Hemlock to re-open

[Tom]

No word on bikes for next summer...but it looks like they'll be open for this upcoming ski season.
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/money/story.html?id=b3bdf65a-66f7-4e78-924b-f7e680249fd6

Valley looks forward to reopening
Langley-based restaurateur considers it a good investment


Wendy McLellan, The Province
Published: Wednesday, September 20, 2006

All it needs now is good snow.

After missing out on last year's ski season, Hemlock Valley Resort has a new owner and is set to reopen this year.

Langley businessman Ralph Berezan will buy the bankrupt Fraser Valley resort for $3 million in a deal approved yesterday by the B.C. Supreme Court.

"I thought this would be a good opportunity," said Berezan, president of Berezan Management Ltd. "In the long term, I think it will be a good investment.

"I think we'll enjoy the challenge -- although my grandson says it's a money pit."

Although he has never operated a ski resort, Berezan is the owner of several restaurants and pubs in the Lower Mainland and Kelowna.

He is also part-owner of the Surrey Eagles Hockey Club and his company has several commercial properties in Calgary and Edmonton.

Hemlock Valley Resort, which is near Harrison Hot Springs, was placed into receivership last December after the previous owner failed to upgrade the ski hill as required by a 50-year master development agreement with the provincial government.

That agreement continues until 2053.

The resort has been on the market for months and at least one previous offer collapsed earlier this year.

Berezan will get clear title to the resort, which includes the ski runs, chairlifts, ski lodge and several undeveloped properties around the ski area.

The deal also includes the utilities that supply power, water

and sewer services to the 231 cabins and condos at Hemlock Valley.

Berezan said the purchase agreement includes a promise to be open for this year's ski season as well as to make improvements to the resort.

Disappointed skiers who bought 2005/2006 season's passes before last December will be able to use them this year instead.

Hemlock Valley property owners were happy to learn the resort would open again this year.

"The development is not that important -- that's not the reason we're here," said Kevin Sass, one of about 26 residents who live at the resort full time.

"We'd like the upgrades, but the real problem has been that the mountain was closed last year."

Sass said property owners who rent their ski cabins, as well as local gas stations, pubs, hotels and retailers, suffered when the resort didn't open last year.

"There were 6,000 people in the Fraser Valley who couldn't ski last year. I can tell you that if it was Grouse Mountain that closed, there would have been a lot more noise."

Richard Ten Brink, who owns a bed-and-breakfast at Hemlock Valley, said the small community is looking forward to meeting the resort's new owner.

"I think it will take a while for this to sink in," Ten Brink said. "We'd like to meet him [Berezan] and make him part of our community. We will support him."

wmclellan@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Province 2006

[Lady Gravity]

sweet! thats good news, hopefully the new owner can make a better go of it than the last one.

[Bryce]

how much snow do they get out there? Is it a lot more than North Shore hills?

[heckler]

I'm sure whatever snow they do get doesn't get skied out nearly as quickly as cypress or grouse.

[Kamper]

hopefully if they open it up for bikes they will hire actual bikers instead of people who know little about bikes. I went there once both of the years it was open for biking, seemed like they had no idea to run a bike park at all, there was like more people working there than people biking.

[Niggz]

Hemlock gets amazing snow. It is at least whistler quality, very dry because of the weather comming down harrison lake from the north. It has a small amount of elevation, but is often worth every minute of the drive from surrey. I remeber biking being $15. That's worth 4 very decent trails with no lineups. They definately had challenging parts. The road up is always a good adventure with very limited amounts of plowing. I remember hearing some pretty accurate rumours about 3 years ago when the previous owner put it up for sale he was asking for $30mil. That's quite a ways from $3, alothough much more reasonable.

[derwood]

hopefully if they open it up for bikes they will hire actual bikers instead of people who know little about bikes. I went there once both of the years it was open for biking, seemed like they had no idea to run a bike park at all, there was like more people working there than people biking.
Thanks.

I was a part of the bike park experiment up there,trying to keep the few trails they had going,alive,while also doing my real job for the resort.

Here's your chance to do better.

[derwood]

I wish the new owners the best of luck,they're gonna need it.

Don't expect a fully operating ski area this season though,there is way too much work to be done up there before the snow flies.It would take a miracle and resources that just arent available right now.

[hypa]

derwood, once the road is upgraded the mountain will be hopping. Until then, it will only be available to those with 4x4 and snow chains.

