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MT. ROSE, NEVADA
The new Slide Lodge highlights more than $4 million in improvements for this season. The contemporary facility, designed by BSA Architects of San Francisco, boasts a glass façade on the primarily steel and glass lodge that brings the mountain into the space, and showcases panoramic views of the Washoe Valley 4,000 feet below as well. Located on the southeastern-most edge of the Slide Bowl base area (the former upper parking site), the site provides improved traffic flow from the slopes to the lodge as well as to the loading zone for the Blazing Zephyr lift. A modern kitchen adds signature food service to the lodge, while a cozy bar and an outdoor deck enhance après-ski, and improve the setting for events, parties, and weddings. The building next to the Blazing Zephyr lift, home to lift ticket sales, ski patrol, and lift maintenance, also received a facelift in keeping with the look of the new lodge.

Other enhancements at Mt. Rose include the addition of lights to the Show-Off terrain park, to provide early season evening operations near the main lodge, plus construction of a grand staircase to improve guest flow between the Main Lodge and the main parking lot, and other minor improvements around the mountain.


SKI BIG BEAR, PENNSYLVANIA
This community-owned resort has gradually expanded its facilities over the past 15 years and now attracts visitors from New York and New Jersey, in addition to local homeowners. This past summer, the area replaced a 40-year-old Borvig double with a double double that reused the chairs and gearbox from the old lift on one of the new lines. Ski Lift Parts, formerly known as Partek, refurbished the old parts and supplied the new. The $1.5 million installation was part of a larger $3.5 million development that included a Magic Carpet and increased snowmaking.

Randy Blenis and his four-man crew from Ropeway Construction took down the old lift and installed the new gear. The liftline was shifted slightly, to accommodate the width of the double double, and nearly everything else about the lift is new, too: the top and bottom terminals, sheave trains, wire ropes, bullwheels, motors, drives and towers among them. This being an upside-down resort, with the base lodge at the top of the mountain, both lifts are top-drive, with bottom tension—hydraulic, instead of the original counterweight system. There are separate top terminals, but a single bottom terminal building serves both lifts and houses the ski patrol.

The new double doubles, called Thundercloud Green (for the color of its original chairs) and Thundercloud Gray (new chair color), are the main transport from base to summit. They rise 640 vertical feet over a 3,000-foot length. Both doubles sport VFDs and new electronic controls. “The controls are fabulous,” says Sheldon Langer, chairman of the committee that oversees the ski area. Of the lift itself, he adds, “It’s done a lot for the mountain. We just don’t have lines anymore.” Increasing the capacity from 1,200 to 2,400 an hour can do that.


PATS PEAK, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Pats invested $500,000 for the 2009-2010 season, part of a $5,000,000 program over the last five seasons. This year’s investment expanded the Kids’ Learning Facilities and Alpine Training Center, added a brand new lift-serviced terrain park and new gladed terrain; and increased snowmaking and parking.

The old Bear’s Den kid’s center was a cramped 425-square-foot building. The new 1,650-square-foot area has its own kitchen, bathroom, and other amenities. The second floor of the building, the Training Center, grew from 1,200 square feet to 2,100. Based on input from the team members, Pats added bathrooms, wireless, more room, storage areas, new carpeting and lighting, and a small kitchen area. All this helps keep the high-energy crew in the Center, which eases crowding in the main lodge.

A new terrain park for high-end riders and freestyle skiers has its own Stadeli handle tow, recycled from the beginner area. Capacity on the 650-foot lift is 300/hr with a quick two-minute ride. Pats Peak now has three terrain parks for all level of skiers and snowboarders. Some dedicated glade skiers also cleared some new “secret lines” to expand the tree-skiing options.

Pats also added eight SMI Polecat tower fan guns, five HKD SV10 snowguns and more snowmaking pipe as part of its ongoing snowmaking expansion. Not least, regrading the parking lots created a smoother ride and 50 additional spaces.


VAIL, COLORADO
Last July, Vail began the installation of a $2.7 million, 2,000 gpm automatic snowmaking system on Golden Peak. Construction wound up in early October, just in time to begin making snow so that Ski Club Vail (SCV) could begin its early-season training. That was, in fact, the goal—SCV paid for the entire installation, for just this purpose. Under an agreement between Vail and SCV, the club purchased the system, and Vail crews man the guns. Once the training hill is covered, Vail has use of the system throughout the rest of the season.

The installation is the first automated system at Vail, and automation is key to taking advantage of brief early-season snowmaking windows. Vail/SCV installed four SMI Super Polecat carriage guns and 23 Super Polecat towers, along with nearly 3,000 feet of long-lasting ductile iron pipe and 500 feet of epoxy-coated steel pipe. The pre-fab pumphouse was built by Torrent Engineering.

Beyond preparing the training hill, the upgrade allows Vail to build and open the Golden Peak terrain park to the public earlier than normal, without interrupting or delaying the normal early-season snowmaking on the western side of Vail Mountain.


BLACKJACK, MICHIGAN
New owners here discovered last summer that the existing area, while extremely well-maintained, would benefit from a base lodge facelift. The existing building was a functional but plain black box, with a deck that was beginning to show signs of age. The solution: a spiffy new $35,000 deck that stretches the entire length of the facade facing the slopes. It’s about 15 feet x 30 feet on each end, with a 100 x 8 connecting walkway. The old railing was made of wood planks and probably didn’t meet current codes, so Blackjack installed a more reliable and artful cedar log railing. Speaking of sturdy: the former owner, a timber company, had built the deck using beefy joists with 32-inch spacing; to utilize those existing joists, the new decking consists of eight-foot pressure-treated pine boards that are three inches thick. “It’s a very solid deck—it will be here for my lifetime,” says general manager Rick Schmitz. “And it dresses up the building a lot.”