Tuxedo Ridge Ski Center: Closed for 15-16 Season

Terrible news for my region.  When I moved to Warwick, NY in December 2003, there were 4 local ski areas.  They were Mountain Creek, Mount Peter, Hidden Valley, and Tuxedo Ridge (called Sterling Forest back then).  Now there are only 2 that are open to the public:  Mountain Creek, and Mount Peter (Hidden Valley will spin lifts this year, but is not open to the public).  I guess skiers at the two remaining places can look forward to some crazy lift lines.

http://tuxedoridge.com/

Saw that. If you've ever met James, he loves that place.  Anyone know the back story?

I saw this coming for a while.  Last time I skied there was in 2013 and it wasn't in good shape.  The terrain has more "character" than Mount Peter and I see potential for it to be a great local hill.  If they could just pick up a decent lift for a good price, (Like what West Mountain got from The Hermitage Club), it would solve one of the major issues they had- old lifts that they couldn't maintain.  They also have little snowmaking capacity, but some more pumping capacity could easily fix that.

Sad to see this go.  A friend who was an all-around skier - alpine, cross-country and jumping - used to teach at Hidden Valley.  

I live 20 mins from Tuxedo.. I took my first lesson there in 1976. Both my kids learned there and raced for their high schools there..
The place needs a huge amount of up grades etc..I don't see it ever opening again..shame

Always sad to see these feeder hills suffer !

Hopefully the Phoenix resurrects , but that is probably wishful thinking given the economy and kids seemingly more focused on playing with electronic toys rather than getting outside .

Never skied here, but always disappointing when a local hill can't make it work.

http://www.recordonline.com/article/20150914/NEWS/150919669

The letter from the owner:

http://www.tuxedoridge.com/

Petronio

I see now that Sno already posted about this, sorry for the duplication.

Petronio

When the Genting Sterling Forest Resort (gambling), which included Tuxedo Ridge, was rejected last December (along with many others) by Albany in favor of the former Concord site in the Catskills ( and 2 other locations), the ski area was in danger of closing. Tuxedo Ridge is a fun, family place with some interesting terrain. Hopefully it will be reopened.

http://forum.nyskiblog.com/Tuxedo-Ridge-NY-1-19-14-td4035245.html#a4035468

Yes,   sad but true that some of these places need extra income (gambling) to stay afloat.      Just sucks that the State gets to control where that enterprise takes place.  In MD as in other States, gambling was a sin of all sins...until we needed money.    Then its Great and we advertise it 24/7.   Legislation was passed to limit gambling to 3 places.    Once money started flowing,,,,and appropriate money was hidden in legislature's pockets, 2 more have opened.    Pot will be the next money grab, fake morals be dammed.    Its not about business, its about government.    

Sad these feeder hills dry up.    I agree they are the lifeblood of the sport.    

"[Mezzetti] later said the closure was prompted by legal issues surrounding the property, which was once the site of the proposed Sterling Forest Resort casino. Though the state Gaming Commission did not pick Genting Americas to build a casino, Mezzetti said the company continued to have an option on the site long enough that it did not leave Tuxedo Ridge enough time to prepare for the 2015-2016 ski season."

http://www.recordonline.com/article/20150914/NEWS/150919620/101008

Mount Peter just down the street is going to be absolutely swamped this season.  8 school districts raced at Tuxedo Ridge will have to go somewhere else.  I'm thinking they will all choose Mount Peter over West Point since it is closer, which means that assuming 25 people per school 200 more people there every day after school, and that's a lot when they only run one lift.  That doesn't even count the non race after school clubs that could have also gone to Tuxedo Ridge and usually have much larger groups than the race teams do.

