What To Do Now?

Considered that as an option too. I was actually looking at a current job opening for Leitner Poma as a lift mechanic. It says you will travel across North America, New Zealand, And Australia. I'm thinking, that sounds nice because I get to travel around the world to different resorts. I've got plenty of options.

But I've got to focus on gaining experience by working at Plattekill, and finishing college. You're absolutely right Coach! The world is my limit, not NY, or even New England.

Coach Z wrote

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.

But he'd have to sell out and work for the "man" that way. Some people are in it for the love of the game and don't consider $$ their top priority.

^^^ This. The love of the game. You take advantage in good years and save a little Bit of those resources for bad years like this. Then you will do ok. Its all about being a good manager. Plattekill is a prime example of this.

Changing the subject radically, who says skis go on your feet?

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10153272309715178&id=100004587253104

I am excited to announce my snowmaking plan for the 2016-17 winter season. Last season revealed the need for a better lift, and more trails, but this year revealed the need for more snowmaking.

After exchanging ideas with a new friend I made In Maine, who is doing something similar to me, we came up with this plan together. Approval from dad was easy. It is an extremely economical way to make snow, and thankfully our hill is just small enough that this very inexpensive system will work very well. The green line represents compressed air, and the Blue line represents water. Each red dot represents a hydrant for air and water.

The plan is to focus on the line above the pond before going below the pond. If my budget allows, we may eventually go all the way to the bottom, but that is the two-year plan. This year we will focus above the pond, and only go lower if the budget allows. Lower Susky can be reached easily with hozes, but that extra extension will allow snowmaking for some potential terrain features down low, and possibly parts of Big Blue for supplementary purposes.

Installing the pipe is the first priority. Thanks to our local plumbing supply store, this endeavor will be relatively inexpensive. If nothing else I can hook my existing equipment up to it, and it will still make my life easier. I am, however,  keeping my eye out for a compressor on Craigslist or something. I hope to find a good deal even if it means driving a bit. Otherwise I will have to buy new which is a possibility, but more money saved= more money to spend on actually skiing. The last thing I must do is develop a high pressure pump. I already have a large pump, but it needs to be mated to a motor, and set up with the proper pressure, and maximum flow. A wee bit of Math and Physics is involved.

I hope to run 3-5 snow guns simultaneously this coming season. The objective is to cover Porcupine, Red Dragon, and Lower Sysky by Christmas (no excuses) and hopefully Upper Susky, and the Railyard during Christmas break or soon thereafter. (As of now there are no plans to make snow on the left side)

Hopefully next season will naturally yield better results than this year, but even if it doesn't, this system will ensure a good season for Woodstream.

Ethan Snow wrote

What I need is more Snowmaking.

Watch out Ethan, there's another fella on here who routinely gets his butt kicked for advocating that.

Joking aside, you're spirit for the sport is great! You're enthusiasm is off the hook. It's impressive what you're doing. Well done Ethan.

Yep the difference is ETHAN  is DOING it ' not talking about it !  BRavo  !!    

I'd do it too, except that I live in the flatlands.  

Ethan is doing things right and increasing snowmaking capacity as a result of a bad year.  Mount Snow is doing the same thing, but it was already planned.  I bet many mountains have a freeze on capital improvements because it was a bad year and don't upgrade their snowmaking to prepare for another one.

This is interesting data.. http://www.nsaa.org/media/250531/kottke_visits_1415.pdf

Why would anyone open or invest in a ski area...According to the above chart..Ski visits are stagnant at best , but are slowly declining...

I think the combination of warm weather and outrageous lift prices are major factor..In IMO it doesn't look good for the industry..

Just some thoughts..

peace and love

JasonWx wrote

This is interesting data.. http://www.nsaa.org/media/250531/kottke_visits_1415.pdf

Why would anyone open or invest in a ski area...According to the above chart..Ski visits are stagnant at best , but are slowly declining...

I think the combination of warm weather and outrageous lift prices are major factor..In IMO it doesn't look good for the industry..

Just some thoughts..

peace and love

Jason,
I disagree - just for kicks I plotted the data:

As you can see the trend is actually up.
If you look at the mean (53.45), the standard deviation (4.2), last years data was less than 1 standard deviation from the mean so it is well within control limits. My take, the trend is slightly up but with a low confidence level.

In chart form I do see a slight increase..It will be interesting to see this year's data..I wonder if the a good western season can negate our poor season..


But if your investments looked like that , I imagine you wouldn't be so happy..

JasonWx wrote

In chart form I do see a slight increase..It will be interesting to see this year's data..I wonder if the a good western season can negate our poor season..


But if your investments looked like that , I imagine you wouldn't be so happy..

From an investment point of view, this is only a piece of the equation. What would be more interesting is the margins which I have no visibility into. With the steady (higher than inflation rate) increase in ticket prices and the improvements in operating efficiencies the margins might be growing. I don't know. I personally would not invest in the ski industry for a lot of other reasons. The fact that a market is either growing or declining is not in itself a reason to invest or not invest.

I am here to joyously endorse the palpable stokitude of your efforts and love of skiing Ethan.  FKNA!

Telemark Dave wrote

stokitude

May even exceed chargering for all around awesomeness and well... stokitude.

My two cents:

First of all, this thread is about Woodstream, and at this point I'm mostly just having fun and not worrying about Skier visits. My whole ski area probably cost less than your car, so please don't worry.

For the actual ski industry, I agree with PeeTex. We can't say that the business is going to crash yet. I know this season has been hard on all of us, and it's hard to see the bright side. IMHO, I don't think most ski areas are run very efficiently.  I think Plattekill is run pretty efficiently, but they don't have the skier visits to back it up. That could be changed if more was invested in marketing. I don't know, but my guess is that because of their low uphill capacity, and being maxed out a few times last year most ski areas didn't do much marketing for this season, and it came back to bite them. If you now an El elfin' Nino is on it's way, I would go all out on marketing as early as possible. Talk about how great your snowmaking is, and your dedication to it, and talk about all the other things skiers can do like go to the bar.  

This is why I want to go into ski area management. Not because I want to get in to this "horrible business where you never make money" but because I believe that with the right management, ski areas can be run more effectively, and ticket prices can actually come down, and maybe, just maybe, we can even keep Snoloco happy.

Before you worry too much about ski areas losing their shirt, Keep in mind that Windham spent a lot of money on their mountain bike park over the last couple seasons. That is money they will NEVER get back. They spent it because they have it. Here is Whindham management: "hmmm, where should we spend money this year?" "Lets spend it on mountain biking!" "Ok, I think we've spent enough money on that for now, now lets spend money of something else."

If skier visits really go down, I'm pretty sure they will be using that cash to lower lift ticket prices. But as long as there is a 30 minute lift line every weekend, I don't see that happening anytime soon. Don't worry my friends, We have a long ways to go before we have to worry about this. Hopefully not in your lifetime. Maybe in mine.

My comments have nothing to do with Ethan's commitment and zeal for the sport...Much respect for him.

Ethan Snow wrote

ticket prices can actually come down,

That will never ever happen. Ever.

Maybe you can start a market developing small private ski areas for the 1%ers out there. It doesn't make sense, but there are people out there who would go for it and money wouldn't matter at all to them.

Lift ticket prices won't get any lower until our messed up legal system gets fixed.

TRUMP!!!! Yea, we really gotta build that wall. And the new snowmaking system!