snoloco
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2021
I grew up skiing Windham, then Hunter and Mountain Creek, so I guess I'm used to and don't mind some of the homogenization. I like new lifts, snowmaking upgrades, even the new lodges. What I do take issue with is the obsessive focus on liability that ORDA now has which does nothing but create a more hostile and less fun environment. Hunter was like this, and it could be absolutely maddening. This is definitely on Pratt. My first season as an ORDA passholder was Ted Blazer's last season, so I saw it all first hand. The effort to make skiing less fun has been much more noticeable at Whiteface since Pratt was already GM at Gore, so his ways were already entrenched there. If you skied at Whiteface during those years you know exactly what I'm talking about. Attempts to ban people from bringing food to mid, more restrictive and more hostile uphill policy, tenfold increase in pulling passes, not opening skiable trails and glades, and more. I am all for the vast majority of the capital improvements that have happened during his tenure. Snowmaking at Gore is night and day better than it was my first season as a passholder, 5 new lifts (6 if you count ski jump gondola), every lodge renovated or replaced. That's a lot to accomplish in 3 years at a state run agency. However, he needs to step back, stop trying to be so controlling, and just let people have fun.
