Tin Woodsman wrote:

As for high speed lifts, while I agree on Inverness, I think the suggestions for high speed lifts to the summits are ill-advised. As it is now, people bitch and moan about how often those lifts are on wind hold. The problem would be twice as bad with a detatchable lift up there.

....duh....you'd bulldoze the summits and build impregnable concrete bunker houses connected with those tall metal slat wind fences. The views to the West aren't worth saving anyways.....

Continuing the Black Watch discussion,

I dunno, I'm looking at the old Glen Ellen maps on my site and they appear to support me... I mean, Black Watch was just the original name for Which Way - it definitely doesn't start at the modern base of North Ridge... I can see how it may have intersected with Straight Shot a few hundred feet down beyond the Crackerjack fork, but it just merged with Straight Shot at that point; there of course was the trail known as Donny Brook that went off of Straight Shot just below the Black Watch intersection that crossed the brook and ended up at the base of Inverness... that trail was of course later integrated into the bottom of Walt's.

Strat wrote:

Continuing the Black Watch discussion, I dunno, I'm looking at the old Glen Ellen maps on my site and they appear to support me... I mean, Black Watch was just the original name for Which Way - it definitely doesn't start at the modern base of North Ridge... I can see how it may have intersected with Straight Shot a few hundred feet down beyond the Crackerjack fork, but it just merged with Straight Shot at that point; there of course was the trail known as Donny Brook that went off of Straight Shot just below the Black Watch intersection that crossed the brook and ended up at the base of Inverness... that trail was of course later integrated into the bottom of Walt's.

Ya know, I just checked again and it's hard to read the trail numbers on your first Ellen-only map. The one I was talking about was Donny Brook, not Black Watch.

Tin Woodsman wrote:

Strat wrote: Continuing the Black Watch discussion, I dunno, I'm looking at the old Glen Ellen maps on my site and they appear to support me... I mean, Black Watch was just the original name for Which Way - it definitely doesn't start at the modern base of North Ridge... I can see how it may have intersected with Straight Shot a few hundred feet down beyond the Crackerjack fork, but it just merged with Straight Shot at that point; there of course was the trail known as Donny Brook that went off of Straight Shot just below the Black Watch intersection that crossed the brook and ended up at the base of Inverness... that trail was of course later integrated into the bottom of Walt's. Ya know, I just checked again and it's hard to read the trail numbers on your first Ellen-only map. The one I was talking about was Donny Brook, not Black Watch.

Alrighty, glad we cleared that up. Right below that first map though, there's a link to a very hi-res version of that map in which all the numbers are readable - maybe I should just make that one the main image?

Strat wrote:

Tin Woodsman wrote: Strat wrote: Continuing the Black Watch discussion, I dunno, I'm looking at the old Glen Ellen maps on my site and they appear to support me... I mean, Black Watch was just the original name for Which Way - it definitely doesn't start at the modern base of North Ridge... I can see how it may have intersected with Straight Shot a few hundred feet down beyond the Crackerjack fork, but it just merged with Straight Shot at that point; there of course was the trail known as Donny Brook that went off of Straight Shot just below the Black Watch intersection that crossed the brook and ended up at the base of Inverness... that trail was of course later integrated into the bottom of Walt's. Ya know, I just checked again and it's hard to read the trail numbers on your first Ellen-only map. The one I was talking about was Donny Brook, not Black Watch. Alrighty, glad we cleared that up. Right below that first map though, there's a link to a very hi-res version of that map in which all the numbers are readable - maybe I should just make that one the main image?

My bad guys.. I goofed.. I thought my eyesight was right on, but apparently not! I thought I was reading a "15" on that map, but now that I see the link for the higher-res pic, it is a 19 and the trail is Donny Brook.. my bad! Sorry to cause any confusion.. anyway, I would really like to see that trail come back, just for historical sake, plus it was fun to ski last year, and i'm sure it will ski even better once its cleared out more!

dave

Whoa! This thread has taken off! Awesome ideas!

Treeskier wrote:

Some of these have will be repeated 3) I actually do not want to see any lifts in Slidebrook but more bus pick-ups.

Totally agree with you there. I don't want to see Slidebrook developed at all. For that matter, I wouldn't want to see anything past Paradise cut and put on the map. A program like what MRG has with Jay Appleton to maintain the woods would be awesome. Give someone a season pass to run it and then give vouchers for day tix to any volunteers. I love going to the Mad River ones a couple times a year. It really helps you learn about the mountain by trudging around the woods before the snow falls.

skibum1321 wrote:

A program like what MRG has with Jay Appleton to maintain the woods would be awesome. Give someone a season pass to run it and then give vouchers for day tix to any volunteers. I love going to the Mad River ones a couple times a year. It really helps you learn about the mountain by trudging around the woods before the snow falls.

There are a few places at the glen where I look and say.....that would be a superb glade, but the nicely spaced, mature, and looking to my untrained eyes healthy trees have a bunch of little sprite trees clogging up the lines. I'm thinking....a few hours and a lopper and that whole zone is a great glade. One easily and publicly viewable one is about 1/4 of the way up the single off to the right and looking back down. It's a small below a green dot traverse (Easy Way, I think) trail and the bottom would feed into, again I think, the edge of Waterfall. Anyways, despite MRG's glade reputation, and their necessary and industry leading tree conservation work, it does seem like there's some pretty nice stuff just kind of sitting there that could be developed that might not compromise forest health.

