Ski Trail Grading
With good experience and good tools, Alpentech assists clients Utah ski areas like Alta, Brighton, Snowbird, Solitude, Snowbasin with terrain modifications to keep up the critical balance of trail capacity when lifts are upgraded or new lifts area installed. The specialized knowledge what constitutes a save and pleasant experience has been researched and we apply rules of thumb and formulas that have been accepted internationally. The experience of an individual skiing space has evolved over time with new equipment. Both, the environment and the behavior is changing and is reflected more on helmet design, than design of comfortable skiing space. "How to measure trail capacity" has been lectured in OITAF-NACS Syposiums (international organization of transport by rope); however, due to aggressive lift sales, upgrading of congested ski trail sections is mostly repair work rather than initial planning consideration. Alpentech is experience with finding solutions to better dispersal of skiers.
It is common today to anticipate terrain modifications with help of Google Earth, particularly when high resolution imagery is available. Experience with new light-weight laser survey tools and GPS gives Alpentech a cutting edge on working with the ski industry to prepare plans for summer grooming trails that can be quantified and visualized.
The ultimate challenge Alpentech has been facing is to critique new ski resort planning in countries like China, Korea and India. The listing of projects in Asia (link) includes the use of our powerful planning tool trademarked since the 1981. Alpentech’s “smartmap” program evaluates terrain suitability based on weighing factor maps such as slope, elevation, aspect and winter shadow patterns together with known constraints such as land instability, avalanche paths, critical habitat areas, etc.
Mineral Basin
Mineral Basin, shown below, has drawn additional skiers to Snowbird and made a connection to Alta. The Path to Paradise and the Hamilton Cliffs are shown. These are examples of steep slope construction consisting of an “end-hauled” section and steep slope blasting and rock removal. Without these undertakings, the Mineral Basin development would not have been feasible. Today the Path to Paradise is a popular traffic artery see below.
