BC-Mark

Ok, it is official, we will open Friday at 4PM. I will have a trail count later today or early in the morning. See you tomorrow!

The snowmakers did an amazing job last night. For those of you that haven't been up this year to see the snowmaking system in action, it is truly impressive to drive in the driveway and see guns pounding every trail! We are looking at an opening late this week if the forecast holds true. We may miss tonight due to high humidity, but the next 3 to 4 nights look really promising. Keep thinking cold!

We had a disappointing night of snowmaking last night. Got favorable temps at 11pm and had decent production until 2am. At 2am, the humidity spiked and the temperature rose and we began spraying water. We shut down quickly and waited for better conditions to arrive but they never swung back in our favor. The forecast looks like we can fire up around 4pm or 5pm tonight. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

We are hoping the temperatures dip low enough around 11pm, as predicted, to allow for snowmaking tonight. We will be making snow at every opportunity and hope to open by mid to late next week if weather permits. To ease everyone's fears, the tubing park is ready for snow and the traffic through the base area is for the new hotel. We finished the grading of the runout early this week and we are all set to go. There is still some earth moving on the outside of the runout to create a parking area adjacent to tubing but that does not affect the slopes. As soon as the snowmaking cuts off the access through the base area, the trucks will go around the back side of the hotel.

Here are a few updates to answer some of the questions: 1) Lighting has been improved on the tubing park jump line. It is permanent and we did add 6 new guns in that area. 2) The new lift will be a fixed grip quad. The issue is not vertical, it is the line length of the lift. The shorter the length, the more often chairs come off and reattach to the cable leading to chair spacing issues and increased down time. Last year was the first year Doppelmayr/CTEC installed a high speed with a line length as short as ours. Until that, they did not recommend installations with a line length less than 3000'. For reference, the line length on A lift is roughly 2400'. 3) The new guns went in the tubing area, bottom of Kodiak, Cub Run, Broadway and a few fill in spots on upper Kodiak, Drifter and Timberline. I hope that helps. Check out the webcams, the snow looks great!

As most of you have seen on the webcams, we began making snow last night around 9PM. We are shutting down now, around 7:45AM. Black Bear, Kodiak and Cascade were our primary focuses along with the base area. We didn't push the new system anywhere near the limits last night, but everything ran well and we look forwad to seeing what it can really do when we get some seriously cold temps! We plan on making snow in the same areas tonight if conditions allow. Unfortunately, we are looking at a 8 to 10 day warm up after tonight but let's hope the forecast swings in our favor.

Here are some new photos that I took yesterday of some of the features Andy is finishing up. They show the quarterpipe, a long flat/step down/flat box, the double c box, the concrete ledge and the bleacher feature.

We don't have any predictions on opening date, but for the record, we have made snow as early as Nov. 20th. There have also been two Thanksgiving's that we have made snow as well. As for historical opening dates, we have opened on the 7th and 9th of December and would love to open earlier but that is entirely weather dependent. Our on mountain projects are nearly complete, there is a just a little seeding/stabilization left to complete in the tubing park and some configuration/testing of the new pumps. We can make snow now out of the old pump house and the new pump house should be completely functional by Nov. 20th. All the new guns are set and ready to go and all the old guns have had their summer maintenance completed. The ponds are nearly full and should be at capacity after tonight's rain. The aeration system is in both ponds and the new fountains for the big pond should be installed in the coming weeks to facilitate water cooling. There are two spots that require some slope clean-up, both near the bottom of F lift. That project will be complete by Nov. 14th. The hotel should be ready for occupancy prior to Dec. 1.

I just wanted to add a picture of Andy's latest project. It is going to be a movable, skate-style, quarter pipe. He is using the UHMW plastic to top it and it will be approximately 8' to 9' tall and 20' to 25' wide when completed. He also has a sample of concrete terrazzo that he plans to use to construct an urban concrete ledge on a steel rail base. When he begins construction on that, I will get some photos posted for you. Just and FYI, the fiber project is completed and the Black Bear Park cam is now operational again.

Here are a few pictures I shot yesterday afternoon of the hotel progress and the pond filling. The pond is about 1/2 full at this point and we expect to have it full in the next 3 weeks. The wet well and footers for the pump house is done and the new pumps are on site. The building should be standing in the next 4 weeks. The gun bases are all in but the guns will not arrive until the 28th. It should take a few days to put them in place. The piping project on the hill is complete and the electric for the new guns is complete. The lighting in the tubing area has been completed and should be much better this year. The fiber optic feeds all across the mountain will be completed Monday so the service to the remote cams should be faster and more reliable this year. We have added two permanent wheel gun locations just above the big staircase and a tower gun placement just above those to fill in a gap at the bottom of the Black Bear park. Notice in the pictures that the tree line separating the bottom of Kodiak from the bottom of Black Bear is complete so we will hopefully eliminate cross traffic below the big staircase and allow us to put bigger/more features in that area. Andy is beginning construction on the new features for this year. I will let him update you on that as construction progresses, but the concept drawings he put together look great.

