Sun Valley eyes a new era at Dollar Mountain
New lodge only part of plan for resort?s historic beginners? hill
By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer
The new Dollar Mountain Lodge, along Elkhorn Road in Sun Valley, is in the final phase of construction. It is scheduled to open to the public on Dec. 15. Photo by David N. Seelig
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As Sun Valley Resort marketing director Jack Sibbach takes in the expansive view from the new Dollar Mountain Lodge, a youthful smile comes to his face.
To the west, the resort?s main attraction, 9,150-foot Bald Mountain, juts elegantly into the Idaho sky. But in Baldy?s shadow, diminutive Dollar suddenly seems larger, as if its status as a mere training ground for toddlers has vanished in the autumn wind.
?This is pretty exciting for us,? Sibbach said. ?I see a real renewal of Dollar Mountain happening here.?
Undoubtedly, the centerpiece of Dollar?s renaissance is the construction of the new 26,000-square-foot Dollar Mountain Lodge, a grand gathering place built to resemble Sun Valley?s three signature ski lodges on Bald Mountain, at River Run, Seattle Ridge and Warm Springs.
The new two-level lodge?built with scores of giant, polished logs and tons of top-quality rock extracted from a local mine?is scheduled to open on Dec. 15, just before the Christmas-season rush.
Perched at the base of Dollar?s northeast flank, where the historic Dollar Cabin once stood, the lodge includes a dining room with unobstructed mountain views, a day-care center, a ski and snowboarding school, and a full-service ski rental, repair and retail shop.
Although amenities such as a gourmet cafeteria and large-screen plasma televisions should appeal to most adults, the lodge was essentially designed to be a state-of-the-art haven for families and children. Much of the building is devoted to the children?s ski school, which will boast a kitchen, entertainment areas and appliances to clean and dry clothes.
Carol Holding, wife of Sun Valley Co. owner Earl Holding, was a driving force behind the new lodge being built, Sibbach said.
?Mrs. Holding really pushed for this, especially for the kids facilities,? Sibbach said. ?She wants it to be family friendly.?
True to form, the Holdings spared few expenses in developing the lodge. Marble and polished hickory accent the bathrooms. The outdoor patios feature a heated-paver surface to shed snow.
To Sibbach, the multi-million-dollar structure not only represents another jewel in the Sun Valley Resort crown, it is another tool for keeping Idaho?s best-known ski resort competitive with the likes of Aspen, Vail and Park City.
?We?ve always known we?ve been behind our competitors in facilities for kids and child care.?
Sibbach estimates that the new lodge will ?conservatively? create 20 percent more business at Dollar Mountain, coming not only from families with children, but also adults looking for a more casual ski outing than what might be found on Baldy. Sales of adult season passes for Dollar are up noticeably from previous years, he said.
In addition, Sibbach noted, the lodge will be made available for off-season activities, such as conferences, weddings and musical performances, including those associated with the annual Swing ?n? Dixie Jazz Jamboree.
The lodge, however, is not the only new attraction planned for Dollar Mountain, Sibbach said.
Directly south of the lodge, adjacent to the Quarter Dollar ski lift, resort contractors have brought in tons of soil to establish a new snow sledding and tubing hill. The facility will ultimately feature a 500-foot-long moving-sidewalk type lift commonly called a ?magic carpet.?
?I think it will wean people off Penny Mountain,? Sibbach said, referring to the popular sledding hill near Sun Valley Village that is earmarked for residential development.
The sledding hill is scheduled to open this winter.
Resort officials, Sibbach said, are also planning to install on Dollar Mountain a set of ?beginning terrain-park features,? and in the future will consider updating the mountain?s old-fashioned snowmaking and chairlift systems.
?The next step would be more snowmaking on Dollar,? he said. ?We really need the state-of-the-art snowmaking, like we have on Baldy.?
He added: ?We will eventually have to redo the lifts. Most of them are 35 to 40 years old.?
Longer-term plans might include installing lights to provide night skiing and a much-talked-about gondola that could transport passengers from Sun Valley Village to the River Run base area of Baldy, via Dollar Mountain.
Wally Huffman, Sun Valley general manager, first proposed the gondola concept last April, as he presented a long-term master plan for all of the resort company?s properties. Although the initial response was favorable, Sibbach said, the project is not in the company?s immediate plans.
?It would be great,? he said.
Meanwhile, scores of workers still inhabit the lodge site every day, preparing the building for interior decorators to furnish the finishing touches.
In the end, the lodge will have been completed in just seven months, less than half the time that would have elapsed had the plan not been accelerated by the Holdings.
?It just had to get done,? Sibbach said.
