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Tenney Mountain

bdfreetuna

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What's the deal with Tenney? I see they're back open again. It also seems they've revived their website in the last week or so.

http://www.skitenney.com/

Ride and Ski Card is doing $40 lift tickets

Is it kind of like a NH version of Magic with limited snowmaking and some steepish narrow trails? Looks fun and I like to support their existence if that's the case.

$329 season passes too
 

KustyTheKlown

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i dig how they have essentially 0 beginner terrain on their map. i doubt i make it that way, especially this season, but i wish them the best, as i would any independent operator trying to revive a NELSAP
 

Rogman

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Nice to see it un-NELSAP'd. Skied it a bunch in the early 70s. The owner was Sam Hall (I do miss the days when ski areas were owned by an actual person), as I recall he was a bit of a cantankerous fellow. There was no snow making, and he advertised that their grooming was so good, the snow would blow out of the woods onto the trails and stay there. In the late 70's there were a few really lean snow years and he was done for. Hope the new owners can make a go of it.
 

bdfreetuna

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We did their brochures and I'm pretty sure outsourced their trail maps in the late 80s. Along with Pats Peak, King Ridge, Berkshire East and a couple others I'm not remembering, probably NELSAP'd. Never skied it though.

I like the looks of the terrain, almost has a smaller / less steep Mad River Glen feel to it. Even looks like there's a "backside snowfield" by all the mess of wind turbines. I would not be surprised if they (wisely) added a bunch of tree skiing to give the mountain more appeal to the low-key / cheapskate advanced skier crowd.

Then again I watched a couple other videos and the skiing looked kind of flat. Maybe I'm watching the wrong trails.

 

icecoast1

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What's the deal with Tenney? I see they're back open again. It also seems they've revived their website in the last week or so.

http://www.skitenney.com/

Ride and Ski Card is doing $40 lift tickets

Is it kind of like a NH version of Magic with limited snowmaking and some steepish narrow trails? Looks fun and I like to support their existence if that's the case.

$329 season passes too

Kind of like Magic but Magic is a lot further along in their rehab process. Dont even think they were making snow much of anywhere besides tubing as of last year because of how much damage was done to the system while it sat idle. Hope it works out though because the current owner seems like a good guy, although like any lost ski area, he probably had no idea the kind of project he was getting into trying to revive the place.
 

skifree

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on map tree area on skiers left ski very nice.
played in them while my kids took snowboard lessons about 10 yrs ago.
I would go again

also left my boards in the rack and they where still around the next morning.
 

KustyTheKlown

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those snowfields on the backside look like they would take you to nowheresville fast.
 

crazy

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I could certainly see myself checking this place out on a mid winter weekend.
 

thetrailboss

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W

Is it kind of like a NH version of Magic with limited snowmaking and some steepish narrow trails? Looks fun and I like to support their existence if that's the case.

You are correct.

Industry newbie picked it up in foreclosure not intending to reopen it, but then reconsidered. Has done some great things with grassroots marketing but does not really have the deep pockets or experience to make it a full-blown ski resort. He is learning. He has poured his heart and soul into the place though. It is coming back....slowly. Much to his credit he has really gotten the locals invested in it...at least emotionally...and has done a good job getting the lodge up and running with regular weekend entertainment and events that appear to be pretty good. I'd rather see it develop slowly as it has been then to have someone come in who has no connection to the local community dump a ton of money into it only to go under again.
 
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thetrailboss

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We did their brochures and I'm pretty sure outsourced their trail maps in the late 80s. Along with Pats Peak, King Ridge, Berkshire East and a couple others I'm not remembering, probably NELSAP'd. Never skied it though.

Were you in the marketing business then? Interesting.

I like the looks of the terrain, almost has a smaller / less steep Mad River Glen feel to it. Even looks like there's a "backside snowfield" by all the mess of wind turbines. I would not be surprised if they (wisely) added a bunch of tree skiing to give the mountain more appeal to the low-key / cheapskate advanced skier crowd.

IIRC they did have a lot of trees on the map back in the day. It is flat with a few steep pitches here and there.

Then again I watched a couple other videos and the skiing looked kind of flat. Maybe I'm watching the wrong trails.

 

bdfreetuna

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From 1986-87 season... this is a page out of our brochures (no I didn't personally work on his project, I was a young lad learning about offset printing, cutting boards and x-acto knives at the time). My father began an advertising agency in 1980 and the earliest clients were ski areas. He is a photographer too and I remember going to ski areas when I was young and he was trying to get the best shots staked up on different trails.

Today we mainly serve the campground / RV park industry and I'm the lead web developer.

I might have a few of these brochures kicking around -- I'll look -- but they might have been sold on Ebay too.

I *think*, but not 100% sure, this map was done by the same guy who did the packaging/design for the Cabbage Patch Kids.

tenney.jpg
 

MEtoVTSkier

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They had a video up last week with a handful of old airhog snowguns going. You'd think they'd invest in 1 or 2 modern air/water guns if that's all the budget allows, (they've got a few fans already for lower locations with existing electric) and park twice as many of those old guns! I think you could see 5 guns running in the video...

https://www.facebook.com/skiTENNEY/...0YYEdMjhgpg2TRwTCk1zzf-3I9DDC8HFPPZGIJo9Vjwse
 

Newpylong

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They look like Ratnik Snow Giants and a K gun, not even Baby Snow Giants. They likely are just using what was left by the previous owners.

Sounds like they're pumped to at least be making snow above the Platter finally.
 

icecoast1

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They had a video up last week with a handful of old airhog snowguns going. You'd think they'd invest in 1 or 2 modern air/water guns if that's all the budget allows, (they've got a few fans already for lower locations with existing electric) and park twice as many of those old guns! I think you could see 5 guns running in the video...

https://www.facebook.com/skiTENNEY/...0YYEdMjhgpg2TRwTCk1zzf-3I9DDC8HFPPZGIJo9Vjwse

Not everyone can afford fancy new technology. They are probably trying to get by on what they have and they know will work on their snowmaking system
 

MG Skier

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If memory serves, most of the infrastructure at Tenney was toast. Nothing was taken care of. So, compressing air, and pumping snow were not very feasible when all or most of the engines that ran them were junk! I am hoping to get there this year, I like when the independent mountains come back from NELSAP or the Grim Reaper, especially when it is done smartly!
 

bdfreetuna

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I guess their base must have been pretty thin. Somebody put up a trip report last week they were at 100% on thin base. Still pretty impressive.

Just checked the site they say "all trails closed awaiting colder weather". Quite a shift. This was maybe my chance to get up there this year..
 

MEtoVTSkier

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Not everyone can afford fancy new technology. They are probably trying to get by on what they have and they know will work on their snowmaking system

Tenney Interview page 2

Skip down to the section " Which components of the snowmaking system have been salvageable?"

We're looking at 68 stick guns, 12 miscellaneous sleds, and 8 fan guns.


Just buy ONE gun, and show it off front and center, like all the other videos they've made. No need to go broke buying a ton of them yet. Just ONE... Lol!

Notice they've hardly made ANY videos on their FB page in quite some time now? Just ads for the pub in the Lodge. It's more of a clubhouse for the Condo developement, that just so happens to have a small, occasionally operating ski hill attached.
 

thetrailboss

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I think that caught quite a few people by surprise.

The guy who they identified as the "owner" seemed like a neophyte in more ways than one. I did not recognize the name and I'm not sure if he is the "new" partner who stepped in after Mike had legal issues with the other partner.
 
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