Friday — April 9, 2004

Master plan in
works for Baldy

Resort plans new ski runs, gondola

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By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer

Pursuant to its release of a 50-year master plan to develop 2,800 acres of private land, Sun Valley Co. is preparing to release a 10-year master development plan for its approximately 3,200 acres of leased federal land on Bald Mountain.

Wally Huffman, general manager of Sun Valley Co., announced Tuesday, April 6, that the company in June will submit to the U.S. Forest Service a proposed new master plan for the Sun Valley ski area.

Huffman said the plan will likely propose a gondola from River Run to the Lookout summit, a new dining lodge to replace the Lookout Restaurant and additional snowmaking facilities.

In addition, the plan will likely propose two new ski runs.

One run, Huffman said, could be routed from Seattle Ridge east toward Turkey Bowl and eventually finishing at the base of the Cold Springs chairlift. A second ski run could be cut to provide access from International, at the top of the Warm Springs face, along the north ridge down to Cozy ski run.

Huffman noted that Sun Valley Co. has almost developed all of the potential projects it would be allowed to complete on Bald Mountain. He estimated that the mountain is 90 percent "built out."

Kurt Nelson, Forest Service Ketchum District ranger, said Sun Valley’s special-use permit to operate the ski area will be up for renewal in 2007. The ski area was last permitted in 1977.

The last time Sun Valley Co. updated its Bald Mountain Master Plan was in 1989.

"They pretty much have run through all the projects that were outlined in the master development plan," Nelson said.

Nelson noted that it is preferable from the Forest Service’s perspective that the master be updated prior to consideration of a new 30-year special-use permit.

The plan, Nelson said, will be subject to public review and a formal government analysis after it is submitted for consideration.

Bald Mountain is under the jurisdiction of both the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM will take part in the Forest Service’s review of the Sun Valley plan.

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