NW Boyne Falls MI c.1947 NO CHAIR LIFTS YET just PUMA Lifts T-Bars and Ropes!!!Cindy Parker took the day off work to log on her computer at 10 a.m. Sept. 30. Suicide Six was selling ski chairs and she wanted to be sure she got one. Parker used to teach ski lessons at Suicide Six. Her kids grew up skiing there and her family used to walk up the mountain in all seasons, sit on the empty chairs and take photos or have conversations. The mountain is important to her and she wanted to have a piece of its history. Parker, who moved to Colorado three years ago, heard about the ski chair auction on Facebook. She logged in to buy her $350 chair, but the website froze and when she checked back three hours later, the chairs were gone. Sixty chairs sold out in 15 minutes. “I was bummed,” Parker said. So many people tried to get a chair that the computer server crashed and there were reported technical difficulties with web partner AdminSports. Woodstock Ski Runners Vice President Christopher Adams doesn’t know for sure how many people tried to buy a chair, but he said 114 got through to the website before being told there were no more chairs.
The chairs are 38 years old and were sold as the resort upgrades to a new $1.5 million Leitner-Poma of America, Inc ski lift, complete with four-seat chairs, to be installed and running by December. Proceeds of the sale benefited Woodstock Ski Runners. Adams said half the money will go toward the racing program. The other half will go to the Friday Program, which allows 13 area schools to use the mountain at a discounted rate on Friday afternoons. Adams knew the chairs would be popular. “A lot of people who have become dedicated skiers made their first turns at Suicide Six,” Adams said. Suicide Six is one of the oldest ski resorts in the nation. The lift has been there since 1936. The chairlifts are novelties to some. Peter and Melissa Gebhardt got lucky. Peter won a chair at a Ski Runners golf tournament auction. The Gebhardts live less than a mile from Suicide Six and can see the mountain from their house. The family spends most of the winter on the mountain.
They ski after school and all weekend. “We’re big fans of Suicide Six,” Melissa said. Peter plans to make the ski chair into a bench near his river. He wasn’t surprised the chairs sold so fast. “I thought it would be fun to have a little piece of history,” he said. “I’m sure a lot of families feel the same way.” There have been requests for chair Nos. 6 and 80, Adams said. Chair 80 is the last chair on the lift. This year also marks the 80th anniversary of the resort. There have been so many requests that Woodstock Ski Runners has an internal joke about it. “Some of the mountain staff might be standing by with a can of black spray paint and a stencil. They can make any chair any number they want it to be,” Adams said. Woodstock Inn and Resort is holding the other 20 chairs. Chair No. 1 will go to auction later in the year. Woodstock Ski Runners is taking names for a waiting list and will give chairs to them if the original buyers don’t show for pick-up day.
This article first appeared in the October 13, 2016 edition of the Vermont Standard. Mammoth Mountain Ski Area is a large ski resort in the western United States, located in eastern California along the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the Inyo National Forest. Mammoth has more than 3,500 acres (1,420 ha) of skiable terrain,[2] serviced by 28 lifts, including 2 gondolas. The area has 3,100 ft (940 m) of vertical,[2] rising to an elevation of 11,059 ft (3,371 m),[1] and enjoys a long ski season. The resort was founded 64 years ago in 1953 by Dave McCoy and, since 2005, was owned by the Starwood Capital Group. The ski area is located on the north side of Mammoth Mountain in the volcanic Long Valley Caldera. Overnight guests stay in the town of Mammoth Lakes, California and occasionally in neighboring towns such as Bishop and June Lake. June Lake's ski area is also owned by Mammoth Mountain Ski Area. The top of the mountain has challenging chutes and open mogul runs.
There are eight Unbound terrain parks. Unbound Main, adjacent to Main Lodge, is highly praised by extreme snowboarding and skiing enthusiasts, and is one of the major attractions of the ski resort. Many of the top professionals in the sport, including 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics gold medalist Shaun White, come to practice and compete in the world famous 18 ft (5.5 m) Super Pipe and 22 ft (6.7 m) Super-Duper Pipe. There are only a handful of SuperDuper pipes in the world. There is also a Mini Pipe. Mammoth Mountain is one of only a handful of resorts in the world to offer a halfpipe of this size, and is the only resort in North America to offer three different-sized halfpipes. Mammoth Mountain also has one of the longest ski seasons in North America, which averages from November to June. The resort occasionally enjoys a longer season, as in 2005, when it opened in October and did not close until the 4th of July. The 1994–95 season was Mammoth Mountain's longest, over ten months, with the resort operating from October 8 until August 13.
Mammoth receives an average of 400 in (1,020 cm) of snow per season, though during the 2010–11 season the resort recorded a record accumulation of 668.5 in (1,698 cm). As recently as the 1980s, senior citizens skied Mammoth for free. As of 2006, those aged at least 80 years may ski free. The view from the top of the famous Cornice Bowl ski run, at the summit of the mountain. Mammoth Mountain is located in California's Eastern Sierra approximately 100 mi (160 km) south of the Nevada state line and 50 minutes from the Eastern Gate of Yosemite National Park. While the ski area is located in northern California, it is mainly frequented by skiers and snowboarders from southern California. Although it is a five-hour drive from Los Angeles via U.S. 395, it is much closer for southern California winter sports enthusiasts than the Lake Tahoe area resorts, which are more accessible to the San Francisco Bay Area. Mammoth Mountain is a more popular destination than southern California ski resorts, because of these areas' heavy reliance on snowmaking coupled with lighter winter precipitation and their notably shorter seasons.
