Powder Play: New lifts rise to greater heights

Offbeat spring events also beckon at Western resorts


08:37 AM CDT on Wednesday, April 16, 2008
By WALT ROESSING / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News


It's not too early to start thinking about experiencing one or more of the three blockbuster lifts that will greet destination skiers and snowboarders in December.

"The Big One," only bigger, will be back at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Wyoming. The sleek new replacement aerial tram is faster and twice the size of the original with a capacity of 100 passengers.

Equally spectacular is the $40 million peak-to-peak gondola that will be ready at British Columbia's Whistler Mountain Resort. It will provide access to 8,171 acres of skiable terrain by connecting the Roundhouse Lodge on Whistler Mountain with the Rendezvous Lodge on Blackcomb Mountain.

Elsewhere in B.C. is Revelstoke Mountain Resort. When next season begins, the area will have the Western Hemisphere's longest lift-served vertical rise: 5,620 feet. That's being achieved by extending the Stoke quad chair's summit to 7,300 feet. Skiers and boarders will have the thrill of direct fall-line cruising to the Anticipation Gondola's base at 1,680 feet.

If you'd like to tackle an even longer vertical plummet, consider flying to the Swiss Alps.

That's where I skied a 7,130-foot vertical, nine-mile run dropping from the Schilthorn at 9,740 feet to the Lauterbrunnen Valley floor at 2,610 feet. Closest city is Grindelwald, with direct train service from Zurich Airport.

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