Another lost ski area coming back

[SIKSKIER]

I believe I saw a mention here about Mt Eustis in Littleton NH coming back from the dead.Here's their facebook page showing some info.I skied here in the 70's a few times.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/MtEustisSkiClub?hc_location=stream

 

[Glenn]

That's great news. You just see that happening much these days.

 

[Warp Daddy]

Great, always a good thing to have these small local feeder hills make it .

 

[jack97]

kewl... nice to have a feeder hill between Cannon and Bretton Woods.

 

[dlague]

There was a post on this about a year ago.

Another-Mountain-Off-the-NELSAP-List-Mount-Eustis-NH-to-Reopen-2012-2013

 

[mt.eustis ski hill]

We ARE coming back! Insurance and lease agreement should both be signed in the next couple of weeks and logging will begin immediately after! We will have a "presence" on the mountain this season, but official opening with rope tow and lights will be winter of 2014/2015.

 

[ss20]

Why is it always the little mountains that reopen? Can't we get some bigger ones too? This is the smallest hill in the state that's not operating:

http://www.newenglandskihistory.com/NewHampshire/

 

[drjeff]

Why is it always the little mountains that reopen? Can't we get some bigger ones too? This is the smallest hill in the state that's not operating:

http://www.newenglandskihistory.com/NewHampshire/

The bigger the hill the very likely reality that the cost to reopen it will be that much bigger at which point it becomes both more difficult to obtain financing and also that much more of a risk that the larger volume of people needed to sustain the financial side of that bigger project won't materialize

Much better "risk" on a say 1-2 million dollar loan for a ski area that might only need say 50k visits to cover operating costs than a larger area that might need say 5 to 10 million to get it open again and then 100k plus skier visits

Granted its being done on a TOTALLY different scale for a TOTALLY different target customer, but I've heard that for Haystack so far they've spent around 50 million to date with another 50 or so million to be spent over the next few years to finish it's redevelopment

Sent from my DROID RAZR using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[thetrailboss]

We ARE coming back! Insurance and lease agreement should both be signed in the next couple of weeks and logging will begin immediately after! We will have a "presence" on the mountain this season, but official opening with rope tow and lights will be winter of 2014/2015.

Nice! Welcome to the boards! We love small hills. I saw the brochures at the NESM in July and then was on a flight recently with a guy wearing a Mount Eustis shirt. Turns out he was one of the organizers and we talked a bit. So nice to see this energy with Big Squaw and here.

I really hope that folks step up to keep the Lyndon Outing Club going. They were one of the first ski areas in the country and are a very historic place with many national (yes, national) and regional ski meets back in the day when men were men and had to master nordic, alpine, AND ski jumping to compete.

 

[Mapnut]

Why is it always the little mountains that reopen? Can't we get some bigger ones too? This is the smallest hill in the state that's not operating:

http://www.newenglandskihistory.com/NewHampshire/

Interesting question, but notice that all the re-openings we're seeing, except Haystack, are being done by community or volunteer organizations. That's also true of the very small areas that keep chugging along, like Living Memorial Park in Brattleboro. I'd divide the re-openings into two types: little areas with only rope tows, that won't need a lot of capital (Mt. Prospect and Mt Eustis) and middle-sized areas that are trying to get by with the existing old lifts and natural snow (Big Tupper, Whaleback, Squaw Mt.) We'll have to wait and see how long they can keep it up. Another unique case is Black Mt. of Maine, which was developed to top-notch condition by a foundation, then given to the community organization.

But what you don't see is anyone investing millions to re-develop a good-sized lost area in the hope of making a profit. Well, except Crotched.

 

[thetrailboss]

Interesting question, but notice that all the re-openings we're seeing, except Haystack, are being done by community or volunteer organizations. That's also true of the very small areas that keep chugging along, like Living Memorial Park in Brattleboro. I'd divide the re-openings into two types: little areas with only rope tows, that won't need a lot of capital (Mt. Prospect and Mt Eustis) and middle-sized areas that are trying to get by with the existing old lifts and natural snow (Big Tupper, Whaleback, Squaw Mt.) We'll have to wait and see how long they can keep it up. Another unique case is Black Mt. of Maine, which was developed to top-notch condition by a foundation, then given to the community organization.

But what you don't see is anyone investing millions to re-develop a good-sized lost area in the hope of making a profit. Well, except Crotched.

Crotched is an interesting story. It's also interesting that they originally wanted to buy Temple.

There are some other areas that reopened and are I'd say a bit bigger than the rope tow areas. Arrowhead being one. Any word on Eaton Mountain? They were almost open.

 

[dlague]

Nice! Welcome to the boards! We love small hills. I saw the brochures at the NESM in July and then was on a flight recently with a guy wearing a Mount Eustis shirt. Turns out he was one of the organizers and we talked a bit. So nice to see this energy with Big Squaw and here.

I really hope that folks step up to keep the Lyndon Outing Club going. They were one of the first ski areas in the country and are a very historic place with many national (yes, national) and regional ski meets back in the day when men were men and had to master nordic, alpine, AND ski jumping to compete.

Was/is there a rumor about them LOC closing in the longer term? They are opening this winter!

 

[Mapnut]

Here's the news from Eaton. http://www.eatonmountain.com/ It appears they're doing better, adding a second handle tow to serve a beginners' ski slope and (small) terrain park. The existing tow serves a tubing slope. Like other undercapitalized areas, they're trying to figure out a way to buy a summit lift.

Arrowhead didn't fully re-open, just a tubing tow and a pony lift on the beginners' slope. Similar to Eaton. I see on their web site they're also asking for volunteers. Eaton is asking for sponsors.

A couple not-exactly-relevant pictures: Outdated trail view and outdated skier.
http://www.snowjournal.com/page.php?cid=galimg23287
http://www.snowjournal.com/page.php?cid=galimg28226

 

[thetrailboss]

I saw that Eaton is not running their chair. I imagine it needs some work and/or is not in code anymore.

And wasn't Arrowhead doing cat skiing or something like that?