Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) in Utah has decided to designate a few of its trails as 'skier only' and a few trails and 'boarder only' in response to consumer feedback.

The resort, which will host the Olympic snowboarding events, has
designated four intermediate and expert trails as snowboarders only,
and four similarly graded trails as skier only. Introduced at the weekend the trails are likely to stay segregated indefinitely and more are planned, however all lifts will remain open to both boarders and skiers.

Very few resorts in the world offer any segregation of skiers and snowboarders with recent years seeing a decrease rather than increase of segregation. Aspen famously opening its final area, Ajax mountain, to boarders in April 2001. In Europe, Saalbach Hinterglemm in Austria has a section of 'boarder only' terrain.

Only Japan and Utah have more than one ski area that fully ban
snowboarders. In Utah it's Alta and PCMR's Park City neighbour Deer
Valley. Japan has several such resorts, but many of their indoor slopes are snowboarding only.

PCMR say that their thinking is that boarders and skiers take a
'different line' down the slopes and that clients are interested in
enjoying a boarding experience uninterrupted by skiers and vice versa
on some runs. By not banning boarders, or skiers entirely, the resort
hopes to offer the best of both worlds. They will monitor reaction and
withdraw the scheme it if it proves unpopular.

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