Category Archives: Ski School Tips

U.S. Forest Service Sides With Alta In Fight Over Snowboarding Terrain

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There is “no authority holding that the…Fourteenth Amendment protects those who stand sideways on snowboards” said Alta Ski Area in a motion to dismiss a lawsuit raised by riders this January. And it looks like the U.S. Forest Service is siding with the resort.

A group of snowboarders along with a local nonprofit calling themselves Wasatch Equality filed the suit shortly after being denied as they tried to board the Collins Lift. They want to force the resort and the Forest Service to open its borders to boarders. But the Forest Service says the case without merit.

Not only is snowboarding allowed on Forest Service land in 13 other states (showing that they don’t harbor an “anti-snowboarding” policy) but that there is no evidence they worked with Alta in the resort’s decision to ban that particular sliding device. They went on to say that due to federal immunity, the court does not have jurisdiction to hear the case.


Further, they say Alta’s approved operating plan gives it the right to exclude any “skiing device deemed a risk, harmful to snow quality or not consistent with its business decisions.” Alta is a private resort, says the resort’s attorneys. If they consider snowboarders a hazard to skiers because of a “blind spot” that exists as they ride sideways down trails then that’s their right.

Park City Says No Way to Vail Takeover

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It’s just a week away. The biggest court date of Park City’s colorful history but the court of public opinion has been chiming in for months about the fate of Park City Mountain Resort and its ongoing legal battle with Vail Resorts.

Vail sent over a letter to PCMR this Tuesday and cc’d Park City’s newspaper The Park Record in attempt to “make everything transparent to the public”. The five-page document from Vail’s CEO Rob Katz says they would be willing to buy Park City’s access to the mountain and attempts to make it about ‘simple’ terms the public might grasp:

A landlord    believed that its    tenant’s lease had expired and wanted higher rent. The    tenant refused to pay    and sued the landlord, so the landlord found a new tenant.            
Katz goes on to say the resolution of this battle is extremely important to the Park City community. In reality, it sounds like they’re miffed that PCMR has threatened to block access to the mountain if they fail in court next week and they want all of Park City (and the business world) to hear their side and possibly turn the tables to make PCMR look like grade school bullies.

Is it working?

“Now it is Vail’s turn to put the Talisker position in the press, and we are getting a much different picture of what has transpired to date. It seems PCMR is going down with the ship, or will sail away intact. There is black and white and no gray for them, at least right now,” said one Park Record reader.

 

There’s no doubt that PCMR was asleep at the wheel when the time came to renew their sweet deal of a lease in 2011 and that Talisker/Canyons still accepted the rent check so you might contend both accounting departments messed up. So the question remains as to whether the old lease is valid. The court will hear that argument finally on April 3, 2014. The court case following on April 8 will debate whether Talisker had a right to assign the lease on PCMR’s property to Vail Resorts. If the judge concludes PCMR was a holdover tenant then perhaps VR had every right to offer a new lease to VR. Regardless of these arguments, PCMR owns outright the base facilities, parking lots and structures as well as the beginner lift First Time and the Superpipe terrain. They have already applied to the city for permits to build a Woodward Camp at the base similar to those at Tahoe and Copper Mountain, Colo.

If PCMR loses in court they have said they will not let Talisker/Vail Resorts have access to the base nor sell the property to them. PCMR’s Jon Cumming said in a statement released Wednesday, “We won’t agree to … a Vail takeover. Vail’s domination of the ski market in (Utah’s) Summit County would be bad for our community, bad for our guests, and bad for our employees.” PCMR continues to fight saying this has never been about rent but control of their land.

Katz’ letter seems to hint that PCMR would be violating certain promises it made to the city to retain access to the slopes if they were granted permission to build Woodward. “Threatening to block access through your property simply does not make good business sense,” said Katz in his letter.

Leasing the property to VR has yet to be a monetized factor in the talks but perhaps PCMR could make a sizeable profit taking this route in the long run?

Several vocal critics agree

“The public is closer to a settlement while PCMR seems to be hoping for distance from reality. Time for PCMR to consider the offer and make the best deal. PCMR will lose in the long run. It’s called reality and progress.”

The letter mentions a willingness to pay fair market value for the property but does not speak of a figure. The back and forth in this dialog between the resorts has taken more swings than a Ping Pong championship with neither side willing to concede on any account.

