vonski
New member
Ya but Killington's vertical is due to the run down the base of the Skyeship.
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Balsams Grand Resort teams up with ski industry legend Les Otten
- Thread starter bobbutts
- Start date
Ya but Killington's vertical is due to the run down the base of the Skyeship.
mbedle
Well-known member
Can we please not get into the vertical conversation again. PLEASE...
steamboat1
New member
Nice run I must say. Topped off with Valley Plunge.
What does the Loaf & Ellen have at the bottom?
ss20
Well-known member
Loaf: Condos and a looooong slow ride back up waiting for you.
Ellen: A flat sh!tshow as half a dozen of all abilities trails converge into 2.
Jully
Active member
I don't think anyone finds the bottom of mountains interesting. Maybe K has one run that's sightly better to the Skyeship base than other places, but it's in no way a marketing point nor a bragging point for the mountain.
No is going to say "Killington: we have one run to our true base that doesn't require skating!" Never mind what we have at our summit! We have the least boring of the boring bases that many people don't even go to!
Besides, Ellen might not have anything, but Lincoln Peak has some fine stuff to the base by Valley House
I never got that argument either. I used to park on route 4 at the skyship and my last run would always be from peak to base....perfect last run IMO.
Vert is taken way to seriously around here. Kirkwood is 1800 tops...no more and its irrevelant IMO. Alta supreme lift was once my daily goto lift and it's probably under 1k. Its not quantity unless you want to rail groomers and crush vert all day, in which case yeah you're probably not driving past all those hills further south. Also there's people in Canada too, Montreal has got to be a big target.
Dixville notch any time of year is just fucking glorious and IMO it provides a truly unique experience. Here's to hoping they can expand upon that and not make another typical same old experience
Yeah so they had an off year. We barely cleared 100 in Tahoe this year. I don't think its as much a snow advantage as a snow retention advantage. A lot of storms that rain further south are snow. Thaws are quicker. If you look at local nh weather as deadhead mentioned its always the last area on the map to see a mix if it even mixes at all. I saw it straight up snow labor day weekend at the hotel when I did my summer up there.
marcski
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Ski Plattekill right down to the lift...albeit only 1100' but no run-out.
ThinkSnow
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x10003q
Active member
This is a west coast point of view. Vertical really defines an east coast mtn as most major east coast resorts have much smaller acreage vs west coast mtns. A small vertical (less than 1000) means many short lift rides and many short ski runs. You take what you have, but if there are choices here on the east coast I am going for vertical. In most cases in the East the more vertical the more interesting the terrain. Holiday Valley in NY is 750vf and 290 acres and Hunter Mtn is 1600vf and 240 acres. Where would you rather ski?
If Balsams has mostly a bunch of sub-1000 ft vert pods it just will not draw the people past other bigger vert ski areas.
Canadians have to drive by some great choices here in the US to get to the Balsams. The weak Canadian dollar will impact visits and real estate purchases by Canadians.
Highway Star
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ThinkSnow
Member
This is a NJ point of view.
Newpylong
Well-known member
because it's doubtful their clientele is this board?
VTKilarney
Well-known member
I agree with what you said except for the last statement (above). If you are coming from Montreal, the drive is not an unreasonable drive. The bigger areas that you drive past (or near) are: Bromont, Owl's Head, Sutton, Jay Peak, and Orford. If done correctly, The Balsams could hold their own against nearly all of those resorts. And let's not forget that Sherbrooke is a decent sized city of about 155,000 residents.
IMHO The Balsams could market itself as more upscale than Jay and less crowded than Jay. Jay is not at all what it used to be, and that could be a good thing for The Balsams.
But the HUGE problem facing The Balsams right now is the exchange rate. For the resort to work, it has to draw Canadians. Unless things change quickly, that is going to be a challenge.
Mapnut
New member
That's an interesting question; who is their clientele? People who want a luxury resort in a beautiful setting? (Of course there's no luxury resort there now). If they build all those condos, no more than 10% of the customers will be staying at the resort. And it won't be beautiful. It will be Okemo or Loon and twice as far. They could have an excellent ski area if they just added one lift west of and above the existing area, and developed the northeast-facing bowl off the east peak with 4 or 5 lifts and shuttle service. Instead of all those connecting lifts serving short, uneven, or south-facing terrain.
DoublePlanker
Member
Despite its lack of air-conditioning, the prior Balsams hotel was pretty awesome and upscale. The food was amazing. Of course, I only went there once in my life as its too far away with too many places to pass including the Bretton Woods/Mt Washington Hotel. And it was summer.
I would think they have to go somewhat upscale and not the crappy Grand Summit Hotel style.
I would think they have to go somewhat upscale and not the crappy Grand Summit Hotel style.
ThinkSnow
Member
Jully
Active member
I think you could do condos in a good way with enough land. Okemo is really really ugly though so I'm not sure how they plan on doing 4000+ units and maintain an upscale wilderness resort setting.
Problem with that expansion is it wouldn't be the biggest baddest resort in the east that way. If it were any sane developer, this would be what was happening. But this is LBO we're dealing with.
I do have a feeling phase 1 is all that's going to stick.
ss20
Well-known member
Okemo's condo's are ugly because most are 30+ years old, imo. Certainly look dated on the outside. Canyons...errrr...Park City... has a massive assortment of upscale homes across the mountain. Sure, anything with a 10-20 million dollar price tag will look nice, but by giving distance between trails and homes is how you make a nice setting for ski condos.
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