So, what does everyone think of the new base area?

[gratefulskier]

Damond Washington, huh? I look more like Charles Manson in that picture. Well, maybe that's just how I always look.


GS

[WWF-VT]

First view of Claybrook from the access road is very impressive.

New Gate House Lodge is well designed, tasteful architecture and a nice open space for the cafeteria. They have graded the area behind the lodge and it’s easier to get to the Super Bravo.

Negative observations

the locker / storage shelf area is very small with not enough benches. Last year the Gate House had a room with tables and storage shelves that accommodated more room for families and brown bagging. Was told that there is supposed to be no gear storage in upstairs cafeteria area and that brown bagging was only at the Valley House.

Food court floor is very slick navigating in ski boots when the floor was wet

Maybe a first day issue – the food court checkout lines were painfully slow. Couple in front of me was not happy as their pricey burgers and soups were getting cold waiting in line

[Treeskier]

As I have stated in the past over all it is a HUGE WOW.

The Castlerock pub was nice. I liked the extra bar space. t was great to see everyone enjoying it. But a few observations: One no coat hooks. But several people had some fine idea's, Add coat hooks under the bar like the side bar at the Hydeaway, Put a 4 coat ceiling mounted hook under the tall tables. (a woman I was talking with said it was good place also to store here purse) Another person pointed out that since the seats have no back there is no place for coats there. It was said that they wanted a clean look but if there where hooks on the walls the coats would also help with sound deadening. One engineering mind said that if you wanted winter only hooks to intall a temorary slat of wood into the wall vertical indentations with hooks on it and then remvove it in the off seasons. It was also observed that took a lot of time running back and forth to the register and swiping something for each transaction. We all asumed that waiter/waitresses will be hired soon to help with the work flow. Really like the multiple beer choices! Can't wait for the sound system to be finished. Bose "NISE!"

After going to the Kid's program adult over view at Valley House several parents said how come you do not just have the kids program eat out this un-used cafe. I would keep the kids out of the premier new Gatehouse and there rambuntionus state which with a 11:00 lunch is a patern setter for the rest of the lunch in Gatehouse.

Last skiers quickly started to use the fence next to Gatehouse on the way to Super Brovo as a place to lean skis. Having seen this else where. I am sure it will become a regular pattern. But when the wind does pick up and/or they are coated with a icey coat the skis can all of sudden under a good wind come crashing down in a domino effect. Not sure where I saw it but at on resort they put 2x4 blocks every few feet to stop that effect. In the same vain as the ski rack dowels.

Over all very nice job. Hats off to all of the hard workers for getting it open on time!

Doing my snow dance...Boy could we use a quick 2 feet!

[freeheel_skier]

Win did say that this weekend would be a "soft" opening for the new lodge. Treeskier, I am sure/hope that some of your concerns will be addressed before the holiday rush week. And yes.....a nice small 2' of fluff will make everything nicey nice!

[castlerock]

I really like the look of it. It appears to work reasonably well. I like the wooden flooring down stairs.

I am guessing that there will be some enhancements to the walls to add a little character.

It may be a nit pick, but, The long straight tables don't work well with the plastic arm chairs. You can't get around them, or push them in far enough.

I would have preferred wooden tables with benches. That would add to the feel of the room and allow a lot more people at a table. Benches always beat chairs for that.

Seriously, dump the plastic arm chairs and get some benches.....

[Tin Woodsman]

My $0.02 on the new lodge.

1) It's a beautiful building, immediately becoming one of the nicer day lodges in the northeast. It fits with it's surroundings and the vibe is most certainly VT. Win, Adam, and the rest of the SV team should be extremely proud of themselves.

2) The internal services and areas are well laid out. I didn't peak into the storage area, so I can't comment on whether it's too small. I will note my general observation that the hope that skiers don't store things in the main room upstairs is just plain unrealistic. Bags and shoes will get stored under tables. That bit of behavior modification is, IMHO, "one bridge too far".

