Canceled Ski Areas

[4aprice]

Well, from NJ your not likely to drive to SL anyway. The drive time is about the same 4+hrs or so from Boston. And Big Squaw is closer to Bangor (than the 2hrs to SL) which give's it a pretty good local draw. The Plum Creek development is going to put a lot of new high end vacation homes up there. I think there is a lot of hope for Big Squaw if the jerk-off who owns it would sell to someone who cares and has some cash to put into it.

I envy you guys in the Boston area. (location wise at least and love the city) Much better gateway to Northern New England which I love. I have a buddy who's got a condo at Sunday River. We've talked about hitting Loaf and Saddlback from there. Last time I was up there (2004 I think) the skiing was so good at Sunday River we just stayed there.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[x10003q]

I envy you guys in the Boston area. (location wise at least and love the city) Much better gateway to Northern New England which I love.
Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

+1
The only big mountains that are closer to the NJ/NYC region are the ORDA twins -Gore & WF.

 

[powbmps]

Too bad this didn't work out at Equinox:

"An abandoned, now collapsed tunnel boring dating to the mid 1960s, would have provided access to a subterranean cryonics receptacle for humans placed in low-temperature suspension. The tunnel project site is located on the northwest slope of the peak near the 2,800 ft. level. A private Vermont-based firm, Renew, Inc., had planned to preserve the bodies of several prominent high-IQ individuals for future reawakening. The project was hastily abandoned due to fraud allegations."

 

[wa-loaf]

I was just recently home in DF Maine and decided to go check out my dads collectables, he collects Griswold, and other stuff from the years gone by, and I was reminded that my grandfather was one of the original founders of Big Squaw. My dad has some of the original stock papers (or whatever they were called). Along side those were some nice worthless 1970's or 80ish stock papers for Sugarloaf Corp that my grandmother had bought.

That's pretty cool. Frame them up they'd prob look good hanging in a ski house.

 

[Glenn]

Too bad this didn't work out at Equinox:

"An abandoned, now collapsed tunnel boring dating to the mid 1960s, would have provided access to a subterranean cryonics receptacle for humans placed in low-temperature suspension. The tunnel project site is located on the northwest slope of the peak near the 2,800 ft. level. A private Vermont-based firm, Renew, Inc., had planned to preserve the bodies of several prominent high-IQ individuals for future reawakening. The project was hastily abandoned due to fraud allegations."

Wow! Kinda creepy......

 

[snowmonster]

The Equinox looks like it would have been sick and it drops right into town. It'd be like a western resort.

+1.

I envy you guys in the Boston area. (location wise at least and love the city) Much better gateway to Northern New England which I love.

Boston is my ski town. The underrated part about it is that it gives you access to all three northern New England states. Killington and Sunday River/Jay Peak and Sugarloaf are just about equidistant from downtown.

Too bad this didn't work out at Equinox:

"An abandoned, now collapsed tunnel boring dating to the mid 1960s, would have provided access to a subterranean cryonics receptacle for humans placed in low-temperature suspension. The tunnel project site is located on the northwest slope of the peak near the 2,800 ft. level. A private Vermont-based firm, Renew, Inc., had planned to preserve the bodies of several prominent high-IQ individuals for future reawakening. The project was hastily abandoned due to fraud allegations."

We're approaching Ted Williams territory here.

 

[Johnskiismore]

Sawyer River Skiway would've rocked!

 

[deadheadskier]

So, all of these areas that had US Forrest Service approval; in theory some could (though not likely) come to be?

I think it would be very cool to see a newly built major ski area in the east.

What is the newest major ski development in the US?

 

[ta&idaho]

What is the newest major ski development in the US?

Here's my guess: http://www.tamarackidaho.com/

Already belly up...

 

[deadheadskier]

what was the reason for the mountain failing? location? By Eastern standards that is a HUGE resort.

 

[ski220]

Unfortunately, like most ski developments in the past few decades, it was more a real estate venture than a ski area.

 

[Tin Woodsman]

what was the reason for the mountain failing? location? By Eastern standards that is a HUGE resort.

Unfortunately, like most ski developments in the past few decades, it was more a real estate venture than a ski area.

Exactly. They borrowed ridiculous sums of money (IIRC, over $500MM) of which just a fraction was put into on-mountain infrastructure. The vast majority was spent on building real-estate and the associated infrastructure (roads, sewage, utilities. etc...). When the real-estate bust hit, the promoters couldn't service the loans and that was that. I had heard that their skier volumes were comically low - something like 10-20K skier visits for a resort with over 2000 vert, 1000 acres of skiing and several HSQs.

 

[ta&idaho]

Yeah, ski220 and Tin Woodsman basically nailed it: a case study in real estate-bubble speculative frenzy. A lot of people think it was an ill-conceived plan from the start (it twice failed, as Valbois and West Rock, before it temporarily "succeeded" as Tamarack). The mountain is too low to hold good snow, the terrain is too flat after the first few hundred vertical feet, access is relatively poor for a destination resort, and Cascade Reservoir isn't as scenic as the marketing brochures would make you think.

Here's my TR from the only time I ever made it there: http://www.epicski.com/forum/thread/49142/tamarack#post_625212