Glens Falls Post Star Editorial About Tax Funds for ORDA

If you think Gore has the second best glades in the east, you obviously haven't skied Mad River, where you can do over 1,500 continous feet of vertical in the woods without crossing an actual trail.  Locally, Hickory has way better tree skiing than Gore.

I've skied the woods at Gore since before it was legal.  Like the rest of the mountain, most of them are pretty easy.  Good for intermediates trying to up their game, but not a lot of challenges in there.  A few, here and there.  The Dark Side Glade is pretty fun, but it's in and out in about 2 minutes, and requires a lot of very flat skiing before and after.  If they had made the Rumor a glade, instead of a vertical hockey rink, now THAT would have been fun.  

Gore is hampered by its terrain and its management.  Nobody can change the first, and ORDA is unlikely to change the second.

Most Mad River skiers pretty much stick to home.  Many can't afford Sugarbush.  Tourists, on the other hand, may take advantage of the proximity of Sugarbush, and hit both mountains, or use Sugarbush as a back-up.

There are times when there is so little snow or a thaw/freeze cycle hits so hard, that Mad River has to close for a few days, and having Sugarbush down the road is a real plus, business-wise.  On the other hand, in the past, I have skied both mountains on consecutive days and the conditions at Mad River were superior to those at Sugarbush.  Low lift capacity, natural snow, low skier density and minimal grooming keep conditions there good, when (like Gore's) Sugarbush's manmade snow has been pounded into skating rinks by the high skier traffic, and then groomed to a surface more suitable for hockey.  

And there's always the woods, where it's always a powder day.

I'll make it simpler. Without Sugarbush, Mad River would have gone under or swallowed up by a corporation a long time ago. No way that place could exist as it does on it's own.

Hmm a rumor glade, now why I didn't I think of that....DOH!!!

Darkside Shaman wrote

Hmm a rumor glade, now why I didn't I think of that....DOH!!!

That's a fantastic thought! I say it should be named cleavage.

ADX wrote

 Gore is.... mostly for day skiers, and that's about it.  It will never be a destination resort, no matter what they do to it, and no matter who runs it.

Unless Front Street pulls a rabbit out of their hat, ADX has perhaps the most accurate assessment yet. Not sure that's a bad thing either.

ADX wrote

ORDA could, in theory, fix the management problem.

Rut Row, you better duck ADX. Them's fightin words 'round here. I know. That's a good way to get a

ADX - I'm sorry but MRG is just not open enough to merit consideration compared to Gore or Jay.  MRG is a nice niche area and is great for probalby 20 days a season but its so undependable

agree with benny that if the Bush was not next door MRG would have be in the lost ski area project book long ago

My take on the Post-Star editorial was published on Adirondack Almanack this morning.  There's a lot of common ground with the piece Harvey wrote, but some differences too.  Sent mine to the Post Star as well, don't know if they'll actually run it.

More comments over at the Adirondack Almanack
http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2011/10/commentary-orda-privatization-not.html

well this one is better tought out compared to the last one.  as the writer mentions its very Gore cectric but its ideas for mid week terrian are spot on concerning Gore

what i don't get is he starts laying out the argue of Orda's importance to ADks and economic impact and then concludes Bell should join Orda -these two ideas do not go together.  Bell would greatly take away from Orda's prime mandate and that would be a huge mistake.

ausable skier wrote

well this one is better tought out compared to the last one.  as the writer mentions its very Gore cectric but its ideas for mid week terrian are spot on concerning Gore

Thanks.  As I mentioned in the article, Gore is the part of ORDA's operations that I'm most familiar with, and it's also the part of ORDA's ops with the most untapped opportunities.

ausable skier wrote

what i don't get is he starts laying out the argue of Orda's importance to ADks and economic impact and then concludes Bell should join Orda -these two ideas do not go together.  Bell would greatly take away from Orda's prime mandate and that would be a huge mistake.

Without re-hashing or re-opening the long debate we've already had regarding Belle/ORDA, I've always been a proponent of that.  I know that you're not, and that's fine.  We'll have a beer or 3 sometime, maybe even at WF!

beer sounds good

you did a nice job on the rational  and writing for the editoral excpet for the part about Bell that we can agree to disagree about

To bring this thread full-circle, the Post-Star ran my counterpoint as a Guest Essay in today's (Sunday) print edition.  I had to trim it from around 1100 words down to 700-ish, but it's essentially the same piece that I wrote for Adirondack Almanack.  

Great job Jeff

i know we continue to disagree about Bell.  I just don't think that getting orda to run a balanced budget and then asking it to run another ski area that has a history of losing money are consistent with each other.  Do you think that the state will actually give orda more money to run Bell - no they will give them the same and then the heat will get put on when the loss widens.    Unless the local town and county for Bell put up significant money into the kitty to cover Bells likely loses this idea could be the begining of the end for Orda.  This is why i oppose this concept every times its brought up.  Only a year and a half ago we were facing the potential that WF and Gore might not be able to operatre - one small ski area in the Catskills is not worth the risk to the crown jewels of NYS skiing.