• Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!

    You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!

Petition for Big Tupper to join ORDA

deadheadskier

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Mar 6, 2005
Messages
27,921
Points
113
Location
Southeast NH
https://www.change.org/p/andrew-m-c...974391b7d69&utm_content=fht-20362799-en-us:v2


I was unaware that Big Tupper has been closed since 2016. I've never skied there, but I know it had a passionate local following in the area. We had a longtime AZ member hear Warpdaddy who was a Big Tupper. He hasn't been around in awhile because of some health issues. Due to private development restrictions in the Adirondack Park, I imagine it's near impossible for a small privately run ski area like Big Tupper to make it.

Say what you will about the politics behind tax payer supported downhill skiing, but I'm for it; especially in areas where private operator's hands are so tied as is the case to my understanding in the Adirondacks.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using AlpineZone mobile app
 

ScottySkis

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 16, 2011
Messages
12,294
Points
48
Location
Middletown NY
https://www.change.org/p/andrew-m-c...974391b7d69&utm_content=fht-20362799-en-us:v2


I was unaware that Big Tupper has been closed since 2016. I've never skied there, but I know it had a passionate local following in the area. We had a longtime AZ member hear Warpdaddy who was a Big Tupper. He hasn't been around in awhile because of some health issues. Due to private development restrictions in the Adirondack Park, I imagine it's near impossible for a small privately run ski area like Big Tupper to make it.

Say what you will about the politics behind tax payer supported downhill skiing, but I'm for it; especially in areas where private operator's hands are so tied as is the case to my understanding in the Adirondacks.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using AlpineZone mobile app

Its in trip report thread fyi


I rather independent owner like maybe Lazzo from Platty would due better than over government
But it definitely be nice if they reopened it.
 

deadheadskier

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Mar 6, 2005
Messages
27,921
Points
113
Location
Southeast NH
Its in trip report thread fyi


I rather independent owner like maybe Lazzo from Platty would due better than over government
But it definitely be nice if they reopened it.
Does Lazlo want to sell out and join ORDA though?

I'm far removed and a little bit uneducated about NY environmental politics, but from afar it would appear that private tourism development in the Cats and Daks is a near impossible venture. Basically if NY doesn't revise it's "forever wild" stance, the only option is ORDA for the most part.

As a college student at UVM, I'd often look across the lake at the massive Adirondack range and think, "Out of all that's there, Whiteface and Gore is all they got?'

Sent from my XT1635-01 using AlpineZone mobile app
 

bdfreetuna

New member
Joined
Jan 12, 2012
Messages
4,300
Points
0
Location
keep the faith
Its in trip report thread fyi

Haha, I was thinking "if Scotty hasn't said it I will"

Anyway as for ADKs... it's a total fraudulent scenario to say these mountains need to be a wilderness, these 5000 footers with such potential for tourism.

As if people are unaware of how many past civilizations exist underneath our feet; the cultural layers, regrowth, and major geographic changes that apparently occur on a shorter time scale than some would like to believe.

Forests grow back very quickly. Much of our Northeast forest was recently fields and farm land... you'd hardly know.

So yes the ADKs should be home to at least a few new major ski resorts, although I can imagine it's hardly worth dealing with New York State as a developer.
 

deadheadskier

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Mar 6, 2005
Messages
27,921
Points
113
Location
Southeast NH
Well, the challenge is the developers couldn't even start until the NY State Constitution is amended.

Wasted opportunity unfortunately. Same goes for some of the suitable options for downhill skiing in Northern NH. That proposed Willard Basin ski area on the Pliny Range could have been incredible. Would have brought a town of economic development into Lancaster.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using AlpineZone mobile app
 

ScottySkis

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 16, 2011
Messages
12,294
Points
48
Location
Middletown NY
Does Lazlo want to sell out and join ORDA though?

I'm far removed and a little bit uneducated about NY environmental politics, but from afar it would appear that private tourism development in the Cats and Daks is a near impossible venture. Basically if NY doesn't revise it's "forever wild" stance, the only option is ORDA for the most part.

As a college student at UVM, I'd often look across the lake at the massive Adirondack range and think, "Out of all that's there, Whiteface and Gore is all they got?'

Sent from my XT1635-01 using AlpineZone mobile app

Mccolley nice
Very good lake effect general not huge
But very cheap
Steep pitch
Maybe around 750 vertical
 

flakeydog

Active member
Joined
Feb 7, 2014
Messages
216
Points
28
Location
Vermont
Just saw this now, unexpected in the "trip reports" section. This is not a Trip Report.

