Marc_C
Active member
Just to keep perspective:Patrick":1ofw3ltq said:If all the Vermont ski areas would be and have the same feel as MRG then it wouldn't necessarily be as successful. However over the years, some ski areas blasted, widened, increase capacity, added or increase snowmaking, grooming in the last 30-40 years, making leaving MRG more unique. Not saying that every should have done what MRG is going, but there is place for very minimalist ski area where the focus is mainly skiing.
* MRG grooms about 90% of their green and blue terrain nightly - there are only about 5 blue square trail sections (not even complete trails) that aren't groomed. Of their black diamond terrain, only 2 or 3 trails get groomed (but not necessarily every night).
* MRG has snowmaking on 15% of its terrain - essentially the high traffic, low part of the mountain. True, the vast majority is strictly natural snow cover, but it's a misconception to say that MRG has no snowmaking.
* MRG has indeed widened and regraded some terrain in the past 40 years.
* Sugarbush next door uses the same grooming philosophy as MRG - all the green, the huge majority of the blue, and only a tiny fraction of black terrain get groomed nightly. Stowe operates the same way. When you look at percentage of advanced terrain that gets groomed regularly, you'll find that a majority of VT areas operate the same as MRG.
IOW, other than ownership model and snowmaking (and the fiscally irresponsible insistence of the shareholders to rebuild a museum relic of a lift at a significant up-charge over a modern double), MRG isn't as unique in as many respects as people think it is.