Canyon Mountain Sports & Showcase — Local services in Park City

I'm probably the most positive and down to earth guy you'd ever meet. Born in Salt Lake City I was raised on the snow and continue to live here for my love of that fluffy stuff. Canyons was the first resort I really fell in love with, offering free season passes to students who had met honor roll grades...ever since it has been nothing but a downhill decent until they met rock bottom. They have torn down any existence of a "local" resort, pointing their eyes toward real estate and condos. Tearing down millions of trees to build multi-million dollar homes around the mountain and the access roads to those homes. With this said they put ZERO effort into improving the mountain but put 100% of their effort into their lodges, condos, houses and their RIDICULOUS prices on the mountain...$14 for a crappy burger and cheap fries...come on!

Also, the layout is a JOKE! You have to park several miles from anything blowing any chance of you visiting your car for anything during the day. Riding the Cabriolet to the village then taking one of two options (gondola or bubble lift) to the actual mountain. This journey takes at least 30 minutes until you can even take your first run and once you're up there, you're up there and they know it...this is why you'll pay so much for ANY kind of service on the mountain.

This would have been my 14th year straight having a pass at Canyons but enough is enough. The terrain park is absolutely horrible (this coming from a competitive level rider), the "commute" up the mountain is a joke. The environmentally unfriendly atmosphere sets a negative tone (heating your seat on the bubble lift...really?) Unless you're a corporate CEO that has already sold your soul, go somewhere else, there are dozens of other places to visit in Utah. The locals have already gone elsewhere...but Canyons doesn't care about them anymore. It will be very interesting to see this place fail...again...as this mountain has been through more owners in the last 10 years than is healthy for...

So here's the deal. I am a local season pass holder. Awesome mountain, just don't try to do it all in one day.Choose a side and stick with it as it is really hard getting from one side to the other. The mountain is 4000 acres and it has every type of terrain you could want. The 5-15 minute walks off the 9990 lift access world class powder runs. If you go into the side country, be sure to be prepared as if you are in the backcountry (probes, beacon, shovel and partner), as some of the only deadly in-bounds avalanche deaths have been in the side country at the Canyons. Same for Murdock Peak on the "old" side.

Get there early in February as every hedge fund manager in the eastern US shows up for a week or two. The Wasatch, especially the back side in Park City, gets busy and competitive then. A powder day makes about 150,000 people who live here wake up at 5am and go running to the hills. The best time to come to Utah is the end of March through mid-April just before most of the hills close (Snowbird sometimes stays open until July 4th). Best snow in the world with nice temperatures and plenty of sun in between dumps. Two years ago, Brighton Crest saw 26 feet in 18 days from late March until mid April.

As for the improvements at the Canyons, well, aside form a major opening date hiccup that cost us season pass holders a 6 foot dump in November of 2011, the Canyons has really stepped it up. I showed up last Saturday and Los Lobos was playing for free at the base. There are now 4 really good food establishments and countless...

1st encounter I called the store to inquire about renting a trail bike. I didn't want to rent downhill. I like the climbs. They stayed they had trail bikes and it would be no problem. 2nd encounter i showed up the day before to make sure they had a bike. The guy at the counter acted I was out of my mind and all but refused to rent me a bike. I had to convince him to let me re t a bike. I asked if they had SPD pedals, he dmsaid yes. 3rd encounter I came in to rent the bike, the guy at the counter (different from the 2nd encounter) did the same thing. He would say, "well we only have two trail bikes," okay, I only need one. When I asked about renting SPD pedals, he said well, we only have one set. Again, I said that was all I need.... it's not like the guy was being casual, I spoke with them for a while about what I wanted to do. They kept pushing the downhill bikes. If I had time I would have went somewhere else. I let everyone I know in my company meeting how crappy that experience was. We used it as an example of how you don't...