New owners Randy Breitenbach (Breitburn Energy Co.) and Doug Ballinger (along with the Achenbachs) allowed the area to run under existing management this year, but next season may be a whole new ball of snow. They’ve already started proceedings to incorporate (leaving many Eden residents anxious and opposed), but if the county approves, it opens the door to a 4,400-acre rezoning with Powder building 610 single-family homes, 850 townhomes, 320 hotel rooms, five corporate retreats, 1,325 hotel/condo-hotel units, 225,000 square feet of commercial space, two lodges and other ski amenities, two 18-hole golf-courses, fire station, police station, and an airstrip or helicopter facilies.
They tried the same thing in 2002 and were stopped by public opposition in Weber County. One improvement you might have noticed was the addition of a new faster Pisten Bully 300 snowcat with refurbished passenger cabins so you don’t need to hang onto a rope to get to the $10/ride cat skiing.
The owners already are making waves with the snowkiting programs and now the upcoming Backcountry and Outside magazines' gear test. The first-ever Backcountry Rendezvous at Powder Mountain means the biggest backcountry gear test ever. With a groundbreaking cross-genre collaboration, the magazines will use the mountain to test and review 2008/09 products March 24-30. Look for the editorial and photos highlighting the resort around October.
BTW, Snowbasin will be featured in The New York Times Escape section this Friday, March 22, and Ogden was named one of the Top 20 Places to Live in the West by American Cowboy magazine.