Three weeks ago, I traveled to Utah to hang out with friends and travel around a bit. I visited Bryce Canyon National Park for the first time and saw some of the offseason projects at Utah ski resorts. One of the fascinating developments is the massive terrain expansion at the Utah Olympic Park.
This terrain expansion will be a private ski resort. The U.S. Ski Team and various local racing squads will use the slopes for training. Unfortunately, the slopes will be inaccessible to members of the general public at least for the time being. Future additions could include a snowboard cross course and a halfpipe. The goal of this project is for the trails to be a training ground for Olympians and local athletes, and it could also host events during the next Olympics that Salt Lake City hosts. It’s still in the air whether they’ll host the 2030 or 2034 games, and they’ll face some worthy competition.
While I was in Park City, I got to take some photos of the project. The first takeaway was how steep the terrain is. Secondly, lapping the lift will be very easy, as a high-speed quad will service the new trails. Third, two main trails are currently being sculpted, but there’s the possibility of more runs being added in the future. The run that crosses over the future lift line will be a moguls training run (see first and last photos below), and the other trail will be used for GS/Slalom training. Lastly, these runs are very steep. Add in the typical icy conditions used to train high-level athletes, it will be pretty gnarly to shred. I walked around the 2002 Olympics bobsled track to get some close-up pictures of the development, and it was definitely one of the highlights of my trip.
A few weeks ago, Michelle Roepke from TownLift got this video of a helicopter placing the lift towers into place. It’s a must-watch video that shows the scope of what the terrain and lift will be for this upcoming season. Now if only they let members of the public shred there once a year.
Image/Video Credits: Skimap.org, Ian Wood of Unofficial Networks, Michele Roepke/TownLift
