![]() Though at first they refused, pointing out that they were trying to sell Blackcomb, Smythe convinced them that he could fund the lift by selling incremental season passes. With the T-bar in the Blackcomb parking loot, Smythe approached Aspen and the FBDB about funding its installation. Over the space of two days and a night, the T-bar on Fortress was quietly taken down and transported across the provincial border. Smythe knew that there was a relatively new T-bar on Fortress that wasn’t being run due to the drop in business after Nakiska Ski Area opened. Photo courtesy of the Xhignesse family.Īt the time, Blackcomb Skiing Enterprises was owned by the Aspen Skiing Company and the Federal Business Development Bank (FBDB), who also co-owned Fortress Mountain Resort in Alberta. Peter Xhignesse is credited by many with realizing the skiing potential of the 7th Heaven area. After being shown the area by Xhignesse, however, he was convinced that the area had potential. According to Smythe, he hadn’t done much hiking or skiing in the area and thought that it was unlikely there would be much promise in the south facing area known to be windy with lots of rocks. ![]() They found it with the 7th Heaven T-Bar.Īvalanche forecaster Peter Xhignesse came into the office of Hugh Smythe in the spring of 1985 and told him he wanted to show Smythe some skiing on the south side of Blackcomb. ![]() In 1982, the Jersey Cream Chair expanded the lift-accessed terrain available on Blackcomb, but the mountain still needed something more to compete with Whistler Mountain. ![]() When Blackcomb Mountain opened for skiing in 1980, it had four triple lifts and one two-person chair that carried eager skiers up to the top of today’s Catskinner lift. ![]()
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