On the heels of that record-breaking season of 1977-78, many had assumed that the industry would go on a big expansion binge. But this has not taken place.
By and large, there has been a great deal of upgrading, modernizing, face-lifting and fixing up. It costs money, it is needed, but it is not necessarily spectacular.
Of course, there are plenty of exceptions to this generalization. The Keystone people, for instance, went into a construction frenzy when they bought Arapahoe Basin. Ignoring the calendar and the clock, all they did was set out to completely re-build the famed old resort. Down came four lifts, up went three brand new chairlifts. New water and sewer facilities . . . new electrical work . . . complete renovation of the base area, including buildings. The timetable? Closing on the purchase was August 4; the area is scheduled to open for business November 15. That’s 103 days!
Other highlights: how about a million dollar expansion at Suicide Six Ski Area in Vermont—the grandest of the grandaddies among ski hills. Included is a chairlift, demolition of the old base lodge and construction of a new one three times as big.
Another grand old veteran, Bousquet Ski Area in the Berkshires, is getting a $100,000 facelift. Loon Mt. in New Hampshire is adding a new chair and new trails. Just across the Notch at Franconia, Enrico Monti has construction work under way on the new, 80-passenger Nuova Agudio tramway on Cannon Mountain. To be ready for the 1979-80 ski season.
Jumping to Colorado, Winter Park has retired its 1957 Swiss T-Bar and replaced it with a new chair. Also part of the $2.5 million expenditure is a $1 million addition to the Center at Mary Jane.
Sun Valley went on a capacity-building binge with three lifts, snowmaking and seven new grooming vehicles at one shot. Mt. Hood Meadows in Oregon has invested in a huge increase in their night skiing capabilities. Four of the area’s six double chairs are now under night lights.
Mt. Snow was busy installing a 7,200-ft base-to-summit triple chair, and throwing vast amounts of snowmaking at the big mountain, including coverage of two expert runs on the North Face. Look for more emphasis on early/late season business as at the sister resort, Killington.Sunshine Village at Banff, Alberta, has embarked on an $18 million expansion. New projects currently under construction include a double chair, a T-bar and what is billed as the world’s largest gondola—a Von Roll with 6-passenger CWA cabins, with ultimate capacity of 1800/hr. Area General Manager is John Gow, area manager is Norman Crerar and John Layman is resident engineer. Shown (left) is the Menzie Muck used by Sunshine for Gondola Tower excavation and other work below tree-line. It is able to crawl and work on a 45-deg. slope. On the right is a FMC Skidder—a converted military tank used gondola logging operations on terrain too steep and rough for most vehicles.Mayor Pat Carleton of Whistler, B.C. officiated when ground-breaking got underway on what is billed as a $50 million concept. When fully developed, the Whistler/Blackcomb complex would offer a 4,800-foot vertical serviced by lifts rising from the Village Center now under construction.At Burke Mt., Vt. area manager Gloria Chadwick was busy putting in a new beginner/intermediate area serviced by a new base lodge and condominiums.At Sun Valley, three chairlifts went in—two replacements and one new—and the Bell 214B helicopter did its work of transporting more than a million pounds of steel and concrete in four days. The new lifts boost capacity to nearly 23,000/hr on mountains where the average skier density is 3,200.Jiminy Peak in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, added a Riblet double-double. On the left, concrete is being poured around steel support columns for base terminal. This method of construction allows the structural steel to be placed on the lower footings and track welded to rerod. The entire tension terminal is then able to be squared up, leveled and plumed before grade level concrete is completed. Column is poured in 4½ feet of concrete. New tower design (right) allows for conventional operating parts to be used. The 30-in. support tube is slightly taller, and the 18-in. cross-arm tube then has an 18-in. vertical tube handing off the end of it where the tower cross-arm is attached.“Ouch!” or “Yummy!” might be the caption, depending on your point of view, as Arapahoe Basin is completely rebuilt following its purchase by Ralston-Purina, owners of nearby Keystone resort. Previously housing Arapahoe’s primary power system, the shacks were only a small part of what went before the new construction could begin.Looking up the face of Arapahoe Basin, one can see at top right the new (1,530-ft. vertical) Palivacinni double chairlift—one of three new lifts going in. These steep slopes down the face were not readily accessible in past years. Old lifts, recently removed, are lying on ground near base where steamshovel is removing concreme bullwheel foundation to make way for expanded parking lot.A veritable sea of plastic is part of new trail construction at Greek Peak, N.Y., where five new trails and several acres of glades are being developed in Greek Peak East, a bowl-shaped area adjacent to the present facility. A 3,100-ft triple chair by Hall will be ready for this season. Also, construction has begun on 28 new townhouse units. It all adds up to one of the most ambitious expansion years ever for Greek Peak, according to general manager, Al Kryger.At Loon Mt., N.H., 600 sticks of dynamite were used to eliminate the rock garden from the first four acres of “B” slope in the West Basin development. The slope in the foreground has already been reseeded. Forest Service requirements specify that no more than 600 feet of slope could be exposed after the stumping and rock reduction operation before water bars and seeding were completed.
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