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Sale rumors...


paul45

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At Montage last week I got to talking with an older dude who was waiting for his grandkids to show up- says he knows Elk's owner personally, even did some contractor type work for him years ago- says he's such a cheapskate that when those lifts broke down last year he fixed them with used parts not new ones, to save a little money! so he won't ski there anymore- says owner's 91 y.o. & the guy's daughter is heavily involved & may take over some day- he's heard nothing about a sale & doesn't believe the old man would anyway. He also said that the owner was so pissed about a nearby condo development going up that he banned the condo owners from skiing at Elk- which was the reason most bought their condos to begin with- wtf!
 

2 cents- MY  meme.png

Edited by Jersey Tomato
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Sheeeit, even a modern quad with carpet loading would improve the place drastically.

 

If I owned a ski area and was thinking of selling, I would probably use used parts to get the lift up and running just to make it until the sale is completed.

Edited by rgrwilco
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13 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Why the .1% chance of not going?  I almost thought I’d see you at Blue this AM lol

 Because I was debating Elk or Greek peak. Thought about blue too but felt like changing it up a bit

Edited by RidgeRacer
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On 2/27/2024 at 11:49 AM, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

I thought a big part of Elks appeal was the old slow lifts.  

Only for me and I think three or four other people. 

 

I mean for real, I love the character of the old fixed grips, but they need either replacement or a complete overhaul. You can run a place with old lifts for the character (see Smuggs) but it's like owning a classic car. You're going to have to rebuild it eventually and need to take maintenance seriously. 

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1 minute ago, EdBacon said:

Only for me and I think three or four other people. 

 

I mean for real, I love the character of the old fixed grips, but they need either replacement or a complete overhaul. You can run a place with old lifts for the character (see Smuggs) but it's like owning a classic car. You're going to have to rebuild it eventually and need to take maintenance seriously. 

Spot on.

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High speed lifts at Elk would destroy the snow quality, scenery, and lack of crowding on the slopes, which is why I go there anyway...  I don't even know if there is enough room for detachable terminals at the summit.

 

Funny how the old Hall doubles keep chugging along as one does but their quad seems to have most of the issues

Edited by abe
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7 hours ago, abe said:

High speed lifts at Elk would destroy the snow quality, scenery, and lack of crowding on the slopes, which is why I go there anyway...  I don't even know if there is enough room for detachable terminals at the summit.

 

Funny how the old Hall doubles keep chugging along as one does but their quad seems to have most of the issues

The quad is 30 years old, just like the quad at Blue.  

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10 hours ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

The quad is 30 years old, just like the quad at Blue.  

It shares towers with what was an older Hall double. It's sort of a franken-lift thing. Parts of it are 60 years old. 

The rest of their lifts are Halls or Borvigs from the 60s and 70s. 

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12 minutes ago, EdBacon said:

It shares towers with what was an older Hall double. It's sort of a franken-lift thing. Parts of it are 60 years old. 

The rest of their lifts are Halls or Borvigs from the 60s and 70s. 

Haha Frankenlift and now I have my fourth favorite Hall and Oates song stuck in my head…Let’s hope somebody saves Elk..with their northern climate and high elevation. They could compete with other Vermont ski areas if they updated their snowmaking and lifts.  Their base is higher than the summit of Mont Bleu which is like skiing in canada without the border checkpoint cause they have poutine at slopeside griddle 

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On 2/25/2024 at 1:38 PM, Benm said:

Elk would be way more attractive if my first thought wasn't sitting on a slow fixed grip for twenty minutes a run. 

Ride time is 9 minutes no stops, 12 on average... 960ft of vertical excitement ain't that far. How slow do you ski!? ;-). 

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1 minute ago, paul45 said:

Ride time is 9 minutes no stops, 12 on average... 960ft of vertical excitement ain't that far. How slow do you ski!? ;-). 

Also... https://www.midwestskiers.com/post/fixed-grip-highspeed-why-so-many-midwest-hills-go-fixed

I posted that on a different thread earlier in the year. Very interesting read on the trade offs between fixed grip and detachable.

BLUF: If no one falls and they never have to slow it, they're identical uphill capacity... That is driven by the time between chairs which was optimized sixty+ years ago at 6 seconds per chair and pretty much every lift on the plant, fixed and detachable, spaces their chairs at that. The two benefits of high speed are, fewer people falling and slowing or stopping it (which reduces uphill capacity) and in the very rare condition (even at elk, pretty much only weekdays and very slow weekends) that they aren't using all that capacity you can actually lap the mountain faster. But if they're filling every seat at elk (most weekends this year at least) you're not in that condition.  Otherwise it's just a question of sitting on the lift vs. standing in the lift line. Detachables take half those people off the lift seats (because there's half as many chairs, because, math) and puts them in the lift line instead. Personally, I'm fine sitting on the chair instead of standing in line if it keeps the crowds away. 

Bottom line got lengthy .. But interesting read. 

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54 minutes ago, paul45 said:

Ride time is 9 minutes no stops, 12 on average... 960ft of vertical excitement ain't that far. How slow do you ski!? ;-). 

12 min on average for 960 ft of vert?

it sounds even further now.
 

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On 3/11/2024 at 8:45 PM, Benm said:

12 min on average for 960 ft of vert?

it sounds even further now.
 

On a weekend with people falling off.  Feel free to go to camelback on a weekend for their high speed and spend that 12 and then some in line for the lift 🙂

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