New lifts to get guests up the mountain, and exciting new ways to get them down, headline the construction season.

HOLIDAY VALLEY, NEW YORK
A $2.5 million Sky High Adventure Park is part of a planned expenditure of $5.3 million to upgrade the resort's operations and add more summer attractions. The park includes an aerial park and a Mountain Coaster from Wiegand.

The aerial park, which opened in late spring, contains eight obstacle courses of varying degrees of difficulty. Climbers travel from platform to platform via a series of rope bridges, wire walks, wood tunnels and ziplines that require balance, flexibility and some degree of fitness to navigate. The Mountain Coaster, which opened Aug. 20, is a 2,490-foot descent spiraling down through the woods. There are 15 curves, 12 waves, two jumps and a giant spiral along the length of the ride. The average grade is 15.2 percent, maximum is 23.6 percent.

Other improvements include a Skytrac quad chair to replace the SnowPine double chairlift, which will allow ski-in, ski-out access to the SnowPine Village condominiums.


ARIZONA SNOWBOWL, ARIZONA
After decades of seeking approval for its planned snowmaking installation, Snowbowl is finally taking the first steps, even as it awaits a decision from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the safety of A+ reclaimed water and the USFS analysis of water in the resort’s EIS.

Snowbowl will complete about 45 percent of the water supply line this summer——35,000 feet of a total 81,000 feet——from the highway to the ski area entrance. This work will keep the access road unimpeded next summer, when the on-mountain snowmaking work will take place. The line is 12-inch steel, coated with fusion bond epoxy, and covers 2,500 vertical feet. The summer’s work was 70 percent complete by early August. Towsley Construction has used its Zap-Lok and weld system, which allowed Snowbowl to continue work during seven weeks of fire restrictions. Next summer, the area will complete the supply line to nearby Flagstaff and install three pump houses, a 10-million-gallon reservoir, and on-mountain snowmaking for 120 acres.

Snowbowl is also adding a 450-foot SunKid conveyor, and four gladed trails that add transition terrain from novice to intermediate levels. The trails run 3,300 feet in length with 850 feet of vertical. Harvested trees will be used for firewood for tribes, community organizations, churches, and food banks; excess timber will be ground up for ski area mulch. Snowbowl is also adding a north-facing expert trail at the summit, with 700-foot vertical over a 1,550-foot length; this will allow for earlier opening of the summit.


COPPER MOUNTAIN, COLORADO
Copper is installing a new Doppelmayr detachable quad, dubbed the Union Creek High Speed Quad, to replace the High Point fixed grip double chair, which has been in operation since 1976. The move will vastly increase capacity from Copper’s Union Creek base, which is home to Copper’s snowsport school.

The Union Creek quad has a vertical rise of 1,000 feet on a slope length of 5,000 feet. Capacity is 2,400/hr, which doubles capacity from Union Creek and, with a 1000 fpm line speed, cuts the ride time from 10 minutes to 5. The design has an AC variable frequency top drive configuration with 500 hp motor.

The new lift serves mostly novice and low intermediate terrain that has been underutilized in the past due to the low lift capacity of the High Point double. The new lift makes loading easier for novices, and also speeds access to more advanced terrain.


CRESTED BUTTE, COLORADO
Crested Butte Mountain Resort added a Canopy Zip Line tour this summer. It includes five ziplines, 200 to 350 feet long, and a series of features. The guided, two-hour tour will operate both summer and winter.

From the practice area, participants cross the “Indiana Jones Bridge,” consisting of wooden planks on suspended cables, to a platform and zipline. That runs to the “Burma Bridge,” a three-line bridge with a cable for the foot line and nylon rope for hand lines on either side. Another zipline leads to the “Spiral Staircase,” where adventurers descend to a lower platform and another zipline. A 40-foot net climb is up next, leading to the final zipline. At the final tower, guests clip into an auto belay device and jump off the platform; the auto belay slowly lowers them to the ground.

Phoenix Experiential Design, which had conceived a similar tour at Roundtop, Pa., did the design and installation.


ALPINE VALLEY, WISCONSIN
Alpine Valley is installing a Leitner Poma Omega high-speed quad, the area’s third detachable. The new lift has a DC bottom drive with 150 hp motor, and both top and bottom tensioning. Capacity is 1,900 pph. It covers 280 vertical feet, with a total length of 1,420 feet.

How unusual is this install? Alpine was the only area in the Midwest with two detachables. Why three? “We took out an old Riblet triple, and now we can take more people to the top,” says mountain manager Chris Benzow.

To help accommodate the increased uphill capacity, says Benzow, “We’re adding on to the top of our hill, making it a bit wider. Our hill is set up in three tiers; there’s a beginning area with a detachable, and three big runs in front of the lodge, with two detachables on that.” The new lift can also serve the entire left side of the area, home to a variety of terrain features.

And that old Riblet? It’s being installed at Bittersweet, a sister area. “So instead of buying two new lifts, we’re just buying one,” Benzow says.