sign PCMR to a new lease (both sides say this will never happen)

PCMR could lease the equipment to VR and sell an easement to access the resort from PCMR’s parking lots.

PCMR could deny access and VR would be forced to sell tickets to both resorts from Canyons’ boundary and anyone with an Epic pass would have to hike (way) up past the Crescent and PayDay bases to catch a lift up the mountain.

VR spends millions installing new lifts after PCMR plays hardball and yanks everything from the upper mountain.

Am I leaving anything out? There are more moves here than a Chess World Championship.

 

Today, PCMR will ask Harris to postpone signing an eviction order so that the sides can figure out who owes what to whom. There’s back rent due to Talisker and damages owed to PCMR. Hopefully, those will offset each other. Both sides have already spent a small fortune on this power struggle. PCMR also wants Harris to wait until the outcome of their appeal to decide how to enforce an eviction order. Not to mention that if Harris doesn’t postpone and the eviction starts, like, yesterday, PCMR will have very little time to dismantle their facilities. Rumor has it that PCMR patrollers are on standby for swift demolition duties. VR says PCMR will have 60 days to vacate but that sounds optimistically generous under the circumstances.

 

Already, surrounding home and condo owners are contemplating an exit strategy. “We are looking at other real estate right now and thinking of selling [our Park City rental],” says one Utah local. “Not sure if ‘walking distance to Park City Micro Resort’ and ‘Woodward Park City at your doorstep” are much of a selling point. You can’t even get those dirtbags to buy lunch at Legacy Lodge.”

PCMR even hired an analyst to determine that if PCMR’s out-of-state skiers go someplace else, the local economy could take a $40-100 million hit, including a loss of more than 1,000 jobs. “The consequences are too dramatic if the court does allow the eviction to go forward,” Alan Sullivan, PCMR’s lead attorney, told the Park Record Newspaper.

 

It is now up to the Judge to decide.

 

Snowboarders Sue Alta Ski Area

It looks like snowboarders have finally decided they can’t take it anymore. Citing protection under the 14th Amendment, four boarders and a Utah nonprofit corporation calling itself Wasatch Equality Utah claim Alta has no right to ban them. They’re suing the only skiers-only area in the country that operates on federal land.

There have always been murmurs that Alta might allow snowboarding but still the Little Cottonwood Canyon resort holds fast to the ban. Any Alta local will tell you this is not only a frivolous suit but an insane one. More than half of the mountain involves significant traversing (when you glide and push along a narrow, flat path to get from A to B).

“Just because they lease the land doesn’t mean that they can go out and discriminate and say who can come here and say who can’t come here,” said Jonathan Schofield, an attorney at Parr, Brown, Gee & Loveless in Salt Lake City, on Fox13.

The argument is more than a bit flawed considering snowboarding isn’t a protected class like race, gender or religion. Makes for a weak case. Alta only needs to show they have a ‘rational basis’ for the ban; something easy for the resort and the Forest Service to prove.

Let’s look at some reasons –

  1. Alta’s layout sucks for boarding. The multi-mile traverses are impossible on a board; there are flats and uphills everywhere (imagine trying to get from Sugarloaf to Supreme without skis).
  2. Alta’s Winter Site Operation Plan approved by the Forest Service gives Alta the right to “exclude any type of skiing device that they deem creates an unnecessary risk to other skiers and/or the user of the device, or any device they deem causes undue damages to the quality of the snow, or is not consistent with the business management decisions.”
  3. Alta has its history to preserve. If any place holds the sole of skiing it’s Alta SKI Area.

The U.S. Forest Service grants Alta a special use permit and plaintiffs Drew Hicken, Skullcandy’s Rick Alden, pro snowboarder Bjorn Leines, and Richard Varg claim the resort‘s permit states that the public lands ‘shall remain open to the public for all lawful purpose.’ Apparently, it’s not open to them. The boarding trio allegedly had bought Alta tickets on Sunday but the lifties denied them access to the Collins lift. Alden was able to sneak past because of his splitboard. Two patrollers, however, confronted him when he got to the top and he was allowed to ride down-once- to get off the mountain safely.

