What's new for the 2007/08 Vail ski season.

The answer in a nutshell is - lots.

Let's start with a couple of years worth of holes in the ground.  Both the Arrabelle project in Lionshead and the Front Door expansion in the village will be at least partially functional starting this winter.

Arrabelle should have locker rooms available for staff, some skier services up and running, plus some commercial services operating.

The Front Door project will open lift ticket and ski school offices, hopefully ski storage and maintenance, and by later in the winter, the Vail Mountain Club should open.

Much of the snowmaking pipe on Bear Tree and Born Free has been replaced and should help with early season coverage.

Lift upgrades will be the most noticeable changes to the mountain.  Chair 15 (the Lionshead beginner lift) will become a triple.  Both Chairs 10 and 14 will be completely rebuilt into high speed detachable quads.  The Chair 14 unloading terminal will be moved closer to Two Elk Lodge.

Chair 10 was initially proposed to have an intermediate unloading terminal roughly at the location of the top of the original lift and then would dogleg slightly and continue on to the overlook above China Bowl.  At some point along the way, that plan changed.  This lift now is identically sited precisely as was the original one.  My assumption is that the extra installation cost to continue and turn the lift to get it all the way to China Bowl - plus what would have been the added cost of an extra lift operator at the intermediate unload terminal - put a damper on that idea.  The fact that chair 14 has been upgraded to high speed status probably also added to the impetus to not extend chair 10 all the way up to the crest of the hill.

Here's a November 19, 2007 photo of the new Highline Express # 10 lift.  It's up and running - all we need is enough snow to get the mountain open.

Note the large number of plastic trash containers on the ground.  They're filled with sand and were used for the load testing procedure to assure that the lift will handle whatever weight will be on the chairs.

Less noticeable but very important is the extra ground cover clearing that's being done on many of the steepest runs on the mountain.  Prima, Highline, and other black diamond runs will have the small evergreens that have grown up over the years completely removed.  This will allow these runs to be used almost as soon as the mountain opens compared to previous seasons when they often were not skiable until December and sometimes January.

Here's a quick monolog with some photos that were taken of the ongoing construction of lifts and facilities (pictures taken on August 17, 2007).  At the end of the construction descriptions, there's a quote from an article in the Vail Daily regarding future improvements to Vail Mountain.

This first photo is of the top of the new Chair 14.  It's just a hole in the ground right now.  That small building in the background is the same one that was at the top of the old 14 - only on the other side of it.  In other words the new lift unload station has been moved about 100 yards closer to Two Elk.



Next shot is the bottom of the new 14.  They were actually pouring the pad for the loading terminal this morning.  It's just about in the exact same location as the old one.



OK.  This next photo is looking back along the ridge from Two Elk over towards the unload terminal of Chair 17 and Teacup.  They've completely torn down that grip lift we used to use to get back and forth up there, so I assume it's going to be eliminated completely.  With the new high speed 14, it should be much faster just to ski down Whiskey Jack, hop on 14, and get to Two Elk that way.



This next shot is the top - or rather I should say the old top of Chair 10 - for the new lift it, will be the intermediate unloading station.  It is in exactly the same location as the top of the old lift.  However, at this time it's impossible to know exactly where this lift will terminate at the edge of China Bowl since they have not marked any ground resembling a terminal point around the restaurant, and they haven't done any tree clearing for the lift line that has to continue on through the woods to China Bowl.

My supposition is that it will terminate roughly where we usually enter China Bowl through that gate to the west of Two Elk, but I could be completely wrong.


Last photo.  Given the picture's reduced size, you may not be able to make out the details, but this is the new skier services facility next to the Vista Bahn.  It's clearly coming along, albeit slowly from my perspective.  I just don't know how they can possibly get it completed in time for the season but will presume that greater minds have the situation under control.

  

 Last.  Here's a clip of an article in the Vail Daily a couple of weeks ago.  It's very encouraging that they're trying to get some more high speed lifts up and going perhaps quicker than we'd hoped for some time back.  The most intriguing is an upgraded Vista Bahn that might go all the way to the top of the mountain.  That would be a godsend given how busy Chair 4 is right now.  We'll keep our fingers crossed!

"What: Vail Resorts’ master plan. It considers the company’s plans for Vail Mountain over the next seven-10 years, but it isn’t a binding document.

Things that are considered in the master plan:

• A faster Chair 5

• A new, 500-seat fine-dining restaurant at Vail’s mountaintop.

• Expanded snowmaking capabilities.

• An expansion onto Golden Peak for better race courses.

• A new lift in Sun Down Bowl

• A replacement for the Vista Bahn that might go up to the top of the mountain.

• A gondola out of Ever Vail that would go to Eagle’s Nest.


The plan is a “road map,” and not set in stone, officials said. The projects need approval from the U.S. Forest Service, which owns Vail Mountain’s land.

Bill Jensen, chief operating officer for Vail Mountain, said the company could start seeking approvals for the new Chair 5 in the next month, and the chair could be done in one to three years.

After that, the company might seek to build the second lift in Sun Down. It would help skiers circulation around the mountain from the west to the east, and it might alleviate crowding at Chair 11, Jensen said.

“We see it as a very effective improvement in flow across the mountain,” Jensen said.

Slower, fixed-grip lifts are disappearing from the mountain. This summer, Chairs 10 and 14 are being replaced with a high-speed quad. Chair 1 out of Vail Village was removed last year.

One ride to PHQ considered
Over the next several years, the company also plans to build a 500-seat, fine-dining restaurant just west of Chair 5 at Vail’s mountaintop and expand its snowmaking coverage.

It also plans to extend its race course to the top of Golden Peak proper, which still bears the scar of a never-used lift line that was cut when the resort first opened.

The expansion would give Ski and Snowboard Club Vail more space for its kids as well as internationally sanctioned downhill and super-G venues, said Aldo Radamus, executive director of the ski club.

“The club has grown by a factor of about four since the time that Golden Peak was originally dedicated to race training,” he said.

Vail Resorts already has approval for a new gondola that will rise out of Ever Vail, the development planned for West Lionshead, up to the bottom of Chair 26.

The company is considering making the gondola go from Ever Vail all the way to Eagle’s Nest, Allender said.

Also, Vail Resorts might make the Vista Bahn do a left turn and go all the way to the top of the mountain, whether as a four-seater, a six-seater or a gondola, Allender said.

There is discussion about taking it to the top,” Allender said.