Today was an absolutely beautiful day, by any objective standard. Cold overnight, warming to 25 during the day. Not a cloud in the sky. Soft manmade snow all around, good coverage on almost all of the trails.
The big news at Gore today was the 2010 debut of Sagamore — the long, steep, liftline run that was added to the trail map last year. It’s a mile, with 1400 feet of vertical, and it’s serviced by a deluxe quad that takes less than nine minutes to deliver you to the top. More on that later.
Here’s a recycled idea for a stimulus package. A short term boost and a long-term jobs program:
For a $1M let’s say you build a tram from Main Street to the Ski Bowl…more construction jobs right away. The limited rooms, and then the restaurants in town would rise in value with the potential for more investment in town. What a cool way to pay back the folks who are anchoring main street now…. Braley & Noxon, Sarahs, The Alpine, etc. Joel Beaudin and the Copperfield investors would do a jig.
I know on projects that I’ve worked on that took multiple years… many times you end up with the RIGHT solution, even though it’s not what you started out to do exactly. For this idea to work, BRQ had to be built, and we are getting some value out of it. (Certainly not an amount equal to the cost to date, but the fat lady hasn’t sung yet.)
And now the Ski Bowl. Not only is there good terrain over there, but it’s an historic ski area that is being brought back to life. Pretty cool.
I love this image the mountain is using to promote the interconnect. But … the bottom of the trail system will not actually connect to the village. It is MUCH closer, but you can’t actually see town from the bottom of the lift. It’s probably too far to walk to Main Street.
I’d love to know about the ZONING of the land right around the bowl. Will town expand to connect to the Ski Bowl? Will there be restaurants and business close enough for alpine booted folk to spend the cash “off mountain?” I realize none of this has mattered at Whiteface. The mountain is miles from town, and LP thrives.
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