East Kootenay businesses are really coming together to support the Kimberley Alpine Resort after a devastating fire took down the main chairlift this week. KAR’s area manager posted the following update today.
We wanted to provide another update on our resort operations with the North Star Quad Chair currently being inoperable due to the fire in the lift control building.
We continue to assist the RCMP, Fire Department, and other authorities in their investigations.
Most of our efforts right now are focused on getting skiers and riders access to the mountain and working to make your holiday time at the resort as fun and memorable as possible!
Some of these efforts include:
- We have been able to secure a few people-mover snowcats to help lift guests up to the backside, included in the price of their lift ticket or season pass. We would like to thank our friends at Revelstoke Mountain Resort and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort for offering cats to help us in this cause. We are working to have this service in place for December 26th. Please check back for more details in the coming days.
- We are now offering a ski and snowboard delivery service up the Ridgeway to the backside every day 8:30 am to 1: 30pm. Maps and instructions of how to get to the backside are available in Guest Services 250-427-4881 and on our website.
- Chad Jensen of New Dawn Developments Ltd. brought a crew up to help us build a tent village on the top of the Easter Chair. The two larger tents were provided by Ken Bridge of Bridge Interiors, and will be heated by heaters provided by New Dawn Developments. We want to thank these local business leaders for really stepping up to help us, and everyone, out!
- We are starting to build a rail park tonight below the bridge and between the Quad Base Station and the Magic Carpet. This is going to be open during the day and during night skiing nights under the lights. - We are proceeding with the installation of lights on the T-bar to provide night skiing through the holidays and into the winter starting December 26th. New Dawn Developments Ltd. has offered help on these lights as well.
- We have a full roster of fun family Christmas activities in the base and around the resort through Christmas week! Please check out the schedule here: https://skikimberley.com/calendar/
- We plan to have the family skating rink and a fire pit in the base available through the Christmas week.
- We will be offering live music through the holiday week in the Stemwinder Bar & Grill. Please check the events calendar for acts and dates.
- Kootenay Haus will be open starting tomorrow as a place to get warm so that you don’t have to come all the way back down.
We appreciate all the feedback we have been getting on our adapted resort operating plan and we encourage you to let us know how we can serve you better during these times.
RCR and KAR’s maintenance experts have been in constant contact with the lift manufacturer, and they are putting a plan together to get the Quad Chair up and operating as soon as possible. The fire completely demolished the lift control building, along with all the specialized electronic equipment that runs the lift, and so the difficult reality is that it is going to take some time to get the lift operating again, most likely measured in months rather than weeks.
We know that some season pass holders have questions about their ski passes, so an email communication with your options will be sent to you shortly.
It has been snowing quite a bit in the last few days, and all of the base area facilities are open and operating, as is much of the mountain, so we hope to see you up here enjoying your holidays!
Ted Funston and the KAR Team
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