The end of ASC.

[ski diva]

The American Ski Company is selling off its last remaining resort, The Canyons. The buyer is Talisker Corporation, a privately-held global real estate development company based in Toronto, Canada. The firm is currently developing the Talisker Club, an ultra-luxury residential community in several neighborhoods surrounding neighboring Deer Valley Ski Resort and Jordanelle Reservoir outside of Park City.

 

[RachelV]

There are already a bunch of huge houses tucked into the canyons, right? I remember skiing by a bunch and being quite surprised/jealous. ;)

 

[Pequenita]

Wow. And I thought ASC was the evil one.....

 

[Jilly]

These guys remind me of Intrawest. Develop, develop, develop!! Oh people come here to ski?? What's that??

 

[tradygirl]

Oh goody....more on-mountain development and rising lift ticket prices.

I am extremely biased growing up in SLC, but it makes me sad to see what has happened to the Park City resorts. Deer Valley has completely ripped apart most of Empire Canyon to build monstrous "vacation homes". The Canyons is well on its way to choking the mountain with development. At least the Cottonwood resorts keep it real (thank god for Forest Service land). What happened to locally-owned mountains?

I don't know what the answer is, because these companies are just capitalising on a huge market that is growing phenomenally fast, but I feel like all the commercialization, development, luxury, and growth is just pushing us not-so-rich skiers out of the game. Lift tickets at DV and the Canyons will probably break $80 this year. Are you kidding me? Who can afford to ski every weekend, let alone take their families?

I guess as long as they keep offering locals deals at a discount, I can't get too upset, but I find myself spending more and more time in the backcountry to get away from the madness.

How do you guys feel about the booming ski industry? Have any of your favorite mountains been victim to the corporate machine?

 

[ski diva]

I ski Okemo, which is family-owned and operated. And though they do a great job managing the ski area, they, too are getting more and more involved in real estate. Because that's where the money is.

For more on this, you have to read "Downhill Slide" by Hal Clifford, former (?) ski-area real estate editor for Ski magazine. In it, he talks about how the big ski corporations are bad for skiing, ski towns, and the environment. I don't agree with absolutely everything he says, but he raises a lot of very interesting issues, including how even though the number of skiers are declining, ski areas are continuing to expand their facilities, raise prices, and build these huge condos/vacation homes/etc. that cater to the richest segment of society, who may not even necessarily care about skiing. In essence, they're all competing with each other for a market that isn't really growing, or at least at a pace that reflects their activities. It's essentially an arms race among ski resorts -- Resort X does this, so to get its share of the pie, Resort Y has to do the same thing or something more. He has this one really appalling section about ski areas and the forest service -- how one washes the hand of the other and how the ski areas essentially do whatever they want, no matter the environmental cost. Made me feel pretty sick. The book was written a few years ago, and I think some of that is getting better. I know that since it was published a lot of ski areas are going to wind power, for example. Still, an interesting read.

 

[abc]

The real estate is booming, for now (and for the past couple decades). Can't blame the ski industry for wanting to have part of the benefit.

What happens when the real estate market goes bust, which it will, some day?

I think the building boom maybe tapering off...