Hopefully Mount Peter can do something to take the extra crowds.  They did start running all 3 lifts on Friday nights during the 12-13 season which I assume continued in the 13-14 and 14-15 seasons.  It used to be I avoided Friday nights at all costs or went and left very very frustrated because they only had one or two lifts running and monster lines.  In 12-13, they would have the main lift open all day, but would open Sam's Chair between 4 and 4:30 and Old Pete around 5.  This made the crowds completely manageable and lines were maybe a couple minutes, instead of 10-15 when they only ran 2 of the lifts.  Maybe they could commit to running at least Sam's Chair 4-8:30 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights.  Since the crowds on days other than Fridays are heavily race oriented, it might make more sense to run Old Pete instead of Sam's Chair since Old Pete accesses the race trail.  The thing is that when there's no line for Hailey's Comet, everyone rides that rendering Old Pete useless.  Sam's Chair isn't redundant with Hailey's Comet and can better spread out the crowds by giving the park kids and beginners their own lift.  Who knows, I'd have to ski there more to really know, but my pass is at Mountain Creek.

Bummer..learned how to ski there. Here are some pics I took last summer.

Recently learned something about the issues surrounding the property.

Tuxedo Ridge and the Renaissance Fair both lease their land from the landowner.  They share the same parking lot, which is I guess both their rights to use.  The lease had an option from either party to purchase the land outright (Tuxedo Ridge or the Renaissance Fair could purchase their portion of the land)  The casino company bought the land from the previous company who owned it and the assumption was that they'd own everything and not lease it out if the casino was built.  The state did not approve the construction of a casino there.  The casino company still decided to keep the land.  Because of this, they can still decide not to lease it out.

Here is what that means for the two tenants.

Tuxedo Ridge needed certain upgrades to be able to open.  The lifts needed the most work, and the snowmaking needed more capacity.  This would have cost likely upwards of $1 million.  Say they did this and then were run out of the property by the casino company.  They would have lost a ton of money on the upgrades they just did.  The time off from this season should allow them to work out an agreement with the casino company on who runs the place for 16-17 and what the lease terms would be, if any.  

The lifts needed a major fix.  The Tiger and Bunny lifts were old, but in good shape.  They seemed to run quite well last I rode them.  They're both Borvig lifts, so Partek still supplies spare parts to them.  They also might've been able to get their hands on some spare parts from Hidden Valley's old lifts to keep them running.  The other two lifts are a different story.

The Alley Cat Lift is a very early Poma double chair.  It is likely original to the mountain, which would mean it was built in 1962.  Hunter's D-Lift was built in 1966, and it got the newer horizontal slat chair backs

while this lift has the vertical slats.  

It actually look as if it had footrests at one point, but had them cut off, likely to save weight.  I don't think Poma supplies spare parts for lifts of this vintage anymore.  They'd likely need to get them from some previously removed lifts of the same type.  If Hunter saved any parts off the Y and Z lifts, that could be a source for parts.  They have worked with Hunter in the past, so I think getting some spare parts wouldn't be too hard.  This lift hasn't run since March 2011.

The Bowl Lift is a diesel powered Hall double.  It is likely from sometime in the 60's, due to the fact that it has side loading and an open drive.  However, it has plastic seats and arm rests which I don't think appeared till the 70's.  It may have gotten these at a later date.  Hall lifts have a reputation for being extremely durable and last upwards of 50 years.  For many years, this lift rarely spun, so it may have low hours on it for it's age.  I heard that this lift has been powered up recently, so maybe it is fit to carry more skiers.  The trail it serves would be a perfect terrain park.  It last carried skiers in 2010.

I'm probably getting old, but no way would i go to a resort that was rocking multiple lifts like that from the 60s when I could drive to Mount Peter and be on well maintained

I'll get on a single sketchy lift; Pallivicini, Madonna, Magic's double by default...

But I'm just not inspired to ride the wheel on old sketchy looking lifts all day. If their lease wasn't guaranteed past next year, I get closing rather than investing a huge sum to only bring the mountain not even half into the current century. It sucks -- but it's the way it is. Sterling forest only needs two lifts as it is, a modern lift to the top and a magic carpet for beginners.

It'll be a task for the next owners or be consumed by the woods. My 2c.