Mods- move this thread and to everyone else, give this place some love.

It is a great mountain! it is on the smaller side but has some great terrain- some good steep stuff, some ledge, some good glades as well as plenty of family friendly blue/green terrain. It really skis much bigger than it appears to be. The view from the top is spectacular.

Big Tupper was truly raised from the dead unlike any other area I have ever seen. Fully closed for 10 years, a grassroots movement took on this project. Trails had grown in and the main chairlift was beyond repair. The lodge had fallen victim to vandalism with broken windows and there were tire tracks from where people had been riding on ATVs inside the lodge.

The "newest" lift on site was circa 1982 and the thinking was that maybe it was serviceable. Equipment and expertise was donated, chairs were removed and the grips were sent off to be scanned and x-rayed to check structural integrity. Exclusively through donations and an extraordinary volunteer effort, the lodge was put back in order and the old #2 chair ran again. Big Tupper had risen from the ashes, at least for a time.

In an attempt to give the short version of a very, very long story, this phase of "Ski Big Tupper Again" was, by design, a temporary condition. The backdrop of all of this had a developer, the APA, the town, conservation groups and a few other interested parties engaged in a protracted, years-long battle over the fate of this mountain and the surrounding land. While those aforementioned parties proceeded to litigate any hope of success into oblivion, the ski area continued to decay. A few in the town just wanted a place to ski again and they were granted permission to do so while the development war raged on, and on, and on....

Well as you might expect, running a ski area is hard enough but doing it with 100% volunteer effort and donations on a "temporary" basis is next to impossible. They did not have a permit to make snow and needless to say, the weather did not always cooperate. Those that gave of their time and money had no guarantee that the area would operate next season or the next. That is a tough ask of those that gave so much to resurrect this place.

So here we are today. I really don't know if an ORDA purchase is the right thing or not (and I am not advocating one way or the other) but something needs to happen, and soon. I am sure the members of the Alpinezone community will have something to say based on some of the other threads I have seen on far more trivial topics.
 

BenedictGomez

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 26, 2011
Messages
12,119
Points
113
Location
Wasatch Back
I guess if your ski area closed, and joining-up with the worst ski area operator in America is your only chance for survival, you'd welcome the worst ski area operator in America.
 

air0rmc

Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2008
Messages
86
Points
6
Location
Cassville NY
I'm all in!
6ee15b011f5aede5a251b907e32994ee.jpg


Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
 

bdfreetuna

New member
Joined
Jan 12, 2012
Messages
4,300
Points
0
Location
keep the faith
Sure, but how long before those fancy new trees get all infested with spiders?

Too late. We can only home Tecumseh's Comet will return along with several years without a summer (short term great for skiing and wipes out spider population), and mud flood followed by a dust bowl.

(hmm I thought the settlers cut down 90% of USA forest because cows needed quite a bit of space in those days, and trees were considered an eye-sore/spider-hazard)

Sadly the funnel spiders will rebound quickly and thrive in this new environment. Best you can do is keep 'em down on the ground.
 

Domeskier

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 15, 2012
Messages
2,274
Points
63
Location
New York
Sadly the funnel spiders will rebound quickly and thrive in this new environment. Best you can do is keep 'em down on the ground.

Oh dear. I just might ride that slidebrook express around and around and never get off again.
 

x10003q

Active member
Joined
Aug 14, 2009
Messages
913
Points
43
Location
Bergen County, NJ
Big Tupper is a 650 vertical blue and green locals area that went bankrupt twice, long before the current "owner" ACR took possession around 2000. One of BT's 2 main double chairs needs to be replaced. There was a snowmaking sytem installed in the 1990s. ACR stripped out anything that could be sold for cash from the system. Plattekill has some of the snowmaking. The lodge needs boat loads of work. BT is miles from nowhere surrounded by declining populations. There is no way NYS/ORDA should waste money on this place.

If BT was still operating with the 1990s snowmaking system and both main double chairs, there might be a case to be made for NYS help to keep it operating. In its current state it is a complete loss.

The reality is that ORDA does not have a great track record with Gore and Whiteface, either.
 
Last edited:

AdironRider

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 27, 2005
Messages
3,483
Points
63
Tupper Lake is also probably the most depressing place I have ever been.

BT is cool and all, and I hiked it once back in college and it was fun, but it does not belong with ORDA.

Titus mountain is what 45 minutes away and is better in almost every way also. This is where SLU and the other colleges practiced, at least in the mid 2000's.
 
Top