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graham418

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Valemount Glacier in the news again this morning. They have gotten support of the First Nations , along with the government, which was a problem when they tried to develop Jumbo Glacier.
Construction is hoped to start in 2018, with resort opening in 2019.

Snip from article:
Full Article Here



valemount18nw2.JPG

Vancouver man's proposed ski resort garners support from government, First Nations
DAVID EBNER


VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail

Published Friday, Aug. 18, 2017 10:11PM EDT

Last updated Friday, Aug. 18, 2017 10:11PM EDT
passion.

In 2000, Mr. Oberti helped open Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, near Golden in eastern British Columbia. But he is better known for the quarter-century saga of the proposed – and forever stalled – Jumbo Glacier Resort, south of Golden and near Invermere. Jumbo was beset by challenges: fierce local opposition, Indigenous legal action and significant environmental questions.


Today, however, at 73, Mr. Oberti is hoping to make a new dream in the mountains a reality. The place is among the high peaks of the Premier Range in the Cariboo Mountains, named for former prime ministers such as Pearson, Trudeau and Meighen. It is there, near the village of Valemount in remote northeastern B.C., hundreds of kilometres from the nearest airports, that a small group of investors imagines a large resort with skiing in winter and sightseeing in summer. Mr. Oberti helps lead the effort and is financially backed by Toronto developer Greg Marchant and Toronto condo salesman Hunter Milborne.

As with Jumbo, Valemount is all about big mountains and glaciers. Unlike Jumbo, Valemount Glacier Destination has garnered support.
 
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DanoT

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The article actually has nothing new to report as there has always been community support for the Valemont project. Wake me when they find a financial backer with deep enough pockets, otherwise it is just an extension of Oberti's boyhood dream that the article mentions, and still a dream.
 

scott43

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I thought they were done with the Jumbo idea and had moved on to Valemount. Guess not.
Dunno about the financing bit..but they may have started this case and they're just doing their job to finish it up. Maybe they know they don't have a chance and have moved on. Ultimately it may be precedent setting law so maybe they wanted to go through the process regardless to see what the answer is.
 

noncrazycanuck

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Supreme Court just ruled in favour of Jumbo, rejecting first nations opposition to development on "spiritual reasons" . If Jumbo ever gets off ground is another thing but seems to be a positive ruling. Any development in the country could have been delayed or stopped if their suit had succeeded.
 

David Chaus

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Jumbo also has the problem of having Panorama down the road that is more easily accessible to Invermere and surrounding communititres, so community support for Jumbo is less, even if it is offers a different skiing experience.

Valemount Resort seems to have local support, and competition from inter ski resorts would be more international that local.

As I noted in another thread, either Jumbo or Valemount could be a good thing, both of them would not be a good thing...for now. In 30 years they may both be essential, depending on the viability of lower-elevation resorts.
 

noncrazycanuck

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lower elevation resorts are also the norm in the PNW. I've noticed a big change in places like Baker. Days when the snow is as good on lower Honkers as upper don't seem as frequent. Same at Whistler once your 800 feet below mid station
 

DanoT

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The company trying to develop Jumbo lost their permit issued by the B.C. government about a year ago due to a lack of actual required development. They had poured some footings for some buildings with one in a known slide path but really done not much else. So Jumbo is dead, replaced by Valemount but still waiting for a financial backer with deep pockets to step up.

I think this Supreme Court decision will prevent a native band which might only have a few hundred members from vetoing projects that effect millions of people.
 

DanoT

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I don't think this got posted yet, https://www.biv.com/article/2017/11/valemount-ski-resort-delayed-until-2020/

Valemount ski resort delayed until 2020

Construction of a ski resort near Valemount B.C. that was green-lit last year with a completion date of Christmas 2018 is expected to continue into 2020.

--------------------

Valemount is a great long term play.

Translation: A deep pocketed investor has yet to step up.

I think their development plan might have some flaws. A proposed village with less than 2,000 beds and 150 employees including upper management sounds like they won't be able to accommodate enough skier visits to be profitable and there sure aren't many beds or goods and services in the tiny town of Valemount.

Also, I think they are planning on a Gondola to take guests from a parking lot near an airport to the village. A ski lift without ski runs seems kinda pointless to me. And these are the guys who designed a flawed lift system for Kicking Horse, a resort that never made a profit while they owned it and possibly still doesn't.

I would love to see this resort go as I am about 3 hours away, have winter capable truck camper. will travel. But I am not getting my hopes up.
 

DanoT

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So this popped up this morning...
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...er-town-in-georgetown-condo-cancellation.html

Bottom line, same investor group and they're cancelling a condo project here in the GTA for lack of funds. I wouldn't hold my breath for Valemount.. The condo market here is infinitely more solid than a ski resort project normally.

The article doesn't mention Valemount specifically and there are existing resorts that are being developed that they could be partnering. However Valemount Glacier Resort is doomed due to lack of financing and the lack of financing is due to the remoteness of the planed resort and lack of a local population or accommodation.
 

Joe Strummer

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Steady on guys, this is BC we're talking about. Valemount will never happen just like Garibaldi at Squamish won't happen. These developments are just real estate plays by real estate developers (just like golf courses were a few year ago). So many golf courses have gone bust in BC that no one would seriously consider developing a ski resort.

Half the ski shacks at Silverstar are for sale now there's a deep recession in Alberta. Also, there's a deep freeze in the BC real estate market across the board. It will get significantly worse before it gets better.
 

RJS

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As much as I would love for Valemount to happen, if you look at the master plans for Revelstoke and Kicking Horse, you'll see that both are very far from full build out. In fact, a group of Revelstoke homeowners have been applying pressure to the resort to keep building the infrastructure that was promised but hasn't happened yet. As great as the skiing would be at Valemount, both Revelstoke and Kicking Horse are in better locations in terms of access (easier to fly into, more locals in town), and each still could easily be upgraded to increase skier capacity. I know that Revelstoke and Kicking Horse can both get crowded on certain powder days where the gondolas out of the base are the only ways into the alpine (Revelstoke) or the only way to lap many of the runs (Kicking Horse), but my guess is that both resorts are still under full utilization.
 

graham418

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Jumbo may get built before Valemount, but I fear that the old man behind the dream may pass on before any of it is realized. And with Parks Canada's recent ruling on Sunshine Resort, I don't know why anyone would try and build anything.
Kicking Horse and Revelstoke both have been precariously close to bankruptcy, who knows when they will get any capital improvements
 

Mike Rogers

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Jumbo may get built before Valemount, but I fear that the old man behind the dream may pass on before any of it is realized. And with Parks Canada's recent ruling on Sunshine Resort,

Well, Jumbo isn't in a national park, so I don't know why the Sunshine case would impact plans for Jumbo.

And Sunshine has been misleading the public about the ruling. I was blocked from their Facebook page after correcting a claim that they were losing ski terrain by actually presenting screen shots of the agreement that shows the specific parts of their lease that will be removed (all outside the current fence-line). They've really been playing up the lost terrain...and I guess they aren't too happy with the truth getting in the way of public outrage.

I haven't seen any gov't documents stating that the new 42 year lease cannot be renewed. So, the claim that they need to restore the land at the end of their lease (or forfeit all capital equipment to Parks) is likely true, but the suggestion that all operations will cease after this lease was not supported by the gov't docs sunshine published.
 

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