Wisconsin Skiers : Get Ready for Cascade’s $9M Expansion

Folks who visit the Cascade Mountain ski area in Portage, WI, are about to get more amenities to enjoy at the resort, in addition to 19 additional trails. It’s all because of a new project getting underway at the ski area, as Cascade starts a $9M mountain resort expansion.

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The project, which has been in the planning stages since the early ’90s according to vice president of sales and marketing Randy Axelson, will be split into three phases. When it’s done, it is expected to add four new chairlifts and 19 additional trails. The lodge was also expanded and made larger as a result of the multi-million dollar project.

Chairlifts are going to be the focus of the first phase of the expansion, which got underway recently. This phase involves replacing the Cindy Pop Express chairlift, adding a 270-yard extension to the top of the hill, and installing a new lift further to the east, which will provide visitors access to newly opened terrain. Axelson says this part of the expansion will reduce crowding at the top of the hill, which is something skiers have been asking for for a long time. The new lifts are being installed by Colorado-based contractor Leitner-Poma, who has guaranteed the ski area that they will be open by mid-November.

The second phase of this project will focus on the resort’s continued eastward expansion, adding six more trails along with an addition to the parking lot and a new lodge. That will be followed by the final piece of the $9M expansion project, which is expected to bring another chairlift, six additional new trails and a snow-tubing park. By the time the project is completed, the ski area is projected to have a total of 11 chairlifts, three surface lifts, 55 ski trails, and the tubing park.

On a smaller scale, the ski area is adding more snow guns — three 400-horsepower pumps — to help in snowmaking and using a Prinoth Bison X groomer to help work on the new trails. With this new equipment, Cascade Mountain will be able to have more snow than any other ski resort in the Midwest, according to Axelson.

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