What is obvious from the letter is that it IS NOT AN OFFER of any sort. It is VR saying that they are willing to sit down and talk and PCMR is not. And yet PCMR has said they’ve wanted to discuss a fair lease since before they filed the lawsuit. They say the letter is pure positioning and we can expect many more such motions in the next few days leading up to April 3. What will be critical are the steps both resorts take after April 8’s hearing. Those are the talks that will matter to the community.

The actual letter from Vail Resorts is posted here. http://extras.parkrecord.com/video/katzlettertoCumming.pdf

Spring Savings At Utah Resorts

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Spring break season in Utah is here. The slushy slopes are spilling with happy smiles and goggle tans. Take advantage of some recently added discounts to make those grins even bigger.

If you purchase Canyons tickets through Axis Freeride you’re not only getting a slick deal but supporting a worthy cause. The non-profit youth organization provides kids a solid and safe foundation in terrain park riding. Buy adult lift tickets for $60 through Axis. That’s $26 off the online price and $47 off the window price. The ticket is good through the last day of the season. Just email  HERE to get tickets.* They take cash, check or credit cards and it’s tax deductible. BTW, Canyons’ ticket prices drop to $59 on April 7 but they’re not tax deductible.

If you’re interested in test-driving the Axis program and you have girls, check out the Freeskiing All Girls Camp at Park City Mountain Resort. The 2-day program is a fun-filled learning environment catering to girls 9 and up. Coaches will focus on terrain park and all-mountain skiing but no previous terrain park skills are needed. The camp runs March 29 and 30, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The cost is $125 (lift tickets not included). 435-655-5366, or email mary@axisfreeride.com

Other Spring Savings-

This one’s a tease: Park City Mountain Resort will announce a deal next week and it promises to be news worthy so keep an eye on their website.

Brighton isn’t exactly slashing for spring but they are slashing for ‘taxing’. April 15, they’re offering Tax Day relief with half off tickets…so that’s a $34 ski day. And on April 11, college students get half off with their student ID. 

Don’t forget about Alta’s Boarding Pass Program: Fly into Salt Lake City and ski at Alta or Snowbird the same day for half price. You have to register online before you leave to convert your airline boarding pass into a half-price AltaSnowbird lift ticket. The offer is valid within 24 hours of arrival, Monday through Friday, so if you get in at 9 p.m. you can ski the next day for half off!

Keep checking Groupon and Living Social in Utah for deals. Right now Alta’s offering a $59.99 lift ticket that’s good for the rest of the season. Use it this weekend for the Snowflake Festival. Tomorrow (Saturday) is One-Piece Ski Outfit Day. Don’t miss the free ski demo day April 11. Alta Ski Area, Alta Ski Shop and Powder House Ski, Shoe, Bike – Utah
are teaming up with as many ski manufacturers as possible for “testing”. All you’ll need are your boots and a credit card (in lieu of a deposit) to ski as many skis as you can from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Spring is the perfect time to get the little ones out skiing. Kids 6 and under ski FREE at Eagle Point, Park City Mountain Resort, Powder Mountain, Snowbasin, Snowbird, and Solitude. At Brighton, the deal extends to kids under 8! Canyons, however, got stingy this year and lowered the limit at 5 years old.



Finally, Costco in Salt Lake City has several lift ticket packages that will save you BIG bucks. You can’t order them online, however, so ask a friend to pick them up for you or get yourself a rental car for a quick roadtrip. PCMR: 5 tix for $350; Sundance: 2 tix for $87; Canyons: 2 tix for $150; Snowbird: 2 tix for $145.

ONE Wasatch’s Interconnect Concept Poses Multiple Questions For Utah Resorts

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ONE Wasatch Conference Photo courtesy Alta Ski Area

(Photo courtesy Alta Ski Area)

Well, Folks. I wish I had something new to report from this afternoon’s SkiUtah press conference but alas there were more questions than answers.

I shared the news last night and hoped that today’s conference might shed more light on the plan- nay “concept”- of lift-linking seven of Utah’s ski areas but the meeting went about as expected. We were introduced to a program/concept called ONE Wasatch – that will be a thinktank to draft a plan for an interconnected lift system. The system would allow skiers and boarders a means to traverse all seven resorts without encroaching on public lands; thus avoiding lengthy environmental impact studies.

