Lots of interesting new additions for clients to play on this year...


SOLITUDE, UTAH
Last fall, Solitude spent $7 million to install two new Doppelmayr/CTEC detachables, the Apex Express (length, 3,182 feet; vertical, 880 feet) and Moonbeam Express (length, 2,794 feet, vertical, 670 feet) to serve the Solitude Village and Moonbeam Centre base areas, respectively. These improvements increase the resort’s uphill capacity by 15 percent, to 14,450 skiers/hour. The lifts shorten the ride time from 10 minutes to 4 or less and also provide easier loading and unloading. That is especially key for the Moonbeam, which serves novice and beginner terrain. The new Apex lift replaced the pre-existing Apex double and retains its base terminal location just a few steps from the village skier bridge, and its 1,800/hour capacity improves access from the village. Both lifts ease access to Solitude’s intermediate terrain, and enhance Solitude’s family-friendly experience. Regrading the terrain near the top stations of these lifts has created a better flow and a more even grade suited for beginning and intermediate skiers.

The Moonbeam Express, with a capacity of 2,400/hour, is the fourth lift in this base area; the original Moonbeam double was built half a century ago, and required a 10-plus-minute lift ride. It had been converted to a fixed quad years ago. Both lifts are top drive, bottom tension, with DC drives. The Apex has 500 hp motor, the Moonbeam, 400 hp.


WINTER PARK, COLORADO
With the development of the base village at Winter Park, the area moved some of its former parking lots further from the base area. To connect these lots with the village, the area installed a 1,462-foot–long, eight-passenger $6.2 million Leitner-Poma cabriolet gondola. It has a capacity of 2,800 people per hour via 39 cabins. It serves nearly half of Winter Park’s 26 mini-parking lots.

The cabriolet deposits riders at the south end of the village, and is at the center of the transit hub at this portal. As such, space for the terminal is limited, and Winter Park opted for a short-tire terminal (28 instead of the more usual 35) with an integrated bullwheel tensioning system. Since the terminal is also close to residential units, Winter Park took care to keep sound levels as low as possible. The drive terminal is at the parking-lot end (actually, at the site of what will be the Vintage Hotel). The village terminal has extra sound insulation, and a wooden underskin also helps keep noise down. “It’s really about picking the right materials,” says assistant general manager C.A. Lane. The village location also meant that construction crews had to be mindful of utility lines, and to coordinate their efforts with the village construction that was going on simultaneously. “In essence, it’s an urban environment,” says planning director Doug Laraby.

Why an open-air cabriolet instead of an enclosed gondola? “An enclosed cabin is not necessary,” Lane says, “since it’s a short ride time without a lot of wind exposure.” Plus, the transport operates year-round, and in summer especially, the open design makes riders feel a part of the environment, with clear views of the village and the stream below. Finally, from a practical standpoint, the cabriolet design makes it easy to load mountain bikes and wheelchairs, and requires less maintenance.


SHAWNEE PEAK, MAINE
Shawnee Peak completed several expansion projects last fall as part of a multi-year development plan. Most visible is a new Great Room, a 40 x 40 addition on the south-facing, slope side of the base lodge. It is a post and beam design with a cathedral ceiling; the mostly glass wall facing the slope also provides a great deal of passive solar heating. The Great Room expands seating by roughly a third, and provides a year-round function room. Outside, a patio encircles the addition. Banwell Architects of Plymouth, N.H., did the design.

Shawnee also upgraded its snowmaking system, as part of a three-year plan, adding a few fan guns at the base area and several Snow Economics HKD towers. Shawnee has also been converting its pumps to VFDs, and has seen a noticeable decrease in energy use—even as it has increased pumping capacity. The area also replaced an old heating system with new efficient propane-fired boilers. Combined with other energy-saving measures throughout the resort, from installing motion sensors to turn lights on when people are present as well as switching to CFLs, Shawnee has cut its overall energy use by 50 percent.


Gunstock, New hampshire
In late March, Gunstock began the major part of a $3.25 million expansion to its beginner area and snowmaking system. The area will almost double its snowmaking capacity, and triple the beginner-area capacity through the addition of a new fixed grip quad and new trails.

The lift is a new Doppelmayr CTEC “EcoDrive” fixed grip quad. The view from the summit of the new beginner lift gives guests the feeling of being “up on the mountain.” It is 1,250 feet long and rises 165 vertical feet, with a design capacity of 1,500/hour. The bottom drive, top tension lift has a 60 hp drive motor. The four new trails add about four acres of terrain, but perhaps more important, they also greatly enhance access to the existing beginner complex. That helps advance the strategy for the beginner area, which is to accommodate the area’s increasingly successful learn to ski/ride programs and make the experience for beginners both more enjoyable and more exciting.

Snowmaking improvements include a significant increase in water pumping capacity, from 3,600 gpm to 6,000 gpm, the addition of 20 new tower fan guns, and up to 80 additional low-energy tower guns. The system was designed to get 80 percent of their snowmaking terrain open by the Christmas holiday week in an average weather year.



WOODWARD AT COPPER, COLORADO
This indoor/outdoor ski and snowboard training facility is the first of its kind. Called “The Barn,” the steel-frame structure was erected in the summer of 2008, and the interior was completed in February. The facility opened February 28, 2009.

The 20,000-square-foot structure, located about halfway between the East and Center Villages, includes a wide range of training elements: trampolines, jumps and mini ramps, a skate bowl, and a jib run among them. Foam landing pits abound, to take the sting out of crash landings. The ski and ride features use a Snowflex surface. There’s even a section called The Cage, where rippers can use iMacs to create their own videos. Woodward at Copper hosts training sessions nearly year-round, for skiing, riding, and skating.

The idea for Woodward at Copper germinated in 2003, after former Copperites David Barry and Ben Friedland learned about the original Camp Woodward at a CSCUSA event. A partnership began in 2006, and site clearing started in late 2007.