The final chapter of Ski the Badlands is closed as the ski lift that has laid abandoned has been sold.
Big Bam Ski Hill in Fort St. John, BC has purchased the lift.
Jason Linley of JD Piling in Fort St. John inspected the lift and was pleased with what he saw.
“This chairlift will be a great fit for our hill and will allow us to be fully functional again,” he said.
According to Canadian Badlands Passion Play manager, Vance Neurdorf, it has been three years since the Canadian Badlands Passion Society first purchased the land, ski lodge and ski lift in a court ordered sale after the Badlands Ski Club went into receivership.
Since that time there have been thoughts about seeing the ski hill revived, but unfortunately none of these have been able to move forward. Although there have been offers to remove the lift for scrap metal, the board of the Passion Play has kept looking for a solution that would honour the initial dreams and efforts of the local community, and reduce the heavy financial burden assumed by the Passion Play.
In November they discovered a British Columbia community that had suffered a major setback when a landslide destroyed their lift. Big Bam Ski Hill in Fort St. John had been the site of the 1984 BC Winter Games but in 1989 a landslide wiped out their lift. It took over a decade to clean up the site and settle with the insurance company.
Now Big Bam is finally ready for a new lift. When their board of directors heard of the ski lift here in Drumheller they sent a representative to see if it could be moved to Big Bam.
Ted Earl, local Drumheller resident who was part of the team that got the ski hill going in Drumheller, said, “It's great to see our lift getting a new lease on life and I hope the Big Bam ski hill gets many more years of use out of it."
Plans are underway to move the lift in the spring and summer of 2015. The Big Bam board is grateful for this opportunity to bring a new lift to their hill and would like to offer residents of Drumheller complimentary skiing if they are in the area and would like to see the lift in its new home.
