Belleayre Conditions

[Brownski]

The Gondola was a ludicrous upgrade. It would only make sense if the Highmount expansion were to happen, and even then it's a bit of a stretch. The route from the top of Superchief to Tomahawk is easy as pie. The route from the top of the Gondola to Roaring Brook is a bitch.

I agree. Even if you accept the rationale for installing the gondola, the placement of the top station was off. They could have put it in the middle and piled up just enough gravel and dirt to cruise to either side from it. That would have spread people out at least. Would have made more sense for it to be a detachable quad though

 

[Harvey]

Many would disagree that the Discovery has always been the main.

When I first started skiing Belleayre (2010 or so) I didn't even really understand there was another lodge. I assumed Overlook was the main lodge. Would love to see a pic of the old Discovery.

The Gondola was a ludicrous upgrade. It would only make sense if the Highmount expansion were to happen,

Whether or not it ever happens I can't say. But I am pretty sure that when the Gondola was put in the Highmount expansion was a primary driver.

Anyone remember how quick it happened? I believe the gondi wasn't even mentioned until spring of the year it was built.

 

[TheGreatAbyss]

Is the reason the new lift 6 doesn't terminate at the top of lift 7 because skating from Yahoo to Roaring Brook was considered too difficult?

 

[tirolski]

The lift formally known as Superchief is now the Belleayre Express and Tomahawk is now Lift 8. Please everyone, stop being insensitive.

… Papoose Landing wasn’t even open at the end of the season ...

They left Papoose alone? The horror.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Would love to see a pic of the old Discovery.

I only went there once (when I was only skiing the lower mountain with my young son and wife) and it wasn't fabulous: a typical 60s structure if I remember correctly. Despite its shortcomings, Overlook felt more appropriate for Belle.

 

[Bandit]

Whether or not it ever happens I can't say. But I am pretty sure that when the Gondola was put in the Highmount expansion was a primary driver.

Yes, it was a primary driver. The idea was gondola to top then ski down to the new chairs installed at Highmount.

As far as Highmount happening, we have at least one ORDA board member that it is a high priority for and who is pushing for it. What needs to happen is a local municipality needs to purchase Highmount then lease it to ORDA for lifts to be installed. This way it won’t count towards tree cutting or trail mileage limitations. The setup is envisioned to be similar to Gore & North Creek Ski Bowl.

 

[rfreeman]

First time I was ever at Discovery lodge was my most recent visit as the last time I was there was pre-gondola. I was struck by how nice the new lodge was compared to Overlook at least. Bright, clean and spacious with a nice outdoor seating area and restrooms that dont require navigating stairs in ski boots. Don't have a particular romantic attachment to the older lodges. But I have never been one to hang out drinking after skiing.

I like being able to do a variety of continuous top to bottom runs wherever I ski and not have detouring around a building on nearly flat stuff be part of it. Even if the bottom part is just low angle cruising it is more time skiing between lines and lifts.

 

[rebel1916]

Would love to see a pic of the old Discovery.

Not technically Brutalist, but had a real Soviet feel to it. They only good thing I will say about the new Discovery is that it is an improvement over the old Discovery.

 

[Ripitz]

The old Discovery had a nice central fireplace in the great room with a beautiful hammered copper chimney. They butchered it at some point and retrofitted it with gas. It also had a sad little bar stuffed in the corner that looked more like an afterthought and was rarely open.

I don’t know why they went with a modern Scandinavian design with the new lodge. We have our own local architecture to be proud of that should have been showcased.

Ski lodges should have wood burning fireplaces with fires in them. No exceptions.

 

[snoloco]

The architecture of the new Discovery Lodge is similar to the other new lodges that ORDA has built in recent years. That's why they went with it.