Porcupine Lodge

Porcupine Lodge was built in the mid 50's and sits on top of Lookout Mt. Since that pod opened it has been used by ski patrol. It is now under reconstruction for public use for this coming season.



Inside lodge looking toward front of building.

NICE to see the old girl getting some love.

Why spend money on this?
That pod is barely ever open
How much is this really going to get used?

I love seeing this kind of stuff. Old lodges like this just ooooooze ADK's and should be restored for all to see and use.

Definitely worth preserving .

Will Patrol still use it as well?

Sno is back from the dead

Coach Z wrote

Why spend money on this?
That pod is barely ever open
How much is this really going to get used?

Why not?  Maybe this is part of a plan to be opening it more often.  It doesn't have to hardly ever be open and before 15-16, they seemed to open Lookout much more often.

PeeTex wrote

Will Patrol still use it as well?

No...there's an 8x8 hut just off to the left of the top of lift L where ski patrol will be stationed for their watch on Lookout. That's the last I heard.

snoloco wrote

Sno is back from the dead

Coach Z wrote

Why spend money on this?
That pod is barely ever open
How much is this really going to get used?

Why not?  Maybe this is part of a plan to be opening it more often.  It doesn't have to hardly ever be open and before 15-16, they seemed to open Lookout much more often.

Weather permitting it should be open more. With doubling the capacity of Pump House 1 the lower mountain will get covered a lot faster, so snowmaking will be able to start earlier on Lookout then it has in past seasons.

I was looking to see what the original intent of Porcupine Lodge was and came across this article on Marble Mountain

http://www.albany.edu/asrc/assets/MarbleMtnArticle.pdf

I'd never heard of it before.

HGTVfan wrote

Weather permitting it should be open more. With doubling the capacity of Pump House 1 the lower mountain will get covered a lot faster, so snowmaking will be able to start earlier on Lookout then it has in past seasons.

Is the doubling of Pump House 1 new for next season?

I'm guessing that the Porcupine Lodge rebuild just came out of the regular maintenance budget.  Not sure if it will just be a warming hut, or if it will have bathrooms or any other services available.  Either way, it's nice to see some upgrades coming to Lookout.  Knowing how steep some sections of Wilmington are, there's no way a work road could've been built to the top, so all staff, supplies, and equipment relating to the lodge renovation has to come up on the lift.

While Coach hates the Wilmington Trail, most people I've always thought it was quite popular among most guests.  Every day it was open last year there were plenty of people skiing it.  I also didn't find it to get any more skied off than other trails with similar difficulty and skier traffic.

snoloco wrote

Is the doubling of Pump House 1 new for next season?

Yes

snoloco wrote

I'm guessing that the Porcupine Lodge rebuild just came out of the regular maintenance budget.  Not sure if it will just be a warming hut, or if it will have bathrooms or any other services available.

TBD

snoloco wrote

I'm guessing that the Porcupine Lodge rebuild just came out of the regular maintenance budget.  Not sure if it will just be a warming hut, or if it will have bathrooms or any other services available.

HGTVfan wrote

TBD

According to the UMP, it's 2 holding tanks that will be brought down via cat.

D.B. Cooper wrote

According to the UMP, it's 2 holding tanks that will be brought down via cat.

I don't think I'd want the job of emptying those.

Hopefully there isn't a tank failure that spills raw sewage all over Wilmington.

Just mark it with a pop.

If CP is going to serve food up there then they will be stuck with some of the bill for the renovations.
 
The shocking part of this is they are working on this now as opposed to the normal wait until late fall thing as is Orda's norm

Nice find Camp.  Its great to hear they are working on getting snow making capacity increased.  To have a POD like that go underutilized is a shame.  The old timers don't like change but for what it is worth W and Hoyts are two of the better trails on the mountain.   The way they are increasing the capacity is creative, whoever thought of it KUDOS

Coach Z wrote

If CP is going to serve food up there then they will be stuck with some of the bill for the renovations.
 
The shocking part of this is they are working on this now as opposed to the normal wait until late fall thing as is Orda's norm

Well, there were building materials up there over the winter.  I saw jack posts and foam board insulation....maybe left over from late last fall.

I don't think CP is going to sell food there.  It's just not big enough.  It would help quite a bit if they did because mid always gets completely overrun on racing days, and if it's a busy day, I try not to go to the bottom.

Last year, I entered the grilling scene to save money on food, and I might try using Porcupine Lodge as an alternate location if mid looks crowded.

It would make a sweet, street taco shack. Sell tecate out of there too.