“I love everything about this proposal. This is exactly why we were created and is exactly our purpose.”-Mike Ostermiller, Utah Military Installation Development Authority board member.

It sounds like Sundance Mountain Resort will be getting a new hotel.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Sundance Mountain Resort plans to build a sixty-five-room inn. They applied for funding from Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA), which helps with the development of land that benefits military members.

Yesterday, MIDA approved this proposal, meaning tax-payer money will be used to build the hotel, albeit not the whole $35 million price tag. The MIDA funds will be going towards “the hard costs associated with Sundance Inn construction.” As part of the deal, Sundance will be adding benefits to veterans. The lodging will be free for wounded veterans, and the building will be ADA-accessible. Sundance will also be creating a veteran’s program, allowing those who served a place to unwind and heal.

This isn’t the first time that the Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA) has been involved with a ski resort development. They’re developing the base village around what was known as Mayflower Resort. The terrain around this development will ultimately become part of Deer Valley Resort.

The $35 million hotel is a joint partnership between Sundance Mountain Resort and Utah County. This move is Sundance’s next step in becoming Utah’s next destination ski resort. Since Broadreach Capital Partners and Cedar Capital Partners bought the ski resort from Robert Redford in 2020, they have spent millions to modernize the ski resort. This has included adding new chairlifts, a terrain expansion geared toward beginner and intermediate guests, and more.

The $35 million hotel will still need private investment to move forward, although that seems more likely with this news.

Image Credits: Sundance Mountain Resort

Can you guess what ski resort has the fastest chairlift in the state of Utah?

Despite the lack of ritz and glamour compared to its relatively nearby competitors, the answer is Brighton Resort. On December 8th, Brighton opened up the new Crest 6 chairlift. While I was in Utah for vacation, I decided to take the UTA Ski Bus up to Brighton to check the new Doppelmayr D-Line high-speed detachable six-pack chairlift out on its opening day.

Here’s what I liked about the chairlift: it’s fast, carries more riders, and is modern. The trip to the top only takes 5.3 minutes, an improvement compared to the former’s ride time of around 6.5 minutes. This thing feels like riding a roller coaster, dashing up the mountain. While this resulted in a cold ride up when I went, it’ll feel nice on those Spring days. It can carry 2400 guests per hour, an upgrade from the 1200-1400 people per hour that the Crest Express could carry. The chairlift also features innovative tech like a loading conveyer that’s easy to ride and a video board that displays various notifications.

I have one key problem with this new chairlift though: the journey to reach it from Milly is going to suck. You see, the old Crest Express had two loading mazes: one on the Milly Chalet, while the other was located next to the end of the Majestic Access trail.

With the lift shack now located on the side closest to the Majestic Access trail, there’s now only one lift maze area, which is right next to Molly Greens. In addition, to reach this trail from the Traverse, it appears as though there’s an incline under the lift line (pictured below). From what I saw, you’ll now need to garner a lot of speed to avoid skating across a little hill, and then skiing over to the lift maze.

Overall, the Crest 6 is an overdue replacement for the Crest Express, with modern technology and more capacity than its predecessor. However, reaching it from Milly is going to be a little bit more tricky for those who like to traverse between Brighton’s peaks.

Image Credits: Ian Wood

Earlier this year, Alan Henceroth, who’s the Chief Operating Officer of Arapahoe Basin, asked the public for help in acquiring one of their old single chairs. A few weeks later, it was announced that someone stepped up to the plate, Yesterday, A-Basin announced that they now have one of their single chairs on public display.

This single chairlift, which serviced the upper mountain at Arapahoe Basin, was installed in 1946. The chairlift opened during the 1946-47 season, and it operated at Arapahoe Basin until around 1960. From there, it went to the now-defunct Fun Valley ski area in Lakewood, Colorado. One of the remaining chairs was passed around until it reached Rob Diehl’s house. This past fall, he sold it back to A-Basin, and it now hangs from the ceiling next to Marnie’s in the 6th Alley Bar & Grill.

