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Vail to buy Stowe?

benski

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The Toll House area is seriously ignored. Beautiful beginner terrain with what has to be in the discussion for slowest lift in the world. Beginner's don't really know about it and mostly can't get to it without riding the quad or the triple.

Such skiers that don't know about Toll house can probably be flocked like sheep to wherever the resort suggests them too. If Vail charges for parking or replaces then lift the more experienced will also go down there.
 

deadheadskier

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I'm surprised they claim there were only 250 parking spots at Spruce.

I'm not sure how they arrive at that, but it seems to me it had to be much more than that. That parking lot was massive. I parked right up front because I had to be there really early, but it went WAY back where the buses used to linger. Had to be more than 250 spots.
There was also at least 100 spots by the old Big Spruce double. The only people who really used them were ski club members. I used to park there all the time though. Start my day with a Big Spruce Birthday Bowls loop

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from_the_NEK

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A far as creating parking at the Toll House area. I just don't see where they can put it. There looks to be an area on the other side of the Mountain Road, but I really find that whole area to be rather unfavorable for any kind of parking development.
Stowe_TollHouse.jpg

On the other hand, adding a parking deck to the main lot that looks something like this could add an additional 300 spots.
StoweParkingDeck.jpg

Or an alternative would be this area (roughly 225 spaces), but it would require shuttles to the Mansfield Base lodge.
StoweParkingDeck_225 Spaces.jpg

The argument for a parking deck over an existing lot is that it does not increase the area of impervious surfaces. In the case of the alternate site above, the deck would actually help reduce erosion to the gravel surface of the satellite lot. The water entering the retention pools on the lower side of the garage would be much clearer.
 

deadheadskier

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I believe the last area is where the mountain is currently proposing to add 140 spaces. I'd imagine most people using that lot would opt for the Midway lodge over the Mansfield one.

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BenedictGomez

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This configuration, before construction of the Adventure Center, had roughly 318 marked spot.

View attachment 22661

Aha! Good sleuthing.

And before that photo, when there was far less built over there, it had even way more parking spots than that. IIRC, it was a giant gravel parking lot back in the late 90s to early 00s. I dont believe there was any markings if memory serves me, you just parked next to folks and made your spots, similar to Smuggler's notch parking up at Sterling.
 

Jully

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Aha! Good sleuthing.

And before that photo, when there was far less built over there, it had even way more parking spots than that. IIRC, it was a giant gravel parking lot back in the late 90s to early 00s. I dont believe there was any markings if memory serves me, you just parked next to folks and made your spots, similar to Smuggler's notch parking up at Sterling.

Its amazing how much more parking can happen (Assuming there is some staff to prevent people from parking in a wildly inefficient manner) when there are NOT marked spots.
 

benski

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Its amazing how much more parking can happen (Assuming there is some staff to prevent people from parking in a wildly inefficient manner) when there are NOT marked spots.

Yes but I think having people park the cars creates a bottleneck at some ski areas. I think Mt. Ellen has the right idea with a road heading up the middle of the parking lot with clearly defined rows but no defined spots, so all you have to do is park at the end of the row, well except its so steep.
 

mbedle

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The proposed parking is actual under the gondola, between the lift base and the midway lodge. I don't think you will ever see a parking deck near the Mansfield base lodge, especially since they do not own that land. I don't think it would pass the visually appealing test for Act 250. As far as toll house goes, I am not sure if Vail got any of the land at the base. They recently just subdivided the 1795 acres that Stowe owned, creating 5 parcels at the Toll House area (overflow parking for employee's lot, the Bingham Cottage property, the president's house, the Toll House base area and the rest (1,753 acres), most likely, going to Vail. Stowe keep the base area for planned residential development near the bottom of the lift. Vail might have gotten the Bingham Cottage and overflow employee parking lot. Also the Toll House Lodge and condos did not go to Vail (it was already its own separate parcel and is currently an HOA). They also removed the limitations on the number of cars they can park in the current lots (was 4,040). Apparently the regulations changed since the original permit was issues, removing the emissions limitations per acres of parking. So, I'd expect that on the weekends, the staff is going to be a little more diligent in getting people to park a little closer. With more bussing, they could definitely expand the parking down at the cross country center. One thing to keep in mind is last year, during the busiest weekends, they exceeded the comfortable carrying capacity of the resort. I think I heard the CCC was 7,500 skiers and on one weekend they hit 9,200. If they keep the college and 30 something pass this year, you can bet they will exceed the CCC on more weekends. If they get rid of those passes, things might stay similar to what we saw this past season.
 

thetrailboss

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Yes but I think having people park the cars creates a bottleneck at some ski areas. I think Mt. Ellen has the right idea with a road heading up the middle of the parking lot with clearly defined rows but no defined spots, so all you have to do is park at the end of the row, well except its so steep.

I think this is the first post on AZ where someone praises the Mount Ellen Parking Lot. :lol: Most gripe about the climb. Of course I just got there early on a regular basis and scored great parking up top. ;)

20147_305411509666_520811_n.jpg


20147_305411469666_4275357_n.jpg
 

ExtremeRyan

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I've heard rumors that they might build a connector gondola from Spruce Peak to Smuggs. But these are just rumors, some idiot online could have made the whole thing up. However, it is entirely possible for them to do so, there is already a trail from Spruce to Sterling so they wouldn't need to do much work on the Liftline.


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deadheadskier

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I've heard rumors that they might build a connector gondola from Spruce Peak to Smuggs. But these are just rumors, some idiot online could have made the whole thing up. However, it is entirely possible for them to do so, there is already a trail from Spruce to Sterling so they wouldn't need to do much work on the Liftline.


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yeah, that sounds made up

The trail in between Spruce and Smuggs is the Long Trail and is only 10 feet wide and isn't entirely straight. They'd actually need to do significant work to accommodate a lift. There's no way I'd ever see the state allowing this.

Stowe.JPG
 

djspookman

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yeah, that sounds made up

The trail in between Spruce and Smuggs is the Long Trail and is only 10 feet wide and isn't entirely straight. They'd actually need to do significant work to accommodate a lift. There's no way I'd ever see the state allowing this.

View attachment 22665

Trail from Smuggs side to Stowe (spruce peak) was called Snuffy's to Stowe. Went across the pond, due south off the top of Sterling to the little depression shown in your map. The LT is what you take from the OLD top of spruce down to Sterling. Now way the state or Smuggs would even consider a gondi.. total interwebz farce !
 

DoublePlanker

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How about a tunnel/magic carpet like Snowbird did? They could have 1 going in each direction.

Then they could install a bubble 6pack on Smuggs. :evil:
 

benski

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How about a tunnel/magic carpet like Snowbird did? They could have 1 going in each direction.

Then they could install a bubble 6pack on Smuggs. :evil:

Smuggs once wanted to install a six pack. I know they made even synced an environmental consultant.
 

cdskier

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I'm actually surprised that snow lasted this long, even if it was only a small pile.
 
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