Snoqualmie/ Alpental Expansion Development Plan

[Duder]

Please help obtain Forest Service approval for
planned improvements at The Summit...February 6, 2006

The Summit at Snoqualmie is proposing improvements designed to significantly enhance your future experience at the resort. But before a plan can be finalized, approval is needed from the U.S. Forest Service.

Public comments are an important factor as the Forest Service makes its decision. We hope people who know and love The Summit will take a moment to learn more about the proposed improvements and submit a comment to the Forest Service. It's easy to do and it WILL make a difference.

Click and comment today, before the February 21st deadline!
You can e-mail your comments: Deadline for comments is February 21, so there's not much time. Scroll down to find out more about what's planned and how to comment, then click the link to go to the U.S. Forest Service website!

Doing it right-a balanced plan for The Summit
We know you want to enjoy the stunning Cascade mountain environment - but do so in good conscience, knowing that extra care was taken to balance great recreation with protection of the environment. It has taken 8 years of planning and environmental studies to develop the improvement plan.

Planned benefits:
·More time skiing, less time in line, by providing services more strategically throughout the resort, including on-mountain.
·Improved and enhanced terrain, including more intermediate runs.
·Greater separation between skiers and boarders of differing skill levels.
·Better designed connecting trails and lifts that allow you to circulate to different areas of the resort without having to take a shuttle.
·Improved services, more restaurants.
·A pulse gondola to the top of Alpental with a restaurant that's open winter and summer.·New Alpental chairlifts that provide more convenient access to Internationale Bowl.
Protecting the environment:
We want to respond to our customers' needs, but do so with minimal environmental consequences. Here are parameters we set for ourselves:

Stay within the permit area - 98% of all proposed improvements are within the existing permit area for the resort.
Protect the forest - We're adding chairlifts and creating new trails, so some trees, including some that are mature, second-growth, must be removed. But we're removing as few as possible, taking only trees that are closest to existing ski runs, minimizing grading, and providing a buffer of mature trees to a potential wildlife corridor.Protect wildlife - Wildlife populations and movement were carefully studied and the improvements minimize impacts to wildlife.Inclusive review process - Underway for more than eight years, the review process has been thorough and inclusive.

Send your comments to the Forest Service
Please take a moment to review a summary of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, or the entire document online at www.fs.fed.us/r6/mbs/projects/ and contact the U.S. Forest Service in support of The Summit at Snoqualmie's proposed improvements before February 21. E-mail your comments to the Forest Service at: ldonovan@fs.fed.us. Only comments that are substantive and address proposed improvements outlined in the report will be considered by the Forest Service. Comments like "Looks good, build it!" will not be considered.

Tips on writing effective comments:
·State your opinion about a proposed resort improvement.
·Back up your opinion with your personal experience.
·Focus on problems you experience and how proposed improvements will solve your problems.
Example: "I am an intermediate skier and there isn't enough intermediate terrain at The Summit. The proposal to add intermediate and advanced intermediate runs in the Rampart and Creek Run areas will solve this problem. I also like the fact that these areas already are within the resort's existing permit area."

Thank you for your help!

For more information
Newsletter: If you would like more detail concerning the proposed improvements, view details.
Maps: If you would like to see maps of the proposed improvements, view details.
Draft Environmental Impact Statement: If you would like to access the complete Forest Service environmental report, view details.

[Buster Highmen]

My understanding is that:

1) They're not going to increase the actual skiable area for Alpental. It butts up against the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and there's no way that the environmental organizations are going to allow any actual expansion.

2) They want to put a pulse gondola up to the top of Denny Peak (top of chair 2).

3) They want to put a chair to the top of Knoll 1.

Thanks for the corrections of names.

If so, I'm really down on 2). Putting a tram up there is insane and will guarantee worse snow quality and more deaths from falling off the cliffs. It's crowded enough there as it is.

I'm not so sure about 3) either. The Alpie bc gets schralped fast enough, even with the huge lines on chair 2.

[Tippster]

IMO they can do whatever they want to the "other" side of the Summit, but beyond possibly upgrading the chairs at Alpy they should leave it the hell alone.

[yesIsaidyes]

...what they said...

