Skiing may be exciting, but Vail Associates has extended on-snow exhilaration to the ultimate Walter Mitty experience: a bobsled course adjacent to the ski slopes. In its second year of operation last season, the 2,900-foot-long bobsled run had 18,000 riders who paid $10 each for the thrill of three Gs on banked curves at 50-mile-an-hour speeds.
Developed by Doru Anghel, an expatriate Romanian who has a degree in Bobsled Track Management from the University of Bucharest, Vail’s bobsled run is not up to Olympic specifications but it also costs only a fraction of an Olympic run in construction and maintenance. The other two bobsled courses in North America — in Calgary and Lake Placid — were built for Olympic competition with refrigeration to maintain consistency in performance. Vail’s course is not refrigerated and is the only bob run in the world that is accessible to alpine skiers.
Anghel, who was on the Romanian bobsled team when he defected before the 1984 Olympic games in Sarajevo, was living in Denver when he initiated the bobsled idea in 1986. A call to the resort received enthusiastic response from top management, but it took four years before construction began on the area’s first course. Fairly gentle terrain adjacent to the Avanti slope below Eagle’s Nest Ridge was selected as the site for the run because of convenient access, northern exposure and gradient.
“It was very clear from the outset that we would design a track specifically for recreational users,” said Anghel. “In fact, it would be the first time that a recreational track would be built. It’s very cost-prohibitive to construct and maintain an Olympic-spec track.”
Begun in October, the track was built entirely of ice and snow with virtually no clearing, bulldozing or ground disturbance. A six-person crew used shovels and an enlarged version of a protractor to sculpt a consistently curved course out of big whales of snow moved to the site with track vehicles. The cost came to less than one percent of conventional Olympic track construction.
Sleds were custom designed by a vinyl fabricator out of laminated closed-cell foam and vinyl fabric with bases of P-tex like that used on skis. The four sleds are 40 inches wide by 26 inches high and 10 feet long, and each holds four passengers, accelerates through the force of gravity and has neither brakes nor a steering device.
After three months and hundreds of test rides, the course was opened to the public. The first year, there were over 9,000 riders in a two-and-a-half month season. More important, with daily snowblowing, sculpting and icing, the maintenance costs proved to be 10 to 20 percent less than the cost of maintaining an Olympic track.
David Lokey
The experience convinced Vail’s management that there was public acceptance that warranted a more permanent structure in a better location. For the second year, the course was sited below Mid-Vail off the Lionsway run where the track would have a north-northeast exposure, an average gradient of 20 to 25 percent, a vertical drop of 230 feet and protection from the sun in a heavily gladed section of the mountain. This location not only utilizes slopes that are too flat for conventional trail design, it has minimal off-site visual impact.
“The course is situated on environmentally sound terrain, avoiding all wetlands and drainages,” said Mike Larson, Vail Associates mountain planner. “The U.S. Forest Service’s Environmental Assessment team found the course area to have a very minimal impact on the surrounding environment. The course itself sees very little erosion during the summer months since we use jute netting to protect the sculpted dirt.
“The course also has the ability to be upgraded to meet full Olympic bobsled requirements and international luge specs with minimal construction. It doesn’t cross over any existing trails or catwalks. In fact, the access roads to the area have been in place for several years.”
The new course, which was sculpted out of earth, utilized the natural contours of the Mid-Vail terrain, winding through a tree canopy that protects the snow from the sun. It has 11 curves, six of which are 180-degree switchbacks, and is 2,900 feet long. Like the first course, it is molded out of snow and ice with four-inch-thick walls, two-and-a-half foot high straightaways and eight-foot-high banked curves. Next year, Vail Associates may extend the course by 600 feet and in the future, there may be lights for night operations as well as further lengthening, buildings to house sleds, competitors and timing devices for possible Olympic use.
Last season’s bobsled business, however, proved the worth of the concept for the recreational market. From opening day on December 22 through the end of March, there were more than 18,000 riders who careened around the course. Business came from advertising, word-of-mouth and skiers riding a chairlift within sight and earshot of the exciting run.
The only problem encountered in operating the bobsled run has been too much snow. With a new fall of four inches or more, the course is closed until the six-person bobsled crew clears it.
To reach the bobsled run, skiers ski down to the top of the course, about 500 yards from Mid-Vail, where they leave their skis, sign a liability waiver and don helmets for the ride. Snowmobiles with specially equipped carriers transport their skis or snowboards to the bottom of the course where riders find them placed on a rack.
Scott Price, a Melbourne, Fla., skier, is typical of bobsled enthusiasts. “After looking down and seeing and hearing four helmeted passengers scream around this hairpin turn, I knew I had to try it,” he said. “I didn’t know what to expect, but after sliding into the bobsled and gaining considerable speed at the first corner, it was pure acceleration and exhilaration from there.”
