JH Tram - 3 replacement options

[elevens]

Temporary lift to be put up next year; outside funding still needed for jigback replacement.

By Michael Pearlman

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort officials unveiled three replacement options for the legendary aerial tram Tuesday, saying their priority is to obtain outside funding to construct a new top-to-bottom tram.

Earlier this year, the resort said it would decommission the landmark ski and tourist lift at the end of next summer season. The announcement produced an avalanche of speculation about a replacement for the 55-person jigback tram.

"We're striving for tram replacement," resort spokeswoman Anna Olson said Tuesday. "We're going for gold."

Instead of a new tram, now estimated to cost $25 million, resort officials could build a gondola from the base to the summit of Rendezvous Mountain or construct a shorter tram that would run from the top of the Bridger Gondola to the peak.

In the interim, the resort will install a surface lift next summer to provide access to the summit for the winter of 2006-07. The lift will be either a T-bar, which holds two skiers, or a single-person Poma lift, and is estimated to cost $1 million. It will run along the skier's left side of Rendezvous Bowl just south of the East Ridge Traverse and be accessed from the top of the Sublette chairlift.

"We're calling that a temporary lift," resort President Jerry Blann said. "It's not the ultimate solution for what we want to do."

Blann said the resort's board of directors has identified three permanent alternatives ­ dubbed options A, B and C ­ for getting skiers to the 10,450-foot summit of Rendezvous Mountain after the resort retires its 40-year-old tram next September. Officials cited safety worries about the tram as the reason for its retirement.

Option A, the preferred option, would replace the existing lift with an 80-passenger, top-to-bottom tram that would run along the existing tram line. The new tram would have an enclosed top terminal with a restaurant and would carry 520 skiers per hour, up from the current capacity of 400 skiers per hour.

Option B is to construct a top-to-bottom gondola costing $15.6 million along the same route. The gondola would have 37 eight-person cabins, but each cabin would be able to carry only six passengers due to high winds that regularly batter the upper mountain. In addition, engineers have estimated that winds would keep the new gondola from operating 20 percent of the time.

Option C would involve constructing a 45-passenger tram from the top of the Bridger Gondola across the Headwall to the summit of Rendezvous. The estimated cost is $16.6 million. Blann said Option C would be a complicated and time-consuming undertaking because it would require amending the resort's master plan and a new environmental study from the U.S. Forest Service.

Outside funding needed first

Blann said although the board of directors prefers to build a new tram, it has agreed that the resort will not pursue construction without outside funding assistance. The resort's owners, the Kemmerer family, are committed to investing at least $5 million in the new tram, according to Blann.

"The tram is our history, so we're focusing our energy on that," Blann said. "We're going to exhaust our options on that before we examine alternatives."

To navigate the web of possible funding options at the local, state and federal levels, the resort has formed an advisory committee, informally dubbed the "Tram Team," of about a dozen people. Members of the committee include Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce board president Sean Love, Teton Gravity Research ski filmmaker Dirk Collins, a Teton County commissioner, town councilor and Washington, D.C. lobbyist.

"It's an advisory committee that will meet when necessary to form plans and provide counsel on the best way to go forward to raise funds," Olson said.

In recent weeks, Blann has met with representatives of U.S. Sens. Craig Thomas and Mike Enzi and U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin, all R-Wyo., for initial discussions about potential funding sources. The resort is investigating a range of possibilities, including grants and low-interest loans, but isn't willing to bring in private investors.

"There's a lot of ideas that have been circulated around the community, but we want to keep it simple," Blann said. "Other solutions that involve outside parties create operational issues. The Kemmerers are not interested in [bringing in] other investors."

According to Blann, since purchasing the resort in 1992 the Kemmerers have put up $56 million for improvements, with an average annual return of only $27,000. Cash outlays funded construction of the Thunder, Teewinot and Apres Vous chairlifts, the Bridger Gondola, Bridger Center and Cody House, and the purchase of several property management companies to form Jackson Hole Resort Lodging.

"The dilemma we have here is that we have all kinds of needs already," Blann said. "You add $25 million to that, and it doesn't work."

Without the aerial tram to whisk guests from the base area during the 2006-07 winter, the resort plans to increase the capacity of the Bridger Gondola. Plans call for adding 14 cabins to the gondola, increasing uphill capacity from 1,800 to 2,400 skiers per hour.

Last summer, the resort began construction of a $9 million restaurant at the top of Bridger Gondola. The resort aims to open the new restaurant in the summer of 2007, when it plans to offer gondola rides to summer visitors. The tram is a significant source of summer revenue for the resort and carried more than 100,000 riders to the summit in 2005, a record year.

