Whaleback appears...

[thetrailboss]

...to be definitely reopening. The website states that the hill is under contract.

Does anyone have any info on this one?

 

[Vortex]

I thought an ex olympic skier from Vermont bought it.. talked about making it an area with lots of parks.
There was thread somewhere. You guessed it I'm not sure where.

 

[hammer]

For those that are interested, there was some discussion on Snow Journal about Whaleback:

Whaleback NH to reopen

The thread also included a link to the following article from the Concord Monitor:

A freestyle future for Whaleback Mountain

 

[thetrailboss]

I've e-mailed Whaleback regarding more specifics on their reopening...look for an article at some point down the road (knock on wood) :wink:

 

[Vortex]

Nice Work hammer. That was where I read it.

 

[riverc0il]

TB, your behind the times, this is old news! :lol:

 

[Joshua B]

thetrailboss did actually have one piece of news in his post, Whaleback has finally updated their web site. Here's the scrolling text they have on their main page:

Whaleback Ski Area is under contract!!!!! Look for a December 2005 re-opening.

One small comment about topic titles:

Can we be more specific and not use broad titles to rope everyone in? I noticed another broad title from thetrailboss recently in the Misc forum, "If you haven't seen..." which ended up being about Phantom of the Opera. And on this one, he could have easily inserted the word Whaleback in there somewhere. I'm not a fan of subjects that try to draw everyone's attention when specifics would narrow down the mass appeal of the post. Just my opinion and not a big deal.

 

[Greg]

Can we be more specific and not use broad titles to rope everyone in? I noticed another broad title from thetrailboss recently in the Misc forum, "If you haven't seen..." which ended up being about Phantom of the Opera. And on this one, he could have easily inserted the word Whaleback in there somewhere. I'm not a fan of subjects that try to draw everyone's attention when specifics would narrow down the mass appeal of the post. Just my opinion and not a big deal.

In one sense, I do agree here. This forum is heavily optimized to rank well in the search engines for specific searches, based on page title which is pulled from the thread subject of the initial post. You would probably be surprised on what search terms result in the most traffic to these forums; "lowering the drinking age" and "randy jackson journey" come to mind. A title like "It appears..." holds little or no value from a search engine result standpoint. Please try to construct titles with keywords that describe the the topic of the thread which in most cases will also be terms someone may search on in the search engines. This will achieve two things: (1) members here will fully understand what the thread is about (especially necessary in Miscellaneous) and (2) helps this forum to continue to grow by referring more visitors here via the search engines.

 

[thetrailboss]

One small comment about topic titles:

Can we be more specific and not use broad titles to rope everyone in? I noticed another broad title from thetrailboss recently in the Misc forum, "If you haven't seen..." which ended up being about Phantom of the Opera. And on this one, he could have easily inserted the word Whaleback in there somewhere. I'm not a fan of subjects that try to draw everyone's attention when specifics would narrow down the mass appeal of the post. Just my opinion and not a big deal.

Done.

 

[thetrailboss]

TB, your behind the times, this is old news! :lol:

My point was that it is deifinitely going to open...the original press release was still kind of tentative.

 

[riverc0il]

heh, i know TB, just joshing

 

[thetrailboss]

heh, i know TB, just joshing

That's what I figured :wink: Hey, I like the new location listing on your postings!!!!

 

[riverc0il]

Hey, I like the new location listing on your postings!!!!

i like it too.

 

[ozskier]

Evan Dybvig. Pretty sure he's got some financial backers and isn't the money behind the re-opening.

Looks like it is going to be a freestyle training playground. I'm not sure how that is going to work for insurance. I asked him about it last month at Stratton and he was pretty vague with the details. I just congratulated him and left.

 

[sledhaulingmedic]

Hey, I like the new location listing on your postings!!!!

i like it too.

Congrats, Riv! Sorry I couldn't help with the move. As it stands, I would have been much happier moving furniture than the 24 hours of Hell I endured by not taking the day off (and I'm a guy who (usually) loves his job!)

Glad to see you have a job that keeps you in the North Country. (As opposed to me, who has a job that gives me time to get to the North Country.) Sucess isn't as much about you're job is it is about what you're doing when you're not at your job. With that in mind, I'd say you just hit the lottery. :beer:

 

[thetrailboss]

Hey, I like the new location listing on your postings!!!!

i like it too.

Congrats, Riv! Sorry I couldn't help with the move. As it stands, I would have been much happier moving furniture than the 24 hours of Hell I endured by not taking the day off (and I'm a guy who (usually) loves his job!)

Glad to see you have a job that keeps you in the North Country. (As opposed to me, who has a job that gives me time to get to the North Country.) Sucess isn't as much about you're job is it is about what you're doing when you're not at your job. With that in mind, I'd say you just hit the lottery. :beer:

I agree, sledhaulingmedic. I told one of my coworkers about our move to the Upper Valley for Grad/Law school and she said, "wow...sounds great. Less paying jobs though then compared here in Boston." :roll: True we'll probably earn a few dollars less, but homes don't cost on average $500-600k and people up there are not as miserable as they are down here. :x I miss my quality of life and sense of community...looking forward to moving back up...even if there will be slightly less income, there are other returns that have no monetary value. :wink:

 

[thetrailboss]

Awesome!!! He now has a new website for the ski area...but I guess they are looking for $$$$ still

http://www.whalebackmountain.com/whaleback.htm

 

[ctenidae]

That website certainly looks like a roadshow presentation. I'd say they're absolutely out looking for investors. Doesn't look like they're going through any of the regular private equity firms- probably still on "Friends and Family" funding at the moment. Go to the site often, and get your friends to, as well- I'm sure they're using the number of hits as a selling point (Look how much interest there is in re-opening Whaleback! Show me the money!)

Interesting the email address Evan uses- Excel.com is an MLM telecom outfit- not at all ski related.

Hope it works out for them- it looks like a pretty nifty idea.

 

[thetrailboss]

I hope it works for them as well. The local paper was critical of lenders not offering them funding...

 

[ctenidae]

It's a tough market to be in- I can understand lenders being skeptical. High risk, and I'm sure Evan and Co can't afford the interest rates that would make the risk palatable to banks. It's not at all a proven concept, doesn't have proven business people behind it, and has a pretty good chance of failing miserably. So, banks and commercial lenders are out, which leaves private investment firms as the only source of big money. I'm guessing Evan et al, being extreme athletes, don't want to give up any control, which sort of blocks out the investment firms.
Not knowing anything more about them than what I do, I'd have to thank them for the presentation, say it looks impressive, and that I hope they do well. Then I'd show them the door, sit back, and pontificate on other subjects I don't have any details on.