Brodie for sale

[urungus]

FOR SALE: A Lost Massachusetts Ski Resort

If you've ever wanted to own one of Massachusett's most historic ski areas, this sounds like a golden opportunity. For just under $2 Million, you could

unofficialnetworks.com

Wish I had a spare $2 million, its a shame what Jiminy Peak did to this place

 

[MG Skier]

Wow, I learned to ski there in the early 80's when my Boy Scout group went each year for a long weekend. I watched the video......so grown in! Sounds like there could be a sticking issue if someone wanted to put a new lift(s) on the hill, says the article. I imagine all of the infrastructure would be a gut and re-do after sitting dormant for so long.
I always enjoyed my time there on the greens and a blues as a kid.
Someone tell me if I am wrong but those lifts would be junk, no?

 

[Kingslug20]

Hmm..a gut job for 2M...im out.

 

[machski]

Wow, I learned to ski there in the early 80's when my Boy Scout group went each year for a long weekend. I watched the video......so grown in! Sounds like there could be a sticking issue if someone wanted to put a new lift(s) on the hill, says the article. I imagine all of the infrastructure would be a gut and re-do after sitting dormant for so long.
I always enjoyed my time there on the greens and a blues as a kid.
Someone tell me if I am wrong but those lifts would be junk, no?

More than likely, especially if zero maintenance has been done on them for decades. Seem to recall when it got shttered, the deed was changed to never allow a ski resort to operate there again. Maybe some time statue has passed to void that, not sure.

 

[urungus]

More than likely, especially if zero maintenance has been done on them for decades. Seem to recall when it got shttered, the deed was changed to never allow a ski resort to operate there again. Maybe some time statue has passed to void that, not sure.

From the article: “NELSAP claims there was a clause that didn’t allow for skiing operations. This clause was only applicable for twenty years, meaning you can operate the resort again since the twenty years have passed.”

 

[crank]

I always thought Jiminy would buy it and operate as an exclusive club or something.

Actually, for some reason, I thought they did own Brodie.

Skied there a few times back in the day....

 

[thetrailboss]

I always thought Jiminy would buy it and operate as an exclusive club or something.

Actually, for some reason, I thought they did own Brodie.

Skied there a few times back in the day....

I’m pretty sure that Jiminy bought it and put it out of business. I also heard about the deed restriction/no compete clause.

 

[SkiNewEngland.net]

Grantee and its successors cannot operate a commercial ski area on the property.

Brodie Mountain - NewEnglandSkiHistory.com

 

[deadheadskier]

Anyone who skied it, what was your opinion of the place? I thought I've read people preferred the terrain there to Jimminy. Bigger vertical

 

[ThatGuy]

My dad would usually take us there over Jiminy before they closed. Was the more economical option in the Taconics. From what I remember it had a better trail system than Jiminy plus a couple hundred feet extra vert. Also the lifts seemed really slow.

 

[Zand]

Unfortunately never got to ski Brodie before it closed, but Jiminy might be my least favorite trail layout ever. 100% just wide groomers almost all straight as an arrow down the mountain. It's tough to believe theres a place out there with less character than Wachusett, but it exists.

 

[urungus]

Unfortunately never got to ski Brodie before it closed, but Jiminy might be my least favorite trail layout ever. 100% just wide groomers almost all straight as an arrow down the mountain. It's tough to believe theres a place out there with less character than Wachusett, but it exists.

Combine that with what Jiminy did to Brodie and it’s really hard to like the place.

But disagree about Wachusett, I think it has plenty of character. Beautiful lake views, the old stone lodge tucked away in the woods serving cider, twisty balance rock trail, hidden vickery bowl pod, “wa wa” tv jingle…

 

[drjeff]

Anyone who skied it, what was your opinion of the place? I thought I've read people preferred the terrain there to Jimminy. Bigger vertical

Calling on memories on the Brodie side that are now closing in on 30 years old here.

Back then, Jiminy wasn't the "Resort" that it is now, but you could see/feel the intentions that the Fairbanks had with the place, and over the years with terrain expansions, lift upgrades, a continued investment in snowmaking, base area facilities upgrades and lodging development, it became a "Resort"

Brodie was miuch more of a 60's/70's ski area that was definitely "rougher" around the edges. Not as polished, which I think tied into it's appeal as well as the party like popularity that it's stereotypical Irish culture heritage played into. I was "lucky" enough to be of legal drinking age at the time of one of, if not their last St. Paddy's Day parties complete with Green Snow and copious amounts of Green Beer served up in their base lodge bar, the Blarney Room, and still to this day, that's probably the craziest Apres Ski Event that I have been to!

Terrain wise, I agree with Zand's post about Jimimy being much much straight down the Falline in it's layout whereas Brodie was more narrow and winding. Even though Brodie did have a bit more vertical than Jiminy, to me atleast, even before Jiminy expanded out off and above Left Bank to Widow White's Peak, Jiminy felt bigger to me as it was more spread out, whereas Brodie was much more compact from side to side. Towards the end of it's operation, the lift system at Brodie felt "old" and slow and need of some upgrades, whereas Jiminy, even before the 6 pack went in, felt more modern as they had in the prvious few years spent the $$ on their summit triple and their 1st Quad.

I think at the time, that with how aggressive Brodie was at making snow, that if they could of found a buyer who had the $$ to quickly put in a highspeed quad, that you'd still have Brodie around as a player in the Western Mass market today

 

[Bosco DaSkia]

brodie gots no water…









fact.

