This week yet another new ski resort proposal was made public in BC. This time around it is Bridal Veil Mountain Resort outside Chilliwack, which has pros and cons, but ultimately misses the mark in terms of much needed new terrain for real skiing. Over the years BC has had many new ski hill ideas pop up over the years, yet from a skiers perspective they all fail.
Jumbo was a hilarious bust and as someone who has been around all corners of the proposed resort it would never have worked.
Valemount has potential from a skiers perspective, yet it's location in proximity to any population base/airport puts doubt in its success.
Brohm Ridge is just silly. Besides the fact that a ski hill already existed (and failed) there, it is too low, ski terrain is less than ideal, and Squamish doesn't want it. Easy pass.
Zincton was a great idea before they got too ambitious with a village and beefed up infrastructure plan. What's next? A resort on silvercup ridge at trout lake?
Closer to home in Nelson, BC, a new tenure proposal just came up for ski touring in Sitkum, Kokanee/West Kokanee, and Redfish drainages. While I am not opposed to this per say - it is heavily utilized by the local sledding/sled skiing community so potential tension is inevitable.
This has had me wondering. This season across north America has made it very evident that we need new ski hills, yet playing the fine balance of appeasing NIMBY's, economic pressure, accessibility, snow amounts/quality, and most importantly terrain limits viable options extremely.
We are skiers, and as much as we want ski hills everywhere, I'd like to think that was have a certain level of awareness in terms of what would actually work vs skiing pipe dreams and/or real estate developers wanting to use a chairlift to nowhere just to sell condos to the rich.
Here in British Columbia we have an unlimited amount of potential terrain, yet a serious lack of population which makes a truly viable location for a new ski hill very limited. The best I have personally come up with is a cat ski tenure on gray creek pass (east shore of Kootenay Lake in the Purcells). Besides the Valemount proposal, I honestly can't think of a viable location for a good new ski hill.
So my topic of discussion: in all of our ski nerdism: do any of us have a legitimate location for a new ski hill that would both please the investors as well as offer a proper skiing experience for proper skiers. Is it even possible to build a new 'Jackson Hole' in todays world?
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