The story on ski area growth in North America is simple: It’s slowed way down.
Skier numbers are flat, real estate has gone bust, and the only place
skiing and snowboarding are seeing participation numbers rise
significantly is in the sidecountry and backcountry. And that really
doesn’t mean there are more skiers, it just means there are more folks
who can’t afford in-bounds or are looking for an experience beyond the
pistes.
Into this extremely soft market come two Utah resorts, the Canyons
and Solitude, who want to join via a gondola called “SkiLink,” which
would cut a line through the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest from
the Canyons next to Park City to Big Cottonwood Canyon.
The idea of sewing together the Wasatch’s ski resorts via a network
of lifts has been around for ages, but this one has legs: It’s actually
been submitted to Congress and has enough steam to get Utahns paying
attention.
