Joey O’Brien, managing director of Mount Baldy Resort, gave an update last week to journalists and a blogger on the progress being made as the resort is put back into shape for a Dec. 1 opening – if Mother Nature co-operates. The lifts have had to be reassembled and fully tested. (Richard McGuire photo)
Reassembly and testing of the ski lifts at Mount Baldy Resort is nearing completion as the new operator aims for a Dec. 1 season opening.
That’s the word from Joey O’Brien, managing director, who gave an update on the resort’s progress to journalists and a blogger last week.
O’Brien said the resort will have either three or four lifts depending on the budget, but so far he said the lift maintenance has cost less than expected.
There is a two-seat chair on the main mountain, a four-seat chair on Sugar Lump and a magic carpet in the learning area.
The fourth, he said, is a T-bar that hasn’t been run in seven years and will be fixed if the budget allows.
O’Brien said the resort also has decided it will be selling skip equipment from “the two biggest and best in the world” ski and snowboard companies – Head skis and Burton snowboards.
These companies have significant programs in terrain-based learning, O’Brien said, adding that he’s worked with them at one of his previous resorts.
The resort has now sold about 1,300 season passes in its first five weeks of sales, O’Brien said, noting that the target is 5,000.
About 20 per cent of those sold are seniors’ passes and people in the area from Penticton to the U.S. border bought most.
“To be honest, I don’t want to sell out right now,” said O’Brien. “I want to have inventory to sell when we open, because that’s going to cause a surge of interest.”
Mount Baldy has been selling season passes priced considerably lower than other resorts in the area, but O’Brien says this pricing model is now used in nearly half the resorts in North America and has worked for him in the past.
“It’s not the pass. It’s the daily spend,” that O’Brien said is important. “So would you rather have 50 people there buying a burger or 500 during the day? That’s what we figured out – eliminate the barriers because this sport, unfortunately, has a lot of barriers to success.”
The resort aims to open on Thursday, Dec. 1, but that all depends on the one variable they can’t control – Mother Nature.
By giving the two-metre high vegetation on the slopes a “haircut,” O’Brien said the resort would be able to open with just 75 centimetres of natural snow.
“We’re going to try really hard with an aggressive snow farming program that captures snow with snow fences and then you manage the snow with that,” he said.
Locals tell him the chances of having sufficient snow are about seven years in 10, he said, adding he doesn’t have empirical data to support that.
A four-day chair festival is planned to coincide with the opening.
O’Brien also confirmed that the resort will be open seven days a week and will remain open at least until March 31
They are still considering whether or not to open only the Easter long weekend after that, or whether to continue operating seven days a week until April 18.
“You have to maximize utilization of the asset,” he said, explaining the decision to operate seven days a week.
Initially the resort will have the present day lodge where food and beverages are served, along with a reception building and a rental building, O’Brien said.
There are no immediate plans to build accommodation, so initially the resort will operate as a day resort and later evolve into a hybrid day and destination resort.
To meet accommodation demands, there will be a system to allow owners of some of the 103 cabins at Mount Baldy to rent their properties.
The resort will be completing a new master plan over the next two years to replace one developed between 2002 and 2005, which O’Brien says is designed for selling real estate rather than enhancing the visitor experience.
“We’re trying really hard to decide right now whether or not to wait until the end of the two-year master plan (process) before we start building things, or take advantage of the fact that we have a subdivision ready to go today to build some accommodations for our guests,” he said.
Another improvement O’Brien hopes can be done without too long a wait is road improvement to access the resort. He said he spoke to MLA Linda Larson recently to press his case for road paving sooner rather than later.
“At my resort in Nova Scotia it took me three elections to get the road paved,” O’Brien said, noting the importance of “pavement politics” in Atlantic Canada.
Depending on whether guests arrive from Oliver or Highway 3, there are roughly between 12 and 20 km of gravel road, he said.
The problem, he added, is that the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure normally doesn’t run traffic counters across roads during the winter because they conflict with snowplows and counters placed in the spring won’t record ski season traffic use.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
