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The addition of Grey Mountain will add roughly 1,000 skiable acres to Red Resort’s boundary area; photo courtesy Red Resort
On Wednesday Red Resort in British Columbia announced one of the largest ski area expansions in recent history with plans to add a new lift to service 1,000 acres on Grey Mountain, just north of the resort’s current summit on Granite Mountain.
Grey has been a part of Red’s recreation permit area for years, but until this year, has not been included in the resort’s patrolled and controlled boundary area. Instead, like Mount Roberts to the south, the resort offered gates where backcountry skiers could exit the resort to ski-tour to Grey. That will change this year, when Red will add Grey to its boundary area and shuttle skiers to the top with a snowcat. A new Poma quad chairlift will be installed next summer.
Grey, as seen from the north-facing glades off of Granite Mountain; photo courtesy Red Resort
In more populated areas, a ski resort expansion of this size would be met with opposition from the backcountry community and local environmental groups. There seems to be very little resistance to the Red expansion, however, which will almost double the resort’s current skiable acreage (from 1,682 to 2,682) and elevate Red to the top three percentile for skiable acres in North America. This is likely due to the relative simplicity of the expansion. From an environmental standpoint, Red is adding one chairlift, which will open up skiing on all aspects of Grey Mountain. For the backcountry community, Mount Kirkup will now be only a short skip from the ski area. Mount Roberts will also remain untouched and uncontrolled.
To put the expansion into perspective, Vail, Colorado’s contentious move into Blue Sky Basin in 2000, which spurred activists to burn the Two Elk Lodge, added three high-speed quads to service roughly half the acreage (525 acres). Snowbird, Utah’s 1999 expansion into Mineral Basin also added roughly half the acreage that this adds to Red.
For more on the expansion, including quotes from the owner, read the resort’s press release, after this video.
RED Mountain launches one of the largest ski terrain expansions in decades, adds nearly 1,000 acres in-bound terrain
Rossland, BritishColumbia (September 26, 2012) – Located on BC’s famous “Powder Highway,” RED Mountain Resort just hit overdrive: On August 1, 2012, RED began developing our most significant expansion to date: Grey Mountain. This two-year expansion adds almost 1,000 acres — and a whole new mountain – to our already epic 1,685 acres.
“The scale of this expansion is a true game-changer for RED Mountain Resort and for the community of Rossland,” said Howard Katkov, President and CEO of Red Mountain Resort. “The management team has spent the last eight years carefully reinforcing the company’s infrastructure, investing 50 million dollars in the facilities and completing world class slope-side accommodations. Now we’re truly ready for prime-time. We’ve consciously kept a low profile while we diligently readied ourselves for this massive expansion.”
RED has always been revered for: light, dry snow; world-class tree skiing; incredible steeps; 2,919 feet of vertical; our incredible, laid back vibe and our friendly locals. The Grey Mountain expansion will open up a vast store of intermediate runs, making most “family friendly” resorts pale by comparison. And, like the other mountains, Grey will offer what we call “3-D skiing”:
“Grey, like Granite (RED’s other peak), is volcano-shaped, which allows for 360-degree skiing around the peak from a single lift, a topographical feature few resorts in the world are lucky to have,” explains Katkov.
Chris Cushing, Principal at Snow Engineering (SE) Group, one of the ski resort industry’s premier design and engineering firms, said: “RED Mountain’s expansion to Grey Mountain is the biggest, most exciting project in North America this year, and SE Group is proud to have worked with RED to make it happen. Not only does the expansion increase RED’s skiable terrain by about 1,000 acres, it also adds wide terrain variety — from groomed cruising runs to tree glades and alpine chutes — that will create a whole new world for RED skiers. This project is one of the most dramatic transformations of an existing major ski area that we’ve seen and it is one of the largest — if not THE largest — single-season ski area expansion projects in North America in several decades.”
The 997-acre expansion on Grey alone is about the same size as the revered Mt. Baker Ski Area in Washington. To put this in perspective, total acreage with our new terrain on Grey makes RED larger than Jackson Hole, Wyoming. With the new zone, RED is elevated to the top three-percent (3%) of all resorts in North America for skiable acres (2,682!), while keeping its independent soul and escaping the stuffy (and expensive) trappings of many of the Mega Resorts.
For 2012-13, RED will be shuttling skiers, in groups of nine, to the top of Grey using a new Alpina Sherpa — an oversized snowmobile-bus that has to be seen to be believed. RED has purchased a Poma Quad Chair for installation next summer. At the completion of run development, Grey Mountain will have 22 perfect ski runs, leaving plenty of trees and terrain variations for riders to express themselves on.
“We see the Grey expansion as an expression of our commitment to the next generation of skiers and snowboarders, as well as to our current fans,” explains Fran Richards, Vice President, Marketing. “We share their values when it comes to mountain recreation and feel a deep responsibility to protect the wonderful ski experience at RED. We truly see RED as an endangered species, one of the last resorts that celebrates the true skiing experience: offering wide open terrain and all the amenities one expects, without the rampant commercialism that has significantly changed the face of the ski experience throughout North America. Many recreational skiers and snowboarders have never experienced a pure world like RED and we’d like to show them that the other side is, in fact, better.”
RED Mountain is located in Rossland, BC, a scenic mining town dating back to 1898.It is the oldest ski area in Western Canada and the last great, undiscovered resort in North America. Last Year, The NY Times rated RED as one of the Top Three ski areas in North America for Advanced skiers.
Media Contact: Melissa Orozco, melissa@yulupr.com, 604-558-1656
