Is Fortress going to open this year?

[Euro_Trash]

Other than Fernie, Fortress is my favorite semi-local ski hill. Does anyone know if it will be open this year?

[RC-Cola]

Last I heard it's not looking good. The structures onthe mountain and the road leading up to it are in dis-repair and the goverment have deemed the owners need to fix it before they can get their liciencing.

The owners have stated they don't want to spend the money on it until it's opened and earning money. So unless the goverment steps in and helps out I can't see it opening.

[Redlyne_mr2]

Whoever bought it bought it for cheap... they cant afford not to get it up and running again. Fortress was always a good time.

[racin_jayson]

it's not the mountain infrastructure that is the main problem, The province condemned the bridge on the access road to the hill also, and the owner is in a lot of hot water over lawsuits from people who paid for season passes and got nothing. Fortress will most likely not open again under the current ownership.

[Dayclone]

Originally posted by racin_jayson
it's not the mountain infrastructure that is the main problem, The province condemned the bridge on the access road to the hill also, and the owner is in a lot of hot water over lawsuits from people who paid for season passes and got nothing. Fortress will most likely not open again under the current ownership.

Wow I wish I had money to buy it out and get it fixed... then you'd make sick money!

[bituerbo]

Bumping a really old thread here. What's the latest news with Fortress Mountain? I highly doubt a winter '09 opening, but how is the 2009/2010 season looking?

[jdmXSI]

Along time bump, I saw this article on http://www.firsttracksonline.com/News/2010/9/11/New-Owner-of-Albertas-Fortress-Mountain-Hopes-to-Revive-Dormant-Ski-Resort/ and it mentions there is no time frame for the 2010/11 season, perhaps 2011/12?

[r3ccOs]

I don't think it'll ever happen, though it holds a special place in my heart...

I trained out of there 4 days a week

RCR ran it into the ground, I heard stradigically to focus traffic at Nakiska

Apparnetly the structure of the lodging is condemed and there is a mold issue?

The lifts need serious work and the biggest problem I recall is:

On a good powder day, its tons of fun but...
runs were short and the front side faced the wind all the time

I hate to say it, but Nakiska is still a better facility and hill, but I do hike up to fortress and put on some skins up to the top once a year.

[tenth]

Believe this is a new logo and website too.
http://www.skifortress.ca/

Would love to give it a go. Tried to take a bus up there from Banff a few years back, but the bus driver told us Fortress was closed and dropped us at Nakiska instead. An e-mail to Fortress later revealed they were open that day.

[bituerbo]

This was removed from the Fortress Mountain Wikipedia page on Nov. 25th. It was removed by someone with the username "Templmtn" (Temple Mountain?)

Current status: Sustainable Resource Development Alberta, as of September 2010, confirmed that the new owner, Fortress Mountain Holdings Ltd., headed by Joey O'Brien successfully met all the conditions required for restatement of the leases to operate an Alpine Resort on the lands.
Now reads:

Current status: The resort requires substantial upgrades and will remain closed until they are completed.

[RC-Cola]

It's never going to reopen unless someone like Richard Branson or Brett Wilson (Calgary's big money man with a kind heart) decide they want to pour and lose millions of dollars into the hill with little or no return.

I loved that hill as a kid, but as others have said, it was a fantasic hill when there was snow, terrible the rest of the time...

[dimi]

The vertical just isn't there. I don't know who would waste all that money.

I go up there fly fishing so I talked to a few people working there this summer. They were in the demolition stages. Supposedly some new company bought the resort and is pouring 50 mil into it. New lifts, new lodge, new accomodations, new everything.

Big waste IMO.

Oh yea and I have checked out that bridge which was blamed for all the problems in getting the resort running. Everything seemed fine to me and the bridge was perfectly safe IMO. I'm guessing its something political.

[thrasher22]

I heard they fixed up the bridge when they were filming Inception?

[GQBalla]

inception was filmed there?

[thrasher22]

Yeah the whole mountain scene! I didn't recognize it until I watched the movie a second time.

http://www.clydesnowboards.com/wp/2009/11/check-out-this-castle/

I really hope they leave the castle/base up there, it'd be a cool hike in the summer.

[SOAB]

i love Fortress mountain. i hope they are able to re-open. it would be my go-to hill.

