AZ Challenge 2011: JoAnne Taylor of Saddleback

[Nick]

JoAnne Taylor, Marketing Director at Saddleback, has agreed to participate in the 2011 AlpineZone Ski Area Challenge!

The AlpineZone Challenge is your chance to offer up questions, suggestions or praise to the people who run the mountains in the northeast. For more information on the challenge itself, please see the stickied post at the top of the forum.

We will pick ten of the questions asked here and submit them for review and response, and post them in the Challenge area when complete!

Caveats: we may edit/change your question for grammar, tone, or something similar. Questions may be merged. If we don't get to all the questions, we will encourage followup from the representatives, but no promises.

Please be respectful as well to those answering questions - please refrain from asking specifics about skier visit numbers, financials, demographic information, etc. as these may be confidential to the mountain.

It's been seven years since Saddleback has been in the Challenge, so get those questions answered!

Saddleback Profile

2004 AZ Challenge Results

 

[riverc0il]

A lot has changed at Saddleback in just a few years. Congratulations on going from relative obscurity to the worst best kept secret in New England! There was quite an extensive expansion map posted in the not so distant past. Could you provide an update regarding Saddleback's long term expansion plans and an updated timeline? It seems like replacing the Rangeley Double with a High Speed Quad would be the most pressing on mountain upgrade. Could you comment on if and when this will happen?

Saddleback took the lead in New England with its major glade expansion in Casablanca. Will additional glading be performed in other areas of the ski area?

While the new Quad has made lapping the upper mountain easier than ever, it is not without its shortfalls given that surface lifts are less prone to wind holds. How often does the new Quad go on wind hold relative to the old T-bar?

Thanks!

 

[Riverskier]

Oil already covered this, but I want to express my interest in your plans for replacing the Rangely double. I am a Sunday River skier primarily that discovered Saddleback on a blackout day a couple years ago, and fell in love with the place. I would love to visit a couple/few times a year on blackout days, and perhaps more in the future, but am hesitant due to the current lift situation. The last time I was the there, the line for the Rangely was over 30 minutes long, and then once on the lift it is not a short ride. Do you think in some ways you are becoming a victim of your own success? A high speed or even high capacity quad would solve this problem, and would definitely increase business from this customer, and I suspect many others.

 

[xwhaler]

1) The lodge can get quite crowded on busy wknds. I know that a full scale expansion may be costly and not in the financial cards at this time but what about setting up some type of bag check system?
I've also noticed there are lots of non-skiiers who monopolize a large table and have their kids bags on them all day long.
I know it is tough if not impossible to ask them to leave but I think either adding additional cubby space and/or having a bag check system could help alleviate the crowds to a certain extent.

2) In the event of wind holds that may shut down the Rangeley but could keep the upper lift running, are you prepared to run the Cupsuptic and the Kennebago so folks can access the entire mtn?
Or is the decision made to shut down both Kennebago and Rangeley at the same time and only run the T on very windy days?

3) Any way to possibly speed up service for lunch upsairs in the Swig and Smelt during lunch? Sometimes on the busy days I've gone in hoping to buy something from the food court only to realize the tables are all full. So I hed upstairs for what I hope will be a quick 30 mins burger/beer that turns into an hour and a half because either the kitchen is backed up or there are not enough servers to accmodate the volume.
The food is quite tasty and I enjoy going up there but the time to complete a lunch can be extensive at times.

4) Any way to possibly glade some of the trees off the true summitt? The few times I've hiked up there usually is real tough picking your way through the trees and down onto Black Beauty or Warden's. Unless the tops of the trees are completely covered it is almost impossible to fight through the growth up there. Not sure if there are any AT restrictions on this?

5) Any thought to seeding and maintaining bumps on Tightrope all season? Usually they go in in Early March but wondering your position on having a longer mogul season?

6) How about adding some snowmaking to the headwalls of Wardens, Frostbite and Black Beauty? I'm sure its a real challenge given the exposure and wind up there but sometimes those trails can be off line for an extended period of time if it hasn't snowed so wondering if anything could be done to help with snow rentention in these tough spots.

7) any planned grading projects on Dazzler to help with the haul out to Casa and Muleskinner?

Keep up all the great work you guys have done so far!

 

[wa-loaf]

Definitely when is the double going to be replaced? That's your Achilles heel right now.

 

[riverc0il]

The hut at the bottom of the Kennebago Quad is awesome! Any possibility on expanding the hut into a permanent mid-mountain lodge (think Sugarbush's two mid-mountain lodges). The hut is limited services and can be quite tight and uncomfortable. But it is a preferable option for expert skiers who want to stay high up on the mountain. Expanding the hut would also help alleviate crowding and long food lines in the main lodge. A deck with outdoor grilling and adult beverage service would probably be well received.

 

[Terry]

Are you planning on staying open as long as the conditions allow again this year? I don't know how financially feasable it was, but we had some awesome skiing there on May 1st. I couldn't believe that we were still skiing Casablanca then.

 

[bigbog]

Maine Days remaining at $29 is nice JoAnne....a price that the other mountain has drifted from....