This is awesome news.
Hemlock was one of my favorite mountains mainly because of the lower numbers of users compared to the North Shore.

+1 for Langley businessmen!

[wilkez]

im so glad hemlock is back. that place is worth every bit of effort to drive out there from the north shore area. small lineups and wicked snow. and they know how to build a rad park out there as well.

[Team2K]

hemlock needs new lifts badly... especially replacin' the green chair.

i had a pass up there for a few years.... hemlock is a lot of fun. Good park too, but the road and the lifts need updating

[baloom]

I learned to ski at Hemlock 35 years ago and unfortunately it really never changed or lived up to its potential or promise. The reasons: lack of support, poor road quality, some spotty snow years, lack of resources......

I stopped going to Hemlock once I no longer drove "beat" cars where it didn;t matter if they got trashed on the terrible road. I understand that it is really difficult to build a quality access road when it is that long, but this is likely the key.....improve accessibility and people will likely come.

[derwood]

Everyone keeps talking about the road.

The road has NOTHING to do with the ski resort.

The past and new owners had and have no control over the upgrade of the road.

I highly doubt that the new owner is prepared or willing to foot the 26 million(Y2K dollars) to upgrade the road.

It's really no worse than the Baker road IMO.

[derwood]

http://hemlockvalley.com/hvha/popup/hemlocksold.gif

[baloom]

...Sure, the resort owners have no direct control over maintenance decisions with respect to the road, but to suggest that the road has no bearing on the success of operations there is not reasonable. It is THE reason that I stopped skiing there (I was a multi-repeat season pass holder) and the reason that all of my skiing buddies stopped as well. Yes, the road was significantly improved in the early 1980's but nothing substantial happened after this and it continues to be substantially a gravel fire access type road.

The prov. gov't is heavily involved in setting policy regarding the operation of this resort and the resort owner would be well served to try to move them towards making some concessions with respect to the road access. Whether the investment is worth it to the resort owner or not remains to be seen....

[zahgurim]

I think it'll take a couple years, but will end up being a good investment for the new owner.

That mountain has needed new lifts for years, and it looks like it'll finally get them. The old owner was a douchebag, running the mountain as a tax writeoff, and always talked about improvements but never acted on it.

[derwood]

...Sure, the resort owners have no direct control over maintenance decisions with respect to the road, but to suggest that the road has no bearing on the success of operations there is not reasonable. It is THE reason that I stopped skiing there (I was a multi-repeat season pass holder) and the reason that all of my skiing buddies stopped as well. Yes, the road was significantly improved in the early 1980's but nothing substantial happened after this and it continues to be substantially a gravel fire access type road.

The prov. gov't is heavily involved in setting policy regarding the operation of this resort and the resort owner would be well served to try to move them towards making some concessions with respect to the road access. Whether the investment is worth it to the resort owner or not remains to be seen....
Well,I hope the new owner has some success with the road.....the ministry involved with the operation of the resort is far detached from the ministry of highways.It also doesn't help that all road improvements on anything less than a class A highway were scrapped when Campbell came in.

In the time that I lived up there,the road was never really that big an issue...even in a 2wd car.The only problem I ever had was trying to move away from the mountain back to Van.

The road was washed out for 3 days.....

[Tom]

In August I drove up the road in a small 2wd car and it was not a problem. Obviously that's not in the snow, but I didn't think it was bad.

[Niggz]

The road really isn't that bad. I think it's quite fun actually, especially when they get 6inches after the plow comes by :D. It's just the proximity to vancouver and the lower mainland that makes the road bad ahahah. It's the drivers, not the road itself.

[hypa]

The road really isn't that bad.
Sure, the road is fine..... if you're a :censored: nutjob!
For years the cop at the bottom would give us nothing but trouble on that road.

"no chains, no access"

This was driving my buddies lifted Bronco 4x4 with 35" All-terrain swampers. So we went back to Langley and grabbed the real 4x4, an H1. The bastard cop still wouldn't let us go up the hill.

Now, I've been boarding for about 14 years now, driving to and from many mountains in many different snow conditions. I've never been turned around before mainly because I always have good snow tires. But when it came to Hemlock, we just got sick of the BS involved with that road. They HAVE TO fix it if they want people to return.

On a side note, who the hell is going to pay $600g for a Hemlock cabin?

I guess that's why the one I was checking out hasn't sold yet.

