The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the owner of Vancouver-based ski resort operator Intrawest has reached a deal with creditors to ease the terms on its debt.

The Journal said the agreement means the owner, New York-based hedge fund Fortress Investment Group LLC, will avoid having Intrawest's assets auctioned off.

The Whistler Blackcomb resort was scheduled to be up for auction beginning today. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

Intrawest's resorts include the Whistler Blackcomb Olympic ski venue north of Vancouver, which was scheduled to be auctioned off beginning today.

Since the end of January, Intrawest has raised cash by selling the Panorama ski resort in eastern B.C., a Florida golf resort and the Squaw Valley ski hill in California.

The report also said the deal will allow Fortress to inject $150 million US of capital into the business to pay down debt and retain control of Intrawest.

It said Fortress will get $1.2-billion in new loans and that repayment deadlines will be pushed out by as much as four years but at the same time interest rates on existing debt will be increased.

Fortress took on the debt to buy Intrawest in 2006 in a $2.8-billion leveraged buyout during the height of the real-estate bubble, but missed payments in December on a US$1.4-billion loan.

The creditors, led by Lehman Brothers and Davidson Kempner Capital, had twice extended debt repayment deadlines.

With files from The Canadian Press