"The tram is a major draw in the region, and we can't not offer a lift experience during the summer," Olson said.

To free capital to complete the restaurant, Blann said the resort is selling a three-acre parcel of slopeside land it owns uphill from the Cody House. The property is listed for more than $10 million, and completion of the new restaurant is contingent on selling the property and strong winter revenues.

Willing to be patient

Olson acknowledged that the resort could face a significant decrease in skier days without the tram next winter, but pointed out that Jackson Hole has worked hard in recent years to develop a customer base that's not as reliant on the presence of the tram. With other major projects at the resort taking years to complete ­ the recently approved expansion of the base village, for instance ­ Olson said officials are prepared to be patient in their quest to build a new iconic lift for the resort.

"We're not just going to take the easiest option; we're going to take our energy and resources to go for the option we truly want," she said.

[ill-advised strategy]

fuck the senators....take'r to the vice president...R-WY.

It might be the only thing that Dick's good for.

[kailas]

Why don't they make the out-of -state gapers building McMansions to
pony up the dough, kind of a sur-charge. And don't build a tram, how bout
that lift in Verbier, the funiscape now that's sweet lift.

[This End Up]

Teton Gravity Research ski filmmaker Dirk Collins, a Teton County commissioner, town councilor and Washington, D.C. lobbyist.

Sounds like Mr. Collins is a busy guy.

Collins for President in '08

[ptavv]

They're playing chicken with the state government. The state knows how many skier days that Jackson will lose without the tram (no matter how rosy they try to make it sound, they will lose a lot), and how much tax revenue that translates into.

They're just trying to force the state into floating a bond measure, or giving them low interest loans to finance a new tram.

[Woodsy]

fuck the senators....take'r to the vice president...R-WY.

It might be the only thing that Dick's good for.

werd
been saying all along, Dick Cheney (hopefully) memorial tram.

[elevens]

They're playing chicken with the state government. The state knows how many skier days that Jackson will lose without the tram (no matter how rosy they try to make it sound, they will lose a lot), and how much tax revenue that translates into.

They're just trying to force the state into floating a bond measure, or giving them low interest loans to finance a new tram.

It's always been about smoke and mirrors.

["The Big One"]

so how long will this poma lift be in place before they install one of the options?

Although I like gondolas the wind problem would be too bad at Jackson and would get pretty annoying. Option C altough kinda stupid would be pretty cool to have to go from headwall to the summit. Hopefully they just do option A, and do it soon.

[WhiteHunter]

Interesting that the resort is saying it will contribute $5 million to a new tram. Does that mean it will only spend $5 million for options B & C also, requiring outside grants or funding from the state for those options as well? If the resort is willing to foot the $16 million for the gondola on its own why won't they also contribute $16 million for a tram? Assuming the proposed gondola can make the trip to the summit in 12 minutes, the uphill capacity would be comparable to the tram (when it is running).

Are they pulling the $5 million figure out of their asses or is that figure substantiated by something?

[skiski]

Interesting that the resort is saying it will contribute $5 million to a new tram. Does that mean it will only spend $5 million for options B & C also, requiring outside grants or funding from the state for those options as well? If the resort is willing to foot the $16 million for the gondola on its own why won't they also contribute $16 million for a tram? Assuming the proposed gondola can make the trip to the summit in 12 minutes, the uphill capacity would be comparable to the tram (when it is running).

Are they pulling the $5 million figure out of their asses or is that figure substantiated by something?

I believe the Kemmerer family is willing to dump in $5m. They are technically, legally, not the skicorp. They just own it. The skicorp will cover whatever the Kemmerers, the state, tricky Dick, Wal-Mart or the toothfairy do not.

[funkendrenchman]

Installing a lift from the top of the Bridger Gondola would make the line at the base of the Bridger MASSIVE!.... bad plan.

[rideit]

and install it from Moose Creek up to the top of Taylor.
I sure would use it...I live across from Moose Creek!
I don't think Jerry Blann would notice...much.

[GOD WARRIOR]

and install it from Moose Creek up to the top of Taylor.
I sure would use it...I live across from Moose Creek!
I don't think Jerry Blann would notice...much.

STFU JONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rideit]

STFU JONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

forgive my ignorance...WTF is a JONG?

[GOD WARRIOR]

.........duck and cover

[jhveteran]

I believe the Kemmerer family is willing to dump in $5m. They are technically, legally, not the skicorp. They just own it.

What in the world does that mean???

They do, technically, legally, own the ski corp. How are they NOT the ski corp?

(OTOH, whoever brought it up... great question about the $5M with regard to Options B and C)

[rideit]

but they are not wal-mart, they own wal-mart.
It is a function of the 'corporate veil'.

