Nordic Valley mulls expansion of resort with new lift, snowmaking capabilities
A skier rides the chairlift at Nordic Valley Resort on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020, in Liberty. The resort has plans to add lifts and expand the ski area.
Skiers ride the chairlift at the Nordic Valley ski resort in the Eden area on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020. The resort has plans to add a lift and expand the skiable area.
Skiers ride the chairlift at Nordic Valley Resort on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020, in Liberty. The resort has plans to add lifts and expand the ski area.
Skiers and snowboarders ride the chairlift at Nordic Valley Resort on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020, in Liberty. The resort has plans to add lifts and expand the ski area.
A skier rides the chairlift at Nordic Valley Resort on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020, in Liberty. The resort has plans to add lifts and expand the ski area.
Skiers ride the chairlift at Nordic Valley Resort on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020, in Liberty. The resort has plans to add lifts and expand the ski area.
Skiers and snowboarders ride the chairlift at Nordic Valley Resort on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020, in Liberty. The resort has plans to add lifts and expand the ski area.
Skiers ride the chairlift at Nordic Valley Resort on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020, in Liberty. The resort has plans to add lifts and expand the ski area.
A skier rides the chairlift at Nordic Valley Resort on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020, in Liberty. The resort has plans to add lifts and expand the ski area.
A snowboarder rides the chairlift at Nordic Valley Resort on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020, in Liberty. The resort has plans to add lifts and expand the ski area.
EDEN — The Nordic Valley ski resort could be getting bigger.
Operators of the Eden-area resort are mulling a dramatic expansion of the facility to the south on property abutting the existing ski area. The plans, outlined in a request for a conditional-use permit submitted to the Weber County Planning Division, call for installation of another ski lift and expansion of the area covered by snowmaking devices.
The expansion “will not only allow Nordic Valley to meet and increase its lift service demands, but also more efficiently balance its current uphill lift and downhill trail volumes,” the company said in its CUP request. The 28,000-foot line allowing expansion of snowmaking to an additional 50 acres will help Nordic Valley “minimize the impact of low natural snowfalls and offer a more consistent product to its customers.”
The expansion plans are far less ambitious than a prior proposal to install a 4.3-mile mountain-crossing gondola from North Ogden to Nordic Valley. That proposal, shelved in early 2019 amid an outcry by many in North Ogden, also called for expanding the resort’s skiable area, but on a humongous scale — from 140 to 3,500 acres with the addition of 12 lifts, up from three.
The new proposal, by contrast, calls for expansion onto a 346.78-acre parcel south of the existing operation, owned by Skyline Mountain Base, a subsidiary of Durango, Colorado-based Mountain Capital Partners. The skiable area of Nordic Valley, in its current configuration, partially spills onto the 346.78-acre parcel, but much of the larger piece of land would be given over to ski runs, per renderings of the expansion proposal.
Rendering supplied, Weber County Planning Division
The rendering, included in plans submitted to the Weber County Planning Division, shows the proposed expansion area, in pink, of the Nordic Valley ski resort in the Eden area. The proposal, calling for a new ski lift and snowmaking capabilities, was uploaded to the planning division website for public inspection on Jan. 22, 2020.
Resort representatives didn’t immediately respond to queries seeking comment. Only the plans submitted to the county, which don’t go into timing of the expansion or estimated cost, offer an inkling of the proposal. Nordic Valley received permission from county officials in late 2018 to expand snowmaking within the current confines of the resort with the addition of a 1,500-foot underground water line.
The earlier, grander proposal to add a gondola and 12 ski runs to Nordic Valley generated support from some in the North Ogden and Eden areas. But the opposition from others worried about disruption caused by the development and the visitors it might draw was louder and much more fierce.
That proposal called for expansion of Nordic Valley onto U.S. Forest Service land around Lewis Peak within the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, adjacent to the resort’s existing footprint. The plans had been submitted to the Forest Service for review, but Nordic Valley pulled them before the feds had a chance to formally respond.
The conditional use permit request for the new expansion proposal is dated Nov. 5, 2019, by the Nordic Valley reps who signed off on it. But it wasn’t uploaded to the Weber County Planning Division website where plans and proposals are posted for inspection until Jan. 22.
Nordic Valley is one of three ski resorts in Weber County. The others are Snowbasin and Powder Mountain.