 

[Skimaine]

Kudos on a great job of bringing this mountain along. Really enjoy the trails, the balance of groomer vs ungroomed, Kennebago quad, lodge, the hut, Casablanca and the value.

Echo what other have asked:

- Rangely double - time frame for replacement?
- Any chance of a permanent replacement for the hut?
- The Lodge is cramped. The density of tables is just too much. Any plans for improvements here?
- Snow making or some strategy (snow fence?)on the head-walls of Black Beauty et al is needed. These seemed to get scrubbed.

One of the disadvantages of Saddleback, Sugarloaf and to a lesser extent Sunday River is location and remoteness. Any thoughts on creating a multi-mountain promotion to create a more compelling product to visit the "Maine Alps"? A promotion that combines lodging, transportation and lift-tickets that gives customers a chance to get a good sampling of each mountain (e.g., 2 days each).

It is 13 miles from my condo at that "other mountain" to the base of Saddleback, but it takes nearly a hour to drive there. On my way to Saddleback, there is a great view on route 16 that makes you think you are nearly there, only to have to drive in Rangely and back to add another 15 to 20 minutes of driving. How about cutting another access road from the East or better yet installing an inter-mountain gondola. ;-)

Keep up the good work!

 

[salsgang]

Great Mountain. Great Vibe. We are passholders and love the place.

Questions:

Early season snowmaking plans: Just a comment - I like the "bury it once and move on" philosophy. It provides a really good early season experience on the trails with snowmaking.

T-Bar opening: I think more emphasis needs to be made to get the T-Bar open by Xmas break. Last year the Xmas week crowds were huge and no t-bar which created 45min rangeley lines. I think possibly a lot of business was lost due to people not wanting to experience that again the rest of the season. Has that been a topic of conversation this summer?

Rangeley Double - I echo the Rangely double replacement strategy. Any news on this would be good.

Communication: I find the "social media" communication inconsistent at best. Most other mountains have someone other than the GM spearheading facebook, twitter, forum activity etc. I think we hear about the official events pretty well, but would like a more consistent flow of information from 'behind the scenes'. The blog you had a couple of winters ago that was updated daily was quite informative. A more consistent flow of information in these mediums would be helpful by someone dedicated to this task.

I echo comments on snowmaking on top of Wardens Worry, Frostbite and Black Beauty. Great entrance to trails we rarely got to ski last year.

Any chance we could get some glading on the skiers left side the rangeley? There is some really great terrain over there that could be opened up that is not quite so gnarly as up top which would give the beginner glade skier something bigger to sink their teeth into before going deep off the top.

I find for new skiers, the terrain jump from the lower quad to the rangeley is quite a step. They are forced down hudson highway, or they have to tackle the blues of Gray Ghost or Green Weaver which is a big step up from the lower greens. Any of your expansion plans accomodate an 'easier blue" to make the step up a bit easier for new skiers? I have to say the lower quad is the best learning area of any mountain I know in the northeast.

Will you stay open weekends late april to May? I loved skiing May 1. I hope it was somewhat financially feasible to do so.

Thanks for participating! Looking forward to the answers.

 

[tipsdown]

Have you considered installing a base-to-summit lift in lieu of the Rangeley double? Given the aging lift system (excluding the Kennebego) the mountain doesn’t ski as big as it is and a lift and trail network that offers top-to-bottom skiing like most other big mountains would go a long way in providing that. Having another lift to the summit would also take some pressure off of the Kennebego Quad as a result of additional up-hill capacity provided by a new quad lift. Without another lift to the summit the Kennebego would likely get jammed up and water down the experience. Please provide your thoughts.

Are there still plans to open up ski access to the backside? I understand there are some restrictions in regards to lift and trail development but how about some thinning below tree line and providing access either back to the front (via the proposed West Bowl lift) or scheduled cat rides back to the summit? Formally providing access to that terrain would surely give expert skiers one of the most unique and challenging experiences in New England. With terrain of that magnitude it only seems natural to capitalize on it. It also seems as though it could be a cost-effective approach towards solidifying Saddleback’s reputation as having some of the toughest terrain in the east..

Is it possible to do some glade thinning at treeline to provide extenstions to the trails off of true summit? Late in the season with good snow cover you can ski the extensions of Wardens and Tightline but how about some thinning above Supervisor, Frost Bite, Black Beauty and others?

 

[wa-loaf]

How will the new EB5 status for the area impact Saddleback in the near and long term. Are the any projects in que that will get prioritized/moved up now?

 

[Nick]

Guess it worked out well to leave this running a few extra days

 

[salsgang]

Couple More - congrats on the EB-5 Designation

In the past few days, Jay Peak has been brought up as a comparison to what can be done with the EB-5 investment. I could be wrong, but most of their investments seems to be driven to building up the 'four season resort'. Swimming Pools, Ice Rinks, Posh hotel etc.

I was wondering if you can share Saddleback's capital expansion philosophy. After a Rangeley replacement, will potential improvements be focused on the ski operations... or will there be a concentrated effort to make Saddleback a 4 season resort?

One other thing that would be cool is some type of 'hotel style' lodging on-mountain. It would be great to have a hotel option where you don't have to rent an entire condo for a bed but still be on-mountain.

Thanks a bunch!