This Idaho ski resort to double its size with expansion, including gondola, new trails
Just two years after a once-floundering Idaho ski resort came under new ownership, officials say they plan to double the resort’s size, adding multiple lifts — including a gondola — for winter recreation and miles of new trails for summer visitors.
In a news release Thursday, Tamarack Resort announced that it has filed a special use permit with the U.S. Forest Service for a massive expansion that would add 3,300 acres to the existing 3,500-acre property.
The proposal, which has not yet been approved by the Forest Service, would add six new ski lifts at the resort, one of which would be a 10-passenger gondola running from the base of the mountain to its summit. The resort also hopes to add a rock climbing area, mountain coaster, and about 20 miles of new hiking and mountain biking trails for summer recreation, an offering it has beefed up since it was purchased by Tamarack Resort Holdings in late 2018.
“This application represents another step in the process of completing the grand vision of Tamarack Resort,” Tamarack president Scott Turlington said in the news release. “We’ve all worked hard to get to this point, and we know a lot of work remains to be done. We look forward to continuing to work with the professionals at the U.S. Forest Service, and we are eager to begin engaging the public and other stakeholders in the public process that will soon follow the submission of this application.”
Because the proposed expansion is on federally managed Boise National Forest land surrounding Tamarack, the proposal is subject to the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, and will go through a public comment period. Tamarack officials said they’re working with Valley County leaders and local stakeholders on the plan, which would be on a 40-year special use permit if approved.
It’s the latest in a series of major updates at the Donnelly-area ski resort, which until recently had faced financial struggles and developed in fits and starts.
Founded in the early 2000s, Tamarack’s promising future ground to a halt in 2008 when original owner Jean-Pierre Boespflug ran out of funds and defaulted on loans. Since Tamarack Resort Holdings, a group of investors, bought the resort in 2018, construction has again boomed at the resort. After years “frozen in time,” parts of the Tamarack Village — condos and retail buildings at the base of the mountain — are finally complete, and in 2019 the resort reinstalled a ski lift that was repossessed in 2012.
This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 11:43 AM.