[jdmXSI]

Well its Official Fortress is open but for Cat skiing only...

I've always wanted to go but never been. Any insight if it would be a good resort for CAT Skiing?

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20120122/CGY_fortress_kpow_cat_ski_120122/20120122?hub=CalgaryHome

[ercchry]

i would say cool! im in! ... but not at those prices, thats only $50 less than revy and there is no comparison between the two. i wonder what the full cat booking discount is? beyond group buy? :rofl:

[dimi]

Yea...$350...for Fortress? No thanks, I'll skin up myself.

One thing I found very funny:



C. Joseph O’Brien – President & Director

Even as a child he gained significant resort development experience at the knee of his father, Chuck O’Brien, who developed Keppock Mountain and purchased Ski Martock in Nova Scotia. At 19 – an age when most ski bums are oblivious to a future beyond the next snowfall – Joey bought Ski Martock from his Dad.


:rolleyes: Yeaaaaaaaa

[dimi]

EDIT:

You're not allowed to skin up anymore. You have to be there for KPOW cat skiing. Too bad.

[lilmira]

I'll have to wait for review. If the condition is great, it would be a convenient location for cowtown folks.

I wonder how much land do they have access to for catskiing.

[mazdavirgin]

Originally posted by dimi
EDIT:

You're not allowed to skin up anymore. You have to be there for KPOW cat skiing. Too bad.

Is the land they are on crown land? If it is I don't think they can prevent you from skinning up...

[sexualbanana]

Originally posted by mazdavirgin


Is the land they are on crown land? If it is I don't think they can prevent you from skinning up...

I think it's leased crown land

[mazdavirgin]

Originally posted by sexualbanana


I think it's leased crown land

In that case you should be fine going up there as per the public lands act.



However, pursuant to s. 1.1 of the Petty Trespass Act those who enter such lands for a recreational purpose, as detailed in the Recreational Access Regulation, AR 228/2004, are exempt from prosecution for trespass under the Act.

[dimi]

Originally posted by mazdavirgin


In that case you should be fine going up there as per the public lands act.



I called them today. I was quoting what they told me. Might be a bunch of crap to keep people from going there.

On second thought, its just like sunshine. You can skin up the access road, just don't use their lifts. In this case, don't use their cat.

They told me it is because the lease holder is responsible for the people on the land or something like that. But how is that different now that they have a cat operation. People were allowed to before they had the cat running, they even told me that.

[98brg2d]

Looks like we know what happened to the fired staff from Sunshine. Hopefully this leads to a reopening of Fortress in the future.

I think Fortress is too little vertical for cat skiing but it is $100 cheaper than the next closest, reasonable cat skiing (FWA, not counting Castle).

I do not see how they can prevent you from skinning up unless provincial leases are different from federal leases somehow. There is a reason why almost all cat skiing is done on private land, owned by the cat company or leased from a forestry company that is not themselves a lease holder. That is the only legal way to prevent people from poaching. Heli is different since most heli acreage is fly in only so poaching is pretty difficult.

[asp integra]

aparently the old hill only have 600 some acres, and the cat opp has access to 3000+ acres, could be good but still expensive

[BlkMaxima]

I'm going tomorrow. I will upload a video with my Gopro.

Pretty jacked for it.

[lilmira]

Nice!

I don't think 350 is far from any other cat skiiing operations.

[BlkMaxima]

Originally posted by lilmira
Nice!

I don't think 350 is far from any other cat skiiing operations.

I think it is the same price if you go to Castle.

If you fill the cat and have a full group you get a price break which comes to $300/ea.

[ercchry]

or if you book within the final 48 hours... which is really tempting for sunday. i cant seem to talk anyone else into coming though

[lilmira]

The shitty thing is that you'll have no idea who you are going to be joining with. I assume the guide is going to take you to runs based on the skill of the weakest player. Unless the whole group is around the same level, someone is going to be a bit disappointed.

[sexualbanana]

Originally posted by BlkMaxima
I'm going tomorrow. I will upload a video with my Gopro.

Pretty jacked for it.

So how was it?

[BlkMaxima]

Originally posted by sexualbanana


So how was it?

Just working on the video editing tonight. I will upload it later.

