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Plunge: The Catskill Beast?

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PeeTex

Re: Plunge: The Catskill Beast?

mattchuck2 wrote

PeeTex wrote

So you drive what is it, about 250 miles each way to ski 7 runs at the end of May. You burn up close to 20 gallons of gasoline! Your the reason why we have Global Warming - your an environmental disaster.

At least he knows how to spell...

It was never one of my strengths.
I figured he seemed to be missing Mikey so I wanted to make him feel better...

Don't ski the trees, ski the spaces between the trees.

Brownski

Re: Plunge: The Catskill Beast?

In reply to this post by Harvey

Sitting around baseball fields all weekend got me thinking about this again. Any Roxbury locals eyeballed the hill lately? How realistic would this idea be? It would have been doable to get there for a half day even though I couldn't get to Killington

"You want your skis? Go get 'em!" -W. Miller

Harvey

Re: Plunge: The Catskill Beast?

Administrator

Funny I was just thinking about this too. With all the energy we skiers, we humans use, it's hard for me to isolate this as a top crime against nature.

My plans for Killy on Sunday unraveled tonight, I'm hoping she'll last another 10 days.

"You just need to go at that shit wide open, hang on, and own it." —Camp

Ethan Snow

Re: Plunge: The Catskill Beast?

Funny, I was just thinking of taking a ride over to see for myself how the hill looked. I'm not exactly a Roxbury local, but it's not far out of the way for me. I still think this needs to happen. Problem is the number of hours it takes to cover Northface (or Plunge) that thick would come at the cost of many other trails on the hill with the current snowmaking setup. Perhaps funds need to be put tward the reservoir first. I know for a fact those guns on Northface can be run twice as rich if only they had the water to put to them.

I'll take boilerplate ice over wet snow any day

Brownski

Re: Plunge: The Catskill Beast?

Maybe the key here would be to reduce operating expenses down to where the reduced ticket sales would justify staying open. How about we find an old rope tow to install where the T bar was? My thinking is that the rope could be left in storage until it's needed in April so that the woods between Plunge and Northface stay accessible most of the season

"You want your skis? Go get 'em!" -W. Miller

raisingarizona

Re: Plunge: The Catskill Beast?

I loved the old t-bar set up. The one thing about rope tows is that they shred your gloves into pieces

Ethan Snow

Re: Plunge: The Catskill Beast?

Having a rope tow up Northface would be a sure way to not get any business. I have many friends (good skiers) who can not even ride all the way up my 750' rope tow which has one 50' section that even comes close to the steepnesss of Northface. Just run the chairlift. It takes two people and the electricity really is negligible. It runs a lot in the summer for a lot fewer people. (Although this summer it will run less frequently)

I'll take boilerplate ice over wet snow any day

raisingarizona

Re: Plunge: The Catskill Beast?

What's changing this summer Ethan? Is the bike park still popular?

Ethan Snow

Re: Plunge: The Catskill Beast?

This post was updated on .

Email received a few days ago, and posted in "Plattekill Conditions" this morning. I don't dare give my two cents. In all honesty, It's hard to say if this could have been avoided. Windham spent a shit ton of money on their bike park a few years ago, and there really aren't many casual riders showing up there either. What's keeping them afloat is the World Cup venue.

Harvey wrote

Plattekill Mountain To Make Changes to Mountain Biking Schedule & Summer Operations

April 27, 2017

Roxbury, NY: Plattekill Mountain in Roxbury, New York, has announced changes to its summer operations for the 2017 season.

For more than 24 years, Plattekill has welcomed mountain bikers every weekend May through November for its lift-accessed summer mountain biking operation. One of the first mountain bike centers to open in 1995 in the Northeast, Plattekill became an icon in the industry. However, in the past few years, there has been a surge of mountain bike parks opening at ski resorts in the Northeast, Mountain bike "centers" have evolved into "parks" offering more manicured, flowy, machine built terrain: something that is extremely expensive for a small operation like Plattekill to compete with.

With this increased competition, the market is now being spread out among many other facilities. Plattekill has had to restructure its biking operations to offer biking on a more limited basis this year. "The Northeast bike park landscape has become increasingly more crowded, which has significantly affected our ridership," explains long-time owner, Laszlo Vajtay. "Simply put, we can’t afford to turn the lifts and staff the park on the same schedule we have in the past."

Plattekill will continue offering mountain biking for 2017, but on a smaller scale than in previous years. Biking will be open to the public the first weekend of each month in July, August, September, and October in conjunction with it's "Music on the Mountain" free concert series to create more of a "festival-like" setting. In addition the mountain will be open in conjunction with the "Eastern States Cup" series downhill race the weekend of July 8-9. Lift hours on all operating weekends this year will be extended and will be open 9am - 5pm. Guests will continue to have the opportunity to rent biking equipment.

