Great interview! It was interesting to hear how Saddleback was kept ‘warm’ between its closing 2015 in its reopening in 2020. I had never heard of it until we got the Indy pass. The mountain is a long haul from our neck of the woods but a visit to Saddleback is definitely in our plans sometime in the next year or two.
Excellent interview. I was biased because I finally made it there with a buddy recently. (I'm pretty sure I was there at the time of this talk on an extremely windy Monday. Yeah, T Bars are made for wind. Only thing running.) Very impressed with the place, but , first, it warms my soul that a lifelong local with a fascinating history of skiing, literally, around the world, came back and is now manager. Such a relief from the money people in Patagonia vests and good haircuts that are running things these days, and, yeah, he is beholden to a private equity firm, and they aren't angels, but, at least the money is going into such a fascinating place. My advice is to get there now, because, at this point in time, it's a very uncrowded and remote ski mountain at a high altitude in the East with very modern infrastructure. Great scenery and cool old wooden lodge renovated to new standards. The opposite of the new, metal and glass K1 lodge at Killington, which I like (except for the prices), but this is way cooler. Wait for it to snow, and expect to making a lot of short turns in the trees and tight, sort of bumped up runs. We never even made it into Casablanca because of the non wind day preventing us and then there was so much snow before we worked our way over, we called it a day! We were right next to it, and it looked impressive Next time.
Yes, Rangely is quite the snowmobile town, so, after a dump, you'll be competing with them for rooms, but, we found a nice one. Sugarloaf is forty minutes away, so Ikon pass owners can do that fairly easily. Boy, does that place look and feel corporate compared to Saddleback. Lots and lots more beds and people, and they are clearing a forest for hundreds of new beds.
One thing that wasn't mentioned is the quality of Maine roads. You're on a lot of remote two lane state roads that are in awful shape. Coming over from Vermont was an ordeal. The state has to fix that if they want to support tourism. It's a long drive.
Great interview! It was interesting to hear how Saddleback was kept ‘warm’ between its closing 2015 in its reopening in 2020. I had never heard of it until we got the Indy pass. The mountain is a long haul from our neck of the woods but a visit to Saddleback is definitely in our plans sometime in the next year or two.
Excellent interview. I was biased because I finally made it there with a buddy recently. (I'm pretty sure I was there at the time of this talk on an extremely windy Monday. Yeah, T Bars are made for wind. Only thing running.) Very impressed with the place, but , first, it warms my soul that a lifelong local with a fascinating history of skiing, literally, around the world, came back and is now manager. Such a relief from the money people in Patagonia vests and good haircuts that are running things these days, and, yeah, he is beholden to a private equity firm, and they aren't angels, but, at least the money is going into such a fascinating place. My advice is to get there now, because, at this point in time, it's a very uncrowded and remote ski mountain at a high altitude in the East with very modern infrastructure. Great scenery and cool old wooden lodge renovated to new standards. The opposite of the new, metal and glass K1 lodge at Killington, which I like (except for the prices), but this is way cooler. Wait for it to snow, and expect to making a lot of short turns in the trees and tight, sort of bumped up runs. We never even made it into Casablanca because of the non wind day preventing us and then there was so much snow before we worked our way over, we called it a day! We were right next to it, and it looked impressive Next time.
Yes, Rangely is quite the snowmobile town, so, after a dump, you'll be competing with them for rooms, but, we found a nice one. Sugarloaf is forty minutes away, so Ikon pass owners can do that fairly easily. Boy, does that place look and feel corporate compared to Saddleback. Lots and lots more beds and people, and they are clearing a forest for hundreds of new beds.
One thing that wasn't mentioned is the quality of Maine roads. You're on a lot of remote two lane state roads that are in awful shape. Coming over from Vermont was an ordeal. The state has to fix that if they want to support tourism. It's a long drive.