AlpineZone Ski Area Challenge: Catamount Ski Area

[Greg]

Jason Barrett from Catamount Ski Area also agreed to take the AlpineZone Ski Area Challenge! This is your chance to get official answers to your ski-related questions direct from a Northeast ski resort representative! Please post some suggested questions in this thread and I'll select ten to present for official responses.

As always, please be respectful of Jason and keep it civil. Also, please refrain from asking specifics about skier visit numbers, financials, demographic information, etc. Catamount needs to be discrete about certain information.

Ask away!

 

[Greg]

I have a few for Catamount:

During a 2000/2001 ski season visit, I noticed much of the snow surface at Catamount had a brownish-rust color to it. Some of the ice on the trees at the summit also had this discoloration. What causes this? Was there a problem with the snowmaking system?

(Borrowed from skijay's Butternut question): Is Ski Butternut your primary competition? Have you considered working with them to offer a season pass that is honored at both mountains?

 

[loafer89]

I skied At Catamount on Februery 1st 2004, and the lift lines were quite long. Are there any plans to upgrade any of the chairlifts? Installing the Magic Carpet was a great move, my 4 year old son really enjoyed the lift and learned alot from his instructor.

 

[ts01]

In addition to the obvious chairlift question, I wonder if Catamount has any plans to improve its snowmaking capacity? Compared to Butternut, Catamount has clear advantages in terrain, crowds, and access (at least for NY-based day skiers). And Catamount also beats Jiminy in terms of crowds, access and expense. But on several occasions, I've decided to drive on to Butternut based on its real or perceived advantage in snowmaking and grooming (lesser concern). Other times, I've opted for Jiminy because the higher ticket price and extra drive time seemed justified by better conditions and MUCH faster lift (six-pack). Given the weekend lift lines at Butternut and the extra drive-time to Jiminy, I'm not sure those were the right decisions. However, if snowmaking and lifts were improved, I'd stop sooner and ski Catamount more frequently.

 

[Greg]

Great questions, ts01! Welcome to the forums!

 

[Greg]

Catamount straddles the Massachusetts/New York border. What is the "official" location? What percentage of the skiing terrain is in each state? Are there any interesting implications of doing business within two different states?

 

[teachski]

Being a teacher, it is very hard, if not impossible for me to get to a ski area mid-week, yet all special discounts seem to take place during the mid-week. School vacations are usually blacked out from these discounts and specials. Have you ever thought of having a couple teacher appreciation days through out the season, including one or two during the normally blacked out school vacations?

 

[sledhaulingmedic]

Back to Greg's question about your location: I asked a NY lift inspector whether any of your lifts straddled tjhe State Line and if that was the case, who did you have to answer to? (S)he mentioned that no lifts crossed the boundry. Is that really the case? Inquiring Sledhaulers want to know!

 

[Greg]

I shipped ten questions off to Jason. Thanks for the questions!

 

[Greg]

Jason's responses are in:

http://skiing.alpinezone.com/articles/challenge/response.htm?resort=catamountma