The snow was awesome. Runs/Terrain was great. The only complaint I could even think of is that the runs are short. Maybe 2-3 minutes each. We had a good group and we were not really waiting on anyone. We got in 13 runs total.

[dimi]

Originally posted by BlkMaxima


Just working on the video editing tonight. I will upload it later.

The snow was awesome. Runs/Terrain was great. The only complaint I could even think of is that the runs are short. Maybe 2-3 minutes each. We had a good group and we were not really waiting on anyone. We got in 13 runs total.

Sounds like fun! What did you guys hit?

http://pc.sno.mobi/img/limg/mappic/2010319114511810i.jpg

[BlkMaxima]

YtIMs84hpX0

[BlkMaxima]

We did around the Cat ski area on the left. The glades around #1 and 2. One around #22 and the rest around #35 and 44.

[Freeskier]

Haha, nice edit. That looked like a ton of fun. Did you know everyone you went up with? I've been trying to wrangle a bunch of dudes to go cat skiing, but I've never been able to make it work. Nice 180 attempt, a few more days at the resort and you'll have that dialed for sure. :thumbsup:

[sexualbanana]

are there any other alternatives for cat skiing around here besides kpow?

[lilmira]

I don't think so. Golden, Pincher Creek, Fernie and Revy are all that I know around here. I hope KPow can stick around being so much closer to Calgary than the others.

http://www.catskiing.ca/cat-skiing-directory/canadian-operations

[jdmXSI]

A decade later... apparently fortress is set to open next year, can anyanyone confirm this might actually happen?

http://www.vueweekly.com/fortress-mountain-focuses-cat-skiing-now-reopens-2016/


What’s old is new again in K-Country as Fortress Mountain is poised to re-enter the Alberta ski scene with a revamped version of the funky little resort where the lifts haven’t turned in more than a decade.

Plans are in place for Fortress to resume full operation in December 2016 using some of the existing lifts and infrastructure but, for the time being, Fortress’ slopes are being serviced by a cat-skiing operation that aims to create a spark in public interest for the resort’s renewal efforts.

KPOW Fortress Mountain Cat Skiing is offering exclusive skiing on both the existing runs and, for those that have the ability, in areas outside the resort’s traditional boundary.

Chris Chevalier, president of Fortress Mountain Resort, says right now is an exhilarating time for both the staff and guests.

“We take 14 people a day and, basically, the cat is providing the lift service,” he explains. “The entire hill is theirs, and it’s been a wonderful experience watching the reactions of the guests as they have this great place all to themselves for the day. For us, it’s also really exciting as we are part of planning the redevelopment of this really beautiful and special area.”

Fortress Mountain was a modest little resort in Kananaskis Country that operated from 1967 to 2004. It originally started as Snowridge and was later called Fortress Mountain—a name derived from the rocky monolith that towers over the resort’s slopes. Its location is about half an hour deeper into Kananaskis Country than Nakiska and Kananaskis Village with the final leg of the trip up a narrow, winding, gravel mountain road to the resort’s base. While the skiing area’s vertical was only 335 metres, there were three separate mountain faces to ski on and plenty of easily accessible out-of-bounds areas that made the resort seem much bigger than it really was.

What started out as a quaint, remote ski area on the eastern slopes of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains eventually became a pawn for owners and corporations that had more interest in their other holdings than in developing Fortress. A pair of the resort’s more infamous owners were the Aspen Skiing Corporation, which stripped out one of the resort’s T-bars in the mid ’80s and moved it to Blackcomb to help open up the slopes on the glacier there, and Resorts of the Canadian Rockies who, after taking over Fortress in the ’90s, closed the resort down completely in 2004. RCR had wanted to develop rental accommodations at Fortress, but the Alberta government was not willing to bend its strict rules regarding development in the wilderness area. By the time Fortress was shuttered, the resort’s daylodge and other infrastructure was long overdue for reinvestment, but RCR, whose contribution to Alberta skiing the previous season was to shut down the Wintergreen ski area by Bragg Creek, was not the company to do it.

The Banff Railway Company bought Fortress in 2005 with plans for revive it, but had little success. The current owners purchased Fortress in 2010 and immediately began the cat-skiing operation.

“We’re in our fourth season of cat skiing and we’ve been full from the get go,” Chevalier says. “We have one single cat and we are out four or five days a week, depending on the snow. We meet people at the bridge (at the start of the gravel road) at 8:30 am and drop them off at about 4:45 pm. The cat skiing is a break-even operation designed to let people experience what Fortress can be.”

