The new location gives tubers easier access to the Park, two additional lanes and a new Magic Carpet to get back up the hill instead of a handle tow.
One of the main reasons to move and expand the tube park was its popularity, Gibson said. “At peak times the lineups have been very long. This project will give value to those wanting to go tubing.’
The old lift handled 250 tubes per hour. The new Magic Carpet will take 2,000, he said. There will be five lanes for tubers so there shouldn’t be a bottleneck at the top.
The new run uses more of a natural stop at the bottom, so the Resort hopes to do away with the hay.
Earthwork on the new tubing lanes was completed in late October. The lights and speakers had already been installed by then, and the Magic Carpet was in the final stages of assembly before Halloween.
The Resort didn’t have to wait too long for the first snowfall to test out the new lanes, as snow was flying in earnest well before Remembrance Day.
“Everything went well,’ Gibson said of construction. “One of the other positive results is the old tube park is now a beginner run,’ he added.
Both the old and new tube park areas have been re-seeded as part of the Resort’s environmental plan as well.
The tube park move, just one phase of the Green Zone plan the Resort implemented three years ago, cost approximately $750,000.
“The most common question we got at the ticket kiosk was ‘where is the tube park’,’ Gibson said. “Now it’s in a more convenient location.’