[The AD]

I'm a little concerned with the impact this would have on summer use, too. There are already lots of people tromping around the Alpine Lake Wilderness as it is. The Snow Lake trail is one of the busiest trails in the state and the trailhead starts in the Alpental parking lot. Putting a tram to the top of Denny Pk is only going to bring more people to the area and further mar the mountainside.

edit: for lack of a better place for this. Check out this vintage photo of a skier at Alpental in 1976:


photo by Josef Scaylea found at: http://content.lib.washington.edu/cg...=&CISOVIEWTMP=

[Buster Highmen]

In the MDP, it says the (pulse) gondola to the top is intended to "provide an opportunity for the elderly and phyically challenged guests and families with small children to access Alpental's upper elevation environment..."


Remember that your time is better spent crafting a letter to Larry Donovan than it is riding the waaaah-mbulance here.

[Mofro261]

My understanding is that:

1) They're not going to increase the actual skiable area for Alpental. It butts up against the Snow Lakes Wilderness and there's no way that the environmental organizations are going to allow any actual expansion.

2) They want to put a tram up to the top of Chair Peak (top of chair 2).

3) They want to put a chair to the top of Wall Street, Stokes, Draft Dodger.

Is this right?

If so, I'm really down on 2). Putting a tram up there is insane and will guarantee worse snow quality and more deaths from falling off the cliffs.

I'm not so sure about 3) either. The Alpie bc gets schralped fast enough, even with the huge lines on chair 2.

The Tram has been on the drawing board since Alpental first opened in 1968.
It's a really bad idea because there is no room at the top for any more skier capacity. I hate the line on Chair 2, but putting more people up there is ridiculous.

The new chair doesn't go anywhere near Wall Street/Stokes DD. Is meant to go up from the top of Chair 3 through Felsen inbounds and let off around Knowl 1 and primarily service lower I. and snake dance area. But this would completely change the BC access, and likely ruin what is probably the best lift access BC playground around.

[nutcase]

I'm a little concerned with the impact this would have on summer use, too. There are already lots of people tromping around the Alpine Lake Wilderness as it is. The Snow Lake trail is one of the busiest trails in the state and the trailhead starts in the Alpental parking lot. Putting a tram to the top of Denny Pk is only going to bring more people to the area and further mar the mountainside.

]

Snow lake is already the busiest trail I think in the Alpine wilderness. Nothing is going to change that and actually I think that the more people that go there in the summer potentially means that other trails will be less crowded. Plus- for how many people use that area in the summer I am actually surprised by how preserved the countryside is.

[Buster Highmen]

The Tram has been on the drawing board since Alpental first opened in 1968.
It's a really bad idea because there is no room at the top for any more skier capacity. I hate the line on Chair 2, but putting more people up there is ridiculous.

The new chair doesn't go anywhere near Wall Street/Stokes DD. Is meant to go up from the top of Chair 3 through Felsen inbounds and let off around Knowl 1 and primarily service lower I. and snake dance area. But this would completely change the BC access, and likely ruin what is probably the best lift access BC playground around.

My bad, I thought the chair was planned to go further out.

Anyway, I think we agree. Except about "...the best lift access BC playground around....".

[PNWbrit]

In the MDP, it says the (pulse) gondola to the top is intended to "provide an opportunity for the elderly and phyically challenged guests and families with small children to access Alpental's upper elevation environment..."


Remember that your time is better spent crafting a letter to Larry Donovan than it is riding the waaaah-mbulance here.

Because of course there are huuuundreds of elderly, physically challenged or families with small children who want to access some of the steepest lift accesed terrain in the country

Letter to Hauptsturmführer Donovan on it's way

[Schmear]

Gondola, not a tram, to the top of Denny Peak, not Chair Peak.

The Internationale Chair will go from the base to Knoll One and nowhere near Stokes, Draft Dodger, etc.

The "elderly, disabled" part refers to summer access. They want to build a year-round restaurant/conference center at the top of the gondola.

Reducing wait times at chairs 1 & 2 on weekends is fine with me, which is mostly what the MDP was crafted to do. [Of course I'm an objective journalist, but...] the bulk of the changes are all for the better in my opinion.

[The AD]

The "elderly, disabled" part refers to summer access. They want to build a year-round restaurant/conference center at the top of the gondola.

Yeah, that's pretty much the part that bothers me, but as Buster suggested, much better directed at Donovan than to this board...

[Jumper Bones]

btw duder happy birthday...!!!

[STD]

Thanks for the heads up, Duder. Email sent.

[belgian]

Proposed expansion map:

(taken directly from The Summit's website)

[Schmear]

Ouch. This one's a little easier to grasp.

[Duder]

BUMP....just to keep the concerns and comments flowing. As well, to remind everyone that there is going to be a nice/ eco friendly restaurant at the top of chair 2.

Have you seen the crowds on weekends? Help protect us!