“We have an opportunity to create a ski experience that would be unique in North America and rivaled only by the larger ski circuits in Europe,” said Canyons’ Mike Goar. “The timing is good for us to bring this forward, sharing it with the community and making sure it is framed in a conversation with other ongoing mountain efforts.”

So, ok, when might we see this happen? No one’s saying. How will it happen? No one’s saying. SkiUtah President Nathan Rafferty said the interconnect would cost around $30 million and be funded privately. By whom? No one’s saying. How much would a ticket cost? No one’s saying. The managers did agree that to charge too much more than a regular single resort day ticket wouldn’t make financial sense. They said, however, that with the RFID scanning ticket system they would be able to track people’s ski habits and then divide revenue accordingly so where people start their day wouldn’t matter. But one reporter boldy asked the Big Question, “Who do you think is going to be bopping back and forth between Alta and Park City Mountain Resort or Deer Valley? You’ve got seven world-class resorts here. I’ve been to each one of them and it’s too much terrain for me to ski in one day. Who do you think is going to buy this (interconnect) pass?”

Snowbird’s Bob Bonar said he had the same concerns when they linked with Alta. “A lot of times people will go to one resort and ski 10 or 20 runs or whatever they’re able to do in one day and it’s enough. [The interconnect] is more of just a concept and I think a lot of our destination skiers and even some of our local skiers really like the concept that they can come in and ski at Alta, work their way over to Deer Valley for lunch and return on the same day.” (Rafferty estimated that you could ski from DV to Snowbird in an hour and a half if they were linked by lifts.)

Ultimately, the most impressive aspect of the ONE Wasatch conference was the fact that we had the seven heads of Utah’s resorts all in one room, all agreeing to join forces. They all echoed each other: we want what’s best for the industry; we want to be environmentally sensitive; we want to protect our watershed and users’ interests.

All this does is beg one question from this intrepid ski blogger. If everyone is so gung-ho and onboard to link our resorts, why wait? Why not start now with Park City? “McConkey’s went in at the same time as Empire (1998),” said Deer Valley’s Bob Wheaton. “We (Wheaton and PCMR’s Phil Jones) spent a lot of time up on that ridge and we knew that One Wasatch was going to be a reality. We wanted to be sure that when we positioned those lifts we would not design ourselves out of that possibility of being able to do this. The spirit of cooperation was extremely strong and still is.”

The infrastructure is there. All it would take is maybe a new chair from the Canyons and ribbon (rope) cutting in DV’s Empire Canyon to create that mini-European experience.

Perhaps PCMR, DV and Canyons are waiting to see what happens in court next month? No one’s saying.

 

Utah Interconnect Closer to Reality?

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(Photo by Ryan Freitas)

It’s been bantered about since the demise of SkiLink and today, SkiUtah, shouldered by the managers of the seven Wasatch ski resorts, is poised to make the idea official. A press conference is scheduled for 2 p.m. to announce a lift-served interconnect set to rival anything in the U.S. ski industry.

The big downfall to SkiLink– a concept to connect Canyons and Solitude resorts via a cablecar – was that it would have traversed public lands; a plan that instigated an immediate uproar from the politically active backcountry brigade. This time around it seems the plan to link resorts from Snowbird to Deer Valley will involve a series of chairlifts on private lands.


It’s not like the route doesn’t already exist. The SkiUtah Interconnect Tour has guided riders from Snowbird to Alta to Brighton to Solitude to Park City to Deer Valley for more than 20 years. But it usually involves a lot of pushing and hiking. Locals are speculating over the kind of lift alignment that might skirt public lands, offer skiers a ‘connected’ experience like they have in Europe (and without the effort of backcountry hiking/avalanche expertise), not encroach on backcountry enthusiasts’ scene, and what kind of lift ticket would be sold for such day.

The Utah ski industry has long rallied that to stay relevant and competitive, Snowbird, Alta, Solitude, Brighton, Canyons, Deer Valley and Park City Mountain Resort, must share skiable borders.

Colorado and California attract three times the riders we have on Utah’s slopes but Ski Utah has said that they could close that gap with an interconnected system.

Save Our Canyons Executive Director Carl Fisher told the Salt Lake Tribune last night that he doubted the links could be made without touching public lands. If they did, it would mean years of environmental impact studies by the U.S. Forest Service.

He also said that if it smells like resort expansion the public would react negatively. More details to come after the conference!

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