Plans to connect two Utah ski areas with a gondola lift have received a mixed reaction.
Under the plan, already named 'SkiLink' and given its own website – skilink.com, Canyons ski area near Park City and Solitude would be connected by an eight seat gondola that would connect the two in 11 minutes with a capacity of 1000 passengers per hour.
Unlike in the Alps, creating a physical link between two ski areas is quite rare in North America, but Utah does already have more connected ski areas that any other US state. Solitude is already connected by ski run to another neighbouring resort, Brighton, and the two have on previous occasions sold a joint ticket, most recently called 'SolBright' – although this is not currently advertised on either re1sort's website. Alta and Snowbird do still offer a joint ticket however.
There have also been long-standing suggestions that Park City's three ski areas – Canyons again, along with Deer Valley and Park City mountain resort have some sort of link to one another to form North America's largest ski area with around 9,000 acres of terrain, rather more than Wistler Blackcomb. But so far they have not come to anything.
Canyons say the link will mean the combined ski areas can claim a joint tally of 6,000 acres putting it in the top 5 in North America for size, although as with Paradiski in the French Alps the two ski areas will not be linked by piste, only the lift.
Indeed one of the groups of objectors to the plan are those who hike up to ski the terrain in what they consider a pristine wilderness, the presence of a gondola crossing which they regard as an intrusion, even though the resorts say the lift will not have any mid-way stops between the two resorts and will not eexpand the existing terrain at either ski area. The other main group of objectors are environmentalists who say that although Canyon's research shows the lift would cut road traffic between the resorts, the bigger attraction would bring more people to the mountains.
"SkiLink creates a game-changing advantage for Utah and for the U.S. snowsport industry," said Mike Goar, managing director of Canyons. "It would establish Utah as the most interesting and convenient mountain destination in the U.S. and will positively benefit our local economies. Utah features 'The Greatest Snow on Earth' and with SkiLink now delivers an unrivalled skiing experience of the largest expanse of ski terrain in the country."
"An economic impact analysis reported that SkiLink would produce more than 500 new permanent jobs for Utah's travel and tourism industry and could initially infuse $51 million into our local economy," said Goar. "An estimated 20-year total economic impact could be $101 million per year from SkiLink's ongoing operation."
A traffic analysis carried out on behalf of Canyons found that SkiLink would reduce ski season traffic through Big Cottonwood Canyon by as much as 18,000 cars per year. Initially that means around 1 million fewer miles driven per year and around 1 million fewer pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.
No timescale for the development, said to have been under consideration "for years" has been given. To move forward it requires certain legal agreements involving the Utah state government and public consultation, both of which are currently underway.