Thursday, Jan. 8, 2004 | 8:42 a.m.
The soda machine is sold out. The line for food extends out the door of the lodge and patrons are finding seats wherever they can.
Parents talk into walkie-talkies. Skiers pass by in clunky boots. Those who can find an open seat in front of the lodge's fireplace are lucky.
Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort, 60 miles northwest of Las Vegas at Lee Canyon, isn't usually this busy. But it's Friday, a day after New Year's Day. The holidays, and a recent snow, have beckoned the masses.
They're eating hot dogs and chicken sandwiches at outside tables and admiring panoramic views of the mountain range and its relatively quiet slopes. Inside it's standing room only.
Down the road, carloads of skiers are being herded into the overflow parking lot where snowboarders are suiting up and skiers are waiting for the shuttle. Icy gusts whip through the pines.
"This is good." says 18-year-old Nick Reed, a snowboarder making his first trip of the season to the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort, at the end of Highway 156 at Lee Canyon.
"We went to Brian Head on Monday," Reed said. "But this is real good for Las Vegas. It's a shorter drive."
And less than two months after Powdr Corp., the parent company of Park City Mountain Resort in Park City, Utah, purchased Lee Canyon Ski Lifts, longtime patrons are already talking about changes.
The lodge, built in the 1960s, is beginning to bulge.
"This kind of crowd here, 20 years ago, that didn't happen," said Marcel Barel, director of Marcel's Ski School and a native of Switzerland, who has been teaching at the resort for 39 years.
"When it was smaller a lot of local skiers identified - and they still do with Lee Canyon as their ski area."
Chuck Zavala does. The 49-year-old longtime skier, who lives in Las Vegas, has been skiing at Charleston since he was 17 years old and skis there three or four times a week.
"You see familiar faces," Zavala said while bellied up to the chalet's five-seat Bristlecone Bar. "All summer you don't come up here, then you come up here in the winter and see everyone again. Usually weekends are crowded. During the week there's no crowd.
"We're pretty lucky. A lot of people complain and criticize (about the size). But hey -- it's Las Vegas. We're in the Sunbelt."
Regarding the new ownership, Zavala said, "It's about time. It can only improve. It's been family owned for years. This town is growing. It's going to be bigger, better.
"A lot of the locals are looking forward to what they're going to do."
Ch-ch-changes
The resort, based at 8,500 feet (and offering 1,000 vertical feet), opened in the 1960s when the Highfield family obtained a Forest Service permit, installed a T-bar and built a chalet. Its first chairlift was built in 1968 and two years later a new lodge replaced the old one.
Since then two chairlifts and a snow-making system have been added. A new terrain park and a half pipe were built to accommodate the snowboarders, who outnumber the skiers.
There are 10 runs, and Marcel's Ski School offers adult ski and snowboarding classes and skiing instruction to children as young as 4.
Further changes at the resort will be gradual, said Brian Strait of Powdr Corp., who is now general manager of Lee Canyon Ski Lifts.
"I've got a list of ideas and things to accomplish," Strait said. "That list is so long. What are we going to do next summer? I don't know.
"We've got a lot of plans and a lot of ideas. We plan to increase pond storage, to increase the snow-making capacity. That's the No. 1 project on our list."
Strait, who spent 20 years in Park City, says the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort's small size does not limit its opportunities.
"It's a fantastic area in an absolutely beautiful setting," Strait said. "The fact that it's 60 minutes away from the fountains at Bellagio is mind-boggling.
"I'm well aware of the lines and of where we need to look at to concentrate to better the experience. We didn't make the investment to run the business status quo. We came down to understand the market here, to learn the ski area."
The resort's close proximity to Las Vegas helps draw its share of tourists -- who can rent ski clothes if they didn't pack them -- along with locals.
Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort spokesman Craig Baldwin, who has been at the resort since 1982, says the resort doesn't release annual attendance figures, but says this season is already breaking attendance records.
"Skiing is not dead here in our market," Baldwin said. "This lodge right now was built to accommodate Las Vegas with a population of 200,000. We want to focus on snow conditions, better customer services, restrooms and rental processions."
Snowboard the slopes
Longtime skier Max Dillon, 52, who was accompanied Friday by his 8-year-old nephew, Speedy, said the resort has been busier since snowboarding became popular.
Snowboarding is more common among youth. Skiing is more common among adults. Dillon does both.
"I was snowboarding before they were snowboarding," the Las Vegas resident said while munching a hot dog and sipping beer. "But I have this little problem getting up on a snowboard. (Unlike skis, snowboards are nearly impossible to stand on).
"The ski area was flat for about 10 years. The ski industry wasn't going anywhere. They frowned on snowboarders until they realized snowboarders had money in their pockets."
Now, Dillon said, "A lot of skiers have gone over to snowboards."
Why?
"It's more exciting," said Augie Restivo, 14, from Texas, who was sitting in the chalet with fellow snowboarders and Texans, Shane Manning, 15, and Frank Restivo, 15.
"You get to go faster. It's hard to learn, but you get the hang of it."
Baldwin said the ratio of snowboarders to skiers is usually 60-to-40. But roughly eight out of 10 patrons were snowboarding Friday. A common phrase uttered by employees was, "God love the snowboarders. There's so many of them."
And snowboarding is a different culture.
Bill Hudson, who works with the ski patrol, said, "I usually stop whenever I see a skier down."
But snowboarders, he said, "They're everywhere sitting down. If there's two or three of them sitting around talking, you know they're not hurt. It's like the skateboarding kids waiting around at the skate park. They're sitting around talking about their hit."
Francine Karch, a Realtor from Las Vegas, chooses neither skis nor snowboards. Instead she cozied up by the fire and visited with resting skiers while her children and friends took ski and snowboard lessons.
"I'm a chicken," Karch said. "So I'm here at the fireplace. I've been trying to read this book since this morning. I haven't even turned the page."
archive