Plattekill will also be adding additional operating days by offering private mountain rentals for corporate groups, private parties and summer youth camps which may or may not include a biking component based on the individual group's needs. These private rentals will afford groups the unique option of having the luxury of personalized service and privacy catered to individual interests including meeting space, team building, mountain biking, racing or a combination thereof.

More information on mountain rentals can be obtained by contacting Plattekill's Marketing and Group Sales Manager, Christy Jaromack, at christy@plattekill.com or (607)326-3500, ext. 116.

I'll take boilerplate ice over wet snow any day

Brownski

Re: Plunge: The Catskill Beast?

In reply to this post by Ethan Snow

You guys need a couple of these bad boys- bosquet tow grippers.

In the last couple years I've become a big fan of surface lifts. I bet more people then you think would be able to handle it. You're probably right about the costs of running the double but I'm looking for ways to reduce the operating costs down to nothing.

"You want your skis? Go get 'em!" -W. Miller

raisingarizona

Re: Plunge: The Catskill Beast?

In reply to this post by Ethan Snow

That makes sense. I like old school dh but I had a hunch they weren't going to be able to compete with all of the other parks that have been built on the EC.

Maybe making it into more of an enduro/xc area could be done with some volunteer work to create a new system? I might be in the minority but I really like those sorts of low key places and being that it's on private land you could still have more dynamic and rowdy riding.

Not to derail but I'd like to see more updates Ethan of your trail work, maybe start a thread in the summer forum for trail building? I love trail work. We are working on a big project right now here in Flag and we are waiting on approval for it. The project is to reroute an old shitty fall line trail and turn it into a beautiful bench cut trail with expansive views, killer control points, and close to 5 miles of cruisy, high speed, flowy xc descent.

Brownski

Re: Plunge: The Catskill Beast?

Platty put out a pic of a fresh dusting of snow on the mountain this morning. Not saying that there's enough to ski or that they could get to mid may with more snowmaking investment but I think it's an indicator that there is at least some theoretical potential for this idea. Maybe set a goal of May 1 for a normal year.

"You want your skis? Go get 'em!" -W. Miller

Ethan Snow

Re: Plunge: The Catskill Beast?

Still nothing like the 6" we got on Mother's Day years ago. A dusting in high elevations is not astronomical for early May.

My commute through Northern Delaware County this morning looked similar.

I'll take boilerplate ice over wet snow any day

Brownski

Re: Plunge: The Catskill Beast?

Last week’s snow made me think of this idea again. Then the speedy melt made me think i5 would never work

"You want your skis? Go get 'em!" -W. Miller

Junior

Re: Plunge: The Catskill Beast?

In reply to this post by Harvey

Maybe this is the year for Plattekill to try this out, since there’s so much early snow. What do you guys think? Should we start a petition?

Harvey wrote

Been tossing this idea around between a few of us about what it would take to bury Plunge in 10 feet of snow with the goal of keeping one run open in the Catskills through April and potentially into May. Would love to convince Laz to go for it, if it is practical.

There are a lot a variables with snowmaking including temperature, wet bulb and cost/kwh but an educated estimate of total cost is somewhere around $50,000 in extra cost to do this. That number was spitballed by Laz himself.

To pay that off you'd need somewhere around 1000 skier visits from non-passholders, or maybe a few less if you could leverage the extended season to sell more passes. "Buy now and ski the rest of the season free."

1000 visits would be 100 per day over 5 weekends.

This could add 5 days to my season. It's not easy for me to get to Killington at this time of year and I could definitely day trip Plattekill.

Love this idea but last thing I want to do is push for something that could hurt Plattekill financially. Logistically I guess you blow Plunge on it's regular schedule and look for prime (cold) opportunities to go deeper.

One last thing, the choice would really be between Plunge and North Face. I'm pushing for Plunge.

Pros for each:

Plunge: narrower (so cheaper to blow and it gets less sun) and right under the lift so you don't need to keep the connector covered and more opportunity for social media love with pics from the lift.

North Face: top to bottom guns hardwired, no need for running hoses.

NY Metro, Hudson Valley or CNY skiers: What do you think? Realistically would you pay to ski Plattekill a la Superstar if it was open later in the spring? Would it increase your likelyhood to buy a pass? Maybe a non-holiday? Other thoughts on logistics or how to make this viable? Sponsors? Ideas on how to market or brand it? Used the beast, but I think that is already taken. ;)

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