Image Credits: Arapahoe Basin

Guests at a Chinese ski resort recently went through a traumatizing experience.

The South China Morning Post reports that a chairlift stopped rapidly due to a malfunction, leading to the chairs rapidly swinging with passengers onboard. The ski resort wasn’t specified by the Post, but it’s located in western China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. The resort was able to safely evacuate everyone that was on the chairlift. The ultimate cause of the malfunction was abnormally cold weather.

Image/Video Credits: South China Morning Post

One of the most anticipated new chairlifts for the 2023-24 season has made its debut.

On Saturday, Mammoth Mountain opened the new Chair 16, also known as the Canyon Express. Chair 16, which opened back in 1994, was replaced this past offseason by a state-of-the-art chairlift.

The new Doppelmayr D-Line six-pack detachable high-speed chairlift is a game changer for the California ski resort. This capacity upgrade, which can fit 25% more guests compared to its predecessor, will help reduce lines at the Canyon Lodge base area. The enclosed top and bottom terminals will help it open quicker during deep storm cycles and windy days. In addition, the chairlift has been realigned slightly to the north to reduce the impact of snow slides from the nearby Avalanche Chutes.

There were some critics of the new chairlift though. Some noted that the off-ramp at the top terminal is pretty steep, leading to riders crashing into each other. While it does look steep, I imagine some more snow will help mellow it out.

Other improvements at Mammoth this season include the continued buildout of the Woolly’s Adventure Summit (which includes the opening of a new mountain coaster), a $5.5 million investment in snowmaking, and an expansion of the bathrooms at the Chair 14 Melt House.

Image Credits: Mammoth Mountain (Peter Morning, Helly Hansen, Smith Optics)

Vail Resorts appears to have its sights on further expansion in Europe.

In an interview with Squawk Box on CNBC, Vail Resorts CEO Kirsten Lynch discussed how the season is going so far, and their next planned geographical region for expansion.

While getting through a round of bizarre and meandering questions from Joe Kernen, she mentions that ski season is off to a solid start. Regarding where they want to grow next, Kirsten mentioned a desire to continue acquiring ski resorts in Europe. The reason why Vail Resorts wants to continue to expand in Europe is because the continent has three times the number of ski visits compared to North America. With Crans Montana and Andermatt-Sedrun-Disentis now part of Vail’s portfolio, Vail will likely continue to acquire mountains to make the Epic Pass a tempting purchase for European snowsports enthusiasts.

For more information, check out the interview below.

Image/Video Credits: CNBC

On Sunday & Monday, a ginormous rainstorm rammed through the Northeast. This has resulted in some catastrophic flooding, especially in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Towns throughout the Mount Washington Valley saw substantial damage due to the heavy rain and wind, along with the melting snowpack.

In Gorham, one video submitted to WMUR by Nick Goodwin showed flooding from Moose Brook leading to trucks being pushed through the stream.

In Jackson, the flooding resulted in some unbelievable scenes. Andrew Drummond, who runs the White Mountain Ski Company, shared a variety of brutal videos of the damage caused by the flooding.

Drummond’s first video down below, which was shared by the Out of Collective, shows Jackson Falls, which is typically a quaint series of waterfalls, became a set of roaring rapids that would give even the most tenured kayaker chills.

Lieutenant Kevin Bennett of the Jackson Fire Department described the scope of the flooding to the Boston Globe:

“Every major secondary river was maxed out…a lot of places flooded out that I’d never seen before.”

From what we’ve seen, the flooding likely has caused significant damage to homes and businesses across the region. For now, ski resorts in the region, like Attitash, Bretton Woods, Cranmore, Loon, Pleasant Mountain, Sunday River, and Wildcat, remain closed.

We’ll keep you posted on how to help out these communities in need.

Image/Video Credits: Nick Goodwin/WMUR, Andrew Drummond/OutOfCollective, Andrew Drummond/WMUR

“Wow. Holy shit.”– Paul Bourget.

People are starting to assess the damage from the severe rainfall across New England, and it’s not pretty.