 

[mister moose]

Terrain wise, I agree with Zand's post about Jimimy being much much straight down the Falline in it's layout whereas Brodie was more narrow and winding. Even though Brodie did have a bit more vertical than Jiminy, to me atleast, even before Jiminy expanded out off and above Left Bank to Widow White's Peak, Jiminy felt bigger to me as it was more spread out, whereas Brodie was much more compact from side to side. Towards the end of it's operation, the lift system at Brodie felt "old" and slow and need of some upgrades, whereas Jiminy, even before the 6 pack went in, felt more modern as they had in the prvious few years spent the $$ on their summit triple and their 1st Quad.

I think at the time, that with how aggressive Brodie was at making snow, that if they could of found a buyer who had the $$ to quickly put in a highspeed quad, that you'd still have Brodie around as a player in the Western Mass market today

In addition

Jiminy is closer to Rte 22, and took advantage of marketing that proximity to the New York market
Brodie had no succession plan as its founder aged.
Brodie consequently didn't invest in upgrades to compete with Jiminy.
Jiminy was early in developing slopeside condos, Brodie did not. (or could not)

 

[Newpylong]

We were a Brodie family (see my avatar picture) and lived about 20 minutes away from birth to I was about 25. Weekend warrior, parents ran adult race league, knew all the Kelly's, etc and so on. I can picture every square foot of that place going on 25 years ago like the back of my hand.

Brodie tidbits:

• Trails had far far more character than Jiminy, but were much more low angle.
• They were some of the first around to cut "glades", the first being between Shamrock and Mickey's, accessible from O'Neil's Jaunt.
• They were some of the first to offer the "features" you see in today's terrain parks. They had a complete school bus in the park on Irish Stew and would build ramps on and off the top. You could climb inside the bus too, creepy at night.
• Night skiing was limited to mostly Gramp's chair and they never even turned the lights on on Kelly's Leap most nights. The Summit (Dot's lift) was very rarely open at night, as it really only had the short section of JFK lit above Andy's chair.
• They were pretty aggressive with opening until the early 90s when Jiminy really started to pour the gas on their improvements. They used to have a limited air system but rebuilt it as water (fan only). It really took them a while to get things open having to move the limited Hedcos they had around with the cats. Many of the trails they made snow on did not have pipes so dragging hoses was the norm. Water was always an issue, the only source being the <500,000 gallon pond under the bottom of Dot's chair. It was fed from a couple of brooks and that's it.
• Brodie was always known as the bar with a ski area attached. Obviously the Blarney Room was the big one but there also was a dungeon called Matt's pub in the basement of the lodge. Very dark complete with plenty of smoke.
• We would also use the "Canteen" which was the upper lodge at the bottom of the Dot's lift on the weekends. It was less busy and still had a cafeteria. We had a "Brodie" license plate we would toss in the dash and the attendants would then let us go past the barricade on the access road and park way up there. I think it was for employees.
• They had a cross country ski place just down the road (to the south more) too. When we would call the Snow Phone there were conditions for both the ski are and xcountry trails.
• On weekends the buses from Long Island came and we called them "Tonys" because of the accents lol.
• Contrary to popular opinion, while Jiminy did put them out of business, that was not their intent when purchasing. They wanted to control competition, but not close it. They dumped a good amount of money into the snowmaking including the summit pond and new equipment. The deal was, if they sold x amount of passes a new HSQ was going to be installed. They weren't sold and the rest is history.
• The lifts were archaic when they went of business, they would be a complete tear down if someone wanted and were allowed to do skiing there again. There were two Borvigs, two Stadelis, and two rope tows. 3 of the double's roughly paralleled each other, going half, 3/4 and all the way up. Connectors basically connected the top of each to other areas of the mountain.
• There were no light's under Andy's whatsover when they did not have Kelly's lit, it was a long cold and dark ride at night.
• At one time they had a trail map that showed a triple chair off to the North, and it was supposedly in storage and every year the rumor was it was going to go in
• There was a private handle tow on Mickey's Chute that Williams College used to use before they moved to Jiminy. It actually came from their ski area in Williamstown when they closed it and moved it to Brodie. The liftline was a fun poach with fresh snow. When not in use they hung the rope up off the ground on trees so the groomers could get past. I had the opportunity to ride it a couple times and go inside the timing hut at the bottom which had the motor in it. I bet all of it is still there but can't confirm if it made it to the closing of the mountain, I had moved away by then.
• There was a logging road off Mickey's just above where O'Neil's jaunt comes in and meanders it's way down to the parking lot next to that old yellow house. It was a right of passage for us to ski it and walk back to the base.
• Some of the power lines going up the sides of the trails are still active (for the cell tower, ets) and cleared of trees. The utility company has guys ride snowmobiles up in the winter and ATVs to check them after storms. You can search on YouTube for some videos of them.

Could go on forever really. My last visit was 2007 and I am glad I took a bunch of pictures before things really grew in then.

 

[ThatGuy]

Thats some great info Newpy, thanks for chiming in.

 

[Abominable]

Yeah I saw the title and thought "Newpy's time to shine;" thanks for all the great info.

Only skied it once as a high schooler (early 90s) and wish I'd gone more. It may have even been on our around St. Pat's - I remember quite a bar scene for an impressionable kid.

 

[tumbler]

It looks like it is still maintained a bit unless they mowed the trails for the promo video.

 

[Newpylong]

Not gonna lie, the pictures of the base lodge being knocked down and things grown in brings a tear to my eyes. Many many memories and big part of growing up there.