snoskier

I was up last night and the lights are actually really good. They will need some tweaking to get properly positioned, but I was really impressed with how bright they lit up the trails. They look like some kind of LED light. I can't image how much they spent but it has to be a LOT. The "glade" has been there. It isn't really cleaned out in there so it is very borderline to ski in there.

I love the snow capped peaks in the background!

How much are you asking?

Glades might be "open," but I would ski at your own risk. There are a lot of sticks and rocks in there.

Sunday Mornings are also a good choice as they are usually even less crowded than Saturday.

Awesome write-up. I too would be interested.

Glad to be back. Based upon the bankruptcy filings and it appears they are using a cash reserves (which are not much) and are getting post petition financing. The key will be for them to open and start throwing off some cash from ticket sales. I have a copy of the budget from their bankruptcy filing, but don't know how to post a PDF.

I really like the Court has taken an aggressive stance on the time frame for the sale. Fingers crossed!

1. Instead of a high speed lift install a conveyor loading system. See. It allows a fixed grip lift to be run at a higher speed and with less miss loads. For a mountain like sno a high speed lift isn't needed or probably appropriate. A conveyor however might be perfect. 2. Plant some trees ready NOW. I know they planted trees to the lookers right on the iron horse lift, but those that lived this first "winter" wont be 5' for at least 5-10 years. I think a smaller number of bigger trees similar to what was planted above the phobe lift would be better ascetically and as a wind break. 3. Farm snow. It blows up and off the mountain. Plant trees at the top in a ---___---- pattern. Allows skiers to pass through the trees (leave a snow cat vertical width) but allows you to use the trees as a snow fence and catch the snow that blows up the denuded trails by the iron horse. 4. Summer grooming - there are a lot of rocks on the head-walls and when the snow gets thin they pop through and are kicked up by groomers. You could pay someone 10 bucks and hour to move rocks and it would make the conditions a lot better. E.g. you could do more with less snow. (e.g. de-rock and stump rattler) 5. They cut down trees along the lift-line and left the trees just laying there. It looks terrible. Again pay someone a couple bucks to haul out all of the downed trees rather than letting it rot. Ride the phobe lift to know what i'm talking about. 6. Plant pine trees to shield the view of the maintenance area as you ride the phobe. 10-15 trees hide the junk yard that is the back of the maintenance building. It is visible from the lift and would vastly improve the aesthetic views on the phobe. 7. Get snowmaking additional training. They generally do a great job and I know it is a hard job. But, there is always at least one fan gun that they let blow ice. I think there were a few terrible icy days on boomer and white that were 100 % preventable. When it is 10 degree you should be blowing fine powder not ice. Teach the snowmakers to tweak the guns and maximize temp and nucleation. The fan gun system in place is awesome and when used right makes the best snow in PA. I'd like to see that more consistent. 8. allow more trails to get bumped up. When boomer bumped this year it was a hit. Maybe upper mountain??? 9. On powder days don't groom out everything. This happened last year (sadly no pow days this year) when played hooky and came up to find the groomers had buffed every trail out. What is the harm of letting people ski powder on a couple trails. Ok groom cannonball and lower runaway, but leave the rest. market it as powder days I guarantee people will love it!!! 10. Look at what jack frost is doing with their glades terrain. Some summer maintenance would do wonders. Just some ideas off the top of my head. They've done a much better job this year with a lot - e.g. long haul improved lodge food. But there is a lot of room to build on. VTY Snoskier

I've measured it at about 32-33.

Bumps on white yesterday were good, but the bumps on boomer were fantastic. I like the fact they blew snow on the trail last night. Made the bumps nice and soft. Very awesome!! Good job sno keep it up!

4 trails + bunny hill open. whistler and switch were open (one is the terrain park); cannon ball & boomer aslo open. Boomer was awesome they are letting it bump up.

Lift ride is about 10.5 minutes last I check. Never a line at the lift either.

