STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Sun Valley Resort will give the public a peak at ongoing and future projects when it opens its Sun Valley Resort Project Preview Center today—Friday, Aug. 10.

The Preview Center is located in the former Wells Fargo building across from the Konditorei in the Sun Valley Village.

It will open at 9 a.m. and will run through 8 p.m. through Sept. 9. It will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 10-30, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 1 through Nov. 20 and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. over Thanksgiving Weekend. It will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Nov. 26 through Dec. 9 and from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Dec. 10 through April 7.

Visitors will have the opportunity to take a self-guided tour to see how Sun Valley Resort, one of the few privately owned major ski resorts in the United States, is investing in the community and enhancing the guest experience.

Projects include:

• Cold Springs Canyon Project

  When the project is complete in the Fall of 2019 it will include the opening of 380 acres of new terrain encompassing a wide open bowl, tree skiing and deep chutes. The project, which will involve glading in the Cold Springs Chutes, will increase the Sun Valley’s skiable acreage by 20 percent from 2,054 acres to 2,434 acres. Guided tours offering a preview will be offered this coming winter.

  The project also involves the replacement of the Cold Springs chairlift with a high-speed detachable lift, the extension of Lower Broadway by 3,400 feet and 18 additional snowmaking guns.

  Crews finished the first part of the project--rerouting the Cold Springs mountain bike trail into a more user-friendly trail featuring more singletrack and shaded riding--last week.

• Sun Valley Inn Remodel.

  Sun Valley Resort has already remodeled 25 guest rooms in what was known as The Challenger Inn when it opened in 1937. The resort also built the new Village Station restaurant and remodeled the Ram Restaurant and The Ram Bar.

  The resort will remodel the remaining 80 guests room in Fall 2018. The Inn will boast 97 rooms, down from the original 105, after the project is complete, as some of the rooms have been expanded.

  A new fitness center will also be added, replacing the existing one. And an archway connecting the Sun Valley Inn parking lot to the Sun Valley Inn lawn will be created, similar to the one that existed in the original Challenger Inn.

• Employee Housing Project.

  The resort is building two new employee residents on a 16-acre parcel next to the Horseman’s Center.  One is scheduled to be completed by early December 2018 and the other in the spring of 2019.

  The buildings will include 178 rooms of various layouts to accommodate more than 575 employees. The first building, a dorm-style building, will feature 116 rooms with three to four beds per room. It will house between 348 and 464 employees who can avail themselves of a fitness room and gym, multi-purpose room or lounge, lockers and storage and a free employee laundry facility.

  The second—an apartment-style facility—will feature 62 rooms with one to two beds per room housing up to 124 employees.

  Solar panels on the buildings will take advantage of the 200-plus sunny days Sun Valley boasts each year. And symphony attendees have already began to avail themselves of the paved walkway connecting the new dorms to Sun Valley Village.

• Warm Springs Lodge rebuild.

  Sun Valley Resort decided to turn the tragic fire that ravaged the Warm Springs Lodge just days after the 2017-18 ski season into lemonade by building an even better day lodge.

  The lodge, will have an expanded seating and dining area, a more efficient layout for the servery and a bar at the front of the building with views of the mountain. The SnowSports desk will be relocated to a more convenient area and the bathrooms will be updated.

• Healthy Forests Initiative.

Sun Valley Resort and the U.S. Forest Service are at work right now on clearing overstocked vegetation and trees on Bald Mountain to reduce hazards and destructive insects. This summer’s project will add 18 acres of gladed skiing on the front side of the mountain, bringing the overall number of gladed acres to 81.