Playing in snow just got easier

SNOWBIRD — The ribbon was cut, the switch turned on and within seconds the people-mover was running and shuttling people through the new skier tunnel.

Now, from this day forward, skiers and snowboarders will have a more convenient way of accessing two of Snowbird's more popular ski areas — Peruvian Gulch and Mineral Basin.

In ceremonies early Tuesday, resort owner Dick Bass broke a bottle of champagne on the resort's new high-speed quad, then rode it to the mouth of the tunnel where, after a series of speakers, including resort president Bob Bonar, and city and county officials, he cut the ribbon and the skier/snowboarder-mover was turned on.

Skiers will now have use of a 600-foot-long tunnel, the only one of its kind in North America, which was dug through the saddle between Snowbird and Alta. It took two summers to build.

The idea for a tunnel came while Snowbird officials were looking for a way to spread out skiers and allow people to keep skiing on days when the Tram shuts down.

Discussion on how to offer better access to the upper bowls and to good intermediate and expert terrain started about six years ago. The final decision was to dig a tunnel from Peruvian Gulch, upper Chips run, through to Mineral Basin.

Hard-rock miners covered about 90 percent of the distance over the summer of 2005 and broke through this past fall.

Crews then went in and installed a 30-inch wide people-mover, similar to the moving walkways commonly found in airports. It will take riders approximately four minutes to ride end-to-end.

To access the tunnel, Snowbird installed an 8,000-foot-long high-speed, four-person chairlift at a cost of $5.6 million. The lift rises from the base near the Tram to the tunnel entrance.

Now, when high winds force the docking of the Tram, skiers and snowboarders will have access to the upper bowls.

The new quad replaces the old Peruvian lift, which ended mid-mountain.

At present, only one of Utah's 13 resorts has not opened for the 2006-07 season. Officials at Beaver Mountain say they will open when conditions permit.

A series of storms headed for Utah over the next week should help.

According to the latest ski report:

Alta has all seven lifts running, 95 of its 116 runs open and is reporting a base of 46 inches.