The Adirondacks Blog

Bruce McCulley to Retire as Whiteface GM

Posted on by NYSkiBlog

Whiteface Mountain.According to a story published in today’s Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Bruce McCulley the general manager of Whiteface Mountain Ski Center will step down from his job in September.  Bruce is leaving his position to become a minister at the High Peaks Church in Saranac Lake.

Late this week Bruce announced that he’s leaving after working for more than 30 years at Whiteface. McCulley began his career in the ski business as a teenager.

He started at Whiteface as a lift attendant in July of 1981. He worked as a snowmaker, on the trail crew, as the night snowmaking foreman, and as a lift supervisor. He was promoted to assistant general manager in 1996 and in 2009, he took the position of general manager, when Jay Rand left to become the executive director of NYSEF.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Whiteface7 Comments

A History of Mount Van Hoevenberg

Posted on by Peter Minde

“When I was a boy, we made skis out of barrel staves. We didn’t know we were supposed to use poles,” George Remington recounted.

Skiing at Mount van Hoevenberg
photo courtesy of ORDA

George, my grandfather, grew up on Racquette Lake, where his parents were caretakers for a great camp. Some historians posit that Racquette Lake got its name because a retreating Tory brigade abandoned their snowshoes (“racquette” in French) on their flight to Canada during the Revolution. It’s a paradox that Grandpa was figuring out skis in a place named for a huge pile of abandoned snowshoes.

My grandfather would have been on skis in the early 1920s, about the same time that the first ski races were held in Lake Placid. Originally a summer resort, the town began promoting winter sports around 1905. One account suggests that winter vacationers back then had to be taught how to have fun on the snow.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Mount van Hoevenberg, Nordic Skiing, NYSkiBlog Directory

Gore Capital Improvements: Next Steps

Posted on by NYSkiBlog

We recently had a few minutes to sit with Mike Pratt, the general manager at Gore. I asked him a few questions about the season past, plans for the summer and the future beyond.

Pisten Bully PB 600

NYSkiBlog: Mike the 2011-12 season was obviously challenging in the east and across the US. How did it compare for Gore?

Mike Pratt: For starters, the season was a short. We were open for 111 days this season, compared to last year when we spun the lifts 137 days total. We had a late start and our earliest finish since I’ve been at Gore.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Gore Mountain, Interviews34 Comments