Outtakes from 11-12 Ski Season Preview

Last week the Adirondack Almanack carried my preview of this winter's ski season:
http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2011/09/upcoming-ski-season-preview.html.

I got way more information than I could use for just that article, so I decided to put together a series of outtakes - excerpts of my interviews with personnel (mostly GMs) from the various Adirondack ski areas that I spoke with - which may be of interest to Forum members.  The first of those is up today, my conversation with Emily Stanton of Gore Mountain.  The next outtake will go up at the end of the week or early next.  Among other things, we talked about snowmaking for 46er and at the Ski Bowl in general, and access to/from the Ski Bowl and BR - a recent topic here on the Forum.  While 46er may get snowmaking for the 2012-2013 season, I got the sense that project may take a back seat to other projects to improve the flow between the new terrain pods.

seems that Gore's management is in tune to the multiple huge flat spots being their biggest problem to grow the family and snowboard customers base and that the new terrian sections made it a lot worse than it already was

good to hear that they get it and are working a plan to fix it though is seems to be a ways away

I put up my interview with Mike Barbone today, owner & GM of West Mountain Ski Center.  Since purchasing West Mountain from its founder Mike Brandt several years ago, Barbone has made some very visible and significant upgrades, including a complete renovation and expansion of the lodge's restaurant and one of the first RFID ticketing systems to be installed in New York.  Barbone has also continued to invest in snowmaking, which seems to be paying off in terms of West's reputation for delivering quality snow surfaces:
Season Preview Outtakes:  West Mountain

Put up my talk with Bill Van Pelt from Hickory Ski Center today.  Bill talks about snowmaking, lifts, and how to position Hickory in the market.  

Nice work Jeff!

Thanks K-man.  
There are a lot of pieces to the Hickory story, far more than what's in my "outtake."   It's worth mentioning here that there wouldn't have been a Hickory left to be re-born in 2009 if it hadn't been for the voluteers and shareholders like Hickory Martha who worked hard to keep Hickory alive.

My Whiteface outtake, with Bruce McCulley and Jon Lundin was posted this morning.  Willard went up last week.