Troll Ski Resort just got a major lift. It’s literally a tee-bar, coming soon to the downhilling facility between Quesnel and Wells on Highway 29. The family-owned alpine destination received a $1-million provincial grant, this past week, to install the new lift and add much more skiing area to their mountain map.
On Friday (Oct. 27), the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture & Sport announced the 30 most recent recipients of the Destination Development Fund. The only successful applicant in the Cariboo was Troll, and it was one of only two in the province that reached the million dollar mark. The resort’s general manager Scott Zacharias said the Cariboo Regional District had facilitated the application, and it was a thrill to hear it had been accepted. It has turned years of plans and dreams into immediate action.
“We were going to go ahead with this lift either way, this just helps secure it quicker, rather than waiting for us to eventually sell enough passes,” said Zacharias. “We don’t really know how to process this. We thought it was a longshot.”
A lot of the preparation for the big expansion was carried out right before the eyes of recreational enthusiasts over the past year. Ski runs of the future were strategically carved out of the forest on the slopes immediately alongside the current skiing and snowboarding areas Troll has been building for the past 40 years.
The grand-master plan was drawn up in 1982. The comeback out of the pandemic was strong, and their audience was significantly boosted by customers from Prince George, Williams Lake, and the general surrounding area. The growth was so sustained and robust that it gave Troll management the confidence they needed to begin the epic landscaping project. That part is mostly done.
What they didn’t have confirmation of was the lift itself, the expensive tee-bar machinery that requires a lot of specialized engineering.
“It’s going to go on the mountain to the west of Troll, an area called Pinegrove,” Zacharias said. “It will offer terrain different than Troll’s usual directions. It will have east- and north-facing slopes whereas most of Troll right now has south- and west-facing slopes. So it will offer different snow at different times of year, different sunlight at different times of day, and the runs in the new area are steeper than current Troll runs, so it’s slightly more advanced terrain.”
All of it will be accessed through the same tried and true entrance, with its lodge and parking lot.
Although, that said, there is a new lodge in place now that has never been there before, presently under construction, especially for the Lhtako Quesnel BC Winter Games.
“It will be completed, I’m hoping, on Christmas Eve,” said Zacharias. “In February we are hosting more than 200 athletes, I believe, between three events: alpine, freestyle, and snowboarding.”
There were also major renovations done to the alpine run that will be in greatest use for the downhill races, and the terrain park for the other events.
“We’re getting all the outside work done, because we know people will be on our doorstep as soon as those first snowflakes fall,” he said. That could be this week. Passes for the day or the season are available now at the ski lodge.
The rest of the work to add the new tee-bar will begin with concrete pouring in spring, if all goes according to the plans suddenly in progress with the news of the grant money.
“The smile on my face right now is pretty huge,” Zacharias said. And in 14 months’ time, he hopes to be grinning even bigger as the first slope sliders carve new paths down the brand new runs.