BY KAREN BOSSICK

Sun Valley Resort opens Seattle Ridge today, providing access to the popular Seattle Ridge Lodge with its patio dining overlooking the mountains and valleys surrounding Bald Mountain.

There will be just one run open—Broadway. But it’s a long one, providing some of the best cruising for beginning and intermediate skiers and families with children. The area can be accessed via Gun Tower Lane, which is currently accessible from the Roundhouse Gondola or Roundhouse Lane heading down from College Boulevard.

Broadway Lift offers some majestic mountain views as it climbs out of the area depositing skiers and boarders outside the historic Roundhouse Restaurant.

And the opening of the Seattle Ridge area will take some of the pressure off the rest of the mountain, which still has not opened fully due to lack of snow and warm temperatures that have hindered snow making.

The groomers had Blue Grouse packed out nicely Wednesday morning and had one snow gun trained on Ridge, offering the hope that those two runs might open this weekend.

Sun Valley Resort plans to open a new detachable six-passenger Doppelmayr Seattle Ridge Chairlift in December 2024. The new chairlift will improve skier circulation and terrain access in what is the only area on the mountain that regularly gets noticeable lift lines.

Oh, the horrors of having to wait in line for three minutes!

The new lift will increase uphill capacity by 20 percent. In addition to the groomed runs, the lift will serve the Sunrise area, where 91 additional acres of gladed skiing awaits skiers and borders  this winter thanks to the Bald Mountain Stewardship program, which is removing dead and diseased trees from the mountain.

Sun Valley has removed 113 acres of trees from the Sunrise region since 2019 to reduce fuels and wildfire risk and offer guests a greater recreational experience.

The resort plans to begin construction on the lift in April 2024, pending U.S. Forest Service approval. The construction is part of a multi-year improvement plan that saw the opening of the high-speed six passenger Challenger Lift and a new Flying Squirrel Lift two weeks ago.

“Seattle Ridge is home to some of Sun Valley’s most beloved intermediate, family-friendly terrain and more recently with the Sunrise expansion, some of its best off-piste terrain,” said Sun Valley Resort Vice President and General Manager Pete Sonntag. “Over the last five years, we’ve been able to increase the skiable terrain serviced by Seattle Ridge chair by over 200 acres, and we believe the chairlift upgrade is coming at the perfect time as we continue our investment in the mountain experience at Sun Valley.”