Whistler Blackcomb Is Receiving Two Lifts Intended for Park City in 2023. Here Are Our Initial Thoughts.
Whistler Blackcomb, Canada is the largest lift-serviced North American ski resort and earns the highest PeakRankings Mountain Score of any mountain.
Background
After a wild swing of events, the Silverlode eight-pack and Eagle six-pack intended for Park City will be installed in 2023—but in an entirely different country. It turns out that Vail Resorts will be shipping these lifts up to Canada to be installed at Whistler Blackcomb to replace the Fitzsimmons and Jersey Cream chairs, respectively.
Vail Resorts decided to make this decision after the town of Park City successfully appealed the company’s plan to install the two lifts at Park City resort. Vail still has not figured out a solution to allow these Park City projects to go forward, leaving their future in limbo. The company reported this development as part of their Fiscal 2022 earnings announcement.
The new lifts will be installed at Whistler for the 2023-24 season, and will follow two other significant lift upgrades at Whistler—a 10-seat replacement for the Creekside Gondola, as well as a six-pack upgrade for the Big Red Express chair—for the upcoming 2022-23 season.
Implications for Park City
It’s hard to underscore how unprecedented the circumstances behind Park City’s lift cancellations are. Lift projects are cancelled every now and again, and if parts have already arrived on site, it’s not uncommon for lifts to be delayed by a season or so. But rarely do components get shipped to a resort’s premises only to be shipped back away, never to be installed in their intended location. Such a drastic action suggests that the proposed Park City lift upgrades are not coming any time soon.
However, the now-canceled Silverlode and Eagle lift replacements may not have been the most effective investments anyway. Increased traffic this past season really put a strain on Park City’s lift network, with the problem becoming so pronounced that we decreased the resort’s PeakRankings Mountain Score despite no changes to on-mountain lift infrastructure. Assuming visitation were to remain at 2021-22 levels, these projects likely would not have been the most effective to manage the rising crowds.
Future upgrade efforts might be more effective if addressed towards chokepoints such as the Quicksilver Gondola and Tombstone Express, which have no reasonable alternatives and trap visitors in lengthy lines. It’s a bit surprising that Vail Resorts didn’t consider repurposing the eight-pack for installation at Tombstone—which is far away from the town of Park City on the resort’s Canyons side, and is not within the area affected by the Planning Commission’s appeal—but perhaps with the ongoing litigation, they decided to hold off on any additional Park City lift projects.
Implications for Whistler Blackcomb
In a classic case of the “rich get richer” effect, Whistler Blackcomb is the beneficiary of Park City’s troubles. Whistler Blackcomb already has one of the best lift setups in North America, boasting high-speed lift service essentially everywhere (it earns the highest score of any mountain in our Lifts category), but the resort has never shied away from more investment.
That said, if any lift could use an upgrade (excepting the Big Red Express and Creekside Gondola that are already getting replaced for the upcoming 2022-23 season), Jersey Cream is an obvious choice. Jersey Cream is one of the oldest lifts on the mountain, and while the quad is still high-speed, it runs at a slower speed than the resort’s other chairs and gondolas. The lift provides a critical leg of the path up to Blackcomb’s incredible high-alpine Glacier zone, and a speed and reliability upgrade here will not occur in vain.
Fitzsimmons is perhaps a slightly more controversial choice for replacement. The existing high-speed quad services perhaps the busiest base at the mountain, but it’s helped by the much more popular Whistler Village Gondola, and doesn’t always run on weekdays. An eight-pack will bring a useful capacity upgrade, but with the new chair not having bubbles—and with Whistler’s lower mountain famous for rainy conditions or just as an leg to get further up, it’s unclear how attractive the new lift will be to riders—and, consequently, how effective it will be in shifting traffic from the gondola. It’s almost as if Whistler is running out of lifts that need replacing, so they’re upgrading a lift that doesn’t exactly need one with a replacement that isn’t the best fit for the area.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, we’ll have to return to Whistler Blackcomb for the 2023-24 season to see how effective these lift upgrades are. But first, we’ll be back at Whistler this upcoming February to assess the Creekside and Big Red lift upgrades for the upcoming season. We’ll also be keeping an eye on the Park City situation to see if the planned upgrades ever come to fruition.
Considering a ski trip to Whistler Blackcomb this year? Check out our full Western Canada rankings, as well as our comprehensive Whistler Blackcomb review.
Considering a ski trip to Park City this year? Check out our full Utah rankings, as well as our comprehensive Park City review. You can also check out our Park City video review below.