[Spats]

They're still fishing for state money to rebuild a tram. The other options are deliberately crippled to make the replacement tram look better.

-37 6-person cabins on a 4100' vertical lift? Bull****. If they're worried about wind on a gondola, build a dual-cable gondola (Funitel?) like Squaw has. That thing can move thousands of people in gales that shut down the tram.
-Why would they replace it with a smaller tram than Snowbird has had for decades? That's just stupid.
-Why is there no "chairlift/small tram from the top of Sublette" option?

Personally, I love drag lifts...they keep gapers off. I'm looking forward to riding the drag in 70 MPH winds.

[ptavv]

I think the main thing they want is the state to give them the money to put in an enclosed tram dock at the top. Then they can put a resteraunt, gift shop, etc up there and get a lot more summer time revenue out of the tram.

It makes sense from a business standpoint...

[shmerham]

I think the main thing they want is the state to give them the money to put in an enclosed tram dock at the top. Then they can put a resteraunt, gift shop, etc up there and get a lot more summer time revenue out of the tram.

It makes sense from a business standpoint...

Bingo. Having a continuous path of enclosed lifts makes sense too, for the lazy people that couldn't walk 1/4 mile to another lift and to the people with a fear of heights that would ride a gondola or tram but not a chairlift.

What about a gondola to the top of Thunder Chair and then a 20 person tram to the summit?

[Benny Profane]

Personally, I love drag lifts...they keep gapers off. I'm looking forward to riding the drag in 70 MPH winds.

Not really gapers as much as snowboarding gapers. Which is OK, too.

[Core Shot]

They tried a poma allready in the bowl years ago.

I miss the Union Pass poma - snowboarders used to hate that one.

The huge problem with option C is no more top to bottom laps.
For a lift from the Gondi to the top, the Gondi line would be enormous on a pow day.

Why aren't they talking Funitel?? that solves the wind problem.

Also, if they are serious about the three story enclosed restaurant on top, then why are the fucking around with a $9MM restaurant at the top of the Gondi?

Why only an 80 person tram? If they are going to suck the public teat, then at least go big time.

I still say their master plan is:
1) get lots of public money
2) condemn, acquire and flatten TGR HQ since the Wildernest building is clearly not up to the size and money oozing style of the "new" JH.
3) build new tram dock side by side with existing tram, which will continue to run for two years.
4) finish new tram (funitel, gondi, whatever) and then flatten the quaint clock tower tram building for a new 300,000 square foot 5 story Ritz Carlton hotel.

Voila. Welcome to Aspen Hole!

[Buster Highmen]

No rope tow option? Punters.

[SherpaStyle]

Are they pulling the $5 million figure out of their asses or is that figure substantiated by something?

Yes. I just had a ridiculously long day of orientation yesterday. Jerry Blann talked a lot about the plans for the tram and the mountain over the next few years. He made it sound like they were just throwing the 5 mil. estimate out there in the hopes that the gov would front the rest of the money. He said that while option B and C are viable, they are not prefered due limited capacity and the likelyhood that either would be blown down a lot. I have no doubt that there will be a new tram in the plans in the next couple years. They're just bluffing until they get money to fund it. There probably won't be a tram for two or three years, but I think we'll have a newer, bigger red box in the future.

The surface lift should be interesting. They say it will be inoperable about 20% of the time due to wind. It'll make for some interesting powder days when everything is blown down except the gondy. It's the best option they had and at least there will still be access to the bowl.

The good news is if we work really hard on pleasing our customers and get 40% of them to come back year after year, we could have the funding for a new tram in 2 years! I learned that in the last 4 hours of a motivational speach... I don't think the lady giving the speach really had a clue how ski area revenue works.

I think yesterday was the hardest $80 I've ever earned.

[skiski]

I think the other options they have put forward besides a newer bigger tram are a waste. As pointed out, a tram from the gondi top to the summit still creates huge lines on the gondi. A gondi to the top would be worthless at least 20% of the time. If they're already buidling a t-bar up top, leave it. Just put another gondi up to the bottom of thunder or sublette.
That way there are no bottlenecks at the bottom. as far as getting the masses near the top, it's better than things are now,and people who really want to experience the bowl can do so off the t-bar.
Tram laps are great, but if they're not going to have them, the next best thing about that mountain is laps of thunder and sublette. They should just make it so that we don't have to wait on the gondi line for hours to get to that.
I prefer their first option, but without a tram at least as good as what they've got, there's no reason for lame substitutes.
By the way, I think that they can't put a snowbird size tram in because of the winds.