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Epic and Iconic One Wasatch transit plans revealed

gmcunni

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Rode a lift today at crested Butte with a local. She said other than the high holidays (black out on some epic passes at the I-70 mountains) she hasn’t seen much impact of epic. But I checked in at the base office this morning and they said they are seeing more “front rangers”.
 

deadheadskier

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My post was mainly tongue and cheek. Keep reading on here how bad the parking and traffic has been at the Utah resorts this year. Now picture what a 50% increase in skier visits might do? Granted, there will be less people driving from resort to resort if the interconnecting lifts are reasonably efficient. However, there would be a MASSIVE increase in skiers coming to the state if One Wasatch came to fruition.

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BenedictGomez

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My post was mainly tongue and cheek. Keep reading on here how bad the parking and traffic has been at the Utah resorts this year. Now picture what a 50% increase in skier visits might do? Granted, there will be less people driving from resort to resort if the interconnecting lifts are reasonably efficient. However, there would be a MASSIVE increase in skiers coming to the state if One Wasatch came to fruition.

That's a key point, also, they'd be spread around. I dont see it as a problem at all.
 

deadheadskier

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Maybe. I just keep reading horror story after horror story about the traffic into the Canyons this year and places running out of parking. Increase the number of visitors by 50% and what does it look like? Never mind the lift lines and snow getting tracked out that much faster.


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BenedictGomez

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Increase the number of visitors by 50% and what does it look like?

Do you have a basis for that number? I think ONE Wasatch (were it to ever happen) would have a huge economically positive impact on the entire Wasatch ring, but I cant imagine it would lead to a 50% increase in skier visits. That sounds over-the-top. I know the ONE Wasatch folks did impact study type stuff, but I dont even think ONE Wasatch promised that.
 

Zermatt

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They figured this out in Europe 20-30 years ago and it seems to work fine. Not sure they will ever pull it off here though.

One big issue would be generating enough traffic to justify a mass transit system up the Cottonwood Canyons (for example, train only access to Zermatt). I don't think you could do it. The train to Zermatt runs 18 hours a day as frequently as every 20 minutes and is consistently full in winter and summer. If you eliminated cars in the Canyons could you fill the trains?
 

thetrailboss

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So the big issue is that the economy here is booming. And folks are coming here in droves. Housing costs are really high. Forecasts are that the population is going to continue to grow. Is that a guarantee? No. But One Wasatch doesn't fix the traffic issue with the population growth. One Wasatch only really benefits Park City skiers who can ski over to the Cottonwoods. Makes sense for those visitors. Doesn't make sense for me.

As to mass transit option, that is a DECADES long issue and the bigger problem is that Utah is cheap as f%^k.
 

deadheadskier

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Do you have a basis for that number? I think ONE Wasatch (were it to ever happen) would have a huge economically positive impact on the entire Wasatch ring, but I cant imagine it would lead to a 50% increase in skier visits. That sounds over-the-top. I know the ONE Wasatch folks did impact study type stuff, but I dont even think ONE Wasatch promised that.
I'm curious what their thoughts are on increased traffic.

To put things in perspective, Vail, Breck and Keystone do about as many skier visits as the entire state of Utah. A bit over 4M visits a year on average. You create an interconnected mega resort of 7 different ski areas and market it correctly and there's a real possibility with it's easier access to an airport that One Wasatch could draw 5+ million visits a season.

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BenedictGomez

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Housing costs are really high. Forecasts are that the population is going to continue to grow.

The home prices seem as expensive as New Jersey, but with significantly lower salaries. Even adjusting for the fact Utah is a low-tax state & New Jersey is a high-tax state, the real estate valuations out there seem alarmingly high & likely unsustainable long-term. Definitely seems like one of the regional markets at risk for correction.

One Wasatch only really benefits Park City skiers who can ski over to the Cottonwoods. Makes sense for those visitors. Doesn't make sense for me.

I think it would be exciting for the SLC, Sandy, etc... housed tourists who'd want to ski over to Park City too. The ONE Wasatch website says it would take about 2 hours to ski from Snowbird to Main Street. I think of it more as an "experience" and I think it would definitely be a significant marketing draw. I'm not sure how they'd run this for locals, but my guess is that with RFID it is now easier than ever before from a technical standpoint.

I'm curious what their thoughts are on increased traffic.

To put things in perspective, Vail, Breck and Keystone do about as many skier visits as the entire state of Utah. A bit over 4M visits a year on average. You create an interconnected mega resort of 7 different ski areas and market it correctly and there's a real possibility with it's easier access to an airport that One Wasatch could draw 5+ million visits a season.

That would be a 20% or so increase, that seems reasonable I'd imagine. There'd be nothing else like it in North America.
 

deadheadskier

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Split the difference and call it 35%. That 4M figure is for all of Utah, not just the 7 Wasatch resorts. Those 7 probably do about 80% of Utah's ski business I'd assume though.

I'm sure it would be great for the economy and a cool safari experience like no other in the US, but just like Stowe here in the East, a lot of people will be talking about how they wished it never happened. Coincidentally, the Stowe thread today has people calling for parking garages. Yuck.

