Park City is No Longer Vail’s Largest Ski Property — Vail to Buy Whistler Blackcomb

Vail is on a buying spree. Today they announced they are buying 100% of the stock of Whistler Blackcomb, North America’s largest ski resort (by acreage). It has also been named the top ski resort in north america by Ski Magazine for 3 of the last 4 years.

According to Forbes, “Specifically Vail Resorts announced it would: Support Master Development Agreements with local First Nations, as Whistler Blackcomb is in the Squamish and Lil’wat First Nations’ traditional territories; Retain local leadership, continuing to operate the resort principally with local Canadian management; Maintain local employment and retain the vast majority of current Whistler Blackcomb employees; Re-invest substantially in the resort experience, including continuing to build community and stakeholder support for the recently announced Renaissance project, a transformational investment which will diversify the local tourism economy; provide new four-season, weather-independent activities; and elevate Whistler Blackcomb’s core skiing, mountain biking and sightseeing experiences.”

It looks like Vail gained even more power in the industry than is had before (if that’s possible). Bravo to them for capturing what is consistently one of the top 3 resorts in North America.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Vail is paying $1.06 Billion USD to acquire the resort. In 2014, Vail paid $182 million for PCMR.

We’ll be looking forward to our friends from the Great North descending on us with their Epic passes in the coming years. Now may be a good time for someone to open Park City’s first Tim Hortons franchise.

Glad we got our $50 million in upgrades before there were bigger fish to fry.

h/t to the friend of the Park Rag who let us know