[derwood]

Sure, the road is fine..... if you're a :censored: nutjob!
For years the cop at the bottom would give us nothing but trouble on that road.

"no chains, no access"

This was driving my buddies lifted Bronco 4x4 with 35" All-terrain swampers. So we went back to Langley and grabbed the real 4x4, an H1. The bastard cop still wouldn't let us go up the hill.

Now, I've been boarding for about 14 years now, driving to and from many mountains in many different snow conditions. I've never been turned around before mainly because I always have good snow tires. But when it came to Hemlock, we just got sick of the BS involved with that road. They HAVE TO fix it if they want people to return.

On a side note, who the hell is going to pay $600g for a Hemlock cabin?

I guess that's why the one I was checking out hasn't sold yet.


There's a good chance that I am a Nutjob then....


Buying a 20 dollar set of chains at the store in mission would have saved you a trip all the way to langley and back

600 grand for a cabin ? I couldnt imagine which one it is for that price...unless its the new one on Sawkwi creek road,which is new,huge and beautiful...prices average between 60 and 300 for property up there

[CraigH]

Wasn't Rat looking at a property up there a year ago?

[Team2K]

ya... i got turned away by the police chain check a few times after driving all the way out from North Van.... drove me nuts! like my 4x4 jeep can't make it up a fireroad, and if you're gonna insist, which is totally retarded given what i was driving, the hemlock guys should have chains available for sale. closest chains were in aggassiz and they were $120, not $20. Better to wait until they road check packs up for the morning.

I can't believe they turned away an H1 too... ridiculous!

[hypa]

Buying a 20 dollar set of chains at the store in mission would have saved you a trip all the way to langley and back

It's not that easy when you're talking about 35" tires that are 12" wide. We're talking custom order, but regardless we shouldn't have been turned down anyway with either the Bronco or the H1.

The week before we had done a serious backcountry 4x4 expedition in the mountains around Squamish, surviving creeks, washouts, and 2' of snow. Now this bitter-assed cop is telling us to go home?

what a joke.

[trout]

I learned to board at hemlock and I'm glad to see it reopened and wish the new owners luck.

I thought the road was fine, it kept the wankers awayand I got really good at dodging sliding minivans. I bought a set of chains (didn't even know the size) at a wrecking yard for $5 to show the cop if they had a checkstop.

[Rat]

Wasn't Rat looking at a property up there a year ago?


It never got dirt cheap like fortress did.

[derwood]

http://www.hemlockvalleyresort.com/index.cfm

good news!

[Kamper]

Hey derwood, do u know if ofa level 3, and a summer job as a first aid attendant would make me qualified to get hired as a patroller

[derwood]

Hey derwood, do u know if ofa level 3, and a summer job as a first aid attendant would make me qualified to get hired as a patroller
From my experience up there,all you need is a strong liver and the ability to tell time.You should probably know how to ski as well(avi assesment and control experience is also benificial)

[pano-dude]

http://hemlockvalley.com/hvha/popup/hemlocksold.gif
This guy thinks he can upgrade water, sewer, lifts and lodge for 1.2 million?

Not sure if that is possible, lift upgrades are probably going to run that much for a complete new quad system.

Water and sewer upgrades in areas like this are a monstrous task.

And to do it all before snow flies???? I hope he has an army of contractors lined up already.

good news if it happens though, i'd like to see another dh race there next summer.

[yellowdogx]

I remember hearing some pretty accurate rumours about 3 years ago when the previous owner put it up for sale he was asking for $30mil. That's quite a ways from $3, alothough much more reasonable.


The old owner didn't sell the place, the crown took away his lease after he didn't meet certain requirements of the lease (improved facilities etc..)

Hopefully they bring back the bike park!:thepimp:

[apeshape]

Hemlocks snowfall is pretty inconsistent so it would be killer if they invested in a year round bike park or had a contingency in place just in case they did had enough snow to ski on. They are already running lift access year round in England. Why not here?

[CraigH]

From:
http://www.hemlockvalleyresort.com/index.cfm?season=Summer

"Hemlock Resort would like to thank all our winter guest for a great season, the resort will be closed this summer as we are currently doing maintenance on the chairlifts, daylodge and utilities services."

No bike park up there this year.

[yellowdogx]

On a side note the new owner/lease holder of hemlock jacked the sewer/water rates WAY up (I heard something along 300%) Interesting times up there!