Mountain Village and Canyons Village are scheduled to open the Friday before Thanksgiving.
“We started making snow on Oct. 30, which is great,” Park City Mountain COO Deirdra Walsh said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Nov. 13. “And we've had some really great 24-hour guns going out there.”
She estimates they’ve made about 70 million gallons of snow, much of that from brand-new snow guns at Canyons Village. That’s the side of the mountain that will look most different to skiers and riders this season.
Walsh said new snowmaking will open up the Another World run off Tombstone Express in early December, weeks earlier than usual.
“We've installed 35 new snow guns there, so it's about 1.6 miles of snow guns,” she said. “An entirely new snowmaking system over there that'll get us skiing on that terrain earlier.”
There’s a new snow gun system on Chicane, the run connecting the Red Pine Lodge and Tombstone, to help open the lift sooner.
The former Chicane Bypass has been replaced with a new run.
“We pulled it up a little bit higher; we widened it,” Walsh said. “Now we've got what we're calling Tombstone Alley — so another way, when you turn on Chicane, to get down to Tombstone.”
Although Tombstone still can’t open on day one, the Cabriolet, Red Pine Gondola, Saddleback Express and High Meadow Express will.
Over at Mountain Village, the resort plans to open Payday Express and First Time. Walsh said that translates to a total of nine trails between the two bases opening day.
“I love these crisp days, and coming in and thinking about the snowmaking team that have been working overnight, taking advantage of these good temperatures,” Walsh said. “I just talked to our vice president of mountain ops, and we're feeling really great about [Nov.] 22.”
The mountain coaster and zip line at Mountain Village will remain open during the early season too. Ultimately, opening terrain is weather-dependent.
Park City Mountain is constructing a new 10-person gondola to replace the Sunrise lift in Canyons. It broke ground at the Pendry Plaza this summer and plans to open the Sunrise Gondola next winter.
