The proposed VGD Resort would be the biggest ski area in North America with the third largest vertical drop in the world | Photo courtesy Valemount Glacier Destinations Ltd. The area for the proposed Valemount Glacier Destination Resort, which is expected to be the largest year-round ski resort in North America with the third tallest vertical drop out of any ski area on earth, could be described as a “mini AK.” Once completed, the resort will have up to 12,448 acres of skiable terrain and over 6,500 feet of vertical drop giving it the most vertical out of any ski resort in North America by far.
Excited yet?
Approved in 2017, Valemount Glacier Destinations and its partners have already spent roughly $2.3 million on the first phase of the three-phase project, according to CBC Canada. Yet, although plans have been proposed and an initial investment has been made, the actual construction phase of VGD Resort’s Master Plan still hasn’t to come to fruition as several building constraints and financial dealings still need to be sorted out.
The behemoth resort is to be placed on Mt. Arthur Meighen near the humble Canadian village of Valemount that has a quiet population of about 1,000, a delicious pizza joint, a beautiful mountain bike park, and an award-winning brewery. The town is about a five-hour drive away from the nearest international airport in Edmonton, AB. Valemount has a small airport that is currently too small to support large commercial airlines from flying in ski tourists. But as the gears on this project begin to turn faster and faster, this may change. |
The village of Valemount | Photo courtesy Facebook.
Owen Torgerson, the village’s mayor since 2018, sat down with me for a socially-distanced, FaceTime interview about the current status of the resort project. He, like myself, was beyond eager to talk about how to get this beast of a ski hill out of the planning phase and into the building phase.
What are you most excited about with this project?
Valemount has a population of about 1,000. How do you expect it to grow with the development of this ski area?
The last observable news on the project’s website is from 2017. Can you tell me the latest news on this project coming out of Valemount?
What can you tell me about the airport in Valemount? Can it handle commercial airliners? Are there plans to reconstruct it?
The proposed study area for the VGD Resort | Photo courtesy Valemount Glacier Destinations Ltd. VGD has the same developer as the controversial Jumbo Resort, which was opposed and then barred from development. Do you see this as a problem at all?
What are you working on right now with this ski resort project?
How has the pandemic set you guys back, project-wise?
How do foresee this project — do you see the project taking off right away?
Anything else you’d like to add about the VGD Resort project?
According to the Resort’s master plan, in total, the resort will have 18 lifts built over three phases. The planned inventory includes:
• 2 magic carpets;
• 4 gondolas;
• 6 detachable quad chairs;
• 2 Fixed grip quad chairs, and
• 4 glacier T-Bar lifts.
The project was drafted in 2017 on a five-year agreement with hopes to be completed by 2022. However, there is a chance, Mayor Torgerson said, that the project may go beyond the initial five-year agreement. But he, like myself, and the other million anxious skiers and snowboarders who are drooling over this proposed monster ski area, prefer that they just get going right away.
To learn more about the VGD Resort project, download and read the master plan from the project’s website here.
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— My Prince George Now (@mypgnow) July 24, 2015
A proposed #Valemount ski resort moving closer to construction http://t.co/0UBRFvj4K3 pic.twitter.com/pTC0I9s9Qb