Recently, Deer Valley Resort and Park City Mountain Resort hosted the 2011 FIS Freestyle World Cup Championships which featured the first ever appearance of ski slopestyle competition as a World Championship event.
Well, skiers and riders attending the events also had the opportunity to take a short hop down to Canyons Resort and experience another first - a ride on a heated, enclosed chairlift - the first of its kind in North America.
The Orange Bubble Express, just outside the Grand Summit Hotel on the Canyons Resort base area, is a marvel of engineering with heated seats, lightweight safety bar and a forward enveloping orange see-through plexiglass enclosure. The pull-down orange bubble protects skiers and riders from the wind and blowing snow while trapping the heat from the seats and allowing for a comfortable ride and a tinted view of the mountain.
The weather protecting orange bubble transfers skiers and riders from the base area to the mid-mountain Lookout Peak before continuing uphill to an ending point just south of the current Sun Peak lift in just nine minutes. This, according to Canyons Resorts increase the uphill capacity from base to mountain by 47%.
If you haven't ridden the Orange Bubble Express put it on your lists of things to do. I've ridden a couple of enclosed chairs in resorts in France and Switzerland, but none had the luxury of heated seats and none were fitted with an orange tinted bubble - like being inside a giant pair of ski goggles.
Check out my video of riding this cool chairlift.
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Orange Bubble Express at Canyons Resort Ski Area Courtesy Canyons Resort
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