Challenges of Running An Independent NE Ski Area

[jamesdeluxe]

Laz has created a strong brand, by in part by preserving the quality of the experience and his steadfast refusal to discount tickets.

Harvey says that Plattekill made lemonade from pandemic lemons. I wonder how things have gone business-wise at its southern Vermont variant Magic Mountain since his 2021 interview?

Geoff Hatheway of Magic

Our interview with the man.

nyskiblog.com

 

[Tony Crocker]

Stuart has two podcasts with Geoff Hathaway of Magic, both of them earlier than Harvey's.

Podcast #4: Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway

The Storm Skiing Podcast #4 | Download this episode on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, and Pocket Casts | Read the full overview at skiing.substack.com.

www.stormskiing.com

COVID-19 & Skiing Podcast #3: Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway – “We Exist in a Changed World”

Download this episode on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher,TuneIn, and Pocket Casts | Read the full overview at skiing.substack.com.

www.stormskiing.com

Plattekill was also a very early Stuart podcast:

Podcast #2: Plattekill Mountain Owners Danielle and Laszlo Vajtay

The Storm Skiing Podcast #2 | Download this episode on iTunes and Google Play| Read the full overview at skiing.substack.com.

www.stormskiing.com

No surprise these are among his earliest podcasts because both the kind of areas Stuart loves.

There is a more recent one with Laszlo:

Podcast #140: Plattekill Owners Danielle and Laszlo Vajtay

“The possibilities for the mountain are that it could be a lot more.”

www.stormskiing.com

 

[MarzNC]

I would say that for the broad public, mellower eastern mountains are surely more user friendly for mountain biking than Mammoth is. And from summer pics I see the landing surface if you fall looks more forgiving.

But the mountain bike trails are NOT on the mellower terrain if you are thinking about groomers. At least not at Massanutten. Even the green trails are in the woods. The black trails are in the steep trees. Granted the trails are short, but someone needs to know what they are doing to enjoy the lift-served mountain bike trails. Or they can go for human-powered uphill on the other side of the ridge . . . which is also owned by Massanutten. There is only about 85 skiable acres, but the resort owns 6000 acres. The backside of the ridge if all Massanutten land. They allow mountain biking and the trails are a joint effort with a local bike shop.

I did a 1-day mountain bike clinic at Massanutten a while back. Since my daughter had done mountain biking at her summer camp in the NC mountains, I was curious. As I expected, it's not for me. I've fallen enough times when road biking to now want to tempt fate doing downhill on a trail with features.