Saddleback

[thetrailboss]

Out here, it is going to be pretty hilarious when that social media influencer group that bought pow mow goes belly up. Their plan is like what most ski developers (already ambitious) would come up with while high.

+ 1. I am surprised they have lasted as long as they have. For those that don't know....this is who they are.....



They have get togethers for rich kids and do a lot of talking and whatever.

Their vision: https://www.curbed.com/2014/6/3/10092244/powder-mountain-owners-want-to-expand-resort-change-world

Here is a story of their purchase. Click on the video to watch what they say they are....and you pretty quickly see that it really is a bunch of rich people getting together, doing things like tagging sharks and listening to people talk...and talk...with some yoga, lots of partying, and maybe giving money to charity. And Pow Mow is their new HQ.

https://www.curbed.com/2012/12/4/10299658/utahs-powder-mountain-sells-for-40-million

Another glitzy video of their utopia....



And why am I so skeptical? Watch this video and you will get why I think this is a bunch of BS...fast-forward to about :50 and listen to a woman brag about how she built a "nest" out of "100% natural materials". WTF? :blink:



It is this kind of ridiculous crap that drives me nuts.

Despite the claim in the video that they are "preserving" the mountain, they are not. They are making it their own party paradise and the locals are pretty rip shit. From their loud parties every night of the week in the small, LDS community of Eden, to their recent attempt to suck up a lot of the local water, they are not making friends or influencing people.

Sorry, I just hate to see the mountain ruined.

 

[mbedle]

Between that video with the nest and some article I just read about them and their "charitable works", OMFG... Read this article if you want to have a good laugh.

https://www.theguardian.com/technol...ski-resort-summit-elite-club-rich-millennials

 

[raisingarizona]

Holy cow man. Those guys sound like such douche nozzles.

 

[thetrailboss]

Between that video with the nest and some article I just read about them and their "charitable works", OMFG... Read this article if you want to have a good laugh.

https://www.theguardian.com/technol...ski-resort-summit-elite-club-rich-millennials

That is too damn funny.....

Summit is quick to say that it raised $500,000 to help the Nature Conservancy to protect marine life, but that was partly an effort to compensate for the damage caused by their Caribbean cruises. Now that their flagship conferences are being held in LA, Rosenthal tells me the company provides “50,000 meals to the unfed” in the city. (When I look into this claim, I discover the donation actually involved 30,000 meals for families displaced by California wildfires – and they were paid for by the LA Chargers football team, not Summit.)

And:

When I hitch a ride in Chawla’s SUV, he tells me how he came to invest in Powder Mountain. He had just been on a disappointing trip to Verbier, a resort in the Swiss Alps where the food was “not that progressive”. Utah, he says, made for a refreshing change. “I bumped into 30 of my friends. I didn’t have to do anything. The food was amazing,” he says. “There was a moment when they served coconut water.” Coconut water was the very thing he’d been craving in Switzerland. At that moment, he thought to himself, “These guys just get me.” He adds: “I thought, you know what, I’d love to support this project.”

And....

Bisnow says he behaves the same way with servers in restaurants. “[When] you start to engage with these people you realise the humanity in everyone and how unbelievable they are.” Then he explains how he always sits in the front seat of Uber taxis, talking to dozens of drivers a week, hearing “the most remarkable stories”. He ends up hanging out “with a significant number” of his drivers. I ask how many Uber drivers he’s invited to Summit. He doesn’t say, but instead tells me an anecdote about a chef he invited to Summit after meeting him “at this dilapidated castle in England”.

 

[Jully]

Oh my god...

 

[BenedictGomez]

That Guardian article was an amazing read, if it was a book I couldn't put it down.

Articles like that could be a huge threat to their business (not that they'd call it that) model, because when your only currency is self-righteousness, and your revenue comes from well-known elites, you're pretty much doomed when someone effectively proves you to be a total fraud and association with you hence becomes a reputational threat. They'd become toxic & the "money-train" would grind to a halt.

 

[BenedictGomez]

Bisnow says he behaves the same way with servers in restaurants. “[When] you start to engage with these people you realise the humanity in everyone and how unbelievable they are.” Then he explains how he always sits in the front seat of Uber taxis, talking to dozens of drivers a week, hearing “the most remarkable stories”. He ends up hanging out “with a significant number” of his drivers.

These people.

That was my favorite part of the entire article. The great pride he took for actually having a conversation with someone who isn't filthy rich.

I just spent 5 minutes playing around with Redfin & it doesn't look like they're selling any homes. They're offering "new construction" at $1.5M, but it doesnt appear they're actually built according to GOOG maps. Just a lot of freshly dug up roads & space where lots could/would be. Makes one wonder how long this charade is going to last.

 

[prsboogie]

The Next Hermitage!

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[mbedle]

These people.

That was my favorite part of the entire article. The great pride he took for actually having a conversation with someone who isn't filthy rich.

