Summer is right around the corner and the Utah resorts are offering some new amenities. Click here to read about mountain activities for kids in an article by Heraldextra.com.
New Summer Amenities At Utah Resorts
By Bill LigetyMay 24, 2017
Vintage Ski Posters Auction ~ March 16
By Bill LigetyMar 15, 2017
Collectors and ski lovers should take note of the Swann Galleries auction tomorrow, March 16th. Early 20th century travel posters highlighting winter sport destinations will be sold during the 10 AM auction. Click here for the dailymail.co.uk article. Access the auction website by clicking here.
Unique Utah Ski Adventures
By Bill LigetyMar 01, 2017
Whether you are visiting the Salt Lake City area or looking for a new adventure, this article lists a dozen unique Utah ski experiences. Click here to read "12 Incredible Ski Experiences You Can Only Have In Utah."
POW! It's A Great Time To Be In Park City!
By Bill LigetyJan 27, 2017
Graphic courtesy of skiutah instagram.
Hard to believe that it has been 15 years since the 2002 Olympic Winter Games!
By Bill LigetyJan 16, 2017
Celebrate the wonderful magic and memories of the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City! Click here to read more about the planned celebration.
Utah Resorts' Historic Snowfall Graphic
By Bill LigetyJan 13, 2017
Check out this graphic illustrating 119 inches of snow in 11 days! Click here to view the image.
An Epic Week of Fresh Powder Reported
By Bill LigetyJan 06, 2017
Are you a ski powderhound? Deer Valley is reporting 4 feet of new snow this week! Sign up for powder alert emails and check out the mountain webcams at Deer Valley Resort!
Forecast Bolsters Skiers' Dreams
By Bill LigetyJan 04, 2017
From our office on Main Street we can see happy skiers riding the Town Lift up to the slopes. Read more about the additional 1-2 feet forecasted to "bolster our snowpack" in the Wasatch Mountains by clicking here. Check out the local ski conditions in Park City at Deer Valley Resort and Park City Mountain Resort.
Winter Is Coming - The Ski Utah Passport Is A Great Incentive For 5th and 6th Graders!
By Bill LigetySep 22, 2016
Ski Utah offers affordable opportunities for 5th and 6th graders to hit the slopes. Read more about the advantages in the Park City Magazine article by clicking here.
Which Ski Resort Installed The First Chairlift ?
By Bill LigetyApr 03, 2015
As the ski season comes to a close, how familiar are you with the ski lifts that transport you on the ski hill? From old time classics to high-speed quads, enjoy the article below from The Huffington Post.
Going downhill is the really fun part of skiing, but the uphill part of the equation makes more vertical feet downhill possible. While chairlifts may be the classic type of ski lift, they are just one way to get high. (Enter quip about Colorado and Washington's laws here.) Here's a rundown of the most common types used at ski areas around the world.
PHOTO: Rope tow at Mount Pilchuck in 1960s; alpenglow.org
Surface Lifts Other than hiking, a rope tow was the earliest and most primitive method to go uphill. Rope tows are still found at many small ski areas. Among destination resorts, Alta Ski Area in Utah actually has a prominent rope tow going between the Albion and Wildcat base areas. A moving sidewalk, commonly known as a "Magic Carpet," thankfully has replaced rope tows in most beginner areas.
PHOTO: Magic carpet lift
T-bars, J-bars and platter pulls were the next steps in the evolution of surface lifts. Such devices predate snowboarding, so surface-lift design tends to be less than ideal for boarders.
The most famous T-bar in the United States is probably the one accessing Horseshoe Bowl at Breckenridge Resort in Colorado. Platter pulls (the ones with the disc that goes between a skier's legs) are often called "Poma lifts" after the company that first made them. Of course, Poma now also makes sophisticated high-speed chairlifts and gondolas, but the name has stuck.
PHOTO: T-bar lift; Breckenridge Ski Resort
Fixed-grip Chairlifts The inspiration for the chairlift was a cargo conveyor system used to load bananas onto ships in Panama. In 1936, skiers were first able to go bananas over this wonderful new invention installed in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Boyne Mountain bought the original single-chair lift for $2,000 in 1947 and brought it to Michigan. The terminals of the lift are still used for the Hemlock double-chair there.
PHOTO: Hemlock Lift at Boyne
Surprisingly in light of Boyne's modest 500 vertical feet, the ski area's founder, Everett Kircher, was central to the evolution of chairlifts. He put in the first triple-chair at nearby sister resort Boyne Highlands in the 1960s. Boyne Mountain can also claim the first fixed-grip quad (four-seat chair) and first high-speed six-pack.
High-speed Chairlifts High-speed lifts are also known as detachable lifts, because the chairs detach from the cable at the top and bottom stations in order to slow down for loading and unloading. The chairs reattach at different points on the cable, but given that all the chairs slow down by the same amount, the spacing remains the same.
The advent of detachable high-speed chairlifts in the early 1980s cut ride times by more than half, forever changing resort skiing.
PHOTO: High speed quad; Durango Mountain Resort
Rather counter-intuitively, the faster detachable quad lift has the same uphill capacity as a fixed-grip quad. In other words, high-speed lifts get individual skiers up the hill faster, but do not necessarily put more people on the hill. The chairs on a high-speed lift are spaced farther apart, so they don't bunch up too much at the terminals.
To think of it another way, four skiers or snowboarders can load the lift about every six seconds no matter whether a quad is high-speed or fixed-grip. Therefore, as long as the number of seats per chair is the same, the capacity per hour ends up being equal for both types. By the same logic, the length of the lift doesn't affect uphill capacity. Yes, it seems wrong, but it's true.
The exception would be the rare high-speed chairlift configured to allow more than one chair to be loaded at the same time and thereby increase capacity. Also, the reality is that fixed-grips often can't run at full capacity, because fixed-grip chairs are more difficult to load and unload. People are more likely to fall getting on and off, so the lift must stop temporarily more often.
Gondolas Holding up to a dozen guests in each car, gondolas are basically chairlifts with enclosed cabins. The downside of course is the necessity to take off skis or snowboards. The six-person Silver Queen Gondola on Aspen Mountain is probably the iconic U.S. example of this mode of transportation.
PHOTO: Silver Queen Gondola at Aspen Mountain; Aspen Skiing Company/Hal Williams
Trams
With just a couple of large cars on the cable, an aerial tram can hold about 100 skiers and boarders (often standing in uncomfortably close proximity) in each cabin. Challenging resorts and trams seem to go together, because Jackson Hole, Snowbirdand Squaw Valley are all known for their trams.
PHOTO: Tram; Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort
