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Quebec’s Ski Bromont has extended a new quad on Mont Soleil, replacing a double lift. Four new runs have been added, 10 new runs have been lit for night skiing, and 100 more snow guns have been added to Bromont’s snowmaking fleet. |
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Le Massif in Quebec’s Charlevoix region has added 15% more skiable terrain, including six new scenic slopes and glades for a total of 42 trails and 284 acres. The mountain has also added a new high-speed quad and 90 new snow guns using air-water technology. |
 Gray
Rocks in Quebec’s Laurentians
has been purchased by shareholder Daniel Cordier. His project
to rejuvenate the inn includes the addition of a condo-hotel containing
220 suites, a spa, a conference
centre, as well as a new floral and water park. It is also hoped that
modifications will be made to Route
323, in order to provide more secure access for skiers. Gray Rocks will also be celebrating its centenary in 2005. |
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 Stoneham
Resort near Quebec City has added
to its 418 Snowpark with new jumps and boxes.
The park also has an Olympic superpipe, wall-ride, 40-foot school bus
slide, slopestyle area and variety of
boxes, pyramids and ramps. Stoneham has replaced 80 of the 120 bubbles on Lift H – a high-speed quad chair. |
 Tremblant
in Quebec’s Laurentians has
announced breaking ground on a $1-billion expansion to
create new villages at Versant Soleil and Versant Nord. It is a 10-year
plan. The Versant Soleil will consist
of a pedestrian village including six hotels (about 1,500 condo-hotel
units, including a 500-room hotel and a
deluxe 200-room spa hotel). A multifunctional conference centre
of about 95,000 square feet will also be built on the site. A new 69-room
hotel called Ermitage du Lac has been
built in Tremblant’s main village. There’s a new Atomic shop in the pedestrian village, two new grooming machines,
25 new snow guns, and a brand new Crêpe bar
in the Grand Manitou at the Summit of the mountain. Canada’s Federal
Transport minister, Jean C. Lapierre,
has also announced that the Mont-Tremblant International Airport (MTI)
will have its status as an
international airport confirmed in time for the next ski season. |
| Ontario |
 Blue
Mountain near Georgian Bay has installed a new magic carpet lift
beginner on Easy Street, cut a new
Glades Trail off Due North, extended Smart Alec, and extended Memory Lane to the top of the Silver Bullet. Blue has also
done an extensive renovation of its Village Base Lodge,
including new racking systems, new retail facilities, and brand new rental
equipment. New commercial spaces have
also been added, including the restaurant Tholos, the Kaytoo Bar and
Grill, and the Blue Moose. L'Occitance en Provence, a retail store, has
also made an appearance, along with the
new Jack & Maddy A Toy Store. |
 At
Hidden Valley Highlands Ski Area near
Huntsville, Algonquin Outfitters will now operate the Valley
Shop, and the width of the Members’ Dip will be doubled to provide more
space. Chicopee near Kitchener
will debut a new terrain park almost triple the size of Chicopee’s former Snowboard Park. The Beginner Centre has
doubled in size to four runs including the two newly
named Bearfoot & Rabbit’s Foot runs. A 500-foot magic carpet lift
will now take you to the top of
Bearfoot and Rabbit’s Foot. A new management team has been put into
place to run the ski area’s Food
& Beverage operations. And a substantial amount of new Head skis have
been added to Chicopee’s rental fleet. |
| British Columbia |
 Whistler
Mountain at Whistler/Blackcomb will
introduce Peak to Creek, featuring four runs, 400 acres
and hundreds of lines to choose from in the Peak to Creek area on Whistler’s
west side. Also new: after a short hike
from the Peak or Harmony chairs on Whistler Mountain, skiers and riders
will find themselves in Flute Bowl – scenic and serene, yet still
patrolled for safety.
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  Mount
Washington on Vancouver Island has
added The Outback to its ski repertoire, a 400-acre playground,
including big bowls, glades and an ocean view. Washington now boasts 1600 acres of skiable terrain. The Boomerang Quad,
Canada’s first double offload lift, has been added
to get into and out of The Outback at 2400 riders per hour. A paved
highway has been laid to Raven Lodge,
Mount Washington’s Nordic centre. |
 Silver
Star in BC’s Okanagan has
purchased a new Bombardier Sherpa Winch Cat. The resort has
expanded its terrain park, rail garden, and new Boarder/Skier Cross course.
