What To Do Now?

This post may seem a little narcissistic on my part, but it makes me feel good to put it out there regardless of weather I get comments or not. However, I think many of us can relate. This winter has been a combination of struggles for me. As the GM of Woodstream, I promised my friends a good ski season with a new lift, and additional trails. I got fucked. Need I say more? It's been a bad season for everyone this year, so I'm not alone, but now I'm asking myself, What do I do now?

It's a good thing I like making snow. The problem is, I just can't make enough. I get a 6'' base on a trail, and 50% melts off within a week. We have received about 9'' of rain since the start of winter, and no snow accumulation over 2''. If it would just stay cold, and stop raining, I could make snow in more areas, and have some more terrain open.

This past weekend I reached my best ski conditions all season with 100 vertical feet of skiing, one run down, and the rope back up. I was happy.
picture taken Monday night.

by Tuesday afternoon, it looked like this.


Last year revealed the need for more terrain, and a better lift, so I consolidated my time and resources in those areas. had I known what would become of this season I would have done it differently. Oh well, I have a project for this summer. Not  sure exactly how big I will go, but it will involve stationary pumps, compressors, and pipes. I am trying to be optimistic.

In attempt to have a little fun without snow, I went out fore an MTB ride. The trails were grippy with no significant snow or ice, but a dusting on top. I will be doing more of this.


It is actually still quite beautiful out there for the most part. If only our precipitation wasn't backwards.


Tonight I'm going to Greek Peak for some night skiing. Night skiing helps me get my mind off the fact that there's no natural snow, because you can't see as well, and the trees are not in play at night. I get to pretend I am with my middleschool ski club again!

At this point, I am not really hoping for anything, I am just going with the flow. I may make more snow when I am on break next week. I am also looking forward to getting up north again, but in the mean time, I must give Plattekill a lot of credit for what they pulled off this year. Although I will ski as much as possible, I am already beginning to look forward to this summer, building MTB trails, and building a snow making system.

Ideas for your new lift

https://vimeo.com/119024371

Going with the flow is probably a good idea since you can't control the weather.

Don't have much to comment on but to say me and my group of skitard hooligan friends think what you are doing is awesome - we all have a secret wish of having our own little ski area to host to others and to keep to ourselves on powder days.  As far as the business aspect, I have little interest, but I know making snow costs money.  Running a lift or tow rope costs money.  Maintaining trails costs money and takes time.

Fat bikes are you best bet IMO to get through low snow times.  In that same respect, I'll tell you to look at White Grass and how they run their small resort and say do it as much like that as you can.  Glades, Nordie XCD trails that double as MTB in the summer/fall, and a little open area.  Add in some good food, and equipment rentals and add some skin tracks.  Climbing is coming back and if you only have 100' of vert, it's actually fun to do laps with scaled skis (cheaper for you too not to have to run the lift).

The one thing about the fat bikes is when there is snow, they don't mix well with the XC.  But when there isn't enough snow to ski, they could be your bread and butter... tough call.

And not to sound like captain obvious, but I think location is key.  To buy and open a place like WG I'd be looking at terrain and past snowfall for that specific location.  Capitalizing as much as you can on natural snow is ideal, but of course that's obvious.  If you have what you have because that's all you have and you want to make the best of it, what you're doing is all you can do.

My lift is great now. Put over  $1000 in upgrades into it over the summer. What I need is more Snowmaking.

I don't know how you consider this off topic, so I moved it.

This post is about love of the game, NYSB's raison d'etre.

I have to get to Woodstream.

Yeah, but is yours powered by an old car on blocks? That thing is wicked cool with the added excitement of possibly losing fingers at the turn

another vid of it

https://vimeo.com/154466867

I thought it got deleted for a minute there

Snowmaking on every trail. 100% open by Christmas. No excuses!

I'm working on that.

Harvey, come next season sometime after I get my new Snowmaking system going.

I put this in the off topic because I thought it just seemed like me on a rant, and not really something a lot of people would enjoy reading. I'm glad somebody cares!

Ethan Snow wrote

  I promised my friends a good ski season with a new lift, and additional trails.  

There's an old saying ---- under promise and over deliver

YUKON CORNELIUS wrote

Snowmaking on every trail. 100% open by Christmas. No excuses!

Now sno hacked YUK

Add a 6-pack heated bubble chair with WiFi and charging stations while you're at it.

Sno, when Woodstream re-locates, and it comes time to purchase a lift, I would never settle for less.

I like this Snow better than the other whiner Sno

What's the story with the relocation, are you really shopping around for new property? what kind of acreage/vert would you like to see?

Mostly wishful thinking on my part. But definitely a dream of mine someday. I'm looking at an old area in Oneonta with a vert of about 500 and much better location for capitalizing on natural snow.  

I don't want to kill your buzz but owning a small ski area is a good way to turn a big fortune into a small one.  The economics just don't work in the East as it only takes one year like this one to go bust.  Get a biz degree and go work for a ski company.  The magaement of a Powdr or Vail Corp area make way more than small owner operators do.

I'm sure Ethan Snow would do a better job at Powdr than the idiots who forgot to renew the Park City lease.