Today, WCVB shared videos sent to them by locals Paul Bourget and Joe Smith of one of Sunday River’s roads being washed out. A portion of Summit Road, which leads up to the Grand Summit Hotel, is now impassible and will require a fix before the Maine ski resort’s busy season begins. Based on scrolling through the Sunday River Enthusiasts Facebook page, this is not the only road or area of the ski resort that is facing significant damage.

Sunday River has announced that they won’t be opening tomorrow. This is a developing story, so we’ll keep you posted on the latest developments regarding the floods across the Northeast.

Image/Video Credits: Paul Bourget, Joe Smith, WCVB

Over the past couple of years, one of the ski resorts that has been on the rise is Nordic Valley in Utah. Located near the city of Ogden, it added a huge terrain expansion during the 2020-21 season. However, the ski resort has been dealt a bad hand for this ski season.

Last week, Nordic Valley announced that the Apollo chairlift, which accesses the majority of the terrain at the ski resort, will be closed for “an undetermined period of time.” The Apollo chairlift suffered a mechanical breakdown back in March and has been closed since then. While dealing with the repairs, Nordic Valley’s maintenance team discovered further issues with the chairlift. With this being an older chairlift, finding the parts took an extended period of time due to the required customer engineering and manufacturing.

In response, Nordic Valley has acquired two Alpina Sleds to carry guests up to the Nordic Express and potentially to the top of the Apollo terrain pod. Each one of the Superclass 1.2L twin-tracked utility snowmobiles will be able to carry eighteen passengers. These people movers will be able to move 200 people per hour. I’m not gonna lie, those things look pretty sick.

It’s not all bad news for Nordic Valley though. They added two hundred parking spots, and two new trails to the Nordic Express terrain pod. Currently, Nordic Valley is open for the season with two trails and two lifts.

The ski resorts around Ogden are in a precarious situation. Snowbasin is an awesome ski resort, but it’s too expensive to visit unless you are a season/Ikon passholder. Powder Mountain just announced its plan to become a semi-private ski resort and has become more expensive this year (outside of night skiing tickets). Wasatch Peak Ranch’s future is in question after a judge ordered that the private ski resort stop construction and halt real estate sales.

Then there’s Nordic Valley. It’s an affordable ski resort with impressively cheap lift ticket deals and a brand-new terrain pod. What currently holds it back is the Apollo chairlift, which is the only way to reach the Nordic Express pod under normal circumstances. I’m a big fan of the place, and the Ogden skiing community needs this place to succeed.

My ultimate viewpoint is Nordic Valley’s future success depends on replacing Apollo. It doesn’t matter if it’s a fixed-grip or high-speed detachable chairlift, Apollo needs to be replaced within the next few years.

Image Credits: Nordic Valley, Alpina Snowmobiles

Over the past 24 hours, a large number of Northeast ski resorts have posted messages like this on their social media pages:

Currently, a major rainstorm is making its way through the Northeast. With most in the region receiving inches of rain, many ski resorts announced that they won’t be operating today. Other ski resorts, like Killington and Stratton, announced that they’d be closing early due to the deteriorating conditions. A growing amount of mountains, like Saddleback and Pleasant Mountain, have decided to remain closed on Tuesday due to various factors. The snow on natural terrain has melted, and mountain operations will have their work cut out for them on the trails that have relied on snowmaking. In addition, flooding is now an issue, especially at Sunday River.

It’s been a mixed bag for the Northeast this season. The ski season has been great for Northern Vermont, as they’ve had some solid base-building storms. Unfortunately, this hosing is likely going to damage the natural snowpack. Other parts of the region, like where I live in the Upper Valley of New Hampshire, have been less lucky, with more rain than snow.

After the rain comes through, it seems like many ski resorts will have some chances to make snow in the evenings.

Let’s hope the Heat Miser loses this winter. He’s too much.

Image Credits: Loon Mountain Resort (Featured Image), Stratton Mountain Resort (Header Image), Waterville Valley Resort, Magic Mountain, Pats Peak