It has added extra chairs to both the
Powder Gulch and Comet Express, and a dedicated race centre has been
built for recreational gate-bashers. Silver Star’s new Snowbird Lodge
condominium project is also underway,
along with the addition of 6.5 kilometres of new Nordic trails, and a new
mid-mountain cabin. |
  Big White
near
Kelowna, BC, is introducing its new $2.5-million TELUS Terrain Park, which
includes: an Olympic-size, 500-foot-long Super
Pipe with 17-foot transitional walls, a standard – sized
half pipe with 12-foot transitional walls, 400 feet in length, a Boarder/Skier-Cross
course, expanded rail park options, a
2005 Zaugg Pipe Monster grooming attachment, and a Doppelmayr
double chairlift extending 500 vertical feet at 1800 feet long. A new
$1-million Cliff chair has also been
built by Doppelmayr that’s 800 vertical feet and 1800 feet long. Six new
runs on Gem Lake have been added that cover
200 skiable acres. And more than 1,000 new bed
units have been built in more than 14 developments; all of them ‘ski in,
ski out.’ |
  Red Mountain in
BC’s Interior, which is now under new ownership, is poised for significant future growth and development. A number of new
services and programs for the 2004-2005 winter
season including an extensive summer brushing program which has increased Red’s
skiable terrain from 1200 acres to 1585 acres. There’s
been an installation of a new Beginner area
with Red Carpet conveyor lift; a new Terrain Park with rails and tabletop jumps;
a new cross-country and snowshoe loop
connecting the base area and the Centennial Trail; a remodeled
Paradise Lodge with more seating, expanded sundeck, and new menu; a Red Express
shuttle to/from Spokane International Airport; and a new Welcome Centre and
greeter to meet guests on arrival. |
 The snow school at
Grouse Mountain in
Vancouver celebrates its 40th year
of operation this winter. To celebrate, new
Terrain Park Clinics have been added, designed to help riders safely and
effectively navigate the numerous challenging features of Grouse Mountain’s
parks, from rails to jibs, boxes to berms. |
 Sun Peaks
near Kamloops, BC has two
new snowcats and three new snow guns (15 in total). The
resort has also doubled capacity on Mt Morrisey Express chairlift, added a new
carpet lift on the tube park; built a new
outdoor lit skating rink; built a new Back in Time Ski bridge to get across
from Mt Morrisey to Tod Mountain; re-graded the bottom of Static Cling, Agitator
& Carpe Diem; and added a new underpass
on the Morrisey connector. |
 BC’s Fernie Alpine Resort
has
gladed in three areas, opening up more powder tree skiing. A mountain-top
weather station has been built to track the snow storms. Kokanee
Deck at the Griz Bar
enhances the après ski party atmosphere. And the food court has been brightened
and healthier food options added. |
 BC’s Kimberley Alpine Resort has added a new BBQ deck, doubling the
capacity of the ski-in/ ski-out Stemwinder
Bar and Grille. |
| Alberta and Manitoba |
 At Alberta’s Marmot Basin near Jasper, look for new advanced terrain
to open on "Marmot Peak". "Murray’s
Run" can be accessed by a short hike from the top of the Knob Chair. For
kids and beginners, Marmot Basin offers a new
Magic Carpet surface lift at the base of the mountain. With a million-dollar renovation to its new Rental Shop and Guest
Service floor, Marmot Basin now offers a convenient
area for all your ski & snowboard requirements.
Group leaders can check in at a new Group Sales counter. The Outer Limits retail shop is Marmot Basin’s newest gear and
clothing store. Marmot Basin has expanded the grooming
fleet with a brand new Tower Winch Cat. Snowbikes are the newest rage on the
mountain; full day or half day rentals available.
And finally, the new Jasper-Marmot Shuttle Bus offers
the convenience of being picked up right from your hotel and driven to the
mountain. The new shuttle bus picks up at
Jasper hotels three times each morning, and departs Marmot Basin three
times each afternoon for town. |
 Banff’s Lake Louise Ski Area has new snow-guns and pumps to
guarantee the best possible conditions from
start of season to end. And there have been upgrades made to the Temple Lodge
dining area. |
| Atlantic Canada |
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New at Poley Mountain, NB this season is a snow groomer, a tower gun on Sidewinder, and snowmaking in the Terrain Park has been doubled. Trail Im provements have been made to Some Easy and the Terrain Park. And a new Babysitting Service has been added for weekends and holidays. |
Mont-Sainte-Anne
near Quebec City has partnered with
Hydro-Québec to install the first low-energy snowmaking
system in Eastern Canada. The new 285-snowgun-fleet involves the installation
of a new, low energy centrifugal compressor that puts the emphasis on
water pressure, not air pressure. This
means that 10 other, less efficient compressors will be eliminated.
Flute
Bowl starts in the alpine with deep snow and
rolling bowls and transitions into gladed subalpine terrain.
The area features 700 new inbounds acres, wide-open spaces, fewer people,
and natural snow conditions. In
preparation for the Snowboard World Championships, Whistler/Blackcomb
is constructing a new Superpipe on Blackcomb Mountain, on Lower Cruiser in the Base II area. The Superpipe features
World Cup sanctioned specs: 150 metres of effective
wall length, and a five-metre wall height. Approximately $40,000 will be
spent in the Blackcomb Terrain Park to
upgrade rails and create new, progressive rail shapes.
A
new Zaugg Pipe Shaper on Whistler will
increase the introductory pipe’s wall height from 10-feet to 13-feet. Three new Piston Park Bullies will also be
purchased for use on both mountains.
