Mountain High
A new lift, grooming vehicle, lodge renovations and snowmaking upgrades to the tune of $3 million were the off-season chores for construction crews at Mountain High Resort, Calif. A new Doppelmayr high-speed quad dubbed the Blue Ridge Express replaced the old triple and will cut ride time to the West Resort’s summit to four minutes. Spanning a linear length of 3,200 feet and climbing 1,000 vertical feet, the lift will run at its design capacity of 2,800 pph (using 75 chairs) for a VTFH of 2,800. Management also decided to purchase a new Bombardier BR2000 to bring its grooming fleet to a total of six machines. In addition to renovating both base areas and adding 150 new Rossignol snowboards to its rental shop, Mountain High crews revamped the snowmaking system with the help of 10 additional used Ratnik guns to add coverage to two more trails. Work also entailed replacing two generators with rebuilds of Caterpillar Magna 1 engines and repairing four others to bring snowmaking capacity to its full potential of 76,000 cfm from a previous capacity of 70,000 cfm.
Gunstock
Gunstock, N.H., workers built a new safety services building at the resort’s summit using lumber cut on site. The 720-square-foot structure is fully wired with electricity and communications lines and will be heated by gas. The rough-hewn look, which extends to a full-length timber porch, recalls the appearance of the original base buildings built by the federal WPA program from 1935 to 1938. Gunstock management was able to save nearly 66 percent in material costs by logging their own. The new building has freed up the existing warming hut, which stands about 30 yards away, for sole use by the public. That hut has been renovated with a new deck and includes a new food and retail operation for snowboarders and Skiers. The mountain’s snowmaking system also features a new SMI Super Wizzard fan gun. Maintenance crews also cleared damaged trees left in the wake of the 1998 ice storm that ravaged northern New England, opening up a lower glades run to make it more accessible to upper-intermediate skiers and snowboarders.
Sun Valley
Contractors at Sun Valley, Idaho, spent the summer building a new 2,400-square-foot spa and health club adjacent to the resort’s 66-year-old lodge and abuts the outdoor, heated swimming pool. The new spa is constructed mainly of concrete to match the exterior of Sun Valley Lodge and is finished inside using oak, granite and marble. Radiant hot-water heat in the subfloor combines with a forced, hot-air system to keep guests comfortable. The Spa includes a gym in addition to two wet saunas, massage therapy rooms, 64 lockers and a safety deposit box system for valuables. A seven-zone audio system provides music and a new service bar has been installed poolside. A flat 18-foot by 18-foot roof lined with stone pavers covers the new spa and is expected to be used for rooftop dining during the summer with access gained via the main dining room. A full basement—which was not in the original plans, but came about when excavators had to dig through 15 feet of backfill to find acceptable footing for the foundation—provides space for heating and air-conditioning equipment as well as storage.
Cascade Mountain
A new 12,000-square-foot day lodge has been completed at Cascade Mountain Ski & Snowboard Area, Wis. The two-story building was completed for about $890,000 (owners took care of all contracting with the exception of block-work and roofing) and replaces an old 600-square-foot warming hut. The building’s lower level will be alcohol-free and will serve 150 guests with a snack bar. The second level will have the capacity to serve 130 diners from a full-service bar and cafeteria. The lodge will also benefit from a south-facing 5,000-square-foot brick sun deck with a radiant hot water system—powered by a waste-oil boiler-underfoot to melt snow. Management decided a self-clearing deck was a must because the resort makes so much snow that it would have been more costly to shovel. The sun deck will have outdoor table service for about 300 skiers. Beneath the deck is 5,000 square feet of protected storage for snowmaking equipment, which was increased this summer with new SMI fan guns and York Snow WaterSticks. Crews also built a tubing park serviced by two O’Connor Ski-Lifts tows. The new lodge might serve as a clubhouse during the summer if management builds a golf course on adjacent land.
Alta
This past summer, workers at Alta, Utah, replaced the resort’s 27-year-old Sunnyside lift, a Hall fixed-grip double, with a new Garaventa CTEC detachable triple, the first detachable at Alta. The new lift is being billed as a double to give skiers the choice to ride it as either a double or a triple regardless of lines waiting to load. Because the lift is used primarily by beginners, Alta wants to assure that its customers have an easy time loading and unloading and still have a quick ride up. The old lift often had to be slowed for loading beginners who ended up with a 12- to 14-minute ride. The new lift will get skiers to the top, some 650 linear feet beyond the old terminus, in about seven minutes. It will stretch 4,728 feet and climb 796 vertical feet. It has a design capacity of 1,800 pph, but will run at slightly less than that for a VTFH of 1,400 with 122 chairs. While installing the new lift, Garaventa engineers designed a new bottom terminal for the adjacent Albion lift. Both the Albion and Sunnyside bottom terminal locations were regraded and aligned so both would begin at the same elevation, providing skiers better access from the transfer tow. In addition, a new operator’s station was built and sited so all three lifts could be observed and controlled from one location.
Belleayre
As part of a $5 million facelift and redesign this past summer, crews installed 100 Ratnik Sky Giant tower snow guns, 150 Ratnik 200C water hydrants and 6,500 feet of hose on Belleayre Mountain, N.Y. The improvements give Belleayre better capacity while saving energy and increasing snowmaking coverage at the resort to 92 percent. Crews also put up two new Garaventa CTEC fixed-grip quads, connecting the previously divided top and bottom halves of the resort, built a new day lodge and opened new terrain. Three days of flying the three-ton, 40-foot towers using a Sikorsky 61 helicopter was the dramatic highlight of the work at the state-owned central Catskill Mountain resort. One of the quads, dubbed the Superchief, stretches 5,000 linear feet and climbs 1,133 vertical feet to replace a 22-year-old double that only accessed the upper part of the mountain. The Superchief begins at a point halfway down the lower half of the mountain and ends at its peak, connecting the two halves for the first time in 50 years. The Superchief runs at a design capacity of 2,400 pph using 223 chairs for a VTFH of 2,719. It also provides access to additional intermediate terrain. The second quad, called the Tomahawk, runs 3,600 linear feet and climbs 923 vertical feet. It also runs at a design capacity of 2,400 pph for a VTFH of 2,215. It will run 156 chairs and provides access to the mountain’s west side. Construction crews also built a new, 12,000-square-foot lodge to house ski school and personnel offices on the ground floor and conference facilities for 200 people on the second.
