Article | Revitalizing Bear Mountain

This is an article that appeared in the 2017 issue of 4241′ Magazine. Click on the image to read it online at Issuu, or read the text below.

Revitalizing Bear Mountain

Killington Resort peers into the future with a new development partnership, bringing luxury lodging, a new chairlift and a renovated base lodge to Bear Mountain
by Dave Young

On April 3, 2017, Killington Resort president and general manager Mike Solimano delivered his annual spring presentation to the Killington community. For many, the most exciting news of the night was Solimano’s announcement of a development project known as the Bear Mountain Revitalization Plan. The project, a partnership between Killington Resort and independent developer Ottauquechee Realty Advisors LLC (ORA), is designed to bring $110 million in real estate and infrastructure improvements to the resort’s Bear Mountain and South Ridge areas, beginning as soon as summer of 2018.

Base Camp at Bear Mountain
Phase one of the new development, called Base Camp at Bear Mountain, includes construction of six or seven new, multi-family condominium buildings, as well as about $8 million in on-slope amenities like a new fixed-grip quad chairlift on South Ridge, an extensive Bear Mountain Base Lodge renovation and a plan to enhance traffic flow in the Bear Mountain and Needle’s Eye areas.
According to Solimano, priority in the mountain resort business goes to maintaining existing resort infrastructure over building new amenities. When it comes existing infrastructure, no Eastern resort has more than Killington. Combined, Killington and sister resort Pico Mountain count six base lodges and a summit lodge among their facilities. The two ski areas share an extensive snowmaking system that relies on more than 100 miles of buried and aboveground pipe. And it takes 28 lifts, including seven high-speed express quads and two gondolas, to serve the nearly 2,000 acres of skiable terrain within Killington and Pico’s boundaries. With that much equipment and terrain to take care of, keeping the facilities aesthetically up to date is a challenge, and adding new amenities is often financially out of reach.
“Killington, along with its parent company Powdr, reinvests millions of dollars into the resort every year,” Solimano said. “Some of that investment goes to high-profile projects like the Peak Lodge or the recent Preston’s Restaurant renovation, but much of it is spent behind the scenes, on projects like lift upkeep and snowmaking-pipe replacement. Maintenance projects don’t have the sex appeal of a brand-new base lodge or chairlift, but they are arguably more necessary for us to deliver the kind of on-mountain experience Killington is known for. Still, our guests expect us to always keep improving our facilities, and our job is to find ways to do that.”
The need to balance upkeep of existing infrastructure with investment in modernization is a chief concern of mountain operators across the industry, and it’s a problem for which Killington and Powdr seem to have a solution. “Partnering with an independent developer is a good, mutual fit,” Solimano added. “Killington can tap into additional capital, and the developer gains access to the most attractive locations for a project. Our guests win, too, because the resort experience improves for everyone, whether they visit for the day, a week or every weekend, like our season passholders.

Mike Solimano is most excited by the prospect of the new South Ridge lift. “Replacement of the South Ridge chair has been the number-one requested improvement by our core group of guests for the last several years,” he said. “The removal of the original South Ridge Triple, in 2011, decreased access to what some consider the best powder skiing on the mountain and made it more challenging for novice skiers and riders to enjoy Bear Mountain Base Area.”
Built in 1977, the original South Ridge Triple ran from near the top of the Bear Mountain Quad to just below the summit of Killington Peak, accessing some of Killington’s best natural-snow terrain—trails like Breakaway, The Jug and Roundabout Glades, as well as gentle cruisers like Bear Trax and Pipe Dream. Long-time Killington skiers remember the South Ridge Triple as the lift with a left turn, its uphill line following an unusual path as it diverged from the downhill line and traveled around a midpoint bull wheel, catching unsuspecting riders off guard with a somewhat jarring swing to the left.

Return of the South Ridge Lift
The new South Ridge Quad will forego the left turn, a remnant of a long-forgotten mid-station on the old lift, instead following the original lift’s downhill line on The Jug, where some of the old towers still stand. The new lift’s upper terminal will sit at roughly the same elevation as the original, slightly below the summit of Killington Peak, where wind is less likely to impact operation. The new quad will provide easy access to South Ridge terrain, as well as allowing skiers and snowboarders of all ability levels another access route from Bear Mountain to the resort’s north side. The new lift will also help to ease crowding on the Skyepeak Express Quad, which sees heavy use moving skiers and riders from Bear Mountain to Skye Peak on busy days. The lift will be the first step in the phase-one build out, and installation is expected to begin during summer 2018.

