Summertime alpine luge may be coming to Camp Fortune
Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: April 5, 2019
Camp Fortune is hoping to add a new summertime ride: a single-person alpine luge which would run down a monorail track between the Clifford and Marshall ski runs.
It would be similar to a luge recently opened at Mount Revelstoke Resort, which reaches a top speed of 42 km/h. The Revelstoke ride is called the Pipe Mountain Coaster.
Construction could take place this summer and fall, though the National Capital Commission needs to give permission first. The matter is on the NCC’s agenda for its meeting of April 11.
Peter Suderman, the co-owner of Camp Fortune, said people would buy a one-day ticket to go up and down the hill using the Clifford chair lift, just as skiers do. He has not set prices yet.
The Revelstoke video shows that a rider sits upright on the cart, belted in, and can apply the brakes. Suderman said there are also built-in controls to prevent the cart from going too fast.
It is designed to wind back and forth while going downhill. The vertical drop is about 130 metres, or 400 feet.
Suderman said the ride “would mitigate our dependence on winter revenue.
“It would be kind of meandering out onto the ski runs and back into the woods (between them) so it would be a nice ride. It’s not coming straight down.”
There would be an environmental assessment first.
The track does not have a permanent foundation so it can be removed from the ski hills later.
He hopes to have the ride running next year for the 100th anniversary of Camp Fortune. The whole project would take about six months to build — much less time than the capital’s other light rail project.
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