What’s New for 2006: Seven Springs Resort 13
Author thumbnail By M. Scott Smith, DCSki Editor

Seven Springs will unveil a new terrain park this winter, along with a much larger halfpipe. The new superpipe will be 450 feet long and feature walls as high as 18 feet. The new terrain park, located immediately above the superpipe, will have riding elements fixed into the ground including straight and curved railings, ramps, tabletops, and other features. Seven Springs consulted with Planet Snow Design to help design the pipe, and purchased a second Zaugg grooming machine to keep the pipe in good shape.

“Snowboarders and extreme or advanced skiers are looking for an enhanced riding experience,” explained Scott Bender, CEO of Seven Springs. “The addition of the new Superpipe and terrain park, along with the commitment to maintain the quality of the new features, will give those visitors an experience that can not be found anywhere else in the region,” he said.

This past summer, Seven Springs Resort also continued capital improvement projects begun last year. These projects include continued real estate development, hotel and lodge renovations, and groundbreaking on a new water park. Seven Springs is also continuing to explore the possibility of building an on-site casino. And, in case you missed it, ownership of the Pennsylvania Resort changed hands this summer, transferring from the Dupre family to Nutting Family. The change in ownership is not expected to have an effect on the resort’s capital improvement projects.

In 2005, Seven Springs broke ground on the Southwind at Lake Tahoe residential development, which includes townhomes with floor plans ranging from 1,700 to 2,500 square feet. Units have been sold in two phases so far; in the first phase, 54 units sold out within days. A second phase selling 57 units also sold out quickly. A third phase of units will go on sale later this year.

The Pennsylvania resort has also proposed a four-story, 65-unit condominium hotel lodge, with underground parking, a restaurant, meeting rooms and convenience shopping. The resort plans to break ground on the complex this fall, and is currently accepting reservations for sales on studio, 1, 2, and 3-bedroom condos.

In a $4 million overhaul, Seven Springs will be refreshing each of its 400 hotel rooms in its 10-story high-rise hotel over the next four years. The resort will make outside enhancements to the hotel, and will also perform an extensive makeover of common areas in its Main Lodge, including meeting rooms and the Conference Center.

Seven Springs has also begun work on a 2.5-acre water park, which will be located between the high-rise hotel and the base of the slopes. Plans are continuing to be refined for the water park, which was first proposed in 2005. Current plans include a lazy river, a zero-entry pool, several chutes and slides, and a nightly water fountain show. Other ski areas have developed water parks to attract year-round guests; for example, Virginia’s Massanutten Resort recently opened its own water park. Camelback Ski Area, located in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania, has operated a water park since 1998.

Although Seven Springs had pursued plans to build a $5.4 million casino, the resort recently announced that it will no longer pursue a gambling license, reportedly due to a conflict of interest with the new ownership. Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, which runs the Mystic Mountain ski area, continues to pursue a gambling license to build a resort hotel casino.

(Note: This article was updated in November, 2006 to add details about Seven Spring’s new terrain park and superpipe, and to indicate that Seven Springs has dropped plans to pursue a gambling license. This story was originally published on DCSki on August 13, 2006.)
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About M. Scott Smith

M. Scott Smith is the founder and Editor of DCSki. Scott loves outdoor activities such as camping, hiking, kayaking, skiing, and mountain biking. He is an avid photographer and writer.

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Reader Comments

WVSnowdude
August 14, 2006
Hey Scott,

Have you tried to contact the new owners, the Nuttings? Seems the old owners didn't give much info, but maybe the Nuttings could do better. The only thing I saw construction on recently at 7S was new private townhomes on top of the mountain (looks very upscale). No sign of any water park promised this summer (or any start of one). No sign of any renovations. No sign of any upgrades or anything. What's up???????
Scott
August 14, 2006
Many of the enhancements (such as the lodge and hotel upgrades) will be happening over the "next four years," according to Seven Springs. I think the water park is also in the early stages of development, and would not expect to see any significant construction this year, although Seven Springs says they intend to break ground sometime over the summer. Even so, they do not appear to have finalized plans for the exact components of the water park, so I don't think a lot of earth movement is imminent. Last year, Seven Springs said they were aiming to open the water park during the summer of 2006, but that's obviously not happening.

