Vernon, NJ – Sitting just 50 miles from Manhattan, Mountain Creek is New Jersey’s largest and most popular ski resort. Yet skiers and riders schussing Vernon Peak’s runs at Mountain Creek have for the past dozen years warmed their toes in a series of large heated tents after the McIlvaine base lodge was destroyed by fire in October 1999.
Visitors this year, however, may not recognize the place. The warming tents have been replaced by a brand new lodge, the centerpiece of $20 million spent on base area renovations this summer. Mountain Creek was acquired in June 2010 by neighboring Crystal Springs Resort from the financially beleaguered Intrawest Corporation of Vancouver, Canada, and the ski resort’s new owners broke ground on the new 50,000 square-foot, three-story Mountain Creek Lodge in March after plans were approved by the Vernon Township Land Use Board.
Situated next to The Appalachian, Mountain Creek’s flagship slopeside lodging property, the new base lodge will feature large open fireplaces, massive glass walls to capture the valley light, a unique ice-bar and a luxurious private club for members. The new Mountain Creek Lodge will house and service all the functions of arriving, renting, dining and relaxing and will complement The Appalachian in its scale and Adirondack-modern exterior style. It sits where the DC Bar and the First Aid Building were located, and is paired with a complete re-design, re-grading and rehabilitation of the base area from the Cobblestone Village pedestrian bridge to the Cabriolet Gondola and the top of the “SchoolYard” teaching areas, including a new dedicated Kids Kamp and Ski School facility and a new Drop Zone Snow Tube Park, the largest in the country with 30 1,000-foot lanes, an increase from six lanes last winter.
Separately, another $20 million has been invested this summer in a solar array atop parking canopies that will generate eight megawatts — enough electricity to offset half of the ski area’s utilization from the grid. This summer’s $40 million total investment, however, appears to have stalled work on the new ski run connecting South Peak to Granite Peak that was expected to open this winter after the Sojurn chairlift, which carried skiers between the two, was retired in 2010 after 40 years of service. For now, visitors will have to continue to rely upon shuttle buses to travel from South Peak to Vernon Peak at the resort.
Between the new base lodge and The Appalachian next door, a total of five new food and beverage outlets will be spread across the redesigned base area this season, including a patio BBQ at The Biergarten and wood-fired pizzas at Schuss. A computerized rental system in the new base lodge will automatically complete rental forms for guests and deliver ski and snowboard equipment via elevator. On the slopes, two new BagJumps will help fledgling freestylers learn the newest tricks without fear of painful injury. A new mountain coaster will open on the slopes this winter, followed by new zip lines in 2012.
All work is expected to be completed in time for the start of the 2011-12 ski and snowboard season.