Santa's comments make a good point. I think the biggest problem is an utter lack of marketing and communication. The lack of communication with the media is a massive problem, but underscores their utter lack of marketing effort. Understanding the mountain might not have a ton of cash there are low cost marketing options they can use. For lack of knowledge or ability they just don't. The mountain could be good as the terrain is solid and the snow making is some of the best in PA. The mountain cannot handle the crowds of blue, but it could handle a lot more people than it does. I hope they can turn it around. But, I have a feeling when they open no one will show up and the owners ask why are our numbers down. Great for me this year as I get to ski empty slopes, but terrible for the long term.

9.5 million Mortgage 5 million loan from the state 1.5 million in taxes and receivables due -------- 16 million in total debt that seems like a LOT!!! I mean even if open this year what is the long term plan you need to be selling a LOT of season passes at 600 a pop to make those number work. Even if you sell 1000 season passes that is only 600,000 dollars. Assume 50,000 skier visits at $25 per ticket is 1.25 Million. You are looking at maybe 2 million in income - I don't know how you pay the operating expenses let alone start to service the debt. Between the state loan (900K per year) and taxes (250K) per year you have 950K to pay operating expense. You still have 9.5 M in mortgage which at zero interest is 300K over 30 years. Income passes 600K visits 1.25M Other 500K Subtotal 2.35M Expenses taxes 250K state loan 900K employees 250K mortgages 500K subtotal 1.9 M These are back of the napkin numbers and they are very rough, but given them you have maybe 400K to pay for COGS and operating expenses. Yikes. If you market it they will come. If you have no one running marketing and you give them no budget .... they wont come.

They used to have a t-bar that was replaced with a double. I think some trail maps might have shown the old t-bar still. That might account for the multiple lifts.

Um, you said the email was sent out on APRIL 1ST. Is this just an April fools day prank. If not they picked a TERRIBLE day to announce.

Was there today. Skiing was really really really really good. Everything was open. Solid base no bare spots that I recall.

Moe were you up Wednesday morning? We must have seen each other as there were only a handful of people there. I was up at Plattekill on Wednesday and conditions were almost great. Platte had avoided the freezing rain/crap for almost all of the storm, but at the last minute a little band of freezing rain came in and made about 1/8-1/4 inch of ice on the top of the snow. It was ACL wrecking Creme Brulee. Crust on the top, but deep and creamy underneath. The layer was so hard that it was unbuckling my boots. I ski on lange's which are notoriously tough to unbuckle and it was popping them without problem. So i'm not surprised that Moe had some issues. Only took 3 runs before they shut down to run the groomers and break it up a little. We were coming in anyway because it was dangerous and asking to get hurt. Some really nice turns could be had once the crust was broken up, but we didn't want to stick around to be those guinea pigs. I'm certain that once it was groomed out it would be great packed powder. But we didn't stick around to find out because we made the total ski bum decision to head north and hit Mad River. We were not disappointed... awesome conditions. Crossing my finger Platte has another powder day this season so I can head back up.

I think they looked at the eight pack (the ocho) and decided to install a tram or a funicular instead. Honestly they just need to use a conveyor system and increase the speed of the triple ala alta.

Given that the water barrels used to weight test lifts are still on the chairs I think it is safe to say that it has not been inspected. I don't think it is a staffing issues, but rather they need the state to pass the lift. I hope they are waiting on some small parts or something and not something $$$$$$$. I'd love to see the lift open soon, but wont hold my breath.

I've got to think white is getting close to being groomed out. It is getting pretty gnarly even by my standards. Rest of the mountain has been really good and if it stays snow... watch out!

Pictures are up at TGR. My link

Pictures up at TGR. Not 100% sure how to link to the picture. My link My link

Looks like the wind derailed the cable on one of the lifts sugarloaf in ME. Hope everyone is ok, but a great illustration of why we have wind holds sometimes. My link