Snowbasin development races to stay ahead of 2002 Olympics

Although Earl Holding owns both the Sun Valley resort and the Snowbasin ski area near Ogden, Utah, Sun Valley Company general manager Wally Huffman told those attending the Olympic breakfast Friday morning that the two resorts would only affect each other as far as overall skier days in the Intermountain Region.

"Sun Valley doesn’t have anything to do with Salt Lake City, but with skier days," Huffman said. "If we have more skier days, [Earl Holding] will build a hotel, a gondola, a restaurant on the top of the mountain."

And Huffman said the rapid development of Snowbasin--home to six downhill events during the 2002 Olympics--could help boost skier days in Sun Valley.

Huffman said one-third of the 53 million skier days per year in the U.S. happen in Colorado, while two percent occur in Utah. Just 405,937 days per year take place in Sun Valley.

If more attention can be focused on Utah skiing during the coming Winter Olympics, however, Huffman said Sun Valley and the whole Intermountain Region could benefit.

"The spill off to Sun Valley will be easy," he said.

Snowbasin, which was purchased by Holding in 1984, until recently was a sleeper resort mostly skied by Ogden residents.

When Salt Lake City began its Olympic bid in the late 1980s, the better-known Wasatch resorts of Snowbird, Solitude and Deer Valley were ruled out as potential downhill venues for various environmental and technical reasons.

In 1989, Holding convinced the Olympic Committee that an undeveloped, untried downhill course to be built at Snowbasin would be worthy of Olympic competition, largely based on the reputation of the Sun Valley downhill, Huffman said.

Since then, Holding has engineered a controversial land swap with the U.S. Forest Service in order to gain 1,320 acres around Snowbasin to be developed for Olympic purposes.

The Wall Street Journal reported in July that Holding plans to invest $75 million in this development.

The development will have to occur at a frantic pace to accommodate the 60,000 spectators expected to watch the downhill event.

In addition to four lifts added this summer, the local architecture firm Ruscitto/Latham/Blanton currently is designing the base structures. A 40,000-person, temporary stadium will be erected at the bottom of the downhill course.

Huffman said better transportation routes between Ogden and Salt Lake City will also have to be completed before 2002.