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Some clouds in the morning will give way to mainly sunny skies for the afternoon. High near 40F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..
Mostly clear skies early then becoming mostly cloudy later at night. Low 17F. Winds light and variable.
Serving Sun Valley, Ketchum, Hailey, Bellevue and Carey
Sun Valley Co.’s proposed Flying Squirrel terrain expansion would require approximately 7.5 acres of grading and tree clearing. Snowmaking coverage would span the entire area of the new, intermediate ski terrain.
The proposed Flying Squirrel replacement lift—called “Lift A” in the resort’s plans—would re-establish a lift connection between the Warm Springs and Frenchman’s areas of the ski mountain.
This story was updated after press time Thursday with additional information on the public-comment process.
Sun Valley Resort’s proposed chairlift and trail improvement projects on the Warm Springs side of Bald Mountain have received mostly positive feedback from the public since the plans were announced, Sawtooth National Forest and resort representatives said at an open house in mid-August.
The Forest Service—in partnership with the resort—released more detailed maps for the projects and an estimated timeline for construction at The Community Library in Ketchum Tuesday evening.
The multi-step “Warm Springs Enhancement Project” would remove the Challenger detachable-quad chairlift and nearby Greyhawk quad lift and install in their place a single six-person, high-speed Challenger chairlift giving riders the option to either unload mid-way at the top of the Upper Greyhawk or continue to Baldy’s Lookout summit.
Resort spokeswoman Jenna Vagias said the new Challenger lift would shave off five minutes from the trip to the top of Baldy.
“You’ll go from a 13-minute ride to the top to an eight minute ride,” she told the Express in August. “What’s hard to see in these maps is just the increased capacity planned.”
Kurt Nelson—ranger of the Ketchum District of the Sawtooth National Forest, which has oversight of the Bald Mountain area—said the new Challenger lift should accommodate 2,400 skiers per hour.
“That [would] be almost double the [current number],” Vagias said. “Lift lines should go down.”
The proposed design would put both Warm Springs lifts on the Bald Mountain side of Warm Springs Creek.
The resort is also seeking permission to reconstruct the Flying Squirrel chairlift, which was removed in summer 2014 following a structure fire the previous winter. With a working title of “Lift A,” the new Flying Squirrel quad lift would start at the base of the Warm Springs side and take riders to a point just above the Frenchman’s chairlift and Picabo’s Street and Flying Squirrel runs.
“It will be fast, just like Broadway,” Vagias said, adding that riders will be able to get to “pretty much any drainage—Seattle, Frenchman’s.”
The resort is additionally planning to cut an extension of the Flying Squirrel ski run through a swath of trees below Arnold’s Run, creating an easier path to Lower Warm Springs and ultimately a smoother connection where the River Run and Warm Springs sides of the mountain intersect.
(Currently, to get to the Warm Springs side of the mountain from the River Run side, beginner to intermediate skiers and boarders must make a hard left from Flying Squirrel and take the cat track across to Lower Picabo Street and then to lower Warm Springs.)
“The real need here is to improve the overall mountain circulation and replace the aging infrastructure,” Sun Valley Resort Vice President and General Manager Pete Sonntag told the Express over the summer.
The hope is for the lifts and new ski terrain to open in mid-December 2023.
Nelson said in August he fully anticipated the set of projects to receive a categorical exclusion from an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement required under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, because there are already lift towers “almost exactly” where the new ones will go.
The Forest Service is expected to release its decision Dec. 1.
“We have a set of federal regulations that address lift replacements and other developed activities within a developed recreation area,” he said. “I feel that it will [receive an exemption]. It’s a ski area for, God’s sake.”
At the open house Vagias and Nelson said they were pleased with community support for the projects.
Sun Valley Co.’s proposed Flying Squirrel terrain expansion would require approximately 7.5 acres of grading and tree clearing. Snowmaking coverage would span the entire area of the new, intermediate ski terrain.
“There have been some really thoughtful questions,” Vagias said.
Sonntag noted that he’d heard some concern about the loading flow and crowding with significantly increased lift capacity.
“That will have to be worked through. There will need to be some tweaking so the [lift lines] don’t interfere,” he said.
Sonntag added that the project plans were based on skier and snowboarder demand.
“I like to sort of use the university analogy,” he said. “You let the students walk through campus from building to building and see where the tracks are. Then you figure out where you pave.” 
"What's hard to see in these maps is just the increased capacity planned."
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This article is a good example of where there is room for improvement at the IME. it is essentially an extended press release for one of the IME’s biggest advertisers. It could have moved from regurgitation to journalism with just a few phone calls. for example, what does SVSEF think about this plan? Is the removal of Greyhawk lift a good thing or a bad thing from their perspective? What do local skiers think about the doubling of capacity? Or the improved (IMO) linkage from WS to RR with a new Flying Squirrel lift? It wouldn’t have taken much work to make this article significantly better. That’s what an editor is for.
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