Oberti at it again - Valemount Glacier Destination

[XXX-er]

Beautiful drive, but shitty highway maintenance. The highway maintenance region/contract changes at McMurphy station (about 25km east of Vavenby), and the difference in winter maintenance is literally a line on the highway. North of that line, the maintenance contract and overall road management is out of PG, 440km away. Suffice to say overall accountability and resources allocated to the highway south of Valemount can be seriously lacking.
Basically during winter, if there is more than 5cm fresh snow on the highway indicated at the Blue R. highway cams, we delay fieldwork north of Blue R. by a couple of days - it's just not worth the risk.

I used to see that ^^ same scenario down at the Blueberry/Paulsen bridge one side the highway is great cross the bridge and the snow clearing is shit, I duno how it gets done everywhere else but all the highway maintenance in BC is contracted out

highway travel in this province in winter is not to be taken lightly, things you could get away with down south will have you broken down/stuck up narth

[wordbird]

If this turns out like Revelstoke, I'm all for it(gondola+lift to the top, funds run out to build anything else).

[gramboh]

Who does the maintenance south from Valemount? YRB?

[BCMtnHound]

LDM out of Vanderhoof

[Shredhead]

$175 million to a open a resort in BFE. Oberti must be nuts.
The original developers never make money on these projects. It's usually the third or forth guy down the line, that picks it up for pennies on the dollar.

Silver Mountain ID. just sold for $5mil.
Gondola with five chairs and a waterpark, right off I-90.

[kootenayskier]

It's not Oberti's money. He's done the master planning, speculating that some developer/sucker will buy into his shovel-ready project. Whether there are deep pocketed dreamers willing to make this sort of long-term/high-risk investment is yet to be determined.

[AlexC]

What's highway traffic like up there? Revelstoke is a pain to get to, but at least it's on the Trans-Canada Highway. How many people actually drive down Highway 5, other than truckers? I wouldn't be surprised if RMR started making more money from summer operations than winter just by luring RV traffic off the highway with more mountain coasters and sightseeing tours up the gondola.

[BCMtnHound]

The year-round traffic is dominated by heavy industrial transport, but during the snow free tourist season the traffic is 50/50 or greater. Lots of circle route tours through the Rockies that come down the Yellowhead from Jasper to Kamloops. More out of towners at the JimmyP grocery store parking lot than locals during the summer. In winter the sled crowd is probably the largest tourist group, many going no further south than Blue R.

[LeeLau]

To add to the positives and negatives I'd add that the terrain in around Valemount/Canoe is superb. Access via sled is also somethimg else. Snow pack is continental which can make approaches particularly spicy/eyebrow raising

[pano-dude]

This resort makes more sense than jumbo.
Valemont has a unique attraction already
http://www.ridevalemount.com/sled-skiing/

[glademaster]

Wow, that seems like a really interesting idea. I like it.

[AlexC]

So, who's moving to Valemount? MDA was signed and they're planning a December 2018 opening: http://www.therockymountaingoat.com/...n-this-summer/

[BCMtnHound]

Still haven't addressed the hydro issue IMO, maybe they run on big ass generators at first? But all for it around here! And working a bit with Wiegele on parts of the re-vamped 8-Peaks proposal. Future is looking bright for winter fun in the N.Thompson!

[nickinbc]

So does he have investors willing to pay for more than putting in a foundation before the approval expires?

If it is going to open in 2018 he is going to have to convince a lift manufacturer that he has funding to back up an order VERY soon.

[BFD]

How accessible is the backcountry skiing around Mcbride? if anyone feels like answering they can sen a PM.

[kootenayskier]

How accessible is the backcountry skiing around Mcbride? if anyone feels like answering they can sen a PM.

It's great, if you have a sled, and know where to avoid the sledders.

[Eastcoastdan]

It's great, if you have a sled, and know where to avoid the sledders.

lol yep pretty much

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSIS5uGF3ee/

[BFD]

It's great, if you have a sled, and know where to avoid the sledders.

thanks spent some time on Google earth last night. Those roads go along ways up the valleys. But I do not imagine they are plowed so yes a sled. Where do all the sledders come from Prince George? I don't know much about the area but it is along way from a major airport.
Eastcoastdan seems like a great place to live good for you.

[pano-dude]

Mcbride/valemont is Alberta's sled playground.

[AlexC]

Specifically, it's northern Alberta's playground. Southern Alberta goes to Golden and Revelstoke.

[BFD]

forgot about Edmonton, had a sampling Easter at White Pass
[

[garyfromterrace]

Mcbride/valemont is Alberta's sled playground.

This. Alex C, even the southern alberta sled necks hit it. And the saskatchewanians.

[moose pit]

BFD, There is a lot of terrain back there it is still looking good. Spring is creeping in to the valley bottoms but up high it is still winter. Lots of big cornices and natural avi's from cornice fall. Avoiding most of the sledders is pretty easy.

[BCMtnHound]

In the North Thompson, from the Messiter summit (Finn Cr) to the Clemina riding area, there are on average over 1000 sledder visits per day from Thursday thru Sunday. Probably at least that in the terrain around Valemount and McBride proper. And it's increasing despite the Alberta economy slowdown (when I first moved into the area a decade ago, there were only a few dozen in the trail parking lots). It's a major economic driver in the area now, and plowing of FSRs for industrial reasons (mostly logging) is often deferred to avoid user conflict (despite that under current land use planning, logging and mining take higher precedence over recreation).

It's terrible cause now I have to have a sled to access terrain to ski, instead of just driving up the logging roads ...

[media310]

"Valemount Glacier Destination is Oberti’s newest project. And this one has been approved. Of course, the strong force of popular opinion was given a bit more consideration this time. The environmental effects are predicted to be much less significant than those at Jumbo."

Enough Is Enough. Or Is It? (A Perspective on Valemount)