Warm Springs SIDE OF BALDY TO GET New Lifts in 2023

By Hayden Seder

As one of the top ski resorts in the nation, Sun Valley Resort and Bald Mountain see a lot of traffic, making it more important than ever to make sure that equipment is up to date, the mountain is maintained in a way that makes the skier experience better, and that changes are made as better solutions become available. As part of a long-term investment plan for enhancing the guest experience on Baldy, Sun Valley Resort will begin a project to install two new ski lifts on the Warm Springs side in 2023.

“This is an exciting project for Sun Valley Resort as we make a significant investment in the mountain and commitment to our guests and the community,” said Pete Sonntag, Sun Valley Company’s Vice President, and General Manager. “Our guiding principle in this multiyear endeavor is to improve the experience for our guests on the mountain and we think focusing on the vitality of the Warm Springs area is a great place to start.”

Phase One

Jenna Vagias, Brand & Communications Manager at Sun Valley Resort, calls this phase one of a multi-phase, multi-year plan that will ultimately include replacing seven lifts on Baldy. This phase will begin once the mountain closes in spring 2023 and focus on replacing the two lifts that currently serve the Warm Springs base: Challenger, which terminates at the top of the mountain and Greyhawk, which terminates mid-mountain at the top of runs typically used in ski races like Cozy, Hemingway, Greyhawk, Race Arena, and Brick’s Island. Not only will replacing the lifts (both reaching the end of their lifecycles) bring in new infrastructure, the new placement of terminals will make for better traffic flow on the mountain. “The proposed projects in the first phase will benefit the recreational experience on Bald Mountain by improving skier circulation, increasing the accessible skiable terrain, and improving both lift and snow quality,” said Sonntag.

HIGH SPEED SIX-PACK DOPPELMAYR

The Challenger lift, a four-seater built in 1988 and retrofitted in 1996, will be replaced with a high-speed, six-pack Doppelmayr lift that will get riders to the top of the mountain in just eight minutes, shaving five minutes off the current thirteen-minute ride, as assessed by techs at Doppelmayr—no mean feat for a lift that spans 3,150 feet. The new top-to-bottom lift will be installed in the location of the current Greyhawk lift, with an optional unloading point midway where the current Greyhawk lift currently terminates. The lift will slow down at this point to allow some people to disembark while others stay on to ride to the top of the mountain and disembark at the same terminal as the current Challenger lift. “We’re taking two lifts and making it into one to serve the same areas with more efficiency and capacity,” said Vagias.

Lift 1a

An entirely new lift, a high-speed quad referred to currently as “Lift 1A,” will be built on the mountain side of the river rather than on the Lodge-side the current Challenger terminal is built on. The old terminal will be cleared to make way for extended patio seating for the Lodge. Lift 1A will serve a similar area as the old Flying Squirrel lift, which burned down in 2014 and was removed from the mountain. Lift 1A will start at the bottom of Warm Springs and terminate at the top of Flying Squirrel and Picabo’s Street. The current route of cat track I-80 will be rerouted to avoid a traffic jam at the lift. “From Warm Springs, you’ll be able to either go to the top or take this lift and still get to all four main areas on the mountain—River Run, Frenchman’s, Seattle Ridge, or Warm Springs—without going to the top,” said Vagias. Lift 1A will provide a redundancy piece in the event that one lift is closed down by high winds or another emergency; it will also help to spread people out on the mountain.

Part of installing Lift 1A will be the creation of a Lower Flying Squirrel run; currently, the bottom of Flying Squirrel stops abruptly and requires a hard turn to a cat track to get back to Warm Springs. The creation of a lower portion of the run means that skiers and snowboarders will be able to go right through onto Warm Springs. This intersects with a project done this summer through the Bald Mountain Stewardship Project which gladed trees in Little Scorpion, taking an area that was previously all out of bounds and adding 54 acres of new, inbound skiing.

An expedited timeline for the project has sights set on completion prior to Christmas of 2023. F