Vail’s Golden Peak expansion targeting mid-December opening — its latest yet
Venue touted as early-season training option has failed to deliver
John LaConte/Vail Daily
When Vail Mountain unveiled its newest expansion in 2019, adding a new lift to Golden Peak and offering access to higher-elevation terrain, the development was touted as a way to get ski racers on the slopes several weeks earlier.
The following season, the new terrain was open on Nov. 3, saving local ski racers a trip over Vail Pass to train at Copper Mountain or Loveland, which offer early season training for ski racers.
But the multi-million dollar expansion, nearly two weeks after the Thanksgiving holiday, still remains unused for this season.
Vail Mountain, in a statement, said it is hopeful that operations on the Golden Peak expansion will get up and running next week.
‘Especially’ early season
Former Vail Mountain COO Doug Lovell, in 2019, touted the expanded race arena at Golden Peak as “a premier, global competition venue, especially for early- and late-season events.”
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Former Ski and Snowboard Club Vail director Kirk Dwyer, in seeking donations, said the expansion should bring an influx of visiting teams during a time that is usually slow in Vail.
“There are benefits to the Golden Peak expansion which extend beyond Ski & Snowboard Club Vail,” Dwyer said. “Specifically with the earlier and later extension of our season, we know that we will be able to attract teams from throughout the United States, and indeed, Europe.”
Ski and Snowboard Club Vail suggested the venue could be open as early as October, but in the years that have followed, the Golden Peak expansion has opened later and later to the point where this year, it wasn’t open at all in November.
Gopher Hill
The expansion cost millions to create, with Ski and Snowboard Club Vail seeking donations from parents who didn’t want to see their kids have to travel over Vail Pass — the state’s most dangerous section of interstate — en route to an early season training venue.
It would also save money for parents, Dwyer said, “allowing families to save on travel expenses while providing an economic benefit to the Vail community.”
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Last year, Copper Mountain opened to ski racers on Oct. 22, but Golden Peak wasn’t able to open until Nov. 20. Vail Mountain cited several factors, saying temperatures were challenging and crews were focused on opening to the general public instead of Golden Peak.
The Golden Peak expansion, at full operation, could offer a World Cup-level women’s downhill and men’s super-G course if Vail Mountain chooses to focus operations on creating those venues. But that has not been a priority for the mountain in recent years as Vail Mountain has sought to focus its operations on early public access.
This year, as Vail Mountain celebrated its earliest public opening since 1998, a small training operation was set up on the bunny hill at Gopher Hill lift (No. 12), but the multi-million dollar expansion higher up the mountain was, once again, not in use during the crucial early season training block. Gopher Hill contains a 146-foot vertical rise from the base of Golden Peak.
John Plack, a spokesperson for Vail Mountain, said Ski and Snowboard Club Vail and Vail Mountain worked hard despite warm early season conditions to prepare a racing surface for athletes at Gopher Hill. Plack said in addition to Ski and Snowboard Club Vail athletes, members of the U.S. Ski Team enjoyed training on Gopher Hill, which opened a few days before Vail Mountain.
“The mountain works hard each early season to get everyone skiing and riding, both public and Ski and Snowboard Club Vail,” Plack said. “We’re proud to have opened for racing on Nov. 7 and to the public on Nov. 10 despite challenging weather.”
Wet work
Much of the issue comes down to water. Even if Vail Mountain does not provide water to Golden Peak for snowmaking, the Eagle River Water and Sanitation District has agreed to make potable water available to the club starting in October — depending on streamflows in Gore Creek and customer use in the Vail water system.
“This is ‘supplemental’ snowmaking water for them, separate from however they get/participate in Vail Mountain snowmaking ops,” district spokesperson Diane Johnson said in an email.
To receive the water from the district in October, flows in Gore Creek must be more than 19 cubic feet per second as measured by the “Gore Creek above Red Sandstone Creek” USGS gage, based on the daily mean discharge.
In October, only Oct. 9-10 averaged below 19 CFS, and just barely, recording 18.9 cfs on Oct. 9 and 18.7 cfs on Oct. 10.
In November, the allocation becomes less restrictive and flows in Gore Creek need only be more than 9 CFS in Gore Creek above Red Sandstone for the club to access the supplemental water. Every day averaged more than 9 cfs in November, but the club was not able to make enough snow to get the Golden Peak expansion open.
Plack said more water was made available to Ski and Snowboard Club Vail once an egress route was created for the general public on Vail Mountain. In addition to ski racers, freestyle athletes are also eager to use the new moguls course on Golden Peak, which opened during the 2021-22 season.
“We’re working on getting the race arena and mogul venue prepared as quickly as possible, ideally in the week ahead,” Plack said.
Copper competition
Copper was once again available for full-length race training more than a month ahead of Golden Peak this year, with the Copper Speed Center opening to ski racing athletes on Oct. 29.
In addition to the U.S. Ski Team, national team competitors from Norway, France, Sweden and Germany have visited Copper Mountain during the early season this year.
Once upon a time, those teams also visited Golden Peak, even before the expansion into higher-altitude terrain.
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In 2015, pre-expansion, Golden Peak was able to open before the speed center at Copper Mountain, and national ski teams from Austria, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, Finland, Great Britain, Hungary, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland visited Vail to take advantage of the venue. Those teams stayed at Manor Vail, the Tivoli Lodge, the Christiana, the Racquet Club and in properties from Destination Resorts, booking from mid-November through early December.
Not only is Vail no longer attracting those teams, but U.S.-based ski clubs which have made a Thanksgiving tradition out of renting lanes and visiting Golden Peak were not able to do so this season.
Plack said the club has set a hard target of mid-December for Golden Peak.
“We plan to have the race venue operational for race events on Dec. 16 and 17,” he said.
