Park City Forced to Cancel All Lift Upgrade Projects for 2022-23

Park City’s Silverlode six-pack chair on a busy day. The project to replace this lift with an eight-person chairlift has been blocked by the town’s planning commission.

Early this morning, Utah’s Park City Resort announced that it was canceling its Silverlode and Eagle lift upgrades for the 2022-23 season, with its hand being forced by the Park City Planning Commission. The resort had planned to replace its notoriously busy Silverlode lift with an eight-pack—the first ever in Vail Resorts’ North American history—with the goal of relieving mid-mountain lines on the mid-mountain Park City side. The Eagle lift project would have replaced both the Eagle and Eaglet triple chairs with a single high-speed six-pack, providing a new high-speed lift route from Park City’s base. Park City’s Canyons side was unaffected by the proposed projects.

The resort has not announced whether it intends to follow through on these projects for a future season, but says they will be implemented for the 2023-24 season at the earliest. This development comes in the wake of the ski area’s decision to implement paid parking on all Park City-side lots for the 2022-23 season to reduce traffic in town.

A closeup of Park City’s lower-mountain Park City side, which includes the Silverlode, Eagle, and Eaglet lifts that were pegged for replacement by the canceled projects.

Our Take

The now-canceled Silverlode and Eagle lift projects probably would have helped manage lines in lower and mid-mountain Park City-side areas. However, 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 enough to manage the rising crowds. In addition, notable chokepoints such as the Quicksilver Gondola and Tombstone Express were left unaddressed by these upgrade plans.

While it’s a bummer that Park City was forced to cancel projects that would have improved its capacity, we hope the resort takes this opportunity to re-think its upgrade projects—and even revisit some of the pass sale and crowd management strategies that have driven the need for increased capacity in the first place.

Considering a trip to Park City next season? Check out our comprehensive mountain review. Additionally, check out our full Utah and Rockies rankings.