STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
Sun Valley Resort will launch its 82nd winter season on Thanksgiving Day with top-to-bottom skiing, turkey schnitzel free horse-drawn wagon rides and more.
The lifts on Bald and Dollar mountains will crank up at 9 a.m, running until 4 p.m.
The Gondola, Christmas Chair, Lookout Express and Lower River Run chairs will run on Baldy, offering access to Upper and Lower College, Upper, Lower and Mid River Run, Roundhouse Slope, Lower Canyon, Sunset Strip and 42nd Street. Dollar Mountain will have Quarter Dollar Lift and the accelerator carpet open.
The resort has been the training ground for 250 ski racers attending a preseason race camp for the past five days so the snow is buffed out.
Seats are still available for Sun Valley’s Thanksgiving buffet from 2 to 8 p.m. in the Sun Valley Inn Limelight Room.
Tickets may be purchased in advance at the Sun Valley Guest Information Center in Sun Valley Village or online at www.sunvalley.com. They also can be purchased at the door. Tickets are $75 for adults and $45 for kids 12 and under when purchased in advance. At the door they’re $95 for adults and $60 for youngsters.
Gretchen’s will offer a special Thanksgiving dinner with herb-roasted turkey breast, whipped Idaho potatoes and other fixings. The cost: $32 for adults and $12 for children 1 and under. For reservations, call 208-622-2144.
In addition, the Austrian-theme Konditorei will serve its regular menu, including turkey schnitzel and fresh Idaho trout, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. No reservations needed.
Sun Valley will offer free 15-minute horse-drawn wagon rides around Sun Valley Village Thanksgiving Day through Saturday, Nov. 25. The rides will be offered from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. beginning and ending at Baldy Circle behind the Sun Valley Opera House. No reservations are needed.
Matchstick Productions’ ski flick, “Drop Everything,” will be shown at 7 p.m. today—Wednesday, Nov. 22—at the Sun Valley Opera House. The movie is a funny, lighthearted approach featuring the ski antics of such freeskiers as Sammy Carlson and others. Tickets are $15, purchased in advance at www.sunvalley.com and $18 at the door. Participants in this week’s ski camp get $3 off.
And the iconic “Sun Valley Serenade” that introduced so many to Sun Valley in 1941 will be shown at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 24, at the Sun Valley Opera House. The madcap musical adventure on and off the mountain stars Sonja Henie, John Payne, Milton Berle, the Glenn Miller Orchestra and, of course, the then-new Sun Valley Resort.
Admission to “Sun Valley Serenade” is free.
DJN8 will perform from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, at the River Run Lodge and Dylan Jacobsen will perform from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Friday.
Pianist Joe Fos will perform from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 24, in the Duchin Lounge of the Sun Valley Lodge, and Alan Pennay will tickle the ivories there from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 25.