Implied lift tie-in to Snowbasin is incorrect

Godfrey: Gondola ad to be corrected


By Charles Trentleman
Standard-Examiner Staff
ctrentleman@standard.net
April 28, 2006

OGDEN -- Clint Ensign, senior vice president of Sinclair Oil Company, denied a statement published by proponents of a gondola on Mt. Ogden Thursday that implies there is to be a link between the Snowbasin ski resort and the proposed mountain resort in Malan's Basin.

That's not in our master plan, it's not on the ski permit, nor are there any plans to change that," he said.

Ensign, in a call to the Standard-Examiner, was responding to a series of 24 questions and answers published Thursday about the proposed resort and the gondolas that will serve it.

The questions were part of an ad called "Ogden City Update," prepared and submitted by the office by the office of Ogden Mayor Matthew Godfrey.

The same list of questions is in brochures distributed to the public by Lift Ogden, a private and corporate group supporting the gondola and mountain resort proposal. They are also on the Lift Ogden web site.

Ensign's statement brought a quick denial from Godfrey that any conection was meant to be implied.

Chris Peterson, the developer of the mountain resort, said Thursday afternoon that Ensign was correct and agreed the question needed clarifying. Peterson said that he was unaware the incorrect statement was run in the ad and said he was correcting it Thursday afternoon.

Question 6 as printed asks, Do the plans include the gondola connecting to Snowbasin?

The answer begins, "Yes, the plans do involve a leg of the gondola that would go to the top of the mountain which would allow skiers with a Snowbasin lift ticket to enter Snowbasin."

Ensign said the word "yes" implies a future connection between the two resorts, which he said is wrong.

The real answer to that is "no," and that is something I made plain to the mayor last year," he said, referring to Godfrey. And I made it plain to Chris Peterson.

"For a number of avalanche and liability reasons, we do not feel it is correct to connect and we have no plans to do so," Ensign said. We've advised Godfrey and Chris as well as the forest service. That's not in our master plan, it's not in the ski permit nor are there any plans to change that.

"I'd also indicate to you that... the Sinclair Oil Company is not involved financially in this project, and we wish Chris well."

Godfrey remembers the conversation with Ensign. "Clint came some time ago and want to let you know that Earl Holding (the owner of Sinclair) is not part of this project," Godfrey said. "I told him I was aware of that."

Godfrey disagreed that the answer printed in the Standard-Examiner actually says there is some relationship between the two. He said it only says that "from the top of the mountain you can access the resort."

That language, he said, "is trying to to say that from the proposed link that goes to the top of the mountain you can, as a matter of geography, go to Snowbasin." In other words, a rider could take the gondola to the top of Mt. Ogden and get off, much like getting off a bus. Once there, Snowbasin is on the other side of the ridge, with nothing to keep anyone from going to it.

If there ever to be more of a connection, Godfrey said, that's between Peterson and Sinclair Oil.

Bob Geiger, chairman of Lift Ogden, a group of businesses and individuals supporting the gondola proposal, agreed that the question seemed to imply a connection. He said he was taking that question off the Lift Ogden Web site immediately.

"That statement splits hairs," Geiger said. "The fact of the matter is the guy from Sinclair is right and we'll eliminate it."

Peterson said he discussed the Lift Ogden questions with Ensign last week and agreed with him that Question 6 "needed clarification."

He said he was sorry he was not able to correct it in the brochure and said he did not know it would be run in Thursday's paper.

The new answer discusses the bureaucratic difficulties in running the gondola to the top of the mountain, "to a terminal located on a relatively gentle ridge overlooking both the Snowbasin side and the Malan's Basin side of the mountain."