Where will LBO pop up?

[eastcoastpowderhound]

They can't touch most of that land - a considerable amount of it has been put into protection. Shawnee still does own a decent sized chunk of land to the west of the existing area, but if I recall, their plot didn't really lend itself to increased vertical.

Yeah, Loon Echo Land Trust gobbled up a big chunk about a year ago...it also gets much more sun than the developed part of Shawnee and would have trouble holding snow. All that aside, it would be some cool terrain...some of those runs would look like you'd ski right down into Moose Pond. I heard they were trying to expand the resort by going in the other direction....north/skiers left, there's still plenty of mtn left over there too.

 

[AdironRider]

Only thing is its flat as hell to skiers left of Shawnee. The mtn could really do well though with some infastructure improvements. Replace the creaky old triple to the top (and get rid of the pointless midstation), dump a ton into snowmaking, and you have a reasonable competitor attitash at the very least.

 

[eastcoastpowderhound]

Only thing is its flat as hell to skiers left of Shawnee. The mtn could really do well though with some infastructure improvements. Replace the creaky old triple to the top (and get rid of the pointless midstation), dump a ton into snowmaking, and you have a reasonable competitor attitash at the very least.

I agree with most of that...except the pointless mid-station, when its below 0 on race nights I'm really happy that mid station is there!

 

[threecy]

Yeah, Loon Echo Land Trust gobbled up a big chunk about a year ago...it also gets much more sun than the developed part of Shawnee and would have trouble holding snow. All that aside, it would be some cool terrain...some of those runs would look like you'd ski right down into Moose Pond.

It's rocky as heck out that way too...multiple gullies to deal with, etc. There's no easy way to connect that with the existing area's summit or base areas, so you'd need to build a new base area - and there's no room for that until you get near the Ledges Trail area. The interesting stuff would be to go from the true Pleasant Mountain summit into the bowl around the Fire Warden's Trail...already a decent amount of skiable logging roads in there.

 

[dl]

one point seems to be missing from the majority of the posts - real estate. yes, there are plenty of mountains out there that are ripe for further development and or expansion but in order to make this work you'll need to have access to the real estate surrounding the mountain. If you have the hotels, the condos, golf courses, land for development, etc, then there is an opportunity. With all of the new owners these days it seems to me that there is considerably less opportunity out there, at least in New England.

I guess I would say that if you're going to speculate on (insert mountain name here) you should not only consider what can be done to improve the mountain, you need to consider what's available for development outside of the property as that is what will entice someone to buy a resort.

as for les, he knows more about the industry than most and i'm sure he's got his finger on the pulse of things. someone mentioned his golf business - i don't know what that's about but isn't that a market that could benefit from some roll-up? there are plenty of golf courses that are in distress......