A lawsuit in Summit County’s 3rd District Court could shut down two ski lifts that help connect the two halves of Park City Mountain.
Provo nonprofit UI Charitable owns the land where the bottom terminal of Iron Mountain Express and the south terminal of Timberline lift sit. It acquired the property in late 2024.
It sued Park City Mountain Feb. 6 claiming the ski resort operator doesn’t have permission to operate those chairlifts or the Cascade ski run on its land.
Since the resort doesn’t own most of its ski area outright, it leases land and operates some lifts via easements, a legal arrangement to use land it doesn’t own.
“We are confident in our longstanding and long-term easement rights underlying our ski operations throughout The Colony, including on the parcel in question in this recent filing,” Park City Mountain Vice President and COO Deirdra Walsh said in a statement to KPCW.
But UI Charitable sees the operations on its 63-acre property at the bottom of Iron Mountain as trespassing and claims the resort has unfairly profited from it.
It wants millions in compensation plus a court order that would require Iron Mountain and Timberline to shut down. UI Charitable also wants the right to “remove any trespassory objects.”
The organization’s legal argument turns on how The Colony neighborhood within Canyons was developed.
The lawsuit states that in 2003 the original developer, Iron Mountain Associates, gave future easement rights to American Ski Company, which had acquired Wolf Mountain and renamed it “The Canyons.”
But UI Charitable claims the final property maps recorded in 2010 didn’t include any easements for ski lifts — just skiing.
And UI claims that ASC failed to pass on the skiing easements to Vail Resorts, the owner of Park City Mountain, which acquired The Canyons in 2013.
The charitable advising organization initially acknowledged KPCW’s email seeking additional information Feb. 10 but has yet to respond to follow-up requests for comment.
Park City Mountain has not filed a response with the court, and no hearings are set in the case.
Vail eventually connected Park City Mountain and The Canyons in 2015 with the Quicksilver gondola.
The Iron Mountain and Timberline lifts gives skiers and riders access to the Quicksilver gondola that travels from Canyons Village to what is now known as the Mountain Village side.
Quicksilver can also be reached via the Flat Iron lift.
Vail Resorts’ EpicPromise foundation is a financial supporter of KPCW.
