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Park City • The resorts officially will become one on Friday morning with the dedication of Quicksilver gondola, creating the largest ski area in the United States out of what were Park City Mountain and Canyons resorts.

"We'll have something for everybody here," said Margo Van Ness, spokeswoman for what now is simply called Park City Resort.

"The gondola will unlock 7,300 skiable acres, a lot of different terrain for all ability levels, whether you are looking to access the double black diamond runs on the Park City side of Pine Cone Ridge or the [intermediate] runs on the Canyons side," she added. "It's 6½ miles, edge-to-edge as the crow flies, from Condor Express on the Canyons side to McConkey's [Express] on the other."

Vail Resorts spent $50 million during the offseason to combine the two ski areas, modernizing the Motherlode Express and King Con lifts on the Park City side to improve the flow of skier traffic in the area around the gondola's base terminal.

The Snow Hut eatery in that area has been replaced with a more spacious Miners Camp restaurant. On the Canyons side, seating at the mid-mountain Red Pine Lodge also was increased by 250 to improve the customer experience, Van Ness said.

Up on the mountain, the gondola will have an unloading station at the top of Pine Cone Ridge that will allow skiers and boarders to head to either side of the resort.

Two trails were cut this summer to provide intermediate access to the Canyons side. The Highway is the easier of the two, Van Ness noted, following the ridgeline to the southeast before curling back toward the base area between the gondola and Flat Iron lift.

There's also Blaise's Way, named after longtime ski resort leader Blaise Carrig, a solid "blue" run with islands of mid-run trees to give it character.

A far different ski experience awaits people who get out of the gondola on the ridgeline and look to head down the Park City side into Thaynes Canyon.

Here the slopes are steep — double black diamond steep. A few bear names like Homelite and Limelite, but in many cases skiers will find themselves searching for just the right spot to head down open slopes of various widths between stands of conifer or aspen trees.

"In the past, that was terrain you had to hike to," Van Ness said, a lengthy walk from Jupiter Bowl, past Scott's Bowl and other Pine Cone Ridge runs such as Two Goons, Constellation and Sam's Knob. "It's definitely more challenging and for your expert skiers."

As much as anything, she said, the 8½-minute gondola trip affords riders "amazing views" of both sides of the resort. "It's really beautiful with the mixture of mountains and snow-covered fields."

With these additions, Park City Resort now has 324 runs. Basically half (49 percent) of the skiable acres are intermediate terrain, but 44 percent is listed by the resort as advanced terrain worthy of at least one black diamond.

Only 7 percent of the combined resort's slopes are deemed beginner terrain, according to Park City Resort's website.

Since skiing is about more than just skiing these days, particularly for a major mountain destination, the improvements to the mid-mountain restaurants were an important component of Vail's investment.

Van Ness is especially complimentary of Miners Camp, both for its culinary fare and its ambiance.

"It's a fantastic spot for guests to stop off for a bite to eat or to warm up," she said. "We have Mediterranean fare there, with delicious lamb gyros, a made-to-order salad station and a meatloaf sandwich."

Besides a second-story deck, the building also features one wall that is almost all glass, affording people inside "a fun spot to watch people coming down the slopes."

Adding a deck also was part of the offseason work at Red Pine Lodge, which dominates a flat piece of land surrounded by terminals for the Saddleback and High Meadow lifts and the Red Pine gondola.

Van Ness said its culinary offerings also have updated and will focus more on comfort foods such as beef stews and sandwich combinations.

"To see all of these different projects coming on line the last few weeks has been exciting," she said. "It's really quite a change."