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November 2007

Construction Site :: November 2007

Lift installations, snowmaking expansions, and new lodges give guests plenty to look forward to: Revelstoke, B.C.; Deer Valley, UT; Gore Mountain, VT; Cyprus Mountain, B.C.; Apalachian Ski Mountain, N.C.

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REVELSTOKE, B.C.
It’s just not possible to describe the magnitude of development taking place at Revelstoke, B.C., where a megaresort is taking shape almost overnight. The area will open this November with 27 trails and 1,500 acres of trail and above-treeline terrain. The most obvious signs of this year’s $110 million investment: two mammoth Leitner Poma installations, an eight-passenger gondola with nearly 3,000 vertical, and high-speed quad of 2,000 vertical—with a combined 4,700 vertical. (Price tag for the lifts: $20 million). A second stage of the gondola, to be added next summer, will take the vertical to 5,700.

COO Rod Kessler tells us that there were as many as 140 people toiling on the mountain at one time this summer, with up to “75 pieces of iron” operating. The resort has built roads, mined rock and sand for the roads and trails, logged the runs, built the lifts and renovated the day lodge—and begun construction on the resort village, which will open in November 2008.

For now, the lifts are the centerpiece. The gondola is 7,841 feet long and travels at 1,200 fpm, powered by a 1,600 hp drive. Initial hourly capacity is 1,200, with a 2,800 design capacity. The gondola starts 1,000 vertical feet above the eventual base village, and connects riders to the quad, which transports them into the high alpine. The quad is 6,240 feet long with 2,080 vertical, and has an 800 hp drive. Initial capacity is 1,400, design capacity, 2,600. Both lifts are top drive, with active bottom terminals. The low initial capacities reflect the smallish bed base in Revelstoke, where existing heli and snowmobile operations often max out the accommodations. Given the pace of development, it won’t be long before the lifts are running at design capacity.


DEER VALLEY, UTAH
Deer Valley is expanding its domain onto a sixth mountain in the Empire Canyon area, dubbed Lady Morgan. The $6.5 million development includes 200 acres of skiing (65 acres of glades) and boosts DV’s skiable acreage to 2,026. The Lady’s a tough mother, too. Most of the eight new trails are black-diamond. She’s served by a new Lady Morgan Express quad from Doppelmayr/CTEC. The lift rises 1,150 vertical in a short 2,800 feet. The steep terrain (there’s a cliff band in the middle of the line) required hand-digging of some lift towers. The Lady has a powder-friendly north-facing exposure, but all trails will have snowmaking coverage, just in case. DV is installing four miles of pipe and, for maximum flexibility, a combination of 51 snow guns: air-water low-e HKD tower guns on steep sections and Kid Wizard, Polecat, and Super Polecat fan guns on the low-angle slopes. That should keep the Lady from showing bare spots during ski season.


GORE MOUNTAIN, N.Y.
State-owned Gore is embarking on what could eventually be a $400 million expansion at the area (only a small portion of that is state funded, we should note). For this year, the old gondola base terminal building is being converted into the 20,000-square-foot Northwoods Lodge, which will include a new Learning Center for kids, rental shop, and nursery. This creates one-stop shopping for families, and easier access to the slopes for kids: the second-floor exit is at snow level, with a chairlift and conveyor nearby.

The $2.5 million renovation is being done in the Adirondack style, in conjunction with Lincoln Logs. The building began life in the 1960s as a two-story barn; the renovation retains its big timber posts, v-joint ceiling, and double tongue-and-groove southern pine ceiling/floor. The exterior will be horizontal log siding on the first floor and on the gable ends where the doors are.

Gore is also adding a rebuilt lift to the North Creek base area; one of the first areas opened in the U.S. in 1932. The lift was re-engineered by Hagen Schultz, formerly of Partek. It is 1,200 feet long with a 150-foot vertical. North Creek, part of four interconnected mountains at Gore, is expected to be the site of a major real estate development in coming years.


CYPRUS MOUNTAIN, B.C.
This Vancouver-area resort, host to snowboard and freestyle events for the 2010 Olympics, is undergoing a $25 million dollar expansion—not counting the extensive investment being made by the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) itself. Nine new trails on east-facing Black Mountain will expand terrain by 40 percent. Cypress is relocating its Poma Sunrise chair to serve this terrain. Cypress is also installing the Lions Express Quad, which cuts ride time up Mt. Strachan to four minutes from 10. It’s a Doppelmayr/CTEC 600 hp DC drive with an hourly capacity of 2,400. Length is 3,432 feet, vertical is 1,165 feet.

Simultaneously, VANOC is constructing the 2010 venues. This summer, that means building an in-ground foundation for the 22-foot halfpipe and adding lighting to six trails. Plus, adding snowmaking for all venues (freestyle aerials, moguls and skiercross, halfpipe, parallel GS and boardercross). Torrent Engineering built the water intake system in Cypress Creek, which feeds a five-million gallon reservoir. Torrent designed a pumping station capable of 3,000 gpm to feed 45 self-draining hydrants; firepower for the fully automated system includes 20 SMI Super Polecat Snowtowers and 15 Super Polecat carriage guns. The system includes three miles of epoxy-lined pipe.


APPALACHIAN SKI MOUNTAIN, N.C.
With just 25 acres of terrain, it wouldn’t seem necessary for Appalachian to double its pumping capacity to 4,000 gpm. But this southern area typically operates from Thanksgiving until late March, and “we are excited about the potential to offer mid-season conditions during our early and late season, and the ability to open our terrain parks much more quickly,” says GM Brad Moretz. Torrent Engineering has built the new pump stations that go hand in hand with doubling the size of the system’s snowmaking reservoir. The pumping system includes three vertical turbine pumps with a variable frequency drive. The new infrastructure is sufficient to accommodate another doubling of the pumping capacity, to 8,000 gpm, should that be necessary in the future. Appalachian is adding to its fan gun firepower with several SMI Super Wizard towers. All this capacity will make it a snap for 45-year-old Appalachian to lay down the six to 15 feet of snow it likes to have in its parks and to perform its monthly rebuilds (to keep the park experience fresh). The system can produce more than a million pounds of snow per hour.