The Utah Olympic Park is building a new 41-acre ski and riding terrain project. Several partners are contributing to the $11 million enhancement.
Christie Hind is the interim director of the Park City Ski and Snowboard team and she says they’ve raised about half of their obligation to the project.
“We’ll raise three million of this project. Rowmark, which is the ski club down at Roland Hall, will raise three million. The University of Utah is responsible, I think for about a million of the project and UOLF will raise the balance.”
She says the new facility will benefit athletes in several ways.
“Our Alpine and Mogul athletes will really benefit from a world class training facility that will allow them to get on snow earlier and train longer. And it will significantly reduce training costs that so many of these self funded athletes incur to chase the snow in order to keep up with competitor clubs across the country.”
Hind says they plan to have their fundraising done by the end of this year, but they have until the end of 2020 to meet their obligation.
“There should be excavation going on to put that chair lift in this summer and my hope is that as people start to see it come to fruition you know they’ll open their pocket-books and recognise that this is just a game changer for Park City.”
The Club’s Nordic team is sponsoring what Hind calls a gruelling 200-meter uphill race on May 31st at the Olympic Park. The next day, is twice as far, also uphill.
“The next day, June 1st, the Nordic team is sponsoring the Red Bull 400 which got a lot of attention last year. That’s returning. Both events were at the Utah Olympic Park in Park City. And, the Red Bull, I think has a starting point of almost 7000 feet and it is a 400 meter near vertical sprint.”
Hind invites anyone who likes a challenge to sign up and support the Nordic team. You can find a link to the Park city Ski and Snowboard team on KPCW.org.