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(Scott Sommerdorf)

Park City » A Utah ski area is offering a limited number of 30-year ski passes in an unusual deal tied to real-estate development.

Owners and buyers at a condominium hotel at The Canyons resort are being offered the chance to buy two of the passes for $5,000 apiece.

That's a notable and rare deal for any major ski area. It works out to $166 a year -- and condo owners can lend the pass to anybody they authorize, unlike terms of regular season passes.

The condo passes stay with the real estate.

The Canyons, which normally charges $1,099 for one season's pass, won't collect any of the money from the sale of the $5,000 passes and is honoring an agreement made by former owners of the resort, said Philip A. Grant, who is in charge of sales at the 85-unit Escala Lodges.

Talisker Corp. bought The Canyons from American Skiing Co. in July. It was American Skiing that made a deal with the Escala's original developers.

The Canyon's general manager, Mike Goar, said the special offer will promote the resort and accelerate real estate sales at Escala Lodges.

Half of the units are still available, with prices starting at $675,000 and ranging to nearly $2.6 million for a four-bedroom unit. The Escala Lodges is a stone's throw from a chair lift at the base of the resort, which sprawls across eight peaks and 3,500 acres.

Toronto-based Talisker considered The Canyons, once Park City's smallest resort and now its largest, a prized property and had to fight off a competing bid from industry giant Vail Associates Inc.

In October, Broomfield, Colo.-based Vail Resorts dropped a lawsuit contending it had a deal with American Skiing to buy the Utah resort. Vail said it was reserving the right to seek monetary damages.

Talisker bought The Canyons for $123 million, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Grant said $5,000 for a near-lifetime pass is "a screaming deal" currently unmatched at any other major ski area in North America or possibly the world.

The catch, he said, is The Canyons will make the Escala pass available for a period of time that neither side is specifying. Grant said the opportunity won't close for years.