Eaglecrest Ski Area is slated to open for its 50th season this Saturday. And there’s a lot to talk about ahead of the season – like lift conditions, the status of the gondola and the actual likelihood of opening on time.
KTOO sat down with Craig Cimmons, the general manager of the city-owned ski area, to talk about all of it.
Listen:
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
Mike Lane: So it’s starting to look like a winter wonderland up there?
Craig Cimmons: Oh yeah, we blew a bunch of snow, and then it snowed several inches. It was really magical in the parking lot filled with skiers and snowboarders. So it’s been great.
Mike Lane: Eaglecrest has previously announced that the Black Bear lift is permanently closed. Is there any update as far as what’s happening with the infrastructure at Eaglecrest?
Craig Cimmons: There’s a ton to talk about. So unfortunately, Black Bear is closed. People keep asking if we’re going to fix it. It’s not worth fixing. It’s a very old lift. They got their money’s worth for it. It’s in a very old design that the industry has moved away from. So it’s smarter to put that time and energy into the other lifts right now, the other three lifts. Porcupine, Ptarmigan and Hooter are in incredibly good shape and ready to go. So the infrastructure— the staff who have been there for a while — say it’s been the best shape it’s been in years.
Mike Lane: What’s the life expectancy of the other three lifts? And how often are those maintained?
Craig Cimmons: They’re constantly maintained. It never really ends. There are so many moving parts on them. You’re just constantly greasing things and replacing things and checking on things. The life expectancy of those three lifts? They are at the end of their life, for sure. But they’re in good shape, so we will get plenty more years out of them, but we need to really start talking about a replacement plan for Ptarmigan, the main lift.
Mike Lane: Can skiers still access the runs that Black Bear was servicing?
Craig Cimmons: Yeah, for sure. You have to hike up. You have to walk up a bit from the top of Ptarmigan up to Black Bear. But 100% of the train terrain is still accessible. It’s just not via the lift.
Mike Lane: This January marks 50 years since Eaglecrest has been in operation. So, what — if anything — is planned for the milestone?
Craig Cimmons: We are so excited about 50 years — 50 years is a big deal. So, Jan. 16 is the anniversary, the 50th anniversary. Right now we’re playing on a couple of things. We’re gonna do night skiing that night. That’s a Friday night, so we’ll have lights on the Porcupine terrain. We did a couple of night events last year, and they were a huge success. So we’re really excited to do those again. We’ll get music going and make it a whole party and a scene and invite everyone to come up.
We’re also going to do all-day lift tickets. They are only $7, because that’s the price Eaglecrest lift tickets were when they opened 50 years ago. So, $7 lift tickets that day. Big party that night. And then we are also planning something for that Saturday as well. Everyone should just pay attention to our socials and everything. And we’re gonna make this year as much of a party as we can, because it’s 50 years. And then we’re going to kick off the next 50 years.
Mike Lane: Now, can we talk about the gondola? Can you give us any updates on its timeline and how that’s being paid for?
Craig Cimmons: The timeline is the same it has been: it’s got it open by the summer of 2028. Everything’s still moving forward. We still have the initial investment from Goldbelt (Incorporated). It has become clear that we will need more money to install it.
The world has changed since Eaglecrest bought that. How much more money we’ll need, and where that money comes from? We don’t know yet. Once the general contractor is hired, they’re going to give us a price on what it will cost to finish the build, and then we’re going to know how much short we are from the initial $10 million. And then we’ll figure out where we get that money from. So that’s still to be determined.
Mike Lane: Craig, is there anything you’d like to add to this before we wrap up?
Craigh Cimmons: Yeah. I was thinking about that a lot. I’ve been here just over a year, and it’s incredible. The difference a year makes. From a year ago to now, the infrastructure is in better shape, we’re staffed better. The retention rate is incredible. We have tons of employees coming back, so we’re so much better set up for this winter. We’re really excited about this winter for all of those reasons. We’re just more prepared, we’re more of a team than we were a year ago. A lot of us were new last year, including myself, and it’s our 50th, so it’s all really coming together. So yeah, I’m just really overly excited about how set up we are for this winter, it’s going to be a really good one.
