Truckee, CA – As $30 million in major capital improvement projects get underway at Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort near Lake Tahoe, Calif. this summer, the resort will involve its nearly 22,000 Facebook fans in the naming of a new high-speed chairlift and two new ski trails.

The resort has invited its Facebook fans to offer suggestions of what the official name of the new lift on the resort’s Backside should be. Resort officials will then select a handful of their favorite names – comprised of Facebook fan and resort employee suggestions – and ask Facebook fans to cast their vote for the official name of the chairlift.

“Facebook and other social media outlets provide us a unique opportunity to engage directly with our guests,” said Davy Ratchford, director of branding and marketing at Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort. “Rather than leaving it up to our internal team to name the new lift, we thought this was a great opportunity to involve the larger community of people who ski and ride here all season long in the naming of a lift that will improve the skiing and riding experience in a popular area of the mountain.”

The resort has embarked on a number of capital projects this summer both on the mountain and in the Village at Northstar for the 2011-2012 winter season. Plans include the installation of the new high-speed chairlift that will service expanded gladed terrain and two additional intermediate ski trails between the Promised Land and Drifter runs on The Backside of the resort, increasing the skiable terrain by 10 percent. New snowmaking will be added to the resort’s Drifter trail as well as on one of the new runs. A new 500-seat on-mountain restaurant will be built between the top terminals of the resort’s Zephyr Express and Lookout Link lifts. Finally, new national retail outlets and a signature restaurant will be added to the Village at Northstar.

Construction of these capital improvement projects has already commenced, with completion expected prior to the start of the 2011-12 winter season.