Skiing — Park City, Utah — Day 2: Skiing the Canyons Ski Area (formerly Wolf Mountain), Park City, Utah

A day skiing at the Canyons Ski Area

February 2015

On day 2, we went to The Canyons ski area, which was called Wolf Mountain when I last skied Park City nearly 20 years ago.

I remember the Canyons Ski Area (formerly Wolf Mountain) as a small, dark ski area with many trees. A ski area full of snowboarders. At the time, it felt like we were the only skiers there. But, when I looked at the trail map on this trip, the ski area had been enlarged, and I didn’t recall half the lifts or trails.

The mountain base was bustling, but the crowds thinned once we were away from the base.

We had some great skiing in the morning on freshly groomed trails, which, considering the lack of snow the region had received, the groomers had done an excellent job.

Mid-morning snack stop at Cloud Dine, Canyons Ski Area

We stopped for a quick coffee up the mountain at Cloud Dine — I liked the wordplay — Cloud Dine — Cloud Nine. Excellent.

Cloud Dine had splendid views, a smartphone charging station and lemon and lime wedges to put in your water. Very civilised!

Lunch stop at Sun Lodge, Canyons Ski Area

We stopped at the Sun Lounge for lunch.

Not a lot to say about the place.

The Sun Lodge was a typical mountain restaurant, offering the usual range of mountain food.

I had the chilli bowl, which was pretty good, and a beer.

Skiers and boarders at Canyons Ski area and lift safety bars

Earlier I wrote about the skiers and boarders at the Park City Ski Area not using safety bars on lifts — well, the same was true at the Canyons ski area.

At Canyons, I had an opportunity to do a non-scientific survey of chair lift safety bar usage, as one of the lifts — Timberline — carries passengers in both directions between two different areas of the resort. From riding the lift three times, I observed other passengers coming toward me, and I would estimate that between 80 to 90% of skiers and boarders were not using the safety bar. Why? What is the cause of the dislike of the safety bar?

One other thing I noticed when the safety bar was used was a tendency to raise the bar far too early as the chair approached the top station. Again, why? The bar should only be raised as the chair enters the station. Several European ski resorts have 'landing lights' at the top station that show red as you approach and appear green for when to raise the bar.

One final point I to add. I have skied in Europe, the U.S. (New England, Colorado, Montana), Australia, and New Zealand. It has only been in Utah that I have seen this consistent failure to use the safety bar. Very odd.

If you have any insight into this safety bar issue, I would love to hear from you. Please leave a message below.

Skiing Canyons, Park City, Utah

Wow! What a difference 20 years makes.

Canyons had been transformed from a tiny little ski area frequented by snowboarders to a vast ski area. I can only assume this change was in some way due to the Olympics being at Park City in 2002?

We had a great day skiing Canyons. Considering how little they had received in Utah, the snow was in good condition. Again we were lucky with the weather — sunshine for most of the day.

The resort offered something for everyone — bowl skiing, tree skiing, bumps, steeps, and cruiser runs. It was worth the time to take some cruiser trails through the woods, particularly over at The Colony, to see the fancy houses and condos.

The place was busy, but we never waited long for a chair as there was good management of the lift lines. The trick to skiing Canyons was to get high up the mountain early and go to the extreme left or right from the main base lodge area. Doing this meant we avoided most of the crowds, and for several lifts, we had no queues and some trails almost to ourselves.

One handy tip is to use the lower carpark and ride the Cabriolet Lift up from the main base lodge, as this avoids a rather hefty parking fee at the lodge.

Dinner at No Name Saloon, Main Street, Park City, Utah

We caught the free bus into town for dinner and went to the No Name Saloon.

The No Name Saloon was on the Main Street near Main and 3rd. The Saloon was an interesting place, large (goes back a long way) with a reasonably good menu and selection of beers.

The saloon walls were covered with memorabilia — old trophies, enamel signs and stuffed animal heads. The belt-driven ceiling fans also added to the look and feel of the place. There were also the usual TVs on the wall showing various sports channels.

When we were there, the place was busy, and it wasn’t easy to get a table. But we managed. I had the day’s soup served in a hollowed-out roll with chips (crisps) and salsa on the side. To drink, I had Cut Throat Ale, which was pretty good.

One point to note is you will be asked for ID at the door.

EpicMix and the Epic Day Lift card — tracking you on the mountain

This was something interesting that I hadn’t come across before.

Thanks to an RF-enabled lift pass, our movements around the ski mountains were being tracked. In this case, the Epic Day Lift card. Intriguing. I was not too sure what to make of the tracking.

At the time, the tracking on the Epic Day Lift worked at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Canyons, Heavenly, Northstar, Kirkwood, Afton Alps and Mt. Brighton.

You ski, and recorders track the card at the lifts to use the card. I had to create a free account to view the data at http://www.epicmix.com/.

The data could be viewed on the website or using an iPhone or Android App.

When I logged on, I discovered I had skied quite a bit on Day 1. According to the data, I skied 21,442 vertical feet, earned 608 points (whatever they were) and picked up a bunch of ‘badges’ for things like ‘Afternoon delight’, ‘Bubble Up’ etc.

I was not sure how I felt about the tracking. But the data scientist in me loved all the data.