From Today's Salt Lake Tribune; an update on the plans for this summer....
Alta will install a high-tech quad lift
By Mike Gorrell
The Salt Lake Tribune
Alta Ski Area will begin construction this summer on a new high-speed detachable quad chair lift that will run from the base to the top of Germania Ridge, transforming the Collins Gulch side of the Little Cottonwood Canyon resort.
The U.S. Forest Service earlier this month gave final approval to Alta's proposed face-lift after rejecting an appeal of forest supervisor Thomas Tidwell's decision last November that no significant environmental impacts will result from Alta's plan to revise its lift configuration, move midmountain Watson's Shelter restaurant to a new location, re-contour the base to eliminate an uphill climb to board the lifts and, eventually, to build a base lodge.
Alta officials hope the changes "will bring in thousands of new skiers," resort spokeswoman Connie Marshall said Tuesday.
The Forest Service's analysis of the resort's request had noted that "skier visitation during the early 1990s at Alta was much greater than in recent years" and concluded "the revision would replace and upgrade aging lift and skier-service infrastructure in response to changes in technology and skier expectations . . . maintaining or increasing skier visitation."
This year's work will take out Collins Lift, the initial rendition of which was the first chair at Alta, carrying skiers for the first time on Jan. 15, 1939. Also to be removed will be Germania Lift, which skiers can board at midmountain and ride to Germania Ridge.
They will be replaced by a Doppelmayr-CTEC high-speed quad with an angle station near the current Germania base. Skiers will board the quad just uphill and a little east of the current Collins lift.
"One of the issues about skiing this side of Alta is you have to ski two lifts," Marshall said. "People end up doing Germania laps and not skiing all the way down. A big percentage of the terrain on our mountain is underutilized.
"By giving people one lift ride to the top, they will choose to ski the whole mountain on this side. We can provide a more positive skiing experience, giving people a long ride on the mountain and a quicker ride back up," she added.
Another big project this summer will be to raise the level of the parking lot and diminishing the uphill grade to reach the base of the new lift. Over the years, many a skier has trudged up a short-but-steep hill to board either the Collins or Wildcat lifts after buying a pass at the Wildcat ticket office.
"This will be one of the most wonderful things Alta has done," Marshall said. "That march uphill has been a joke around here for years, even for people in good shape. It's hard when you're carrying equipment. And when you get over 25 [years old], it's really hard."
Alta officials had hoped to start work on a relocated Watson's Shelter, just east and uphill from the current Germania loading station. But the 90-day delay in the appeals process likely will postpone that construction for a year, Marshall said.
No timetable has been set for building a base lodge with a restaurant and skier-services facilities, she said, noting "it could be more than a year or two out."
Tidwell endorsed this open-ended timetable in his record of decision. He encouraged the resort and the owners of Goldminers Daughter Lodge, which upgraded its facilities last summer, to cooperate on providing improved skier services.
mikeg@sltrib.com
