Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) is a

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In Nort ...

in the western

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

in Park City,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

, located east of

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

. Park City, as the ski resort and area is known, contains several training courses for the

U.S. Ski Team The U.S. Ski Team, operating under the auspices of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, develops and supports men's and women's athletes in the sports of alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, cross-country, ski jumping, and Nordic combined. Since 1974 the team and ...

, including

slalom To slalom is to zigzag between obstacles. It may refer to: Sports ;Alpine skiing and/or snowboarding * Slalom skiing, an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline * Giant slalom, an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline * Super-G ...

and

giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant slalom and slalom make up th ...

runs. During the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internationa ...

, it hosted the

snowboarding Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralympic ...

events and the men's and women's

alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National P ...

giant slalom events. Opened in 1963, the resort has been a major tourist attraction for skiers from all over the United States, as well as a main employer for many of Park City's citizens. The resort was purchased by Vail Resorts in 2014 and combined the resort with neighboring

Canyons Resort Canyons Resort was one of three alpine ski resorts located in Park City, Utah. Prior to 2015, there were 19 chairlifts, of skiable terrain and an average of of snow each winter, making Canyons the largest ski and snowboard resort in Utah. The ...

via an interconnect

gondola The gondola (, ; vec, góndoła ) is a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian lagoon. It is typically propelled by a gondolier, who uses a rowing oar, which is not fastened to the hull, ...

to create the largest lift-served ski resort in the United States. During the ski season, most slopes and lifts are open from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

History

The resort was opened on December 21, 1963, as ''Treasure Mountain'' by United Park City Mines, the last surviving mining corporation in Park City, and the resort was opened with funds from a federal government program to revive the economically depressed town. When it originally opened, it boasted the longest

in the United States, as well as, a double

chairlift An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel wire rope loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers, carrying a series of chairs. Th ...

, a

J-bar lift A surface lift is a type of cable transport for snow sports in which skiers and snowboarders remain on the ground as they are pulled uphill. While they were once prevalent, they have been overtaken in popularity by higher-capacity and higher-c ...

, base and summit lodges, and a nine-hole golf course. The gondola was a four-passenger Polig-Heckel-Bleichert (PHB, a German aerial ropeway company). Its sister lift was built at Sugarloaf in

Carrabassett Valley Carrabassett Valley is a town in Franklin County, Maine, United States. The population was 673 at the 2020 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which, of it is land and is water. ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...

, after top members of Sugarloaf's management visited Park City's lift. When the slopes first opened to the public, a special ''Skier's Subway'' was used to transport skiers nearly into the mountain through the pitch-black Spiro Tunnel on a mine train, where skiers then boarded a mining elevator ("hoist") that lifted them to the surface at the foot of the Thaynes Canyon chair, and from there they had access to the entire mountain. Aerial trams once used for hauling ore were converted into chairlifts. To this day, more than of old silver-mine workings and tunnels remain beneath the slopes of Park City and neighboring

Deer Valley Deer Valley is an alpine ski resort in the Wasatch Range, located east of Salt Lake City, in Park City, Utah, United States. The resort, known for its upscale amenities, is consistently ranked among the top ski resorts in North America. Deer ...

. Treasure Mountain's name was changed to the ''Park City Ski Area'' for its fourth season of 1966–67; thirty years later, it was renamed Park City Mountain Resort in 1996. The resort had grown to include eight peaks and nine bowls, with of skiing and sixteen chairlifts. The resort has also developed summer activities including an

alpine slide A summer toboggan is an amusement or recreational ride which uses a bobsled-like sled or cart to run down a track usually built on the side of a hill. There are two main types: an Alpine coaster or mountain coaster is a type of roller coaster ...

, alpine coaster,

zip-line A zip-line, zip line, zip-wire, flying fox, or death slide is a pulley suspended on a cable, usually made of stainless steel, mounted on a slope. It is designed to enable cargo or a person propelled by gravity to travel from the top to the bo ...

s, and several hiking and biking trails. A sister ski area, originally known as ''Park City West'' and later as

, opened in 1968.

Deer Valley Resort Deer Valley is an alpine ski resort in the Wasatch Range, located east of Salt Lake City, in Park City, Utah, United States. The resort, known for its upscale amenities, is consistently ranked among the top ski resorts in North America. Deer V ...

opened in December 1981, at the site of the former ''Snow Park'' (1946–69).

2002 Winter Olympics

During the 2002 games, the resort hosted the men's and

women's A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardle ...

giant slalom, men's and

snowboarding parallel giant slalom, and both men's and

snowboarding halfpipe events. The resort's Eagle Race Arena and Eagle Superpipe were used as the Olympics runs. Temporary stadiums were erected at the end of each run with spectator standing areas on each side, creating a combined capacity of 16,500 persons. Almost all available tickets for events at the resort were sold 99.8 percent to a total of 95,991 spectators. During the games, 96 percent of the resort was open for normal seasonal operations, making it the only venue to allow spectators to leave and reenter.

2012 litigation

In March 2012,

Powdr Corporation The Powdr Corporation, stylized as POWDR, is an American privately held company that owns and operates ski resorts in the United States and Canada. It is headquartered in Park City, Utah, and was founded in 1994 by John Cumming, co-founder of the ...

