Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) is a ski resort in the western United States in Park City, Utah, located 32 miles (51 km) east of Salt Lake City. Park City, as the ski resort and area is known, contains several training courses for the U.S. Ski Team, including slalom and giant slalom runs. During the 2002 Winter Olympics, it hosted the snowboarding events and the men's and women's alpine giant slalom events.
Opened 60 years ago 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 via an interconnect gondola 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 gondola in the United States, as well as, a double chairlift, a J-bar lift, 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, Maine, 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 2.5 miles (4.0 km) into the mountain through the pitch-black Spiro Tunnel on a mine train, where skiers then boarded a mining elevator ("hoist") that lifted them 1,750 feet (530 m) 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 one thousand miles (1,600 km) of old silver-mine workings and tunnels remain beneath the slopes of Park City and neighboring Deer Valley.
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 3,300 acres (5.2 sq mi; 13.4 km2) of skiing and sixteen chairlifts. The resort has also developed summer activities including an alpine slide, alpine coaster, zip-lines, and several hiking and biking trails.
A sister ski area, originally known as Park City West and later as Canyons Resort, opened in 1968. Deer Valley Resort opened in December 1981, at the site of the former Snow Park (1946–69).
2002 Winter Olympics
Temporary seating at the resort during the 2002 Olympics
During the 2002 games, the resort hosted the men's and women's giant slalom, men's and women's snowboarding parallel giant slalom, and both men's and women's 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 (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 Canyons Resort, 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 $8.9 million in 2022) 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. (Greater City Co. v. United Park City Mines, 120500157 (Summit County Utah 20140521).)
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 $225.6 million in 2022) and that it would combine the resort with neighboring Canyons Resort over the summer of 2015 for the 2015–16 season.
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Google map-https://goo.gl/maps/ZsNuhWEw34CeN16v9
Address: 1612 W Ute Blvd Ste 109A, Park City, UT 84098
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