Crested Butte Owners Investing $57.3M in Ski Area Improvements
Mt. Crested Butte, CO (Monday, May 16, 2005) - The face-lift that began last year at Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) with the ski area's purchase by Okemo (Vermont) owners Tim and Diane Mueller is already in high gear. $57.3 million will be spent on the following ski area improvements this summer:
- Extensive landscaping at the base area
- Extensive brush cutting on ski trails including the Extreme Limits
- Prospect, Phase II, a ski-in, ski-out community
- A new base village, titled Mountaineer Square
- New chairlift
- A new central reservation system for
Crested Butte Vacations - Upgraded and improved snowmaking
- Additional grooming machines
- A redesign of Kids' World
- A new on-mountain demo center
- New ski and snowboard rental equipment
- New uniforms
- A smoker on the deck of Butte 66
- A new deck at the Ice Bar & Restaurant (base of Twister
Lift)
BSA Architects of San Francisco will sculpt Mountaineer Square, leading off real estate development and construction at Crested Butte this summer. "We are turning into a construction company," says CBMR vice-president and general manager Randy Barrett. "Cat drivers will turn into backhoe operators. It is a wonderful to be able to offer year-round work to our employees."
The first phase of construction will include approximately 93 resort residences, a spa and fitness center, a new bus depot, a water/fire pit plaza for social gatherings and some retail and restaurant facilities. Convention facilities will debut in December of 2006 for groups and meetings of up to 350.
The infrastructure for Prospect Phase II will be installed this summer and includes utilities, roads and ski bridges. The Prospect development on the mountain's northwest side, will be breaking ground on "personal retreats" next fall.
On the mountain, new Poma fixed-grip quad chair lift will be installed to replace the T-Bar lift. The quad chair will take skiers staying in lodging near the south side of the base area midway on the front side of the mountain. Future plans have this quad chair replacing the Peachtree lift and accessing a new adult teaching area and race venue. The re-grading of the Peachtree terrain will be completed by the 2006-2007 ski season.
This summer, snowmaking pipelines will be replaced and more hydrants added to upgrade the existing snowmaking operations.
"We want to be able to efficiently create enough snow to open Red Lady Express, Silver Queen and Paradise (lifts) on opening day next winter (November 19, 2005), regardless of natural snowfall," says Barrett. "This would enable us to have top to bottom snowmaking on International, Paradise Bowl and Houston trails, some of the most popular skiing and riding on the mountain."
In addition to expanded snowmaking, CBMR will add three new snowcats to the grooming fleet for the upcoming season. Operations will be expanded to include the nightly grooming of every blue and green run. Intensive brush cutting and mowing work on the mountain's trails will include the "Extreme Limits".
$57.3 million will be invested this summer in improvements at Crested Butte Mountain Resort. |
Off the mountain, Crested Butte Vacations (CBV) will install a new state-of-the-art booking system, the Inntopia CRS, for its call center technology this summer. InntopiaCRS is a hosted, browser-based model that integrates the call center seamlessly with internet reservations at the reservation center's web site, GDS and IDS providers, allowing for greater distribution of inventory. The system also makes it easy for both agents and guests to dynamically build packages with lodging, activities and air.
Base area landscaping to include trees and sod will "green" up the mountain this summer along with the residing of the resort's lifts and lift houses. Painter Boy and Goldlink lifts will receive cedar siding to match the new look of the Silver Queen and Red Lady Express lifts. Next winter, lift operators will don a new wardrobe of hunter-green Spyder uniforms to coordinate with the newly painted lift terminals.
Paradise Warming house will have a new on-mountain demo center located in a "yurt" so resort guests are able upgrade or try out different equipment without returning to the base area. The yurt will also include a facility for guests to sign up for ski school lessons and clinics and watch their lesson videos.
The Crested Butte Ski and Snowboard Rental shop will be offering the largest selection of new high performance demo skis, boots, teaching skis and snowboard equipment in the county.
The popular Ice Bar will sport a larger, warmer deck complete with windbreaks and outdoor heaters. The deck of Butte 66 will now resonate with the smell of BBQ from a new outdoor smoker.
The upgrades are all part of the Muellers' mission to make CBMR more family-friendly, guest oriented and aesthetically pleasing. "We want to raise the bar again." says Barrett. "We want to continue to ensure that we deliver the best product we can."