The 750 acre increase at Mt. Hood Skibowl, Oregon, can't be right. They did add about 300 acres opening the Outback and added one run (Reynolds), but that was in 1987 and does not add up to a 4X area expansion, https://skibowl.com/about-winter/history/. On the other hand, I think you missed two and a half area expansions at Timberline Lodge, Oregon. The first one in 2007 with the Jeff Flood lift and Still Creek Basin, second one with the acquisition of Summit Ski Area in 2018, and the half one when the permit area was expanded in 2021 to cover the area between the two formerly separate areas (the area between the Alpine Trail and West Leg road). https://www.timberlinelodge.com/about-us/history
1- Would be great to see Canadian areas in there. While we lost Fortress*, I know that Whitewater, Red, Revy, Kicking Horse, Panorama, Fernie, Louise, Cypress, Le Massif, Sunshine** (and possibly others) all added significant terrain in that timeframe.
2- While it is great to have more terrain, how do you think having that terrain concentrated in fewer places (and even fewer ownership hands) affects the competitive landscape of skiing, and the affordability aspect?
*A piece on Fortress would be awesome
**Sunshine's Goat's Eye pod might have opened just before your timeframe here
Awesome stuff. This is a great deep dive. A couple of points: Green Valley in SoCal is toast. There’s no way of restoring it: at this point it has no infrastructure left and it’s been crowded in by homes. If they built a new lift there you’d have about 5 parking spaces.
I haven’t really heard of Anthony Lakes, and it’s listed as 1000 acres. That seems to be their official number on the website too, but I’m not sure how they got that. It’s a single main lift and mapping out the perimeter shows about 300 acres.
Finally, I don’t see Snow Forest in Big Bear Lake on the list of lost ski areas, but maybe because it closed permanently in 1992. It had about one chairlift, a few surface lifts, some snowmaking, and about 120 acres. Also unlikely to reopen due to surrounding development.
Again, thanks for the great content. This is exactly the sort of stuff that is fun to learn about.
Great analysis--thanks for posting! Indeed terrain expansions have significantly outpaced closures in the West since '94. And despite the significant private acreage at Yellowstone Club, Wasatch Peaks Ranch, and PowMow, there's still a lot more that's open to the public.
A few specific notes... Sundance's website currently lists "540+ acres." Wildwood plus more of Bishop's Bowl minus the terrain below the bottom of Jake's... a net gain of 90 acres seems about right.
Sunrise Park hasn't added new terrain since the 80s. My guess is that the '94 number was wrong, as 1,200 acres seems about right for the operation then and now.
A tripling in lift-served acreage is over-ambitious for 49 North. It certainly has grown, but the Angel Peak expansion didn't contribute much acreage at all. The East Basin was much more significant. But I'd estimate the 1994 footprint at somewhere around 1,500 acres.
Well made point Stu! It is a refreshing realization to have that the doom-and-gloom supply-and-demand story is (not surprisingly) much more nuanced than most are led to believe. In an increasingly difficult regulatory environment, along with increasing costs for material and labor, it seems that the most logical path forward is new expansion at existing ski areas. To continue to meet the growing user demand, as well as the increased growth demands of the industry, I'm not sure of another plausible solution. It seems insurmountable in most cases to build new ski areas. Some may point to Mayflower as a counter point to this, but ultimately that became a base area expansion of an existing area. The Balsams seems to be a project that would solidify this position, although I am still hoping for this to come through. Ultimately, what is a ski area? Lifts, lodges, trails, amenities, and parking. These can all be added to existing areas in the form of new base area expansions in a much easier way then trying to start from scratch. Many areas already have grand visions for the future down on paper in the form of their Master Plan. It would be great to see the ski industry make base area expansion a priority to meet the needs of additional skiers and a widening base of participants. I would love to see a story covering the myriad of areas who have base-area expansions on the back burner in their Masters Plan, and get a rough idea of how many acres, lifts, and parking spots that could represent to future skiers.. just in case you're not busy enough!
Thank you for disproving beyond a doubt the false narrative that climate change is killing skiing. It's definitely not helping but the sport of skiing and riding and the areas that host the sport have all evolved. Without advances and investments in snowmaking in the east, us ski the east folks would be screwed. But there are bad years in west too, I've been disappointed more than once after making advance reservations only to ski resorts that have half the terrain open during prime snow months. Unfortunately, it rains in low elevation east Coast a lot more than high elevation Colorado. Not uncommon for Killington in VT to get a foot of snow on a Tuesday and an inch of rain on Thursday. That doesn't happen at the same frequency in higher elevations in the West. There are scores of lost ski areas in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts. The vast majority were lost before anyone ever heard of climate change. Poorly managed businesses and businesses with inadequate capital fail.
I’m struggling to figure out where Crystal’s extra 300 acres came from. The resort has actually contracted a bit during that span as far as I can tell, not expanded (although lift-served access has increased significantly since the old bus-serviced Northback became lift-serviced Northway).
Lower Northway Run down to the old shuttle stop was abandoned after the lift was installed, as was all other terrain below the bottom of the lift, and they abandoned the top section of Boondoggle when Quicksilver was replaced with a shorter lift.
Oddly enough, despite being beyond a ski area boundary sign, Upper Boondoggle actually got groomed a couple times this season, something that never happened when it was still officially inbounds.
Billion Basin also used to be inbounds, but it was abandoned well before 1992, so isn’t relevant here.
