The Home Mountain

I've been wondering if the "Home Mountain" is in jeopardy.

With consolidation more and more people are members of one of the big collectives.

Will people stop having a home mountain? Will it matter? Do you care either way?

Wondering what people think about this shift in the business.

I actually wish I had a home Mountain. I would have a home mountain but all my peeps have gone mainstream with the big collectives, and I like to ski with people.

I think I would still consider my home mountain Plattekill, I just haven't been home much lately because life's been a little Hectic.

West mt. Wednesday with grandkids homeschool lessons. Friday with old guys and gals. Sunday morning for church. West is doing great for us this season, new little lift lots of snowmaking upgrades and quiet friendly atmosphere.

I think I’ve got a different idea of what “home mountain” means then most people. To me, it’s the place where you learned or spent the most time during your developmental phase as a skier, rather then just a spot where you happen to have a season pass. So for me it’s Jiminy Peak. I’ll always have a warm spot in my heart for that place, even though it has changed a great deal since I regularly skied there. For my kids it’s Mount Peter, even if they never ski there again. Thanks
Edit: more to the point, last year I bought a max pass- which was fun but had downsides too. This year I decided to put down roots and get a season pass at Plattekill. Of course the ability to mix it up with a couple days at other hills (FreedomPass) probably helped me commit

Yes this matters particularly for Orda homers
I love WF.  I chose to move my family there.  I have no other options unless a constitutional NYS amendment gets passed allowing it to be leased to ikon.  Zero chance of that with our current dictatorship in Albany as where else would he be able to rain money on the wrong things  for in the Daks
There are lots of us on this blog that live and bleed with this Mt.  mr lady parts keeps saying we can go elsewhere but with WF and maybe to a lessor extent gore peeps that is not the case

Some tourist was talking trash yesterday in the Gondi line saying why wasn’t there more grooming on a pow day.  What a herb. We locals get to bitch but if you are not invested (talking to you mr lady parts) just shut your trap
For better or for worse this is our Mt regardless of how much fun they try to take out of it.  
Wf's the best expert ski area in the east period!

Z wrote

Some tourist was talking trash yesterday in the Gondi line saying why wasn’t there more grooming.  What a herb. We locals get to bitch but if you are not invested like mr lady parts just shut your trap
For better or for worse this is our Mt regardless of how much fun they try to take out of it

Holy SHIT!  Entitled much?

Keep 'em coming Z.  You are really showing some true character tonight.

Cunningstunts wrote

Z wrote

Some tourist was talking trash yesterday in the Gondi line saying why wasn’t there more grooming.  What a herb. We locals get to bitch but if you are not invested like mr lady parts just shut your trap
For better or for worse this is our Mt regardless of how much fun they try to take out of it

Holy SHIT!  Entitled much?

Keep 'em coming Z.  You are really showing some true character tonight.

You are something you wipe off you shoe after walking in a dog park
You want to defend a herb that complains about lack of grooming on a Epic pow day go for it.  Wasn’t that it powass that wanted all trees b netted.  Sounds like the same moron to me
What a fing Joey mt lady parts is
We are trying to help fix this mess while you don’t give a poop about any area.    Go back over my posts for like 10 years.  I was quite the WF homer but things need to be fixed.  Like I said locals talk a lot and the natives are definately restless.

   When you posted that pic from inside Platty in the wee hours of the night, that was really nice. Please TR that experience! Brownski makes a good point, I guess I'm conflicted between the two definitions.
    As a kid I had to go to Windham early and stay well beyond closing. Watching all the operations and knowing the people making it happen made it feel like home. Staying slopeside at Brodie for a few years in a row on every vacation and extended weekend did it for me there as well. I'm strongly considering going the way of Brownski next year vs Ski3. It's about my kids becoming good skiers and having fun together.

 

Harvey wrote

I've been wondering if the "Home Mountain" is in jeopardy.
With consolidation more and more people are members of one of the big collectives.
Will people stop having a home mountain? Will it matter? Do you care either way?
Wondering what people think about this shift in the business.

Well, most ski areas are in rural locations because mountains. Rural economies are stagnant or declining. Snowmaking is required in a way that it wasn't in the past which raises costs. So lift ticket prices are starting to climb out of the reach for the rural locals. As long as they're raising rates, the next obvious step is to turn the place into a ski "resort" rather than a ski area, raise the rates even more, and try to bring in more customers from metro areas--that's where the money is--and they're going to need a place to stay, eat, drink, since they're far from home. The locals simply can't sustain a ski area. Home mountains are out. It's a bummer for anyone that likes to ski regularly throughout the winter, but it offers the ski vacationer more options in an increasingly stratified economy...

Or to put it another way, how many NYSkiblogers drive 30 minutes to ski vs. 2 hours or more? What level of income does it take to make that happen?

Z wrote

Some tourist was talking trash yesterday in the Gondi line saying why wasn’t there more grooming on a pow day.  

Yea - I was so bumed Gore did not groom more on Sunday (NOT).

My home mountain is the skiable terrain inside the blue line. The lift service sucks, grooming is nonexistent and the base lodge has no heat.