Thoughts from someone with more understanding than me would be appreciated.

Mountainbike freeridey trails. Yeah, not too wintery, but good times.

Snowmaking and grooming at Castlerock. That would be so sweet. Highspeed six-pack lift. Maybe a terrain park too. A gourmet restaurant at the summit serving some funky indo-anglo fusion cuisine at exhorbinant prices. And skis only (no thuggish snowboarders). I kid.

Big Game wrote:

Mountainbike freeridey trails. Yeah, not too wintery, but good times.

I really like that idea! I don't think they could do it at South because it's National Forest land, but they could at North! They could run the GMX only and still have plenty of terrain available for biking, and plenty of new singletrack/stunts could be built in the woods..

dave

In the latter 90's the Bush did do mountain biking. Ran the Bravo lift had a few trails back to the base from there. Many of us working at the Bush wanted to expand the mountain biking thing. We even had a mountain biking rental and repair shop open. The Bush's operation had a medicre rep, at best, as a mountain biking center.

We had some big regional mountain biking races during that time. I have lots of photos, none scanned unfortunately. All of us employees helped out and it was alot of fun. I remember one in a downpour, lots of mud. Bruce McCoy was the running the resort then and he was the Starter. At the end of the day he was a funny muddy mess.

It was a bummer to watch the Bush basically drop mountain biking over a couple of years circa 1999-2001. I think the Bush still has a grand opportunity there. Bring back mountain biking! Assume it was not a money maker and maybe it can work. As always in these matters the Bush has the product....great terrain.

As many haven mentioned doing anything in the Slidebrook Basin is never going to happen but it is fun to dream.

I too would like to see something done between Castlerock and Heavens Gate. Nothing too big and done with as much respect as possible to all the local stashes. Maybe a compromise would be worked out ie the locals get a big say in what goes in there.

I also would buy Sugarbush Village and make that area more user friendly with the rest of the LP base area with a nice outdoor skating rink.

I guess the Valley House should go but boy do I have alot of memories with that place. One good thing would be that the offices that were moved up there, notebly HR, would hopefully reurn to the Admin Bilding area.

That's my 2 cents.

djspookman wrote:

Big Game wrote: Mountainbike freeridey trails. Yeah, not too wintery, but good times. I really like that idea! I don't think they could do it at South because it's National Forest land, but they could at North! They could run the GMX only and still have plenty of terrain available for biking, and plenty of new singletrack/stunts could be built in the woods..

The Valley could certainly use a more visible mountain bike "plan", and SB could be a big part of that. These folks are doing something good stuff....

http://www.madriverriders.com/

And the Vermont Mountain Bike Association has this

http://www.vmba.org/maps/cvmapfiles/bigpdf/mapfront.pdf

In a AZ post there was a thought about having a summer mountain bike section, which was rejected, but perhaps on SkiMRV.com it could be nice to have a MTN biking sub-section ????? Thoughts anyone ?

ski_resort_observer wrote:

In the latter 90's the Bush did do mountain biking. Ran the Bravo lift had a few trails back to the base from there. Many of us working at the Bush wanted to expand the mountain biking thing. We even had a mountain biking rental and repair shop open. The Bush's operation had a medicre rep, at best, as a mountain biking center. We had some big regional mountain biking races during that time. I have lots of photos, none scanned unfortunately. All of us employees helped out and it was alot of fun. I remember one in a downpour, lots of mud. Bruce McCoy was the running the resort then and he was the Starter. At the end of the day he was a funny muddy mess.

I remember them holding races, I think the big one was called "The Beast of the East" and then when ASC bought them, they had a "Trail 66" race series spread all over their ski resorts. That was back in the heyday of XC racing in New England. There were so many NORBA classified races in VT and NH then, but now there are near none.

I almost entered one of the Beast of the East races, but something came up, then the following year, they weren't having the race anymore.. doh!

dave

smootharc wrote:

In a AZ post there was a thought about having a summer mountain bike section, which was rejected, but perhaps on SkiMRV.com it could be nice to have a MTN biking sub-section ????? Thoughts anyone ?

I like that idea! I voted for the mountian bike section at AZ as well!

dave

smootharc wrote:

djspookman wrote: Big Game wrote: Mountainbike freeridey trails. Yeah, not too wintery, but good times. I really like that idea! I don't think they could do it at South because it's National Forest land, but they could at North! They could run the GMX only and still have plenty of terrain available for biking, and plenty of new singletrack/stunts could be built in the woods.. The Valley could certainly use a more visible mountain bike "plan", and SB could be a big part of that. These folks are doing something good stuff.... http://www.madriverriders.com/ And the Vermont Mountain Bike Association has this http://www.vmba.org/maps/cvmapfiles/bigpdf/mapfront.pdf In a AZ post there was a thought about having a summer mountain bike section, which was rejected, but perhaps on SkiMRV.com it could be nice to have a MTN biking sub-section ????? Thoughts anyone ?

It hink that's a great idea, but I'd suggest we start it as a thread in the General MRV discussion to guage the interest before expanding it into a sub-forum.