Posted 04 April 2009 - 08:13 PM
This pretty much sums up Aspen Ski Co's future lift plans:
SkiCo reins in capital spending for next year
by Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Login or register to post comments
Printer-friendly version
Email this Story
After spending over $120 million on new lifts, restaurants, terrain parks and ski runs since 2003, Aspen Skiing Co. is not planning on making any significant improvements to its four ski areas this summer or next.
The economy is obviously one factor in the company’s decision to cut back on spending, as mountain managers were asked this year to only request funding for projects that are absolutely necessary, but SkiCo spokesman Jeff Hanle said the relatively quiet summer of 2009 is a “natural lull” after six years of aggressive spending.
“We had no major lift projects on the schedule this year,” Hanle said. “And we haven’t had any big projects put on hold. We are just at a point where we are pretty comfortable with what we have out there.”
The company still plans on spending about $8 to $10 million this year on a variety of “back-of-house” projects that its guests may well never notice.
“The goal is not to let anything fall behind,” Hanle said of this year’s budget. “We don’t want to make sacrifices to capital spending that would be apparent to our guests or employees in any way.”
Hanle also pointed out that the first phase of a planned $18 million renovation of Little Nell hotel rooms is still scheduled to start this fall and that the year’s capital expenditure budget has not yet been finalized.
On-mountain spending by ski areas has “always been cyclical,” said Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association. “If you look at the last 10 years, the industry has spent millions and millions of dollars renovating their operating plants, including spending on snowmaking, uphill transportation systems and grooming equipment. It is no surprise that after an era when significant dollars have been spent they would now be a little more careful with capital investment.”
Berry said some ski areas on the East Coast, which had a record season due to heavy snowfall, might make last-minute spending decisions this fall on snowmaking systems, snowcats and other ski area elements that have shorter lead times than do new chairlifts.
Hanle would like to have new lifts, trails and buildings to brag about in the fall — as would all ski area PR directors — but this summer the SkiCo budget only includes projects like repairing the roof on the Bonnie’s restaurant building, installing more electronic ticketing gates and possibly building a trail bridge at the Buttermilk Mountain Ski Area.
That’s a far cry from past years.
In 2008, the company spent $25 million, including $7 million for the new Sheer Bliss lift on the Big Burn, $9 million for the Sam’s Smokehouse restaurant on Sam’s Knob, and $3 million on Sneaky’s Tavern in Base Village.
It also spent millions more in 2008 remodeling the Silver Queen gondola plaza, cutting the Canopy Cruiser trail at Aspen Highlands, and extending the Buttermilk half-pipe up to 22-feet.
(See related list of SkiCo expenditures).
In 2007, the company also spent $25 million, including $17 million on the Treehouse children’s center in Base Village. In 2006, it was $23 million. In 2005, $27 million.
Zach Ornitz/Aspen Daily News
The Tiehack chairlift is at the top of the Aspen Skiing Co.’s replacement list.
And those figures do not include several million dollars a year on “recurring capital” items or the tens of millions of dollars the company has spent the last few years on employee housing projects.
Most local skiers could probably come up with a suggestion of which old lifts SkiCo could replace — the 24-year-old “Couch” on Aspen Mountain comes to mind — but SkiCo appears to be mainly focused on making improvements at the Buttermilk Ski Area in the coming years.
The company has submitted an updated mountain master plan to the Forest Service that includes a proposed new high-speed Tiehack lift, expanded snowmaking ponds, and a skier/rider bridge to separate beginners from terrain park users.
A replacement for Lift 1A on Aspen Mountain is also on the potential “to-do list, but that is now tied to the proposed Lift One Lodge project at the top of Aspen Street, which is still deep in the city’s review process.
Also on the company’s drawing board is a new Pandora’s lift that would serve the popular ski terrain between Harris’ Wall and the existing Walsh’s Area.
While that may alarm regular “side-country” skiers on Aspen Mountain, Hanle said the timing of the Pandora’s lift was “in the future, somewhere, should all things work toward its favor.”
At least one Colorado ski area has decided to postpone building a planned chairlift this summer.
Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort has shelved plans to replace its Lift 8 because of the frozen credit markets, according to the Durango Herald. The mountain still plans on glading about 150 acres of terrain on either side of the lift, however.
bgs@aspendailynews.com
SkiCo capital spending 2003 to 2009
Summer 2009
Preliminary Budget: $8 to $10 million
Electronic ticket system elements
Bonnie’s restaurant roof repairs
Potential ski bridge at Buttermilk
Other “recurring” capital items
Summer 2008
Spent: $25 million
$7 million for Sheer Bliss lift at Snowmass
$9 million on Sam’s Smokehouse
$3 million on Sneaky’s Tavern
Gondola plaza improvements
Ajax Tavern remodel
Canopy Cruiser cut
Buttermilk halfpipe expanded to 22 feet
Electronic ticketing system
Summer 2007
Spent: $25 million
$17 million on Treehouse children’s center
Elk Camp Meadows lifts and beginner area
Snowmass park and pipe moved
Summer 2006
Spent: $23 million
$13 million on Elk Camp gondola
$8 million for new Silver Queen cabins
Assay Hill lift realigned
Coney Glade terrain park improvements
Glading in Deep Temerity
Summer 2005
Spent: $27 million
Village Express six-pack at Snowmass
SkyCab/Skittles lift in Snowmass
Deep Temerity Lift at Highlands
Silver Queen infrastructure upgrade
Summer 2004
Spent: $10 million
West Buttermilk lift
Lift 6 (FIS) lift on Aspen Mountain
Summer 2003
Spent: $10 million
Campground lift renovation
Enlarged Sundeck restaurant
Highlands patrol HQ
Buttermilk terrain park improvements
2
SkiBachelor, on Apr 1 2009, 10:30 PM, said:
Not to mention there are a few survivors still, such as Pioneer Express at Winter Park, Coney Glade at Snowmass, American Flyer at Copper Mountain, and the Falcon and Colorado SuperChairs at Breckenridge. Those are all Alpha Falcon or Falcon terminal equipped lifts, but they've run for almost a quarter of a century in strong condition. Must they vanish if they could last another 25 years?