(POWDR), owners of Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR), announced that it had filed a lawsuit against Talisker Land Holdings, LLC (Talisker), which owned the adjacent

, as well as United Park City Mines Company, both partial land owners of the resort. The lawsuit filed by POWDR was in response to an eviction notice issued by Talisker, the entity that owns most of the land the PCMR ski runs are on, who had been leasing it to POWDR (a continuation of the existing lease between Park City Mines and POWDR when Talisker bought the land from Park City Mines). POWDR claimed that they had initiated talks with Talisker to extend their lease to 2051, and that Talisker had refused to agree to the terms and threatened to close the resort. In response, Talisker claimed that POWDR had failed to agree to the new terms set down by Talisker, and that they had never threatened to close the resort. POWDR sued Talisker for $7 million (equivalent to $ million in ) for compensatory and punitive damages for the threat of the closure of the resort. PCMR had leased the land on which its ski runs are located for $155,000 per year, with an option to renew the lease for 20 years. In March 2011, when this option came due, POWDR failed to renew the lease in a timely manner and sent a letter two days after the lease had expired. Eight months later, POWDR received a letter from Talisker that their lease had expired and they were to turn over the leased land and its improvements to Talisker. In 2013, Talisker leased its 4,000 acre Canyons Resort to Vail Resorts (Vail), for $25 million per year plus a percentage of the Canyons Resort revenue, plus a condition that Vail also take over the legal action. Near the end of May 2013, an eviction notice was served on POWDR to vacate the leased land of PCMR, including all infrastructure on said land, which would leave POWDR with just the private land and infrastructure (accommodations, shops, parking, etc.) at the base of the ski runs. () On September 11, 2014, Vail announced that it had purchased the base of PCMR, including its name and recognition of ski runs improvements, from POWDR for $182.5 million (equivalent to $ million in ) and that it would combine the resort with neighboring Canyons Resort over the summer of 2015 for the 2015–16 season.

Park City Mountain Resort under Vail Resorts

When the purchase was finalized, Vail added Park City Mountain Resort to its EPIC season pass program for the 2014–15 season. In 2015, the merger of PCMR with Canyons was undertaken by Doppelmayr USA as part of a project that built two new lifts and relocated a third. A new gondola called Quicksilver was built between the bottom of Silverlode at PCMR and a point below the top of Iron Mountain at Canyons. King Con was upgraded to a high speed six pack, while the original King Con high speed quad was relocated to replace the Motherlode triple chairlift. The upgrades on the PCMR side were done to alleviate expected congestion at Silverlode and King Con from the added interconnect gondola. The former Canyons Resort base area was renamed the Canyons Village at Park City and the entire combined resort now operates under the Park City Mountain Resort name. Park City mountain resort is home to many ski schools run by the mountain, but is also home to privately owned ski schools. In 2017, the various individual clubs came together to form one organization - Park City Ski & Snowboard Club. For the 2018 season, Doppelmayr constructed a high speed quad to replace the High Meadow lift at Red Pine Lodge. For the 2019 season, Skytrac built a new fixed grip quad chairlift called "Over and Out" that goes from the bottom of Tombstone to a point just above the top of Sunrise, providing quick egress from the Tombstone and Iron Mountain pods to the Canyons Village base area by alleviating the need to take Tombstone back to Red Pine Lodge. The lift takes about five minutes and thirty seconds to ride. For the 2022 season, Doppelmayr had been contracted to construct two new detachable chairlifts on the Park City side of the resort. However, after the Park City Planning Commission revoked the permit to replace these lifts in Park City, Vail Resorts announced that these lifts will now be installed at Whistler Blackcomb in 2023 and replace the Jersey Cream and Fitzsimmons lifts there.

Statistics

As of the 2015–16 season, after the merger with

Mountain information

* Base elevation: * Summit elevation: * Vertical rise: * Total mountain peaks: 8 * Total skiable area: * Average Annual Snowfall:

Trails

* Total Trails: 348 ** Beginner: 15% ** Intermediate: 54% ** Expert: 31% *Terrain Parks: 4 *Superpipe: 1 *Minipipe: 1

Lifts

Slope aspects

* North: 43% * East: 29% * West: 24% * South: 4%

Summer

During the summer, Payday provides lift service to an

and an

alpine coaster A summer toboggan is an amusement or recreational ride which uses a bobsled-like sled or cart to run down a track usually built on the side of a hill. There are two main types: an Alpine coaster or mountain coaster is a type of roller coaster ...

. Restaurants are also open during the summer, and will often have live bands and other activities. The resort creates and maintains its own trails and trail connections to the rest of the Park City area trail system. Activities at the resort include miniature golf, a

climbing wall A climbing wall is an artificially constructed wall with grips for hands and feet, usually used for indoor climbing, but sometimes located outdoors. Some are brick or wooden constructions, but on most modern walls, the material most often used i ...

, and trampolines with a harness. Alpine Slide at Mountain side Resort in Park City, Utah

The resort offers lift-served access for hiking and mountain biking on Crescent, Payday, and Town lifts from the Park City Mountain Village base. Canyons Village provides hiking and biking access via the Red Pine Gondola and Short Cut. Most trails in the area are family-friendly and not very strenuous. The majority of mountain bike trails are intermediate, with a small percentage designated as expert trails.

In popular culture

Park City is one of the featured mountains in the 2008 video game

Shaun White Snowboarding ''Shaun White Snowboarding'' is a snowboarding video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft for Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Gameplay There ...