I just spent 5 minutes playing around with Redfin & it doesn't look like they're selling any homes. They're offering "new construction" at $1.5M, but it doesnt appear they're actually built according to GOOG maps. Just a lot of freshly dug up roads & space where lots could/would be. Makes one wonder how long this charade is going to last.

There is a lot more going on at the mountain. Check out this website and try not laugh reading the opening page... http://living.powdermountain.com

 

[JamaicaMan]

Tower would spend $25m plus another $75-100m in 3 yrs on Saddleback? The Berrys reportedly spent $40m at SB and can’t get anywhere close to a return on that investment. Reality check?? smh


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

 

[JamaicaMan]

The Pow Mow “community” is so not Pow Mow it’s truly laughable


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

 

[crank]

We love Pow Mow and were considering buying a condo in nearby Eden, UT... until the Summit Group bought it. Hope they just go away.

 

[Smellytele]

https://www.pressherald.com/2018/06...ght-to-buy-saddleback-plans-to-make-an-offer/

 

[Cat in January]

The video leaked the press where he says it is about getting the EB5 money had him saying they had until December to close the deal. Chris Farmer later said June '18 (did not specify date) was a closing time. My "guess" is that they extended the closing to try and make it happen. Title never changed hands and sure Berry's will be in the clear by 7/1 at the latest.

The Saddleback Mountain Foundation despite their good intentions showed little capacity to pull off the purchase.

Would be cool if the mountain could go into a land trust that allowed limited maintenance on the mountain for uphill use.

 

[bdfreetuna]

Would be cool if the mountain could go into a land trust that allowed limited maintenance on the mountain for uphill use.

This is a Top 5 (undebatably Top 10) Northeast Resort in terms of quality of terrain & natural snow. We should be pulling for absolutely nothing less than a return to full winter operations.

These limousine utopian frauds piss me off. They should be bitch slapped if ever step foot in America again.

At some point the Berrys will need to make a decision that might not make them uber rich but what's best for Maine.

Disaster all around... Chris Farmer is a good guy is all I can say

 

[Cat in January]

Pull all you want, economic reality of the cost vs. return does not work out. I think it is perfectly fine to point this out and we don't need to be blindly in the cheering section.

I would very much like to see Saddleback survive, but no public funding should be put in place to make that happen whether it is local or on the state level.

Sugarloaf, Sunday River, Wildcat, Cannon, Jay, Smugglers Notch, Stowe, Jay Peak, Mad River Glenn, Sugarbush, Killington, Whiteface. Leaving out Eastern Canada, which 3 are lesser mountains than Saddleback, that no one would disagree with you? Ok that is a bit of a straw man as I think arguments can be made for all those having better terrain/snow than Saddleback. Let's take SR as an easy one. Much better snow making. Snow is much less wind affected. Much bigger mountain acreage wise and across the whole mountain you can find nearly as good advance terrain. Top 15 in NE US perhaps without much debate.

Chris is a good guy. There were some unfortunate investment decisions at Saddleback that put Saddleback in the place it is in now.

 

[bdfreetuna]

Resort rankings are somewhat subjective. From your list I rank Saddleback above Whiteface, Sunday River, Smuggs... for different reasons.

I give it a tie with Mad River Glen. I personally prefer it to Sugarbush and Stowe. Cannon and Wildcat I can't speak for very well.

Sugarloaf might be #1 in the East from my point of view -- but I can't see myself ever visiting Sugarloaf without Saddleback as well (assuming open). It's that good. In fact the closure of Saddleback has made it a lot less likely I will go to Sugarloaf any time soon.

If you want to say Top 15, I'm fine with that. No top 15 resort should be shuttered without the ski community doing whatever they can to prevent.

My position is weak. All I can do is express that Saddleback is, in my experience, on the level of something like Smuggs + MRG. Imagine how upset we'd be if either of those areas had to close.

I'm fine with states funding, subsidizing or even running ski resorts. I'm confused why socialist Vermont doesn't do this when it's their only cash cow and all their coin calves depend on it. These are national recreational treasures.

 

[Cat in January]

I just don't feel it is good to mix public funds with private business.

It is a shame Saddleback is shuttered and as a lifelong Maine skier I feel it distinctly. Economic reality is economic reality. Much of the push for the Saddleback Foundation has come from the people who invested in the property near the mountain. I feel for their economic loss in real estate values. I feel for the economic loss to the local economy.

Does that change how I think state/public money should be spent? No.

 

[bdfreetuna]

Do you object to New Hampshire / New York model?

Does it make sense for Maine to pay to pave the roads all the way up to Saddleback when there's no reason to drive there?

 

[raisingarizona]

I just don't feel it is good to mix public funds with private business.

It is a shame Saddleback is shuttered and as a lifelong Maine skier I feel it distinctly. Economic reality is economic reality. Much of the push for the Saddleback Foundation has come from the people who invested in the property near the mountain. I feel for their economic loss in real estate values. I feel for the economic loss to the local economy.

Does that change how I think state/public money should be spent? No.

Or we could live in an imaginary socialist world and just print some of those Bernie bucks! Free skiing for everyone!