SUN VALLEY, IDAHO
Sun Valley is installing an 8-passenger level walk-in Doppelmayr CTEC gondola, the only 8-passenger detachable gondola being built in the U.S. this year. It replaces a triple chair, which covered only the top two-thirds or so of the new lift’s route. It’s the first piece of a new 50-year master plan for Sun Valley, and it will change the way skiers and riders use the mountain.

The gondola is 6,400 feet long, with a rise of 1,920 vertical. Initial capacity is 1,800, with a design capacity of 2,400. An 800-hp AC top drive provides the power. It has bottom tensioning. With a maximum rope speed of 1,000 ft/min, the ride time is seven minutes. It has both auxiliary (950 hp) and tertiary (185 hp) drives as well, both Cummins diesels, with maximum rope speeds of 800 ft/min and 200 ft/min, respectively. Towers were flown in late July and the lift is scheduled for completion by early November.

The new lift serves several purposes. First, it provides improved access for novices and low intermediates to Seattle Ridge, the easier terrain on Baldy. It will also make possible the year-round, day-and-night use of the lift and the Roundhouse restaurant two-thirds of the way up Mt. Baldy.

Along with the new gondola, phase one of the Sun Valley Master Plan includes the construction of two new ski trails, and the addition of snowmaking on the hill. But the master plan purposefully does more to limit the buildout of Sun Valley than enable it. “In almost every case, the plan reduces the maximum unit development by a third to one half,” a company statement says, to preserve the resort’s character.


SUGARLOAF, MAINE
Sugarloaf is investing more than $1.8 million this summer, with new snowmaking, modifications to lifts to improve wind resistance, and upgrades at the Sugarloaf Mountain Hotel topping the list of upgrades. “The concept is to make sure that we can provide enough coverage on our large mountain (130 plus trails) by Christmas and react to unfriendly weather events,” says GM John Diller.

Roughly 20 new hydrants and 2,200 feet of new pipe (1,100 each for water and air) are being installed on Gondola Line Extension to provide a 1,500-vertical-foot shot from the summit. The new guns will be standard ground units (SR 7’s and ringers).

Additional snowmaking upgrades will include electricity for 15 new Boyne low-e fan guns on the snowboardcross course and 5,000 feet of new snowmaking pipe throughout the mountain, which will provide increased flexibility and capacity to central mountain areas, including the Superpipe.

Sugarloaf will also complete the replacement of lift buildings and trail signage throughout the mountain, continue with renovations to the Base Lodge, and invest $600,000 in flatscreen TVs and comfy “Boyne beds” for the Sugarloaf Mountain Hotel.


WHITE PASS, WASHINGTON
A two-year, $8.5-million expansion that will nearly double the acreage of the resort includes adding two Doppelmayr CTEC quads, a 3,000-square-foot mid-mountain lodge and 13 ski runs in Hogback Basin, southwest of the current ski area. The resort will also expand its parking lot capacity by 1,000 spaces. The expansion, which has been more than two decades in the making, will be ready in time for winter 2010-2011.

One of the new lifts, a fixed grip quad about 3,500 feet long, will serve four new ski trails. The second new chair will be a detachable quad chairlift approximately 4,000 feet in length and access seven new trails and an egress trail. A new mid-mountain lodge will allow guests to use the two upper chairlifts without returning to the base area, two miles distant, for services.

One reason the project requires two years: Hogback Basin is a roadless area. That means White Pass is allowed almost no ground disturbance. As a result, many of the materials and machinery needed for construction were moved into place over the snow, which was on the ground into July, or flown in by helicopter.

The first year’s effort consisted of getting all the concrete in the ground for the lodge and lifts, cutting trails, and running electrical lines. White Pass allotted 13 weeks for the work, which was completed in just 8. Next year’s lift and lodge construction will complete the project.


SKI BUTTERNUT, MASSACHUSETTS
This resort is installing 110 Top Gun Pipe Dream guns, additions that will virtually eliminate the need to move guns around the mountain. These 15- and 20-foot tower guns, along with replacement of some existing pipe, comprise the heart of a $250,000 package of improvements.

Butternut’s pre-expansion system was built around 180 HKDs, 50 Pipe Dreams and miscellaneous others. The Pipe Dream guns use low air consumption, 60 cfm, and are a little easier to control on the resort’s narrow trails.

The additions mean that Butternut can now cover 100 percent of its trails, and the area will be able to use the pumps’ maximum capacity of 3,600 gpm much more often.

To insure this new capacity, the area replaced about 5,600 feet of old pipe. Tatro Construction, from Vermont, did the installation in two weeks, using a zaplock system of pressed fittings rather than welds.


mount pakenham, quebec
This small area west of Ottawa is installing a new Leitner-Poma fixed-grip quad that replaces a 1974 Hall double. The quad follows the same route as the old double, straight up the main face. The double had been serving as the backup to a newer 1988 BM quad (a Canadian manufacturer bought by Poma in the late 1990s); now, the old quad will serve as backup to the new lift. The new quad will have a capacity of 2,400/hr, an increase of about 20 percent, according to Dave Matheson of Mount Pakenham. The lift’s slope length is 1,550 feet, with a vertical rise of about 270 feet. The quad has a 125-hp AC bottom drive, with bottom tension, as well as a 160-hp diesel auxiliary and an 85-hp diesel evacuation drive. By mid-August, the terminals and towers were in place, and the lift will be ready to roll when the area opens in early December.