Kananaskis Country (AB), Canada – Alberta Sustainable Resource Development has reinstated five land leases in the name of Fortress Mountain ski area’s new owner, who hopes to get the ski area near Calgary up and running again.nThe crown land leases were pulled by the government agency in 2007 after the ski area’s prior owner, Banff Rail Co. led by Zrinko Amerl, failed to uphold the terms of the lease and the provincial Director of Fair Trading ordered a halt to season pass sales. Fortress Mountain last operated for a few months in early 2006 following the 2004 sale of the ski area by Resorts of the Canadian Rockies (RCR) to Banff Rail.

This summer, Banff Rail sold the resort to Fortress Mountain Holdings. Led by former Alpine Canada Alpin (ACA) chief operating officer Joey O’Brien, who also owned Nova Scotia’s Ski Martock for 27 years, Fortress Mountain Holdings has since brought the leases into compliance and fixed an unsafe bridge over the Kananaskis River on the only access road into the ski area.

O’Brien, however, hasn’t given a timetable for the ski area’s rebirth, although he acknowledges that it won’t be in time for the 2010-11 ski and snowboard season.

Once popular with locals from the Calgary area, 70 miles away, Fortress Mountain spans 1,079 vertical feet and is serviced by three chairlifts and two T-bars.