The lawsuit showed up on Wednesday. Alta has not had a chance to review it so they have declined to comment right now.

Watching A World Cup Live

By PCSkiGal


I finally made it home. We can thank Candy Crush for maintaining my sanity in the post-event gridlock leaving (or attempting to leave) Deer Valley tonight following the Superfinal Moguls event of the Visa Freestyle World Cup. Forty-five minutes. That’s how long it took me to get from Snow Park Lodge to the turnabout near Main Street in Park City; about a mile.

Sage and I raced up to the mountain at 6:30 p.m. for the historic event. After all, this would be the last chance essentially for US Ski Team athletes to qualify for the Sochi Olympics. The World Cup happens every January at DV but you have to wait four years for the momentum to build to this level.


Nearly 8500 fans hiked up to the base of the Champion run to watch America’s Hannah Kearney podium with one of her best runs of the World Cup circuit. The 27-year-old Vermonter took her second World Cup gold of the weekend tonight- her 39th career World Cup win. Canadian Olympic gold medalist Alexandre Bilodeau also grabbed a World Cup gold in the men’s round. Both hope to win back-to-back golds at the Sochi Games. “There’s a chance that this is a larger crowd than we will have at the Olympics,” Kearney told the Desert News. “And there is certainly more people cheering for me than there are going to be at the Olympics, so I used it, and I tried to put on a show.”


Kearney added she loves DV’s course with its long center section of tight moguls. She blazed it to pull in her sixth-straight win here. Yulia Galysheva (Kazakhstan) was second, while Canada’s Maxime DuFour-Lapointe took bronze.

The warm temperatures aided the celebration but it wasn’t too warm to rain. Whew. The hail-like beads drifted down gently at first but soon cascaded into the crowd. We cheered- for the fresh turns we’d have for tomorrow and for the teammates who pushed it harder on their home turf. Soon it was over, a brief fireworks show capped the night and we faced the red snake home.

Funny, we could have watched the whole thing on TV tomorrow (Sunday) and saved ourselves the headache. But there’s something about being in the heart of the action, surrounded by fellow ski fans; and watching your kid hoot and holler and say I’m going to ski like that one day that makes it all worth it.

Snowbird Introduces The New GAD 2 Chairlift

The only new Utah chairlift this season is now up and running at Snowbird.  The high-speed detachable replaces the old Gad 2 double chair built in 1971 and cuts travel time in half. Snowbird re-graded the hill at the top of the new lift to make it easier for skiers and snowboarders to hop off the chair and also re-graded the bottom of Bananas trail to ease traffic flow.

I scooted over to The Bird for a first look and to chat with fellow locals about the upgrade. Now, all we need is a fresh dose of snow to ride it the way it was meant to be ridden. 

 

Brighton Boasts Women’s Only Terrain Park

Making history in the jib department, Brighton Resort will christen Utah’s- and quite possibly the world’s- first and only girl’s snowboard park this Saturday. Krista’s Park opens for business after the official 1 p.m. ribbon cutting. “A number of ladies came to us and said they felt intimidated while trying to learn in the parks,” Brighton’s Jared Winkler told SnoCountry.com. “They wanted a place where they didn’t feel judged and could do their own thing.” The new park was named in honor of Krista Moroge, a Burton and Brighton athlete who died of breast cancer in 2010. There will be a raffle and B4BC event at 3 p.m.

U.S. slopestyle ski team member, Grete Eliassen, offered her input on terrain features to make Krista’s an exclusive and inviting space for women to hone their park riding skills or even try it for the first time. Brighton plans to run workshops and camps in the new park which is located next to the Pee Wee park at the top of the Majestic Chair. Then they can hit the bigger parks like My-o-My with the boys once they progress.


Click here for more information.


1 25 26 27 28 29 34