PARK CITY, Utah — When you think of skiing, you probably picture snow-covered slopes, but that is unfortunately not the reality in Park City, according to Park City Mountain Senior Communications Manager John Kanaly.
“You can see a little bit more brown than we're used to seeing at this time of year,” said Kanaly.
There were no complaints, however, from first-time visitor Richard Cornelius, who was visiting from Texas.
“My wife was teaching me everything, and we didn't notice that it was a little bit warmer than normal. We had a great time,” he said.
His family seemed to agree with this statement.
“It was nice not having that wind bite especially for teaching someone how to ski if they haven't been out here before,” said Riley Brock also visiting from Texas.
It seemed many visitors remained optimistic, but Park City Mountain has been feeling the impact.
“Because of the lack of cooperation from Mother Nature, we are going to have a smaller terrain footprint than we normally do at this time of the year,” Kanaly said.
The recent temperatures have made it difficult to keep snow on the ground.
“Our mountain operations teams have been taking advantage of every single snow making window that has been available to make as much snow as possible. Unfortunately, because of the warmer temperatures, those windows have been much more limited,” Kanaly said.
That’s when they realized they needed a plan B ahead of the Christmas season.
“We wanted to go above and beyond to try to make the holidays special for people coming into town and locals alike,” Kanaly said, "bringing our snow cats down to the base area so that guests can have a chance to sit in these incredible machines and learn a little bit about how they work. Our avalanche dogs are going to be here for people to meet and greet.”
In the meantime, visitors agreed that you don’t necessarily need a white Christmas if you’re spending the holidays exploring Park City.
“When the snow is pretty good, I don't have time to do that, because after one day of skiing, I have no energy to do anything else. This actually gives me a little bit more opportunity to walk around the city,” said Johnny Yin who was visiting from California.
“There's a lot of cool shops, just walking around looking at all the art galleries, and a lot of great local eatery places too,” Brock said, “there's a lot of stuff to do here, even if you're not on the slopes.”
The ski resort told FOX 13 News that during times like this, when visitation is down, they rely on past revenue from other products, such as Epic passes, which helps carry them through the season financially.
