Sun valley resort rides out the bumps
Despite decline in business, destination ski resort invests millions in new gondola
Sun Valley ski resort is doing something most resorts aren’t these days – celebrating the opening of a $10 million gondola that will whisk skiers comfortably up a mountainside. Sun Valley is the only resort in the Northwest opening a new gondola this year, when the National Ski Areas Association projects investment in new ski lifts to fall sharply in the U.S. to just $16 million, down from $94 million last year and $102 million the year before.
The reason: Earl Holding. Sun Valley’s longtime owner, a self-made billionaire who also owns the Little America hotel and truck stop chain and Sinclair Oil, committed to the project 2 ½ years ago. And Holding follows through when he makes a commitment.
“A lot of people in our situation probably would have backed off because of the economic downturn,” said Jack Sibbach, director of sales, marketing and public relations for the resort. “But we are so lucky to have the Holding family as the owner of Sun Valley, and the way they do business.”
Holding, 83, was ranked 93rd on Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest Americans this year, ahead of Steven Spielberg (97th), Oprah Winfrey (141st) and Donald Trump (158th).
Improvements he’s made to Sun Valley Resort since he purchased it in 1977 – nabbing it before another bidder, Walt Disney Co., could prevail – include an extensive snowmaking system that allows Sun Valley to open by Thanksgiving 80 percent of the time, and an array of lodges on the mountain marked by fine dining and décor so fancy that newcomers may wonder if they’re really supposed to go in there in ski boots.
“He has a saying that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” said Sibbach, who’s worked for Holding for 31 years. “So when he builds something, he certainly builds it correctly and right, and it’s grandiose and wonderful to be inside, and it’s part of the experience.”
It’s not that Sun Valley hasn’t suffered from the recession. Its winter business was off by 20 percent last year, and its summer business by 15 percent.
“It was not a terrific winter for Sun Valley with the economy, and it wasn’t a great snow year for us last year, so it has affected our business,” Sibbach said. “Where we are seeing the effect is the destination traveler, the person coming from back East or the Midwest or the long-distance traveler.”
That’s been true for destination resorts across the country, said Troy Hawks, spokesman for the National Ski Areas Association. Overall, U.S. skier and snowboarder visits were down 5 percent last year, but they were off by 14.4 percent in the Northwest and Alaska, partly because of weather. Little snow fell in November and December, delaying the season.
Hawks said he’s heard of just one other resort adding a new gondola this year, Steamboat Springs in Colorado. But that project, with eight six-passenger cabins, is being built by developers to connect a new lodging and real estate project to the ski resort’s base area; it’s not on the mountain.
Idaho has one other enclosed gondola at a ski resort, the 3-mile-long gondola at Silver Mountain in Kellogg. It was built with the help of a $6.4 million federal grant and a local voter-approved bond issue.
Sun Valley’s new gondola features 56 eight-passenger cabins made nearly 85 percent of clear material to aid views. They fly to the top – to the Roundhouse Restaurant and Seattle Ridge area runs – in eight minutes. “I’m pretty excited,” said 17-year-old skier Ben Nelson, of Boise, who said he’s “done a good amount of sitting” in a car from the new gondola that the resort had on display over the summer at the Sun Valley Lodge. “It’s really nice, comfortable.”
Nelson noted that his grandfather, who lives at Sun Valley, is a fan of the Roundhouse Restaurant, and now he’ll be able to return there. “He used to like to eat there, but now he doesn’t ski that much,” he said.
Sibbach said the resort eventually will offer on-mountain evening dining, after which diners can ride the gondola down. He also expects the gondola to be popular with skiers who tire by the end of the day and would rather take a scenic ride down than a thigh-burning last run.
More than 3,200 people rode the new lift at an open house Saturday. Holding, who uses a wheelchair after suffering a stroke several years ago, and his wife, Carol, joined nine former Olympians to take the first rides.
“This is his legacy,” Sibbach said. “This is the place he really loves and calls home, even though he lives most of the time in Salt Lake City.”