I do really enjoy people watching at The Canyons Resort Village and at the Red Pine Lodge area, because just about everybody skiing the The Canyons passes through these portals. Of course, The Canyons is so vast that if you don't see somebody in either of those places the chances of running into them while skiing are pretty slim.
At the Red Pine area, I met my Mountain Host for the morning Dave Knose, who, as Guest Services Mountain Supervisor, is in charge of the corps of hosts and ambassadors at the resorts.
After reading about all the lawsuits The Canyons has been involved in since my last visit I really didn't know what to expect in attitudes from The Canyons staff. Everybody I met was cheerful, upbeat, glad to be working at The Canyons and seemed sincerely happy to share The Canyons with the guests. New owners Talisker Corporation has done an excellent job making a seamless transition and keeping a happy workforce.
Skiing and Riding
Well, a little different, for me, part of this mountain tour around The canyons was that Host Dave is a snowboarder. But, that certainly didn't slow him down as we headed up Tombstone Express and over for a few loops off the Saddleback Express.
A long runout down Chicane brought us back to Tombstone, where we looped some really well groomed trails. The timimg of this trip to Park City didn't have the cooperation of Mother Nature that I was used too on my last trip to The Canyons, but all trails that were meant to be groomed were in great shape.
We quickly found our way to Peak 5 and onto Dream Peak where Dave found some good vistas of Iron mountain which is the object of The Canyons future expansion. When lift served and opened this will add another 250 acres of intermediate and advanced terrain to the largest resort in Utah.
We didn't get up Ninety-Nine 90 this day but I was still able to grab some good photos of the backcountry.
Sun Peak, Super Condor - Missing My Host
I left Dave at lunch time and headed over to the Short Cut Lift and up to Lookout Cabin for some really good photo ops. Then, with trail map in pocket, I started skiing some nice moguls on Eclipse and did several ups and downs on the Sun Peak Express.
Next, I worked my over to Super Condor and found some great early spring conditions on the sunny side. It took me awhile to find my way back to a ski out on Doc's Run - another case to prove a mountain tour gets you the best skiing for your time - let your guide do the leading and you just ski along.
The Canyons tours run from the Red Pine Lodge area - meeting daily at 10 am near the large area map across from the Saddleback Express.
A word of caution from my mountain host Dave - seriously, if you see a moose, and they do stroll around, don't even think they are friendly and petable. Remember I made reference to Alice in Wonderland, not Rocky and Bullwinkle.
As is common in the travel industry, the writer was provided with complimentary lift tickets for the purpose of reviewing those services. While it has not influenced this review, About.com believes in full disclosure of all potential conflicts of interest. For more information, see our ethics policy.
