It could be argued that core Colorado skiers fall into one of two camps these days. There are those who would accuse Vail of selling its soul even before it started selling stock as the nation’s first publicly held ski resort in 1997. And there are those who would accuse Vail Resorts Inc. of attempting to snuff out what little soul remains now.
From the outset, the thing that set Vail Mountain apart from any other ski area in the world was terrain, specifically its signature Back Bowls. The vast, open ski runs spreading nearly 7 miles across the mountain’s southern face from Game Creek Bowl east to Outer Mongolia Bowl have come to define the skiing experience at this 5,300-acre juggernaut, attracting well over a million skiers and snowboarders a year.
So it comes as little surprise that proposed changes in the master development plan specific to Vail’s original two bowls — Sun Up and Sun Down — have drawn the ire of the mountain’s most dedicated skiers, few of whom are likely stockholders. But they are taxpayers, and for the most part, Vail Valley locals, reasonable qualifications both as stewards of recreational use on surrounding public land.
At issue is a Vail Resorts proposal to expand its existing fleet of 16 four-person, express chairlifts (high-speed quads) through a conversion of the exceedingly slow and rapidly aging High Noon triple lift (Chair No. 5) serving Sun Up and Sun Down bowls, and the addition of a shiny new express lift heading west to the top of Sun Down Bowl right next to it.
Although almost no one who has suffered through the increasingly common 45-minute waits of a full maze at Chair 5 on a powder day is complaining about the idea of increasing its capacity and cutting the ride time in half, the collective outcry against a second lift (the 33rd overall) shuttling the masses directly to the coveted stashes of already endangered soul skiing is enough to make even George W. Bush feel pretty good about his public approval rating. That is to say, outside the ivory tower, the idea is not very popular.
“I don’t think there’s been anything unexpected,” U.S. Forest Service district ranger Don Dressler said of the public comment period for the project that ended Monday. “A lot of people are zeroing in on the proposed Sun Down lift and how that may or may not change skiing in Sun Down Bowl.”
Because the Vail ski area sits on public land leased through a permit from the USFS, new lifts require the agency’s approval. It is up to the agency to determine whether the upgrade is necessary, and if it meets the goals and objectives established for the forest. Foremost among the considerations falling into the High Noon and Sun Down lift proposals is skier distribution, basically how these proposed lifts will impact the way people move around the mountain as skier traffic pulsates throughout the day.
“The whole purpose of the proposal rests around skier circulation,” said Dressler, citing a general east-to-west migration of skiers in morning hours and the reverse at the end of the day. “But recreational experience is really why people return to Vail again and again. So (impacts on the quality of skiing) are the types of comments I am considering when evaluating all our factors.”
Other elements, including visual impacts of an additional lift on Vail’s western ridgeline and the environmental impact of additional tower footings and slope grading also factor into the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that the public will have an opportunity to comment on later this winter, Dressler said.
While the replacement of High Noon is considered a high priority for Vail Resorts (the earliest realistic installation is winter 2009-10), the company and Dressler have said a Sun Down lift likely remains several years away. From a big picture perspective, however, it makes more sense to analyze both projects at once.
In the meantime, I’ve formed my own analysis of the proposal from the perspective of a 15-year season pass holder and am taking this opportunity to make my abbreviated comments public.
First, replacing Chair 5 with a high-speed quad is long overdue. The advanced terrain it serves is already skied harder than any other on the mountain, whether it’s by me or someone else while I’m waiting in the lift line. Personally, I’d rather it be skied by me, twice as fast.
But putting only one high-speed quad in Sun Up/Sun Down does almost nothing to remedy the circulation issues on Vail Mountain. Likewise, neither does a new Sun Down chair. Adding an unsightly 33rd lift to serve what Vail Resorts Inc. considers “underutilized” terrain (and locals consider the last remaining vestiges of soul skiing) to the west only offers incentive for people to stay. What they need is incentive to leave, to “circulate” to the equally compelling terrain (China Bowl and Blue Sky Basin) now underserved by lift access to the east.
So rather than build a new lift, it makes more sense to upgrade two. Convert Chair 5 and the forgotten, yet equally slow Sun Up triple lift (Chair 17).
That way skiers can quickly escape the crowds without sacrificing their souls.