Snowshed Crossover Revisited
With the South Ridge Quad in place to efficiently ferry guests up the mountain, a second on-slope improvement, featuring a unique tunnel and bridge system, is planned to smooth the flow of skiers and snowboarders back down. The bridge and tunnel will eliminate several unwanted intersections between Snowshed Crossover, a connector trail, and two expert-level trails that it crosses.
If it seems like you’ve heard the name Snowshed Crossover before, you probably have. For years, the trail traversed from the summit of Bear Mountain directly to the Snowshed area. It was closed in 2008, following construction of the Stash Terrain Park and the Skye Peak Express Quad to eliminate its intersection with the Stash and Skyeburst trails.

In the years since the crossover closed, skiers and riders descending Skyeburst or the Stash have enjoyed unimpeded, intersection-free runs, but traffic flow out of Bear Mountain has been more difficult, especially for learning skiers and snowboarders. With a ski bridge to take crossover traffic over one of the intersections and a tunnel to direct traffic under another intersection, the new configuration will allow for the reopening of Snowshed Crossover. Terrain park enthusiasts will get an additional benefit—the ability to connect the Stash with the Dream Maker Park, creating a top-to-bottom, expert-level park run unparalleled in Eastern North America.

Bear Mountain Base Lodge 2.0
Steve Malone, managing partner of ORA, is understandably excited about his new lodging units, but as a passionate Killington skier and a Bear Mountain regular, he also grows more animated speaking about the Bear Mountain Base Lodge makeover.
“Think about it,” he said. “Right now, if you’re in the bar at Bear Mountain, you’re sitting at the base of some of the most impressive ski and snowboard terrain in New England, and you can’t even see the slope. The current bar has a view of the parking lot.”

Scott Harrison, Killington Resort’s director of hospitality, is thrilled to offer an upgraded guest experience at Bear Mountain Base Lodge.
“We’re going to completely change the layout and open up the slope side with glass so you can sit at the bar and view one of our signature trails, Outer Limits,” Harrison said. “We’ll also be upgrading the food offerings, with a larger selection of made-to-order options arranged in a food court, similar to the concepts at the Peak Lodge and Snowshed Base Lodge.”

Slopeside Luxury Living
The phase-one design features multi-family buildings configured as “stacked flats,” in which each individual unit occupies part of a single floor, with 18 units per building. Landscaped courtyards separate the buildings, giving each unit access to shared amenities like outdoor hot tubs, fire pits and heated patios. Underground spaces provide enclosed parking for owners and guests. The project is sure to grab the attention of both prospective homeowners and guests looking to rent a top-tier vacation home.
According to Solimano, “We know we have a shortage of lodging options during peak periods, and we also know that there is a demand for newer, more upscale offerings. This is a great opportunity to upgrade our lodging inventory.” Malone also points out that these will be the first new ski-on-ski-off condominiums to be built in Killington in many years.

The $25-million second phase of the project consists of an additional 18 duplex units to be built at the base of Bear Mountain in an area bounded by the Spacewalk, Bear Cub, Outer Limits and Devil’s Fiddle trails. Construction of phase two is slated to begin in 2020.

Malone cautions that there is still work to be done before he can break ground on phase one, not the least of which involves acquiring an Act 250 permit, which requires a stringent environmental assessment by the State of Vermont.
Malone has good reason to be optimistic, though. “I have a 100 percent [success rate] for receiving Act 250 approval on my projects,” he said, an impressive feat considering the large projects he has built in the past, including Top Ridge and The Lodges, two developments in Killington’s Sunrise area. If all goes according to plan, he hopes to be accepting non-binding reservations for phase-one units by late November 2017.

Mike Solimano is optimistic, too, though his optimism is the kind tempered by long experience with resort projects. “The improvements in phase one of this project will have an immediate positive impact for our guests, and we’re anxious to get started,” he said. “Of course, we’ve been involved in enough building projects to know that unforeseen delays are always possible. That said, I’m still quite hopeful that we will be able to meet this timeline.”

Only time will tell exactly when the phase-one build out begins, but it certainly won’t be long before Killington powder seekers once again have lift access to their favorite South Ridge stashes. And prospective Killington homeowners will soon have a number of newly constructed slope-side options to choose from.
For more information on the revitalization project, visit Ottauquechee Realty Advisors at ora-bearmtn.biz.