The 750 acre increase at Mt. Hood Skibowl, Oregon, can't be right. They did add about 300 acres opening the Outback and added one run (Reynolds), but that was in 1987 and does not add up to a 4X area expansion, https://skibowl.com/about-winter/history/. On the other hand, I think you missed two and a half area expansions at Timberline Lodge, Oregon. The first one in 2007 with the Jeff Flood lift and Still Creek Basin, second one with the acquisition of Summit Ski Area in 2018, and the half one when the permit area was expanded in 2021 to cover the area between the two formerly separate areas (the area between the Alpine Trail and West Leg road). https://www.timberlinelodge.com/about-us/history
I just hope that whomever wrote that Motley Fool article sees this.
Hi Stuart; great piece. A couple of thoughts:
1- Would be great to see Canadian areas in there. While we lost Fortress*, I know that Whitewater, Red, Revy, Kicking Horse, Panorama, Fernie, Louise, Cypress, Le Massif, Sunshine** (and possibly others) all added significant terrain in that timeframe.
2- While it is great to have more terrain, how do you think having that terrain concentrated in fewer places (and even fewer ownership hands) affects the competitive landscape of skiing, and the affordability aspect?
*A piece on Fortress would be awesome
**Sunshine's Goat's Eye pod might have opened just before your timeframe here
Awesome stuff. This is a great deep dive. A couple of points: Green Valley in SoCal is toast. There’s no way of restoring it: at this point it has no infrastructure left and it’s been crowded in by homes. If they built a new lift there you’d have about 5 parking spaces.
I haven’t really heard of Anthony Lakes, and it’s listed as 1000 acres. That seems to be their official number on the website too, but I’m not sure how they got that. It’s a single main lift and mapping out the perimeter shows about 300 acres.
Finally, I don’t see Snow Forest in Big Bear Lake on the list of lost ski areas, but maybe because it closed permanently in 1992. It had about one chairlift, a few surface lifts, some snowmaking, and about 120 acres. Also unlikely to reopen due to surrounding development.
Again, thanks for the great content. This is exactly the sort of stuff that is fun to learn about.
Anthony Lakes offers cat skiing. I wonder if they’re including that in their acreage?
Great analysis--thanks for posting! Indeed terrain expansions have significantly outpaced closures in the West since '94. And despite the significant private acreage at Yellowstone Club, Wasatch Peaks Ranch, and PowMow, there's still a lot more that's open to the public.
A few specific notes... Sundance's website currently lists "540+ acres." Wildwood plus more of Bishop's Bowl minus the terrain below the bottom of Jake's... a net gain of 90 acres seems about right.
Sunrise Park hasn't added new terrain since the 80s. My guess is that the '94 number was wrong, as 1,200 acres seems about right for the operation then and now.
A tripling in lift-served acreage is over-ambitious for 49 North. It certainly has grown, but the Angel Peak expansion didn't contribute much acreage at all. The East Basin was much more significant. But I'd estimate the 1994 footprint at somewhere around 1,500 acres.
None of which, of course, changes your point :)
Well made point Stu! It is a refreshing realization to have that the doom-and-gloom supply-and-demand story is (not surprisingly) much more nuanced than most are led to believe. In an increasingly difficult regulatory environment, along with increasing costs for material and labor, it seems that the most logical path forward is new expansion at existing ski areas. To continue to meet the growing user demand, as well as the increased growth demands of the industry, I'm not sure of another plausible solution. It seems insurmountable in most cases to build new ski areas. Some may point to Mayflower as a counter point to this, but ultimately that became a base area expansion of an existing area. The Balsams seems to be a project that would solidify this position, although I am still hoping for this to come through. Ultimately, what is a ski area? Lifts, lodges, trails, amenities, and parking. These can all be added to existing areas in the form of new base area expansions in a much easier way then trying to start from scratch. Many areas already have grand visions for the future down on paper in the form of their Master Plan. It would be great to see the ski industry make base area expansion a priority to meet the needs of additional skiers and a widening base of participants. I would love to see a story covering the myriad of areas who have base-area expansions on the back burner in their Masters Plan, and get a rough idea of how many acres, lifts, and parking spots that could represent to future skiers.. just in case you're not busy enough!
Thank you for disproving beyond a doubt the false narrative that climate change is killing skiing. It's definitely not helping but the sport of skiing and riding and the areas that host the sport have all evolved. Without advances and investments in snowmaking in the east, us ski the east folks would be screwed. But there are bad years in west too, I've been disappointed more than once after making advance reservations only to ski resorts that have half the terrain open during prime snow months. Unfortunately, it rains in low elevation east Coast a lot more than high elevation Colorado. Not uncommon for Killington in VT to get a foot of snow on a Tuesday and an inch of rain on Thursday. That doesn't happen at the same frequency in higher elevations in the West. There are scores of lost ski areas in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts. The vast majority were lost before anyone ever heard of climate change. Poorly managed businesses and businesses with inadequate capital fail.
I’m struggling to figure out where Crystal’s extra 300 acres came from. The resort has actually contracted a bit during that span as far as I can tell, not expanded (although lift-served access has increased significantly since the old bus-serviced Northback became lift-serviced Northway).
Lower Northway Run down to the old shuttle stop was abandoned after the lift was installed, as was all other terrain below the bottom of the lift, and they abandoned the top section of Boondoggle when Quicksilver was replaced with a shorter lift.
Oddly enough, despite being beyond a ski area boundary sign, Upper Boondoggle actually got groomed a couple times this season, something that never happened when it was still officially inbounds.
Billion Basin also used to be inbounds, but it was abandoned well before 1992, so isn’t relevant here.