Z wrote

You are something you wipe off you shoe after walking in a dog park

So you are admitting you are clueless enough that you step right in the dog shit?

Now we are making progress... but really.  Enough.  Keep up your complaining.  It's really cool and motivating.  

There’s a lot of factors closing down the smaller ski areas. I have always lived near one just so I could ski regularly. I’d have to make a lot more money to ski otherwise.

I grew up skiing smaller, independent ski areas.  Berkshire East and Magic.  Perhaps that is what attracts me to Plattekill. Those three mountains all happen to have some really good skiing too.  Other than the 2 holiday weekends, I probably know either by name or face, more people in the Platty lodge than I don't. It's a good feeling to find both great skiing and a "home" in the same ski area.

Z, wasn't WF State owned when you moved there?  I'm sure that has always brought problems, even back then.  Maybe not the Joey's but you can't have upgrades without the State (or any owner) trying to recap some of those expenditures. And, unfortunately, the Joey's are the ones with money to spend.

Johnnyonthespot wrote

When you posted that pic from inside Platty in the wee hours of the night, that was really nice. Please TR that experience!

Thanks Johnny, you mean the shot of the firepit? I sorta buried that shot.  

I'll post something on the front page tomorrow.  When something is that memorable, I have to write it.

The more I think about it, the more I want to live in a place that has the best of both worlds.

Places like Killington (with Pico), Sugarbush (with MRG), Jackson Hole (with Snow King), Mammoth (with June), etc. offer a big ass, well-manicured, fast lifted, snowmaking filled main mountain with a local flavored, more natural snow, family style hill right next door. Bonus points if the small place is only open a few days a week, allowing locals to skin up on days that the mountain doesn't operate.

I just feel like such a setup would let kids to grow with their abilities, get the awesome training for kids at the local place (followed by specialized training, if needed, at the bigger place), and maybe realize that bigger isn't necessarily better... It's just different.

It wouldn't be the worst plan in the world to swoop in after a mountain goes bust, buy some cheap real estate, and do a bunch of work every summer to keep a few skinning & skiing routes cleared. I wouldn't mind living near Ascutney (awesome mountain biking) and skiing Okemo or Killington or NH, living on a lake in Rangeley, Maine, skinning Saddleback & skiing at Sugarloaf, or living right near Berthoud Pass, CO, skiing BC there all the time and going to Winter Park when I want to ride lifts (also works with places like Victor, ID, skiing Teton Pass all the time, with occasional trips to the resorts).

Local places are all well and good, but I want to ski early, have a good time every time (even when snow conditions are iffy), enjoy the apres scene of a bigger mountain, and ski bumps with friends well into April. Sometimes, you need a big mountain to accommodate those wishes.

MC2 5678F589 wrote

The more I think about it, the more I want to live in a place that has the best of both worlds.

living right near Berthoud Pass, CO, skiing BC there all the time and going to Winter Park when I want to ride lifts (also works with places like Victor, ID, skiing Teton Pass all the time, with occasional trips to the resorts).

Fraser has always been on my mind as a place to live. The thing that has kept me away though is getting over the pass in the winter if you had some serious medical issue you needed to go to Denver for. Berthoud Pass is pretty cool and you can usually hitch a ride up from the valley to the base of the old ski area. I haven't done it in years.

Winter park has a great program for kids - or at least they did 15 years ago.

Fraser has a nice Safeway and a decent liquor store across the road from it - what more could you ask for.

The other thing that I like about Fraser is that it has plenty of natural water and when living out west you need to be very aware of that, we take it for granted here in the asbestos forest.

This is my "home" hill.  I call it "Oak Ridge", but it has other names.

There's tons of variety of terrain, very few people and it gets some of the most consistent snow in this region.  There's some steeps, as can be seen in the left of the above photo but mostly lots of lower angle glades -



There are no lifts.  The lodge is your car with some beer in the trunk.  The lines aren't groomed and pristine, so you actually have to ski with care and make good decisions about your lines.

Like Peetex, I have a bunch of other home hills too - but this one is my favorite.  It has the most lines, the most vert and the most acreage.

This one. Just the thought of a "sleepover" at a quaint place like that is relaxing to me. I used to love watching all that goes into running the joint.

Harvey wrote

Johnnyonthespot wrote

When you posted that pic from inside Platty in the wee hours of the night, that was really nice. Please TR that experience!

Thanks Johnny, you mean the shot of the firepit? I sorta buried that shot.  

I'll post something on the front page tomorrow.  When something is that memorable, I have to write it.

Yup. My former home mountain decided to go all in as a resort and priced me out--not that I couldn't swing it, but the skiing experience they have is too lame for the price. Their other option would've been to go under, so I get their motivation. Net result: no more home mountain for me. Climbing skins get more and more use each season.

Boy that is a terrible picture.

I was psyched because for a few hours the freezing rain was removed from the NWS point forecast.

That building is solid.  Pretty quiet inside and I'd step out and get blasted.

I saw pics from yesterday. It was so cold that JT and Roman skinned while the lifts were running. The people who ski Plattekill are something else.

I was at peace there.  People were texting me "Go to Gore!"  I just didn't want too.