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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1484213
or David Harley, who founded and owns the successful outdoor retail chain Valhalla Pure Outfitters, this is a question he hopes to answer with Zincton All-Seasons Resort, which he says will turn the North American ski business on its head. Pinched between the quiet Kootenay burrows of New Denver and Kaslo, in one of the snowiest belts of the province, Zincton would become a one-of-a-kind, hybrid backcountry ski resort run entirely on local hydroelectricity. If Harley gets his master plan approved and secures investors, his resort will sup- plant a historical backcountry ski-touring area called London Ridge, directly oppo- site Retallack Lodge—a boutique cat-skiing operation on Highway 31A. Zincton's plan is unique in North America, with the closest analogue being Colorado's Silverton Moun- tain Ski Area, which uses a single chairlift to stage guided backcountry skiing in wild, ungroomed terrain. Zincton, by contrast, would have a small number of groomed and gladed runs, but the vast majority of the skiing in its 5,500-hectare ask from the provincial government would require guests to hike or tour to it, using stick-on climbing skins and backcountry bind- ings and going equipped with avalanche safety gear. From there, elec- tric buses would collect skiers along the highway and bring them back to an amenity-packed vil- lage at the resort's base. Zincton's village area would be built on land Harley already owns, and he promises to make the entire venture carbon neutral from day one, using electricity supplied by the Silversmith Power and Light hydroelectric station in nearby Sandon. (Harley's agreement would secure all of the power from Sandon, using any excess to mine cryptocurrency or produce hydrogen and ammonia as energy storage.) RE-BREAKING THE MOULD This style of resort might sound strange to skiers in B.C., but it's not dissimilar to what's been going on for over 50 years at promi- nent ski destinations like Chamonix and La Grave in France. "The ski industry has not engaged its imagination for two generations in North America. It's been an increasingly corpo- rate-money situation; the Europeans are light years ahead of us," Harley says, arg uing that some resorts have three times the amount of inventory dedicated to backcountr y than they have to downhill. "We're not behind the curve in North America, we haven't even seen the curve yet." B a s e d o n s c a l e, though, Zincton wouldn't compare to the terrain the Alps offer, and a bet- ter comparison might be Japan, where Westerners 36 BCBUSINESS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 UPHILL CLIMB Despite mounting pressures from all sides, David Harley hasn't backed off his plan for Zincton