Seven Springs has not announced any major capital improvements for this summer directly related to skiing. That is not too surprising; with the installation of the high-speed "six pack" lift in 2001 and some snowmaking and trail improvements last year, I'm not sure if there are any obvious areas for on-slope improvement.

Instead, Seven Springs seems to be focusing on longer-term efforts to enhance real estate and base facilities. I'm sure they have also spent a fair amount of time recently on the sale of the resort and the continued pursuit of a gambling license.
Wolverine
September 16, 2006
Any word about anything new actually happening since the new owners took over, or just hype and no actual signs of work on new stuff (new lifts? Western slope ski devel? new amenities?)
hpskibum
September 18, 2006
I was out at Seven Springs this past weekend to ride the alpine slide and they are in the process of building a lift from the summit of the Cortina Lift to the top of the six pack along Phillips Run. The alpine slide operator said they hope to have it open this winter. It will mostly serve as a lift for the new housing development. However it will serve as an alternitive to the summit when the 6 pack is crowded. It also looked like they were replacing snowmaking pipe on Alpine Meadows Slope. Thats all I could see.
Dan
September 19, 2006
Does anyone know what type of lift this will be that is going from cortina to the six pack? Like a double, triple, quad, or High Speed lift. Plus any other news on terrain expansion or lift expansion would be great.
thanks
Sean
September 26, 2006
Does anyone know if Seven Springs is adding any other trail improvements this year other then the new lift? Also does anyone know what kind of lift is being bulit?
Iwan Fuchs
September 30, 2006
I wish they will move the park & pipe / freestyle park to the current snowtubing park. That would make the resort even more attractive. I believe if the Nuttings would be confrontet with such an idea they would have a open ear and mind.
MichaelB
November 7, 2006
So, 7springs managed to alienate a whole bloc of skiers with plans to build a casino, which has now been dropped. Should make for good fodder in the business schools all over the US. LOL
JesseL
November 21, 2006
If you think back to 2001 when 7 springs released their master plan it was just full of empty promises. 7 springs really cares about making money by building real-estate and not investing in the resort.
There was a high speed 6 planned for North Face I don't think thats going to happened

The casino was called off indefinitely

Great Western, a major terrain expansion for 7 springs, maybe called of for a while do to some issues with the land

7 springs doesn't seem to plan stuff very well before they do it.
JesseL
November 21, 2006
If you think back to 2001 when 7 springs released their master plan it was just full of empty promises. 7 springs really cares about making money by building real-estate and not investing in the resort.
There was a high speed 6 planned for North Face I don't think thats going to happened

The casino was called off indefinitely

Great Western, a major terrain expansion for 7 springs, maybe called of for a while do to some issues with the land

7 springs doesn't seem to plan stuff very well before they do it.
TECH028
February 26, 2007
I was out here over the holiday weekend. They have a sign up and i talked to several staff members. The 12 minute ride up gunnar lift will be no more. The resort is taking down that lift and replacaing it with a high speed six man gunnar lift for the 07-08'season.
TECH028
February 26, 2007
I was out here over the holiday weekend. They have a sign up and i talked to several staff members. The 12 minute ride up gunnar lift will be no more. The resort is taking down that lift and replacaing it with a high speed six man gunnar lift for the 07-08'season.
Jordan
September 27, 2009
Anything on the Western Front? 7 springs seems to be making a lot of lodging expansion but what it really needs is more terrain. So much talk about more lodging but all these skiers and riders need more room to roam on the slopes. Anybody agree??? Does anyone have news on development of the West??

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