Vail
Perched at 10,300 feet, Eagle’s Nest is accessed by the Eagle Bahn, an 8,550-foot-long, 12-passenger detachable gondola made by Garaventa CTEC. The 22 towers were specially designed for installation in segments weighing less than 10,000 pounds so a skycrane could transport them to higher elevations. The tallest tower—114 feet high—was divided into four segments. Once transported up the mountain, tower segments were assembled with a 12-bolt pattern. The gondola bay was integrated with the main building during the expansion of Eagle’s Nest, which now holds five restaurants and a Sprint Technology Center chock full of office conveniences.
Gracing the Eagle Bahn haul rope are 50 luxury cabins designed jointly by Vail Associates and CWA of Switzerland with a design capacity of 3,000 pph. Each cabin transports nine seated and three standing passengers with heat, lights and padded seats. At $40,000 apiece, loaded with extravagant details such as cherrywood trim carved by Swiss monks out of trees from the monastery, a suggested alternative was that Vail Associates should simply hang 50 Lexuses off the cable.
At the other end of the lift spectrum, an additional 336-foot-long handle tow from O’Connor Ski-Lifts was installed on the tubing hill at Eagle’s Nest. Instead of attempting to pour concrete on the mountain in February, installers used piles of keystone blocks to anchor the lift. The new tow runs at 260 fpm, with a capacity of 400 pph.
Big White
Big White in Kelowna, B.C., is $9 million (CDN) into a five-year, $45 million development plan. The first phase included construction of the 32,000-square-foot Village Centre Mall, which is the site of ticket sales, central reservations, ski and snowboard school, rental and retail shops and an outdoor skating rink. The old rental and ski shop building was completely renovated to house the new Kid’s Centre, where all fixtures have been miniaturized to kid-size. Phase one expansion also included the installation of an 8,000-foot-long Doppelmayr detachable quad that carries passengers 2,330 vertical feet in seven minutes up to the new 775-acre development at Westridge.
Burke Mountain
The belling machine has been working overtime shaping pipes for a $2.8 million snowmaking expansion at Burke Mountain, Vt. After a few holdups due to the discovery of prehistoric artifacts along the Passumpsic River, the Corps of Engineers granted permits for the installation of 20,450 feet of snowmaking pipe from the existing mid-Burke pumphouse. More recent permits have allowed construction to begin on a new pumphouse drawing water directly from the river at a rate of 2,000 gpm. Nine thousand more feet of pipe and a variety of snowmaking guns will bring snowmaking coverage to 70 percent for the 1997-98 season.
Solitude
Over the past two years, Solitude, Utah, has made a $14 million push to transform itself from a day area into a destination resort. Starting from zero guest accommodations in December 1994, Solitude now has both condo and hotel options, the most recent of which is the $6.5 million Inn at Solitude. The ski-in/ski-out facility provides Big Cottonwood Canyon’s first overnight hotel accommodations, with 39 deluxe rooms, four suites and three kitchenettes, as well as conference facilities.
Ragged Mountain
Ragged Mountain, N.H., opened 50 new acres of terrain this season by expanding onto Spear Mountain via a new triple chairlift—well, almost new. Von Roll designed new drive and return terminals to anchor a lift made by combining a Hall double and triple bought from neighboring King Ridge for a bargain-basement $21,000. The new 4,200-foot-long Spear Mountain triple travels at 460 fpm with a VTFH of 1,809 and a design capacity of 1,800 pph. Out of the 50 new acres accessed by the lift, snowmaking covers 40 acres with over five miles of new snowmaking pipe linking 40 HKD towers and 20 TurboCristal fan guns.
