Haystack / Hermitage news

[WWF-VT]

This is actually a good thing because it rids the place of Jim Barnes. Get the right ownership and management in there and the place can do well

Chapter 7 and assets sale....what will be left to own and manage

[drjeff]

Chapter 7 and assets sale....what will be left to own and manage

I suppose it could range from basically everything (if a single buyer makes an offer on everything and Berkshire Bank agrees to the offer) to maybe just a few Inns and/or the glorified wedding reception location that the clubhouse (base lodge) is. Only time will tell and the selling nears/begins....

[eastern powder baby]

Deleted duplicate

[eastern powder baby]

I suppose it could range from basically everything (if a single buyer makes an offer on everything and Berkshire Bank agrees to the offer) to maybe just a few Inns and/or the glorified wedding reception location that the clubhouse (base lodge) is. Only time will tell and the selling nears/begins....

As TB alluded, the trustee is mandated to get the best deal for the assets as possible so creditors get the best possible recovery. If that means being sold together as one business, then great. If not, selling the chairlifts to the highest bidder(s) and the fixed assets at the base to others is the next best option.

I think Vail is the best chance at a sale as a going concern, though. They have the most to gain from Haystack out of anyone - especially if they can run it as part of Mount Snow. Otherwise, the value of the individual assets probably exceed the value of the business as a going concern.

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[Newpylong]

I doubt Vail is interested. It has already been run on the Mount Snow ticket and was a money losing proposition.

[eastern powder baby]

I doubt Vail is interested. It has already been run on the Mount Snow ticket and was a money losing proposition.

The rationale would need to be capacity - I've only been to Snow once, but could it handle a 20% jump in Saturday/holiday attendance? The webcam screen grabs I've seen on social media look insane.

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[mister moose]

And I looked at the UN link. In the map, am I correct in seeing a runway in the lower right hand corner? Is that a public or private airport?

Airport Ownership and Management from official FAA records

Ownership:	Privately-owned
Owner:	DEERFIELD VALLEY REG AIRPORT, LLC HERMITAGE REALTY ESTATE HOLDING CO., 25 HANDLE ROAD WEST DOVER, VT 05356 Phone (802) 490-0775
Manager:	JIM BARNES P.O. BOX 2210, 69 AIRPORT ROAD WEST DOVER, VT 05356 Phone (802) 490-0775

http://www.airnav.com/airport/4V8

I've flown there, it's a sidewalk in a hilly area with a weak instrument approach. That means tough to get in when you have lots of low overcast, like in the winter. It's a short runway, 2.600 feet, so that means a single engine or something llike a Cape Air 402, not a jet. Still, it's a runway far closer to a ski area than anywhere else I can think of in the east.

[drjeff]

The rationale would need to be capacity - I've only been to Snow once, but could it handle a 20% jump in Saturday/holiday attendance? The webcam screen grabs I've seen on social media look insane.

Sent from my VS988 using AlpineZone mobile app

As a Mount Snow regular, last season most weekends from roughly Tnanksgiving through the 3rd week or so of March felt like a typical Holiday weekend crowd. And Holiday weekends (if the weather was remotely decent) felt like "top 5 days all time" crowds.

Could you manage it if they had ample terrain open, once you got away from the main base area and the Carinthia base area? Yup. Was this quite noticeable and of concern to those of us regulars who ski Mount Snow week in and week out and have for many years, if not decades? Yup. There were definitely numerous times last season in *SOME* locations of the resort, where it felt like the volume of skiers/riders on the hill had exceeded what the acreage can reasonably handle.

Going to be interesting to see how this plays out with the integration of the Epic pass now... Will the crowds get worse? Will some of the Peak pass folks who had been gravitating heavily to Mount Snow last season drive a bit further to Okemo? Will Vail in the coming seasons make a move to expand lift capacity (or more importantly downhill acreage)? Lot's of unknowns and to be determined items for sure.

In the back of my head though, for a multitude of reasons, there's at best a 1 in 4 chance that Vail makes a move on The Hermitage and takes on the permitting challenges of connecting the 2.

[drjeff]

http://www.airnav.com/airport/4V8

I've flown there, it's a sidewalk in a hilly area with a weak instrument approach. That means tough to get in when you have lots of low overcast, like in the winter. It's a short runway, 2.600 feet, so that means a single engine or something llike a Cape Air 402, not a jet. Still, it's a runway far closer to a ski area than anywhere else I can think of in the east.

And least not forget that at the Northern end of the Runway, you have to deal with those pesky golfers playing #17 at the Mount Snow Golf Club from mid May through mid October

I'm sure it's actually further than it looks, but every time I play that hole, including last Friday, it seems like the end of the runway there isn't much more than 100, maybe 150 yards from the edge of the left rough. And there was absolutely no activity that I could see in the air or on the tarmac last Friday from about 8:30AM until about 2:30PM when I was on the golf course property. Typically in most nice Summer Friday's as it was last Friday, you'd see or hear a plane or 2 in the air by the airport or see a plane or 2 parked on the tarmac. Not now, which apparently for the local pilots is a shame, as one of the spending sprees that Jim Barnes went on was a repaving and upgrading of the runway, taxi ways and tarmac area a few years ago, and the asphalt from the golf course looks like a relatively freshly paved/repaved road right now, which was a far cry from what it once looked like (I had heard someone once joke that once they were done cutting the grass at the golf course, they'd send a few of the rough mowers over to the runway to take care of all the areas of grass that were growing through the aging old pavement!

[Siliconebobsquarepants]

http://www.airnav.com/airport/4V8

I've flown there, it's a sidewalk in a hilly area with a weak instrument approach. That means tough to get in when you have lots of low overcast, like in the winter. It's a short runway, 2.600 feet, so that means a single engine or something llike a Cape Air 402, not a jet. Still, it's a runway far closer to a ski area than anywhere else I can think of in the east.

Notam says it’s been closed since June 3rd

Ski Liberty has an airport nearby but not walking distance.