The new Fitzsimmons Express at Whistler was originally supposed to replace the 6-seater Silverlode lift at Vail Resort’s Park City Mountain in the summer of 2022.
Park City Planning Director Gretchen Milliken approved the planned upgrade, which also included replacing the 3-seater Eagle lift with a 6-seater. But then four Park City citizens appealed Milliken’s decision, saying it was reached through an illegal process. One of the residents involved in the lawsuit claim Vail’s plan was “essentially crowding a lot more skiers into a lot less space.”
The Park City Planning Commission granted the appeal, which effectively blocked the upgrades from happening. The equipment was already in Park City Mountain’s parking lot ready to be installed.
Vail then appealed that decision to Third District Court and lost.
The ski conglomerate recently moved to push the case to the Utah Supreme Court, but the hearing has been designated to a separate appeals court. No date has been scheduled yet for that hearing.
Vail moved the new lifts from Park City’s parking lot to Whistler, its resort in Canada.
Peter Landsman, a lift supervisor at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, documents chairlifts across North America on his website Lift Blog.
He recently visited the 8-pack at Whistler.
“It’s the first one in Canada, so the Canadians are pretty excited,” Landsman said. “There are a handful of 8-seat lifts in the U.S. already, and it was going to be the first one for Vail Resorts in the U.S. at Park City… The really nice thing about 8-seat lifts is you can space the chairs out more, which gives people more time to load and unload. The chairs aren’t so close together, so it keeps moving.”
Vail Resorts has said in earnings reports the delayed project cost the company millions. Landsman said there were plenty of logistical challenges that came along with it.
“It’s not easy to just move a lift that’s specifically constructed for one location to another location, so a lot of adaptation had to go on,” Landsman said. “The new Whistler lift has multiple towers that had to be added after the fact that weren’t planned for Park City. So extra parts had to be manufactured, and then there were some parts that were planned for Silverlode that weren’t needed at Whistler.”
Landsman said what was envisioned as the bottom terminal for Silverlode ended up being the top terminal at Whistler, and vice versa. The company was also stuck with the red color of the lift, which worked out because Whistler’s brand color is similar to Park City’s.
Landsmann said Vail analyzed its portfolio of mountains to determine the lift’s new home after the project was blocked in Park City.
“At Whistler, it’s kind of a similar purpose as it was going to be at Park City," he said. "They upgraded an older, smaller detachable lift with four seats to an 8-seater. And in Whistler’s case, it’s an out-of-base lift, so they’re boosting capacity and efficiency right out of Whistler Village. At Park City, it wasn’t going to be right at the base area but similar, kind of a workhorse part of the mountain where they needed a bigger lift… It’s worked out pretty well for Whistler.”
This summer the 6-pack chair meant to replace the Eagle lift at Park City will also be installed at Whistler.
A spokesperson for Park City Mountain previously told KPCW the resort is “disappointed” in the planning commission’s decision to revoke the permits for the lift upgrades, but they “remain committed to investing in the guest experience.”
