Now it's simply 'Park City'

Canyons Resort is gone. The property owned by Vail Resorts is now officially a part of Park City Mountain Resort and both resorts will be combined into one single, mega-resort renames simply Park City. The conjoining of the two make it the largest ski resort in the United States, with over 7,300 acres of rideable terrain.

“The tag line ‘There is only one’ is perfect because there is no place else like Park City,” said Park City’s chief operating officer, Bill Rock. “The town is already universally celebrated as one of the best ski destinations in the world and now will be home to the largest ski resort in the United States. We should all be proud of this mountain and this community as we invite the world to experience the combined resort during the upcoming 2015-16 winter season,” he continued.

A $50 million capital improvement project is also in place and will aid in the transformation of two resorts into a new giant. A new eight-person gondola is under construction and will bring riders from the existing Silverlode Lift at Park City to the Flatiron Lift on the Canyons’s former terrain. There will be an unloading station between the stops on Pine Cone Ridge, which was previously the boundary of the two resorts. The gondola is set to open this fall for the 2015-2016 winter season.

“We are thrilled to invest in Utah and create a world-class resort,” said Rock at a press event unveiling the expansion at Legacy Lodge in front of a large crowd of resort representatives, the business community, fans of the resort and Park City municipal officials. Colorado-based Vail Resorts owns PCMR and operated Canyons Resort as part of a long-term agreement with the Talisker corporate family. The simple name is a result of a complicated set of circumstances that led to Colorado-based Vail Resorts acquiring PCMR in 2014, according to resort officials.

Resort officials announced the gondola will be called Quicksilver, a name meant to convey the speed of the gondola and harken back to Park City’s silver-mining days. It had been referred to as the Interconnect Gondola in recent months. The gondola will carry eight people per cabin from the bottom of the Silverlode lift on the PCMR terrain to the Flatiron lift at the Canyons Resort terrain, covering 7,650 feet or nearly 1 1/2 miles. The ride will last between 8 1/2 minutes and nine minutes.

They also said the name of a new restaurant at the base of the gondola close to the Silverlode lift will be Miners Camp. The restaurant had been called Snow Hut for years. The new restaurant will accommodate more people than the older one. Miners Camp and the gondola are seen as the most important upgrades in Vail Resorts’ $50 million in upgrades planned in anticipation of the upcoming ski season.

The resort unveiled a new logo that uses the name Park City and a Canyons Resort marking that resembles the infinity symbol. It is red, the primary color of PCMR, rather than orange that had been used by Canyons Resort.

The crowd at the announcement event was told the base at the former Canyons Resort will be called Canyons Village. Staff uniforms will be the same across the combined property and the slogan “I Ride Park City” will remain.

In an interview, Rock explained the idea of marketing the resort as Park City rather than Park City Mountain Resort. He said people see the destination as Park City.

“Park City Mountain Resort is the official name of the business. But, you know, people out in the world, when they think about where are they going to go ski, they say, "I’m going to ski in Park City.' And everybody knows Park City is one. That’s why we said there’s only one. There’s one destination,” Rock said.

Rock said that the $50 million in capital improvements include $5 million in “critical upgrades” such as maintenance work, in addition to the $5 million already budgeted; upgrades to the King Con and Motherlode chairlifts; a new restaurant at the base of the Quicksilver, which can seat 500 people indoors and is expected to have a “top-of-the-line kitchen”, and increased snowmaking.