Utah Olympic Park first made waves in 2002 when it hosted a wave of events including ski jumping, bobsled, skeleton, Nordic combined, and luge. But for years, it didn’t offer training grounds for ski racers, mogul skiers, and snowboarders. After adding a lift in 2019, its next step is to become a private training ground for professional skiers and snowboarders. To this day, the park has kept itself modern while hosting varying sports in one of the winter meccas of the United States: Park City. Some of the activities that remain include the ski jumps, bobsled course, alpine slide, extreme tubing, ziplines, a pool with aerial freestyle jumps, a residential complex for Olympic athletes, and a competitive high-diving platform that was just added this summer.
Phase one of the skiing expansion was opened during the 19-20 season, with a high-speed quad servicing the terrain that was originally at its neighboring Deer Valley Resort(The Homestake Lift). According to KPCW, this terrain features ” five lanes for alpine skiing and snowboarding, one mogul lane, and expanded space for freestyle across 11 acres of lighted terrain.”
Phase Two will give skiers access to numerous training slopes through a high-speed quad. According to Town Lift, the first portion of this terrain will feature two trails: “a 3300 foot in length, alpine, giant slalom (GS)/slalom (SL) run with 1200 vertical feet known in this preliminary stage as “Olympic Hopeful”, [and] a 1500 foot in length, SL/mogul run with 750 verticle feet.” The 25-acre expansion will feature snowmaking from a 1.3 million gallon pond, and lights for night skiing as well. Future trials are planned as well and are pictured below. The new lift and trails will likely open in December 2022.
Image Credits: Skimap.org, Ski Racing