A sign of the new owner’s commitment to Fortress’ redevelopment is the firm they have brought in to oversee the project. Ecosign Mountain Resort Planners from Whistler are world leaders in their field, having designed more than 360 resorts in 36 countries, including the sites for five winter Olympic Games.

As part of the redesign, the iconic lodge that sat at the base of Fortress will have to be torn down, as it had been allowed to deteriorate by previous owners to the point of being condemned. A new daylodge is planned for a lower location. Two of the existing chair lifts—the Canadian and Backside chairs—will be reused for the resort’s start-up but eventually they will be replaced with new, more strategically placed lifts.

Plans are also in place to deal with one of Fortress’ biggest nemesis—the wind. Anyone who skied Fortress in its previous incarnation likely has memories of getting sandblasted by snow pellets while skiing on a rock-hard moonscape of packed snow.

“A lot has changed in terms of dealing with wind since Fortress was originally built,” Chevalier explains. “With snow fencing, proper positioning of lifts to protect loading and unloading areas and wind barriers—there’s a lot we can do now.”

It appears to be full steam ahead for Fortress at this point, as the owners are eager to re-enter the marketplace with a resort that is both new and old. If you can’t wait for the lifts to start turning, check out the cat skiing operation at kpow.ca.

[Tik-Tok]

:dunno:

This is on the first page. They've been running since 2012.

[Maxx Mazda]

Cat skiing only. This talks about them reopening the lifts and building a new lodge which would be awesome

[Cos]

.

[cycosis]

I love exploring the old lodge. Super easy to get into via the back kitchen entrance. Just wait for the hermit guy to be busy somewhere else ;)

Theres still furniture in the hotel rooms. Mouse shit everywhere though. I loved playing in the arcade as a kid.

[rx7_turbo2]

Originally posted by cycosis
I love exploring the old lodge. Super easy to get into via the back kitchen entrance. Just wait for the hermit guy to be busy somewhere else ;)

Theres still furniture in the hotel rooms. Mouse shit everywhere though. I loved playing in the arcade as a kid.

I'd love to be able to wander around that old lodge! I pumped so many quarters in pinball machines in that arcade. I used to ski race, we'd often spend a week or more living in the lodge while training there. Some very fond memories.

[cam_wmh]

I imagine the investors Chris was seeking, came to fruition.

The townhomes behind the lodge are also beyond repair. Far side chair is also pooched.

I'd rather it remains catskiing, to keep the punters away haha.

[dubhead]

Originally posted by jdmXSI
A decade later... apparently fortress is set to open next year, can anyanyone confirm this might actually happen?

http://www.vueweekly.com/fortress-mountain-focuses-cat-skiing-now-reopens-2016/



They might be able to mitigate the wind but can they make it snow?

[ColoDano]

Yeah, snow is the big thing they need. Having the bridge replaced was huge just to get access up there, but they have been pretty consistent on the cat side of it.

We actually had a couple of cats up on Demo for them, and have helped on the repairs of the units they are renting currently.

In my talks with Chris, the old building are condemed, and need to be torn down before they can do much more on the buildings aspect.

From what I understand, the real decay came under the ownership of the "Banff Railway Company" The owner is a real shady character, and at one point when he was still trying to run Fortress, was on a cash basis for anything he needed from us, and would take cash from the registers to come down and get parts.

[Brent.ff]

Sure there has to be a few of us who got ripped off by the Banff Railway Company when they offered passes, and never opened it.

Snow is an issue everywhere, and was always an issue at the Fort, but man, when that place got dumped on...

[jdmXSI]

Just saw this on Facebook...

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s181/jdm_xsi/Mobile%20Uploads/Screenshot_2015-09-17-20-13-51.png (http://s152.photobucket.com/user/jdm_xsi/media/Mobile%20Uploads/Screenshot_2015-09-17-20-13-51.png.html)

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s181/jdm_xsi/Mobile%20Uploads/Screenshot_2015-09-17-20-12-30.png (http://s152.photobucket.com/user/jdm_xsi/media/Mobile%20Uploads/Screenshot_2015-09-17-20-12-30.png.html)