Several years ago we were very interested in putting in a track or hosting several events. We contacted Blackman's Cycle and they wanted to be involved. We went to the township and they informed us that the noise ordinance for our zoning area, Rural Recreation, stipulates that we are not allowed to exceed 90dB at the property lines. Blackman's brought out 4 of their quietest bikes and we were still well over 110dB at our property lines. We spoke with several of the closest neighbors and they all indicated that they would lodge protests at the special exception hearing that would be required to get a zoning variance. At that point, both parties decided to stop persuing the idea.

Andy is building new rails for this year, not sure on the quantity or what they will be. I know he is planning to upload photos as he builds them. I believe his plan is to fab the new rails starting in September. The beginning of the summer he spent repairing the existing rails. From what I saw at Texas Ski Ranch, they were in the mid-20's for a two hour session, mid-30's for a 4 hour session and in the mid-40's for all day. I think their passes are in the $700 range for a season pass. If we do build something like that, we would definitely offer a year round pass that includes the cable park and winter. If we discover that this is a viable summer activity, I hope they are more communicative than the snowflex people. We finally gave up on contacting them. We never heard a word. We are always looking for land adjacent to Bear Creek and currently have a few feelers out but nothing really active.

If we do not sell the lift as a complete lift, we will more than likely sell the chairs individually. We also have a few extra double chairs that we keep on hand for replacement. Those may also be available. I can say that the purchase of Hall Chairlifts by Doppelmayr/CTEC has created a fairly high demand for old Hall chairs on the used equipment market and the chairs will likely sell for $100 to $200 a piece. I will keep everyone posted as more information becomes available. By the way, thanks for the compliment Method. I don't want rumors to start flying around, so what follows is just an effort to gauge interest. When I was in TX last year I stopped in at a place called the Texas Ski Ranch. They have a cable tow wakeboard park that looked like a good fit for our market. With the expanded pond, it might be feasible to put something like that in at Bear Creek. Here are a few sites if anyone is interested, texasskiranch.com and cablewakeboard.com We have to do a lot more research to determine what the potential revenue and return on investment would be. In addition, we have to assess the impact on other summer revenue streams and determine what potential conflicts we might have with events like weddings and corporate retreats. So in a very informal market study, would something like that interest anyone?

Time to break the silence. Here are the improvements for this year: 1) Separating lower Black Bear from Lower Kodiak to allow more features to be put in that area and eliminate cross traffic 2) Adding an additional pump house with another 4000 gpm capacity, doubling our total pumping capacity to 8000 gpm 3) Doubling the size of the upper pond to accommodate storage requirements for doubled pumping capacity 4) Addition of 20 new automated fan guns 5) Permanent separation between the tubing park and the terrain park set up in the tubing area 6) Additional lighting in the tubing park area of the terrain park 7) New 64 room hotel, spa, outdoor pool and a new bar and grill 8) Dedicated park patrol to educate users on proper use and direct users to parks appropriate for their skill level 9) Increased park crew size with the goal of keeping all our features pristine and enable more frequent changes in the park 10) New Pisten Bully groomer, allowing 2 cats to be dedicated to the park each night Now, to dispel some myths and confirm some rumors. Yes, the doubled pumping capacity will allow us to run all 120 guns at one time down to a wet-bulb of 23F. This will translate into the ability to open with more terrain and deeper base depths, earlier creation of larger features and faster recover from warm spells. As for pass prices, we did increase pass prices by roughly 10%, adding roughly

I wish we could let you guys hike but we already have trucks already running through the base area and the last thing we need is someone getting crushed by a dump truck. On the bright side, we are doing another major snowmaking upgrade and some pretty cool things to the parks this summer. Everything should add up to a faster opening with bigger features earlier in the season.

Two new photo galleries are up, I will finish posting the remaining pictures tomorrow. Thanks to everyone that came out on Sunday and all season. Upgrades are already underway for next year, be sure to check the website for updates.

Here is our reasoning behind a 65 day guarantee: 1) Our season pass rates are the lowest in PA and, when purchased early, all have between a 5.5 and 7 visit break even point. We feel it is reasonable to be able to visit roughly 1 out of every 10 days. 2) We budget on an 80 day season which seems to be typical in this region. 3) Pass holders take a risk buying a pass early based on speculation about the season. In exchange for a heavily discounted pass price, we believe that a 20% risk, based on a 65 day season as a percentage of a typical 80 day season, is not unreasonable. 4) Based on our research, no other ski area in PA offers a guarantee on passes of any kind and we always want to be a guest service leader. Several areas do offer the ability to purchase a third party insurance policy costing between $10 and $30. We investigated these policies and they are based on dubious calculations hinging on the number of heating degree days in a season. Our conclusion was that the majority of the programs were essentially valueless scams. 5) We really are pure evil as some people believe and our goal is to anger as many people as possible.

