Photo by David N. Seelig
Cinderella story
The new Dollar Mountain Lodge
by
Greg Moore
Following an intensive effort that completed what would normally be a two-year construction project in just seven months, Dollar Mountain has been graced with a spectacular new day lodge.
The old Dollar Cabin had been functional but cramped, serving standing-room-only lunches to hundreds of children over Christmas vacation and President’s Week. It had been created from a small hut built shortly after World War II and an old ski school dormitory attached to it in 1964.
By contrast, the new 23,000-square-foot Dollar Mountain Lodge has spacious rooms with high, log-beamed ceilings and expansive views. The elegant log-and-stone structure is based on similar, and architecturally acclaimed, day lodges at the base of Baldy and the top of Seattle Ridge.
“I’m really excited about the new lodge,” said Sun Valley Ski and Snowboard School Director Hans Muehlegger. “I think Dollar Mountain has a great future.”
The lodge’s entrance faces Elkhorn Road and a three-lane driveway that will make drop-offs and pickups more convenient than in the past. Inside the entrance hall is a ski school desk where parents can leave their kids before stepping up to the automatic lift ticket dispenser and Pete Lane’s rental and retail shop. Skiers type their weight and ability information into a computer that sends it to the guys downstairs. Within a few minutes, their skis or snowboards appear on a small elevator from the first floor. From there, it’s straight out the door to the lifts. At the end of the day, skiers can drop off their skis at the same spot for overnight storage.
To the left of the entrance is the children’s ski and snowboard school, with meeting and eating space, clothes dryers for wet days, bathrooms with kid-sized fixtures and TVs with videos for those tuckered out from runs on the mountain.
Also available is day care for children too young to ski. A fenced-in area outside will allow the toddlers some fresh air on warm spring days.
To the right of the entrance is a cafeteria-style restaurant. A wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling panel of windows frames a gorgeous view of Bald Mountain. Outside is a patio made of heated bricks.
Downstairs is another entrance leading from the newly paved parking lot. Also on the ground floor are the mountain manager and ski patrol offices and employee lockers.
On the mountain, earth-moving equipment this fall graded the area near the Quarter Dollar beginner hill and pushed dirt unearthed from the construction site to create a terrain park for novice freestylers. A new, 150 feet long carpet lift will take kids to the top of the beginning children’s teaching area.
The new lodge will allow all beginner and intermediate snowboard lessons to be taught at Dollar, which is a relaxed environment and allows people to focus on their lessons.
Muehlegger calls Dollar Mountain one of the best beginner and intermediate teaching mountains anywhere.
“I think it will be very successful,” he said. “It will take a couple of years, but I think people will come back to Dollar like they were in the 1970s.”
Sun Valley Co. marketing director Jack Sibbach said the lodge and its adjacent lawn would also be available for weddings and other summer events.
“There are a lot of options for using it,” he said. “Dollar’s been underutilized for a while. This facility will certainly bring attention to it.”
And for the future? Muehlegger said he hopes to see a high-speed quad chairlift and more snowmaking built on Dollar before too long. Judging by Sun Valley’s pace of development since the resort was bought by Earl Holding in 1977, it’s a good bet that will happen. •