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thetrailboss

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The home prices seem as expensive as New Jersey, but with significantly lower salaries. Even adjusting for the fact Utah is a low-tax state & New Jersey is a high-tax state, the real estate valuations out there seem alarmingly high & likely unsustainable long-term. Definitely seems like one of the regional markets at risk for correction.

Yes. This year the rate of growth is set to slow, but it is still going up. I also think it is unsustainable.

I think it would be exciting for the SLC, Sandy, etc... housed tourists who'd want to ski over to Park City too. The ONE Wasatch website says it would take about 2 hours to ski from Snowbird to Main Street. I think of it more as an "experience" and I think it would definitely be a significant marketing draw. I'm not sure how they'd run this for locals, but my guess is that with RFID it is now easier than ever before from a technical standpoint.


I was looking at it from a transportation perspective. If the goal is to get me to Alta/Snowbird without me driving myself, this is no good for me. It is only good for me if I was in Park City. I honestly don't care about skiing that much in Park City.
 

raisingarizona

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So the big issue is that the economy here is booming. And folks are coming here in droves. Housing costs are really high. Forecasts are that the population is going to continue to grow. Is that a guarantee? No. But One Wasatch doesn't fix the traffic issue with the population growth. One Wasatch only really benefits Park City skiers who can ski over to the Cottonwoods. Makes sense for those visitors. Doesn't make sense for me.

As to mass transit option, that is a DECADES long issue and the bigger problem is that Utah is cheap as f%^k.

It only makes sense for Park City visitors to ski over to the Canyons? How do you figure that?

I seriously can’t figure out your logic here.
 

raisingarizona

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It sounds like a lot of people seem to think that you have to ski from one end to the farthest other in a day to make the One make sense. Why is that? Think of the options other than that, it’s totally awesome, especially for the back country savvy skiers that can use lifts to access side country runs. For someone staying at Solitude they could go in either direction during their vacation. For someone staying at the Bird they could tour off the back of Alta, end up at Brighton and then get back while passing through Solitude. The one end to the other in a day is getting annoying and lacks imaginative vision.
 

thetrailboss

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It only makes sense for Park City visitors to ski over to the Canyons? How do you figure that?

I seriously can’t figure out your logic here.

I am addressing the idea of One Wasatch being a transportation solution for the Cottonwood Canyons. It is not really, unless you are staying in Park City and want to get to either BCC or LCC for skiing.

If you look at a map, it is not far "straight as the crow flies" from Park City to Brighton and then to Alta. It's not hard to see that if you are staying in Park City and want to ski Alta, then this proposal with lifts interconnecting the region works pretty well for you. Otherwise, you have to drive about an hour around to get to Alta.

And my specific point was that One Wasatch is not a cure-all for the transportation issue because most folks like me live in the SLC area so we're going to drive to the mountains anyway.

The whole point of this thread, again, was joking about crowding in the Wasatch. One Wasatch doesn't really address that issue...at least the issue of local growth.
 
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crazy

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I haven't heard any movement on One Wasatch for years. The whole Epic vs. Ikon makes it even more complicated, if anything.

Also, let's be perfectly clear. One Wasatch is NOT a transportation solution, and isn't billed as such. It's designed to be an experience in the same way that connecting PCMR and Canyons was. Will it lead to more traffic? Probably, but a 50% increase in skier visits? That's ridiculous. I doubt it would lead to anything more than 5-10% incremental traffic in the first year that it's done, if even that, and afterwards people would recognize that it's a novelty. Where is this 50% number coming from?

Look at the size of the 6 mountains that comprise "One Wasatch." Each one is huge. How many people are actually going to go between them? I bet you that if there are stats on how many people cross over from Brighton to Solitude (or vice versa) or Alta to Snowbird (or vice versa) or from Canyons to Park City (or vice versa) it's actually a very small share of ticket holders. Also, think about how much a "One Wasatch" ticket would cost. I guarantee you that if/when One Wasatch is built, it gets some use for the first year or two, and then people forget about it.
 

crazy

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The transportation solution is an entirely different issue. Do they charge a toll for going into LCC? Does the ski bus expand? Do we build a gondola, or a tram, or a train to take people up LCC? Do we build a tunnel for cars to drive between BCC and LCC? I'm not commenting on the merits of any of these proposals, only pointing out that these are the transportation solutions. Not One Wasatch.

I'm on the One Wasatch web page right now, and all the talk is about the "experience." I don't hear it being touted by its creators as solving the larger LCC transportation problem.
 

jimk

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The home prices seem as expensive as New Jersey, but with significantly lower salaries. Even adjusting for the fact Utah is a low-tax state & New Jersey is a high-tax state, the real estate valuations out there seem alarmingly high & likely unsustainable long-term. Definitely seems like one of the regional markets at risk for correction.
.

A couple comments: housing costs have gone up maybe 33% in the last 3-4 yrs in suburban SLC and this comes from my interactions with my son during his home purchase here in 2017. Home values in suburban SLC are still about 50-60% less than suburban Wash DC.
 

BenedictGomez

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Do we build a tunnel for cars to drive between BCC and LCC?

I've heard this before, not really sure I understand it. From a practical standpoint, it makes absolutely perfect sense, but from a traffic standpoint I think the benefit would be limited at best and only potentially useful in the late afternoon. You could get from Heber or Park City to Alta/Snowbird faster in the summer too, which I guess would be nice, but again, not that terribly important.
 
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