Here is the latest update on a closing date: As long as we have snow and are covering operating costs then we will continue to stay open. Based on my 13 years in the ski industry in PA, guest interest usually dies off before the snow disappears. If you really want BC to stay open, spread the word that we still have snow, the parks are the best they have been all year and get all your friends out. The decision is highly influenced by guest actions. See you out there.

Just to clear up some incorrect items that have been circulating: First, we made snow well into March last year and pushed all the snow from Sasquatch, Kodiak and Black Bear into a 50' x 500' pile 15' deep on skiers left of Kodiak. Unfortunately, we got hit with 60 to 70 degree temperatures and lots of rain the last week of March causing the pile to melt faster than expected. Second, we intend to make snow this year as long as it makes sense. We made snow last week and we will be making snow Sunday through Wednesday nights if the forecasted temperatures arrive. What we have never and will never do is make snow once the slopes are beyond recovery. It doesn't make economic or environmetal sense to waste resources if the outcome will not improve or prolong the season. As for the bathrooms on top of the mountain, they do exist near the top of Timberline. Unfortunately, it is a case of a few idiots ruining a good thing for everyone else. The problems started as tp'ing and graffitti and escalated to stall doors being ripped of their hinges and sinks being torn off the wall causing the bathrooms to flood. The final straw came when our cleaning staff went up for a mid-afternoon cleaning visit and someone had taken a dump in the sink. After that, we boarded them up for good.

We can't really accept any congratulations on bringing this even to you, John Lotz from Buckman's and Kent Fried from Atomic brought the event to Bear Creek and we thank them for that. On a side note, we will also be having a rare Saturday NASTAR event this Saturday, 3-3-07, from 1pm to 4pm with former US Ski Team/Olympian AJ Kitt as the guest pacesetter. Fees will be the same as normal NASTAR, $5 for 2 runs and $10 for unlimited.

Thanks for all the compliments but what makes Bear Creek successful is all the people on our team that believe in our vision and take it to heart when things don't go right. We all want to deliver perfect guest service and the best guest experience. When we fail we all feel horrible and start brainstorming on how to fix the issue and improve. We have some pretty creative ideas already. Keep your eyes open for a survey in the near future. Thanks again.

Thanks for all the input. Andy has been really tied up with the Buckman's events the last 2 weeks and we all agree the parks have become a bit stale. The park crew is going to tear down and rebuild the Cascade park tomorrow night and the Black Bear park on Wednesday night. I don't kow all the details of the rebuild but the Subaru and the 420 box are coming back out for sure. I know he also plans on building the urban line for the comp in two weeks.

There are plans to pave the back lot. We are going to be using it as a staging area for the new building construction this summer and we didn't want to pave it only to have to repave it a year later. Most altercations we have occur involving one or more season pass holder. We haven't had any serious altercations but there has been no public area that is out of the view of the majority of the public and easier to hide from security staff. All other parking areas have constant traffic and presence by security and parking attendants. If something were to occur in such a remote location the response time would be at least 5 minutes which, to us, is an unacceptable security risk.

Skifreak, I actually suggested that during our first phase of development. They are cost prohibitive, running between $13,000 and $14,000 a space! We have been tossing around the idea of a season pass parking lot off skier's right of Cascade that would be gate controlled. The main reason we haven't implemented it is security. As bad as it sounds, between 80% and 90% of our behavior issues occur with season pass holders. We are afraid a remote lot for pass holders could lead to some serious safety concerns even with increased security patrols/presence.

Let me begin by saying that I am sorry we had to turn anyone away yesterday, particularly season pass holders. At 10:30AM we saw that it was a definite possibility that we would run out of parking. We began telling people on the phone that we may be at capacity by the time they arrive and we posted it on the website in several locations that we were already at capacity. At the same time we started a voluntary turn-away at the gate. We were offering people directions to other mountains and a 2 for 1 Midweek ticket voucher if they chose to turn around. In addition, we reserved parking Lot 5, which holds approximately 100 cars, for pass holders. When we started mandatory turn away around noon we were only allowing pass holders in. It took about 30 to 45 minutes to fill up lot 5. Based on our scanning data it should have been more than enough to accommodate pass holders arriving between 11am and 1pm. As a side note on this issue, you would not believe the number of people claiming to have