3) In time, on busy weekends and holidays, I believe the tables will prove to be spaced too close together. Walking room between them was at a premium with empty chairs. You might want to think about taking out a row of tables in each section to space out the remainder. This is connected to my comment in #2 above re: storage. In addition, the north/south aisles through the rows were a little narrow, given that you'll have people played out at the ends of each table.

4) You could tell it was a soft-opening, and I'm glad Win announced it as such. A few quick hits here:

- Too few cashiers - they should be three abreast or at least double stacked in each line (one behind the other serving the other side of the line). With even a small lunch time rush, the lines got long quickly
- Condiment table didn't have any place to put your tray. I heard through the grapevine that Adam mentioned this was a temporary situation. Hope so.

5) One thing to watch out for - the metal grates on the main entrance of the uphill side were quite slippery when clogged with snow (as they hopefully will be more often). I slipped and almost fell down twice in ski boots there. Maybe I'm just more of a clutz than most.

6) The food was clearly an upgrade vs. last year in both quality and variety. Loved those burgers and the new sandwich/salad station. Very nice. On the down side, a few items of note. You're getting about half the fires you did last year for the same price. When I was eating, the fries were barely filling the paper boat they were placed in. A little chintzy there I thought. Also, a friend wanted a simple burger and fries plate, but you couldn't substitute out of the pasta salad. I'm a big fan of the latter for health reasons, but there should be an option going forward for whatever side you want - even if it requires a few more $. Overall, I thought the bigger burger and pasta salad provided pretty good value, in ski area terms, for my $7.

I am a bit sad to see that Coke is still the main beverage supplier. Their non-carbonated offerings are pretty lousy compared to the Pepsi system (Lipton, Gatorade, SoBe, Starbucks doubleshots, Naked Juice, Tropicana, etc..)

7) The TVs in the south hall were too small and poorly positioned. At a minimum, they should be diagonal to the corner - only 1/3 of the room could see anything on them the way they are. Second, they are too small even for those who can see them. That's a big space and you quickly get pretty far away.

Only walked around the Pub for a minute, but it did seem a bit cozy and dark. Perhaps it will seem larger when they are able to open up the outside with the heat lamps and such. Thought their should be bigger TVs in there to, but that's just me.

9) Even though I knew there wasn't going to be one (it was mentioned here weeks ago), I was sad to see no fireplace. Call me a sap.

10) Almost forgot - you need more signage telling people upstairs where the bathrooms, guest services, and Castlerock Pub are. If they entered from upstairs to begin with, they wouldn't know otherwise.

Overall, a huge improvement to be sure. Some problems seem temporary, some might be around for a while. I'll be interested to see how it evolves through the winter.

[arc1]

It's an excellent replacement for the previous lodge, but will fall far short of the space they're going to need during busy times. The place was maxed out Saturday, and the mtn was pretty dead. If they don't get Valley House on line with some food service it's going to be a problem. Think of all the people that were squeezed into the Valley House cafetieria, the mushroom and the 3rd floor. Nice as it is, the new building does not have that kind of capacity. Not sure, though, how the hotel rest will figure into the equation.

Plus they need to make more snow.

[Tin Woodsman]

It's an excellent replacement for the previous lodge, but will fall far short of the space they're going to need during busy times. The place was maxed out Saturday, and the mtn was pretty dead. If they don't get Valley House on line with some food service it's going to be a problem. Think of all the people that were squeezed into the Valley House cafetieria, the mushroom and the 3rd floor. Nice as it is, the new building does not have that kind of capacity. Not sure, though, how the hotel rest will figure into the equation.

Plus they need to make more snow.

That's a good observation. Have to say I concur. To what degree will Timbers alleviate the crowding? Probably only at the margin. IMO, the VH lodge absolutely must remain standing and semi-operational until the Skier Services Bldg is completed. At that point, all of the ski school, kids programs and associated traffic move to that building, leaving the GH lodge for everyone else. To sequence this otherwise would be madness.

