the ghost ski resorts | fortress | chapter two | full movie

A lot of folks are wondering, what happened to Fortress? Why did it close? What went on? I don't have all those answers. It kind of sputtered to a stop in 2003, 2004. We think it was still making money. It was very popular, but it needed a big capital infusion that they just weren't willing to do at that time. And this place was allowed to run into the ground. We're heading into the old day lodge, which we think was constructed in 1966-67. This was sort of the centre of the action. Kitchen is just off to my left, ticketing off over on this side, guest services. But just a beautiful building. Saw some vandalism, and there's been some folks in here getting copper out of the walls and pulling some of the electrical out. This room, we understand, was the far side lounge, which I guess back in the day was a pretty happening place. A lot of history in this place. My first experience here was in 1984. It was my first time out of the house and into almost its own ecosystem. That was pretty much the inflection point. It was either med school and brain surgery or graduate and move to the mountains and wash dishes. This whole place was made up of people who, again, just lived and breathed the sport. In the 80s, everyone wore the same stuff. If you weren't in sun ice, like in the 80s, you were nothing. Everyone wore that stuff. So of course the snow school here did as well. And they had this sort of teal blue, which of course you can't be living in the 80s without teal. The kind of people who would come up here were ready to get lit. It's the 80s, so it's a whole different scene. It's like responsibility meant something entirely different. My name is Rob Stephens, and I am still at my core a Fortress Mountain dishwasher. I watched what I thought was my only opportunity to build a ski resort fade off into the distance until Fortress came along. We're just putting the capital together to build the lifts and the program to start it up again. My name is Chris Chevalier. In the industry, I'm pretty much known as Chevy. Most people don't even know my real name, I think. We don't have a mechanic as such up here, so I'm the head hander of tools, and I usually get the wrong one. Chris is the guy, along with Michael, that does most of the cat work. It's easy to say, reopen a ski hill. I never would have guessed the complexity of it, going into it. To fill the time between starting that project and actually realizing it, we decided to start cat skiing. Fortress is in Kananaskis country, about an hour from the city of Calgary. The biggest thing that catches your eye is Fortress Mountain itself. The Canadian chair, which is a triple chair on the front side, was probably the most modern lift, and the backside chair was a double doppler, which we actually want to reuse. Number of runs, probably about 85, depending on which marketing guy you want to talk to. I'll go get my supper and start cooking. I think there's going to be some chicken and potatoes. What's your favorite dinner? Chicken and potatoes. My full name is Melvin Oliver Fulden. I have a name tag that says Mountain and Mel. It's in my vehicle. When we first met Mel, he was living in the cat shop here. He was sleeping in a Lazy Boy chair by the fire, and kind of rigged up a tarpaulin over the fire to try and keep some of the heat in. When they locked the gate and shut down, they tried to kick him off the land. He'll tell you that he moved into the cat shop. It was very comfortable. We had the stove to cook on. There was no electricity, there was no phone lines, so not a lot of connectivity. It was a pretty rustic existence. It went on for probably just about a decade. Some people would say, you know, why did you allow him to stay here? He's a part of the place. Well, if I win the lottery and I keep buying the tickets, I would invest all of it into this operation, because that's how strong I believe in it. There is genuinely magic at Fortress. You feel it. I don't know what it is. It's like I say, I think there's something genuinely spiritual about this place. If you have that kind of memory of it, if you take that memory with you, you've left part of yourself here. I don't think there's any question that Fortress is going to come back, because so many people want it to happen. And when you have that kind of energy focused in the same direction, it just is, it just will be. Good day, sir. One ticket, please. You enjoy yourself at Fortress Mountain there. Cheers, thank you very much. Welcome to Fortress Mountain. We're excited to be opening soon.