What's next for Ragged?

Today was the opening day of the LONG awaited Spear Mountain Express.

On the newly designed trail map, it shows big expansion on not only Pinnacle Peak, but a new area that starts at the bottom of the resort. I think they need to do some more work on the existing mountain before they expand.

Heres what I think should be next for them:

15/16 season
- Automatic snowmaking system on Showboat and Lower Ridge
- Major Renovations to Easy Winder. They can't do any expansion over there without this project. They need to blast on the top where it is uphill and at the bottom of the trail where it is flat. Plus a new snowmaking system will be needed.
- New summer activities, perhaps this summer coming up. They promised a mountain coaster for the 2013 season but it never happened. A zip line and mountain biking would be a good start.
- Continuing to devop condos and rental houses. They have already started in the barnyard area. I'd imagine that they have plans to keep expanding.

16/17 season
-Pinnacle Peak expansion. By now it would be time to develop it. A new high speed quad with 15 or so new trails that were cut on it. Hopefully a new lodge, nothing too big but would get the job done.
- More base expansion for the lodging

17/18
- Capital Improvements, hopefully more snowmaking upgrades all over the resort.
- start of the hotel construction?

18/19
- Second phase of the trail expansion. I hear that they are keeping the spear mountain triple in stoarge so they can use it for the bottom part of Pinnacle.
- hopefully the opening of their mountain hotel

19/20
So I guess this would be around the time that they would add that loooong lift at the end of New Canada Road. Hopefully an express quad. It would add for some awesome begginer terain.

What do you guys think? This is just my prediction.

Double your time frame and you have a shot at being somewhat correct. I think its more like 5 new trails on Pinnacle, not 15. Highly doubting any base lodge over there.

I was told that they would be opening 15 new trails with it's debut. Its supposed to become NH'S third largest ski resort when all is done.

In addition to your expansion outline I'd like to see some trail work done expanding over on spear. Not into the Ravine, but maybe off to the skier's left.

I'm sure it'll be "fifteen" trails with an upper lower and middle equaling three. Just on their expansion on their trail map the trails added look to be that.

By some marketing definition they will be NHs third largest, but it's hard to make a big time resort out of the 1100 foot vertical peaks. I'm still really excited for any expansion though. I love going to ragged. I like the feel of the place.

Anyone know what the terrain off pinnacle will look like?

I just took a look at their new trail map and the proposed expansion on Pinnacle Peak. Will they really put in a lift over there that doesn't cover the entire vertical drop of that peak?
It looks like the main lift over there would give you only about 2/3 of the drop.

They don't have much vertical drop to begin with, so wouldn't it make sense to cover the entire drop with one lift ?
What makes these 1000 ft ski areas fun to ski is that you can ski the entire drop in one shot.

I hiked Pinnacle Last season in March. It doesn't feel like ragged at all, totally different feel but in a good way. The trails that they cut have some nice pitch to them. Mostly blues IMO but they did have a couple of steeper trails that are deff going to be blacks.
It somewhat felt like Bear Peak at attitash, except it wasn't flat. The trails seem to be spaced nicely and they are going to be great crusiers. I'm really excited to ski it!
From what I have been told at the ski expo, they are going to have a few new choices for glades on both sides of pinnacle.

In the same boat as many other areas sadly. Big four lane highway trails with zero character and financial trouble because of trying to expand and be something it is not. Then milking every dime it can from skiers and riders.

Seeded bumps on Showboat and I'd be happy.

Tin said:

In the same boat as many other areas sadly. Big four lane highway trails with zero character and financial trouble because of trying to expand and be something it is not. Then milking every dime it can from skiers and riders.

Click to expand...

I thought Pinnacle was really nice. The trails had character.

Tin said:

In the same boat as many other areas sadly. Big four lane highway trails with zero character and financial trouble because of trying to expand and be something it is not. Then milking every dime it can from skiers and riders.

Click to expand...

I tend to agree with this and hope I am wrong

Thought I've read here in the past that their snow making is greatly limited by the size of their pond. They need to address that first.


Sent from my iPad using AlpineZone

mikestaple said:

Thought I've read here in the past that their snow making is greatly limited by the size of their pond. They need to address that first.


Sent from my iPad using AlpineZone

Click to expand...

Sure you're not thinking of crotched?

No. The pond at Ragged was a big issue five years ago. They increased their pumping capacity from the bog down below to refill the snowmaking pond faster. That has helped a lot.

Tin said:

In the same boat as many other areas sadly. Big four lane highway trails with zero character and financial trouble because of trying to expand and be something it is not. Then milking every dime it can from skiers and riders.

Click to expand...

And you've witnessed this from RI? :blink: