Park City spring was in full swing as a weekend of high temperatures and sunny skies shined on crowds of skiers and riders at Park City Mountain resort before the next storms this week. With lift closures intermittent throughout the week, the busy resort worked to keep the inevitable lines moving.  Crescent Express lift in particular had a number of stoppages throughout the week. The lift remained down, closing for the duration of Sunday and Monday, and forced skiers to reroute through other avenues. But skiers and snowboarders expressed a mix of patience, adaptation and overall satisfaction with conditions, for the most part, though Saturday some chanting in the vein of “Need new lifts” was heard at the Mountain Village Base. While Crescent is supported by 40 other lifts across the entirety of Park City Mountain, the lift is an essential part of transporting riders from the Park City Mountain Village base area into other areas on the resort. With Crescent down, skiers may use the Town Lift or Payday Express to get up the mountain, though this creates a large bottleneck at Bonanza Express for those looking to expand eastward. “Our team has been working with Doppelmayr to perform maintenance on Crescent and the lift reopened Tuesday morning,” said Communications Manager Emily McDonald.With Crescent spinning again, 38 of 41 lifts were open across the resort on Tuesday with holds on McConkey’s and 9990 Express lifts. Pioneer has not operated all season, down waiting on rare parts.Over the busy weekend, visitors Kathleen and Imants Stiebris took a strategic approach, opting to take a bus to avoid congested areas on the Park City side. “On Saturday, it took us 45 minutes at a couple of lifts. With Crescent closed, everybody just funnels that way,” said Kathleen. “We avoided the area altogether today and took a bus to get around to the Canyons, though we are staying in town.”Imants said, “It was beautiful weather, so it wasn’t windy or scary on the lifts. And once we avoided those lifts, it was all fine.”Other skiers said they were impressed with how quickly the long lines were moving and felt that the crowds spread across the mountain fairly easily. The resort has 41 lifts with access to 349 trails across the Canyons and Park City Mountain Village sides, 323 of which were open Tuesday. “The lines are big, but nothing we aren’t already used to,” said Daniel, a snowboarder visiting from Mammoth. “These runs are great — they’re so long. We’ve just been cruising.”Henry Klein was visiting from Miami for his second year at Park City Mountain. He was initially nervous following the media coverage of the long lines resulting from terrain closures and the ski patrol strike in December, though pleasantly surprised. “I was a bit nervous it might be like (in December), but we’re very happy. There’s totally blue skies and almost no wind,” said Klein. “Skiing is expensive, so I can imagine people get disappointed, but I think it’s really as nice as it gets. I had expected it to be much more crowded.”Cassie Burbeine and Eric Robbins were visiting for a long weekend from Boston and agreed that the lines were sizable, though efficient. “There have been good-sized lines, but they’re moving really quickly. Everything has been good; people are really nice. Two bluebird days, great conditions, can’t complain,” said Burbeine. “We came from Payday, and every time we get there we’re worried it will take forever with Crescent closed, but it moves really quickly. On a weekend, too, a long line is really no problem.” Though guests were easily able to get around the mountain and access the entirety of the terrain they wanted, some felt disappointed by the lack of communication and outreach on behalf of the resort. Imants and Cassie Stiebris were pleased with their ability to circumvent lift issues, though confused that they were left in the dark on why lifts like Crescent were closed during a busy weekend. “One lift operator said they were closed for maintenance. Another said it was an intercom issue. It’s a major lift on the mountain that’s closed on a weekend, and I wish we just had some info,” said Imants. One group was stranded at the base of the King Con lift on Saturday for over an hour before they were allowed to ski down a specially designated snowmobile track to exit the resort and get on a bus back to the base area. “We got stuck at King Con for long enough that people started hiking up to get out of the area, but even after hiking up for 10-plus minutes, they would realize how long it would be for them to get out to another lift and come back down,” said Juan Alban. “People just started going down the snowmobile path illegally until Ski Patrol finally came down to say it was allowed. They asked everyone to trickle down to the road where the snowmobile path leads and get on the buses back to the base area. We were lucky to get a spot on the first bus,” said Alban’s friend Danny McGowan. “We lost an hour, so it wasn’t so bad for us, but there were people stuck up there on the lift for that hour and a half.”For many experienced skiers, knowing your way around the mountain is key on peak weekends, particularly when surrounding lift closures compound wait times.Alongside Crescent, which faced maintenance issues this week, Pioneer lift on the Park City side has been closed for the season as the team works to repair an issue that was found during routine preseason maintenance.“Our team was working to get it fixed with the original manufacturer, and we had some delays with the original manufacturer in getting the part fixed,” said McDonald. “We know how much Pioneer means to the community, and the team has been working really hard all season to get it open,” she said. “As soon as we can confirm that the lifts are open, we will let the community know. We love Pioneer, and we know our guests love it too.”For Jordan, who declined to give his last name, Pioneer offers some of his favorite terrain on the mountain. “I love the Pioneer terrain, and I’ve been hiking up to the terrain from the top of Thaynes, but it really was not worth it. It’s not a big deal, but (the closure) is definitely causing some issues at Bonanza,” said Jordan, who has been skiing Park City Mountain for over 20 years from Baltimore.“I know where to go and what time of day to be out, and that’s been OK for avoiding lines and the busy areas,” he said.With warm weather and lift lines moving along, riders said they were happy to soak up the sun and spend their time on Park City Mountain’s 7,000 acres of open terrain, and on days when things aren’t running as smoothly, strategic avoidance is key, they said.The post Spring breakers make most of pleasant conditions even with key lift down appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less