AlpineZone Ski Area Challenge: Windham Mountain

[Greg]

Troy Ketcham from Windham Mountain 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 Troy and keep it civil. Also, please refrain from asking specifics about skier visit numbers, financials, demographic information, etc. Windham needs to be discrete about certain information.

Ask away!

 

[Greg]

I guess I'll start with some defaults:

1. Are there any terrain expansion plans for the 2004-2005 ski season? If so, what types of trails will be added?
2. Are there any infrastructure improvements/upgrades planned, e.g. lifts, snowmaking, base/summit facilities, etc.?
3. Do you have any plans to open a forum or chat room on your website? Do you read web forums like AlpineZone.com? If so, do you ever want to reply to posts about Windham or other ski areas?

All right, we need some more questions from some NY AZers...

 

[jimme]

Boy, not too many questions here. Maybe people could post why they don't have questions. While I've heard Windham is a nice area, I have not wanted to "risk" a weekend day there now that I've "discovered" Plattekill. While I've heard that it's not nearly as crowded as Hunter on a weekend, I know for sure that Plattekill is not so I've opted for the latter. Windham is on my short list of areas to ski, and I plan to get there this season. Their Website is great and very informative!

Looking at the trail map - are there plans for a connecting trail from the Why Not Triple peak to the Whirlwind Quad peak?

I did take a photo of the Windham Elementary School with the mountain clearly in the background. Are there any ties so to speak between the schools and the mountain like a ski class? (It must be distracting for the kids to have a ski area in the school's "backyard". I know it would have been for me. :wink: )

They did have an Early ski program where you could ride up as early as 7:00AM, will that be offered?

Jimme

 

[noreaster]

Here are a few questions.

Any plans to name trails that don't start with W ?

Could you tell us a little bit about volunteering to assist handicap skiers at Windham and where one could get more information on Windham's excellent adaptive skiing program?

Windham gets high marks for their not too steep mogul trail for learning to ski moguls. I have also noticed that popular double diamond mogul trails like Wheelchair are sometimes groomed perfectly flat during the middle of the ski season. What is the rationale for grooming out popular mogul trails like Wheelchair during the middle of the ski season?

 

[Greg]

I sent ten questions off to Troy. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Greg]

Troy's responses are in:

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

 

[Greg]

Thanks to our excellent grooming and snowmaking staff our man made moguls on designated intermediate trails give almost all skier abilities the chance to try mogul skiing without the risk of being on a steep trail.

I think it's great that Windham, like Loon and hopefully Jiminy Peak this coming season, have adopted this approach of manmade mogul fields on intermediate terrain. It really is a great way for aspiring bumpers to practice. Bravo on that one! Great responses overall too!

 

[thetrailboss]

Wow, that is a lot of good info! I don't know the mountain, but the rep did a great job. Good idea, Greg. This info is really helpful and let's us see who is able to step up to the plate and deliver. Keep up the good work and questions, all! :beer:

 

[Stache]

Grooming Bump Runs

One thing Windham did later on this season was to groom only 1/2 of Wheelchair leaving the bumps on the skiers right. When I commented on this in my "Stache's Thursday Night Snow Report" for www.WindhamUnderground.com members the following night they did it with Warpath. Really cool to have a "bailout" lane groomed flat one cat track wide down the side of a bump run.

 

[ChileMass]

Hey Stache - from one UPstate NYer to another - welcome to AZ.com........