Like every other vacation community in the world, the Sun Valley resort area is in a pickle because of the severe national downturns in travel and real estate.
People in the area have two choices. We can mope, fret and wring our hands about the local economy. We can mourn the passing of the boom years and long for their return.
Or, we can think forward. Entertain new ideas. Explore possibilities. Be brave and radically innovative.
We're intrigued by an idea put forth by Sun Valley Co. Director of Resort Development Wally Huffman to build a gondola from the resort to Ketchum and then to the base of Bald Mountain at River Run.
Gondolas are hardly revolutionary for the ski industry, but a gondola used as mass transportation in a mountain resort community would be unique in the U.S. outside amusement parks.
Jackson Hole, Snowbird and Squaw Valley have their aerial trams—big cattle cars on a cable that haul great numbers of people to the tops of their mountains. But none of the resort towns has a community-spanning gondola.
The payoff in publicity alone would be priceless. Sun Valley would become known as "that place with the gondola that takes you everywhere." Sun Valley could become a must for visitors seeking a different slice of mountain life.
If the gondola runs along Sun Valley Road to stops in Ketchum and River Run, it would be utilitarian as well. It would link the three major nodes of the community, especially if a new hotel is built at River Run.
A new Community Connector Committee set up to examine transportation options says a gondola may cost no more than a fixed-rail trolley system and would have an advantage over a trolley because its cabins would not be slowed down by vehicle traffic.
A gondola—as utilitarian as it is a curiosity—could brand the resort as not only interesting but environmentally friendly and "green" as well.
Visitors could park their cars and their carbon emissions with them for much of their stay. A gondola would remove the inconvenience of a wait at a bus stop and make it easy for workers to get around town as well.
The whole mix could create a unique social scene where visitors meet other visitors and residents in a convivial setting—the gondola cabins.
Sun Valley is no stranger to "firsts." It was the first destination ski resort in the nation. It was the birthplace of the chairlift. Reaching for new "firsts" could keep the valley from becoming disabled by the past.
