Sun Valley opens new gondola despite recession
In the depths of the recession, Sun Valley ski resort is doing something most resorts aren't doing these days - celebrating the opening of a $10 million-plus, eight-passenger gondola that will whisk skiers comfortably up to its Roundhouse Restaurant and Seattle Ridge area runs, a trip that formerly required two chairlift rides.
Sun Valley is the only resort in the Northwest opening a new gondola this year, in a year when the National Ski Areas Association projects investment in new ski lifts to fall sharply nationwide 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 two and a half years ago, and kept to it. You can read my full story here at spokesman.com.
