STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Things have been a whir on Bald Mountain this week as a whirlybird in the sky has been hard at work picking up harvested timber off the Cold Springs side of the mountain. It’s been depositing the timber in an area behind St. Luke’s Wood River.
A Black Hawk has been making fast turnarounds as crews try to get their work done before snow settles in for good, said Ketchum Ranger District Kurt Nelson.They've been removing trees in the new lift line, as well as diseased trees.
The effort is part of the Bald Mountain expansion project to replace the Cold Springs chairlift. And it’s part of an effort to clear out diseased trees as part of the Healthy Forests Initiative that has been ongoing.
Crews just finished up removing diseased trees in the Frenchman’s area of the mountain—a project that has made a noticeable difference in the look of the mountain when viewed from Ketchum or Sun Valley.
Trees around the 7,500-foot area have been hammered by Doug Fir beetle and mistletoe, said Nelson. But the removal of the trees should put smiles on the faces of powderhounds this winter as they find ample elbow room to ski the trees, he added.
Nelson added that the Forest Service hopes to plant new trees in the areas vacated by the old diseased trees—perhaps as early as next year.
With just 34 days between now and the Thanksgiving Day opener for Sun Valley Resort’s 2019-20 season, crews have readied the mountain for the extension of Broadway Run which will feed skiers and boarders into the new detachable Cold Springs lift.
Lower Broadway is being extended 4,200 feet. At least 25 snowmaking guns will be added to provide coverage to the new lift terminal.
The project, plus the addition of off-piste skiing in Turkey Bowl will increase the skiable acreage within the Sun Valley Resort boundary from 2,054 acres to 2,434 acres.
Sun Valley Resort had originally hoped to have the new Cold Springs lift up and running by this season but postponed it after engineers came up with a new better trajectory. The lift will be built in the summer of 2020.