As for snowmaking, I heard form one of the guys on the crew that they got the dreaded shut down order from Green Mtn Power in the midst of a good window last week. The crew had to run up the hill, shut down the guns, and then run back up and start them all over again two hours later once the early evening peak was over. That seems like a real important long-term issue to me. Inevitably, the optimal snowmaking windows will coincide with the peak-draw periods on the grid for residential usage.

[ski_resort_observer]

Crazy idea, I'm a big propronent of wind power. I think most of us know that the summit of Mt Ellen is pretty windy. A couple of turbines not like the 27 proposed turbine project next to Magic which was turned down mostly due the large number of turbines might be at least part of a long tem power solution.

[freeheel_skier]

Crazy idea, I'm a big propronent of wind power. I think most of us know that the summit of Mt Ellen is pretty windy. A couple of turbines not like the 27 proposed turbine project next to Magic which was turned down mostly due the large number of turbines might be at least part of a long tem power solution.

I like that Idea. Just as long as they are on the Jerusalem Trail side & face Whiteface.

[random_ski_guy]

Wind power is great. For instance, I would love to see the cape cod wind farm project happen (its a shame it won't).

In the meantime until the wind blows in (lame pun), I couldn't imagine trying to run as difficult a business as the ski business and being hamstrung by electricity shortages. My god, like dealing with the snow gods isn't hard enough already. Well, after one missed snowmaking window I would have those generators back on the property ready to go. This is about survivial.

[ski_it]

I'll start by saying that I loved the new lodge and was just all-around impressed. I'm sure I could find some nit-pick comments to make, but when you look at the big picture, it's such a huge improvement that I'd rather just keep my mouth shut. Besides, I think most of the items that I noticed, overheard in liftlines, or over beers have already been posted in this thread. Speaking of beer, I was very pleased with the selection in Castlerock pub where I logged some solid time breaking-in the place on Saturday.

Anyone know what happened with snowmaking on O-grinder? There was about a half-football field sized patch of glare ice right in the middle of the trail, about halfway down. On my first ride up Heaven's Gate, I heard a loud hissing sound coming from a line on Ripcord, so maybe there was an air line leak? Regardless, I congratulate the ops team for their hard work to get Lincoln Peak open top to bottom for the weekend.

FIS and Exterminator were skiing awesome on Sunday. The liftline was unreal, though. I have to comment that Demo Day really doesn't work at North without top to bottom. Between the long lift lines and having to download to swap out a pair of skis, it just didn't logistically make sense. Seems like it should have been shifted over to LP.

Getting back on topic-- in the artist's renderings of Timbers, it shows a really sweet bar on the right side of the drawing. Is this still the plan? If so, what's the bar capacity going to be there as compared to the Castlerock Pub? A large enough bar area could alleviate some of the concern I've heard about Castlerock Pub being jam-packed at peak times.

[freeheel_skier]

This is unrelated to LP....but I like the new tv @ the ME bar...baby steps.

[Mike_451]

Overall I prefer the Mount Ellen Base, Really Accessible, Easy to get in and out of, and you don't have to walk up stairs to get to the GMX!!!!!! I also really love the terrain at north, the Northridge chair is simply awsome and while the trail count is less, there are many great black and double black trails, not to mention some spectacular crusing terrain. I am tempted to buy a North Only Pass next season anyway.

[Lostone]

If you check the vertical you have to do to get from the parking lot to the lodge, it will be more.

That is the interesting thing about the stairs that everyone complains about. You have always had to walk up that much!! They didn't dig down the parking lot. They didn't raise the base. They just regraded the end part and put in longer stairs to get from the lower village to the same level of base.

If you were beyond (probably) the third row in the lot, you had to climb the same vertical. They just moved the point you start climbing.