Why Park City Is Amazing For Intermediate Riders!
If you're an intermediate skier looking for a HUGE ski resort with ample blue terrain that will take more than a week to explore, then you're in the right place! Park City, the largest lift-serviced ski resort in the United States, known for its exceptional overall mountain experience and old-school mountain town charm. Nestled on the eastern side of the Wasatch Mountains, Park City is a paradise for riders of all levels. But today, it's all about the intermediates, who we believe make up the largest percentage of the skiing and snowboarding public.
We're going to tour the best intermediate terrain on both the Park City and Canyons sides of the resort, so strap yourself in — there's a LOT of terrain to explore! Remarkably, 41% of the 341 trails, that's 140 different trails, are graded blue for intermediates. That adds up to a whopping 105 kilometres or 65 miles of trails. We won't be covering every single trail, just our picks for the best intermediate terrain pods, the lifts that service these zones, and the standout trails.
Park City Mountain
Park City Mountain towers high above Park City village and it feels like what you can see from the base is just the start, the resort expands deep back in the mountains the moment you reach the summit of the Crescent Lift. The first zone we suggest for your day of riding blues is the Pay Day lift, this express lift provides access to 12 marked blue trails and they are always groomed perfectly to get those first turns of the day down. The lift is always busy in the morning as it’s one of the main service lifts to the rest of the resort but from mid morning the line is relatively short. Payday Run would be our top pick here as it’s long, fast, has great views of the mountain base area and a great consistent pitch.
Next up is King Kon, another express lift that drops you at the top of a peak with another 12 intermediate trails, yes we are into the second lift with 24 trails to choose from. As you ride the lift it feels like there are endless intermediate trails below you all waiting for you to try. Our pick here is the King Con Run, it’s a fun trail that has ungroomed spots which after some fresh snow and be a blast, it does connect with the Silverlode Base zone which has an amazing lodge and is the access point for the Quicksilver Gondola which takes you over to the Canyons.
Get on the Silverlode lift, once at the top you will now find yourself high into the mid mountain zone of Park City Mountain and this is where the choices being endless, the good thing is which ever way you choose to go there is a lift that takes you back this zone for another intermediate lap. We recommend Parleys Park, a long intermediate trail that will take some time to get down and connect you to the Motherlode Express Quad, this lift doesn’t see the same queues as some of the others and is our pick for some great and lengthy laps.
Next up, get to the top of Motherlode, go left off the lift and then continue to flow left until you see Single Jack which is a nice steep intermediate trail which connects down to Thaynes. This double chair has been lifting riders in this high alpine zone for half a century and provides access to a few blue runs, specifically Keystone which is a great trail that is sometimes groomed, sometimes not but also provides great access to some tree runs which is a great introduction to tree riding without the advanced pitch found directly under the lift.
From the summit of the Thaynes lift you can do a few more laps, head over to McKonkeys or begin a non interrupted trail all the way back to the base, it’s long, very long and you can choose to jump from intermediate to beginner and back but it’s a lot of fun.
Canyons
The Canyons side of Park City Mountain feels like a whole other ski resort, well because prior to 2015 they were seperate ski resorts and then Vail purchased them, built a huge gondola and connected them into one, we recommend anyone who visits park city takes a ride on the Quicksilver gondola, its pretty breathtaking.
Canyons is our preferred resort out of the two as it feels like it sees less traffic, there are more peaks along the ridge line which makes it feel like there are more terrain pods to spend a few hours in and it’s closer to Salt Lake City. When you drive to Canyons you don’t get stuck in the traffic going to Park City village and the parking at the base area remains free plus the little open air gondola that takes you from the car park to the base area is a good way to hype you up in the morning.
On first glance of the trail map it appears like there are blue trails from left to right, which there are, however this rather large zone here we wouldn’t exactly call intermediate terrain. The area is known as The Colony which is an ultra luxe residential zone packed full of houses that range from 10m all the way through to 50m, not exactly the common folk who are exploring Park City with their Epic Pass. The endless intermediate trails are mostly cat tracks that weave in and around these billionaire houses, not the place to feel your edges and perfect your turns but we do recommend doing a few laps through this zone as these houses need to be seen to be believed.
Ok back to the intermediate trails on offer at Canyons Park City, on the left hand side of the map you will find the Iron Mountain Express, this lift offers nearly 1,500ft (451m) of vertical with every major trail on the face being wide and having the perfect pitch for intermediate riders. We found this zone to never really get busy likely because it is rather remote from the rest of the resort. The one downside is that it’s at a lower elevation and will close down earlier in spring than some other higher areas. Speaking of higher zones if you zig zag down from the Iron Mountain Express to the White Pine trail you will find the Dreamcatcher lift.
The rather slow fixed grip quad climbs a further 1500ft higher into the back of the resort and whilst the terrain directly below the chair is all challenging advanced runs if you head right from summit of the chair you will find 13 intermediate trails waiting for you to explore. Our top picks here are Alpenglow and Apparition which are connected and offer top to bottom riding, or you can take the cat tracks that weave down through this zone or hop off the side and get into the trees with all these trails connecting again back at the base of the Dreamcatcher lift.
Back over in the central part of Canyons resort we recommend the Saddleback Express, which might be one of our favourite lifts at the resort as it’s located at a higher elevation which means the snow is better and there is around 20 different intermediate and advanced trails to choose from, a very lappable chair which is a great place to spend the morning. From the top of the chair if you head left you will find long and wide groomers that sweep back around to the front on the zone which also allows for some amazing views as you connect your turns. Heading right at the top of the chair provides access to 4 trails as well as the trees in between each of the runs, it’s worth noting that these runs all connect to the top of the busiest beginner zone at Canyons so if you have picked up a bit of speed on the intermediate trails you will need to be ready to put on the breaks as you connect with riders who are learning to ride.
The final intermediate terrain pod at Canyons resort is accessible from the Orange Bubble Express and the Sun Peak Express. Two main trails can be found on the main face of this zone named Eclipse and Echo and both offer just over 1,000ft of vertical with a consistent pitch that is brilliant for intermediate riders. Off the Orange Bubble Express you can exit at the midway point, continue forward and find Boomer and Broken Arrow, these will connect you down to the Sun Peak Express, or head under the chair left or right and take on the main bowl which towers above the Canyons base village and is home to 8 different blue trails to try out.
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