Although Mammoth is physically closer to San Francisco and central valley cities than Los Angeles, most mountain passes along the Sierra crest are closed after the first major snowfall, and this lack of a trans-Sierra travel route creates an unusually long drive to Mammoth from the Bay Area and most of Northern California. For example: during the summer, the distance from Fresno to Mammoth Lakes is 189 miles (304 km), while in winter it nearly doubles to 366 miles (589 km). U.S. Forest Service team using a 106 mm (4.2 in) Recoilless Rifle for avalanche control at Mammoth Mountain; In recent years, Mammoth has hosted more visitors from outside of California and Nevada. Scheduled passenger service is now available to Mammoth Yosemite Airport near Mammoth Lakes from Los Angeles (LAX) on a year round basis via Alaska Airlines propjet flights operated by Horizon Air. In December 2009, Alaska/Horizon began year round nonstop flights from LAX and seasonal nonstop flights from San Jose, California.
Alaska/Horizon also offers seasonal nonstop service from San Diego. In December 2010, SkyWest Airlines operating as United Express on behalf of United Airlines began seasonal regional jet flights from San Francisco (SFO) to Mammoth Lakes. United Express/SkyWest then added two more seasonal flights from San Diego (SAN) and Orange County, CA (SNA) to Mammoth Lakes which began in December 2011 and subsequently added seasonal nonstop service from Denver (DEN) as well. United Express/SkyWest offers regional jet service into Mammoth Lakes on a seasonal basis during the winter sports season. Mammoth was founded by Dave McCoy, a hydrographer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. As a member of the Eastern Sierra Ski Club in the 1930s, McCoy noticed that Mammoth Mountain consistently held more snow than other mountains. The Ski Club had a portable rope tow. McCoy bought the rope tow from the club in 1941 and usually kept it at Mammoth. In 1953, the United States Forest Service awarded a permit to McCoy to operate the ski area, and the first ski lift was built in 1955.
As the ski area grew, McCoy faced adverse circumstances: the 1973 oil crisis,[5] an avalanche in 1979 that destroyed a ski lift,[5] and a prolonged drought that led to layoffs in 1991. Similar to other ski resorts, Mammoth had a number of associated fatalities in its history: The Village at Mammoth as seen from the Village Gondola station (April, 2010) In January 1996, Intrawest Corporation and Mammoth Mountain Ski area announced that Intrawest Corporation had purchased 33% of Mammoth and June Mountain ski operations, as well as all of the developable real estate owned by Mammoth Mountain Ski Area. In 1998, Intrawest increased their partnership interest to 58%. The development of three new village areas: The Village at Mammoth, Sierra Star, and Juniper Springs, has brought new developments to the resort. The Village at Mammoth, a European-style and pedestrian-only complex, was built in a style similar to other Intrawest properties, such as Whistler in British Columbia or Keystone in Colorado.
The Village opened in 2003 with various stores, restaurants, galleries and 166 luxury condominiums. The 15-passenger Village Gondola, which departs from the Village, transports skiers and snowboarders directly to the Canyon Lodge base. On February 23, 2005, Dave McCoy announced the pending sale his stake in Mammoth Mountain, after 68 years of running the ski area. On October 5, 2005, Mammoth announced that a majority stake will be sold to Starwood Capital Group, a private equity fund specializing in real estate, run by Barry Sternlicht. The sale price was $365 million. Because of a poor economy in California, beginning in 2007, many of the stores and restaurants in The Village closed. However, in the fall of 2010, with the help of local business owners, the Village has seen a resurgence of new restaurants and stores. The gondola to the summit Before and during the changes of ownership, the ski area underwent major changes. The resort went from 16 chairs in the 1980s to 23 today.
A new gondola was built that ends at a visitor center at 11,053 feet (3,369 m). The visitor center has telescopes and historical displays. Almost all the old, slow, double chair lifts were replaced with high-speed quad, and six-seater lifts, traveling at around 1000 feet per minute. For these modernizations, the resort is a longtime customer to the Doppelmayr group. Several old lifts were also removed. The Mid-Chalet, which once had picnic tables on its roof, was completely remodeled in the early 2000s, renamed McCoy Station, and now features gourmet foods and a cafeteria. Large vintage photos of McCoy and his family can be found hanging from the ceiling there. The Mill Cafe, a small rustic bar and snack area was added in the early 2000s. In 2011, Chair 5 was chosen to be upgraded for the 2011-2012 season. Chair 5 was upgraded from a Yan-fixed three person chair to a Doppelmayr high speed quad. The ride time is reported to be half as long, and the capacity was increased from 1800 an hour to an estimated 2400 people an hour.