liquidfeet
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I've skied Mad River Glen VT, Wildcat NH, Berkshire East MA, Shawnee Peak ME, Black Mountain, NH, A-Basin in CO, and I've worked at Cannon NH for 6 years. What I think about when I think "old school" ski area is two things.
First, there's the lodge. If it's old, if the carpet is worn, if the bathrooms are clumsily built and if remodeled it's clearly been done on a budget, if the steps are wooden and warped, then the lodge definitely offers an "old school" atmosphere. I like that. The microwave upstairs in the lodge at A-Basin has its door handle taped in place with duct tape. Love that! LOVE that there's a microwave for skiers to use for their brown bag food. I mean, really, that's skier-friendly. The floor in the lodge at Mad River Glen is dirty, gritty with gravel, worn out, and downright ugly. Love that too; it makes me feel right at home (LOL). Wildcat has updated its lodge a little; the old ugly carpet with worn out spots is gone; that's sad. Black Mountain still feels like it's a farm with a chairlift; the horses are still there watching people ride the old chair lift. Bathroom doors are made of wooden floor planks bolted together with a cross-beam; the water smells of sulfur. Great!
What these old lodges communicate to the clientele is that they are simply there to accommodate skiers who need a warm place to sit and boot up, have lunch, take a bio break, and share a beer at day's end. No pretensions! No need to show off in the lodge! No $12.00 burgers! Being in that lodge is not about upper class comfort. The old lodges affirm that the day's experience is about skiing outside.
Compare to Sun Valley's major lodges, where all the fixtures are polished brass, the rugs are hand-woven, the chairs are upholstered in leather and fine fabric, and the legs on those chairs are carved walnut. Is that "comfort" for me? Not really. It says that being there is about being pampered by the corporation at a price paid by me. It's just not my idea of what "going skiing" is all about.
Second, an old-school ski area has trails that were originally cut in the old way to preserve snow, before snow-making arrived on the scene. Old school trails were cut narrow, and when they were on any serious pitch, they featured winding switch-backs. This arrangement left trees closely bordering the narrow trails. Those trees served as a wind-break which saved the snow from blowing off the trail into the woods. Snow preservation was important. Most of those trails today have been widened, and they have snow guns alongside them now. The hairpin turns are gone. But at Cannon there are still two trails on the upper mountain that still have those turns; one has been widened (Upper Ravine), and one remains narrow (Upper Cannon).
Wildcat has preserved some of its old narrow trails, and Mad River Glen is full of them. So are Black and Shawnee Peak. But it's just Cannon that has maintained two switch-back trails. They are dangerous now when filled with clueless recreational skiers coming 'round the bend skidding out of control. Those skiers can't stop on that hard snow at those speeds, and they have no idea what or who is around those blind corners. They think they are experts (no). I avoid those two trails like the plague, even though they are quite scenic. It's not the trails that are the problem, it's the skiing public. I'll only ski them when there's next to no one on the upper mountain.
First, there's the lodge. If it's old, if the carpet is worn, if the bathrooms are clumsily built and if remodeled it's clearly been done on a budget, if the steps are wooden and warped, then the lodge definitely offers an "old school" atmosphere. I like that. The microwave upstairs in the lodge at A-Basin has its door handle taped in place with duct tape. Love that! LOVE that there's a microwave for skiers to use for their brown bag food. I mean, really, that's skier-friendly. The floor in the lodge at Mad River Glen is dirty, gritty with gravel, worn out, and downright ugly. Love that too; it makes me feel right at home (LOL). Wildcat has updated its lodge a little; the old ugly carpet with worn out spots is gone; that's sad. Black Mountain still feels like it's a farm with a chairlift; the horses are still there watching people ride the old chair lift. Bathroom doors are made of wooden floor planks bolted together with a cross-beam; the water smells of sulfur. Great!
What these old lodges communicate to the clientele is that they are simply there to accommodate skiers who need a warm place to sit and boot up, have lunch, take a bio break, and share a beer at day's end. No pretensions! No need to show off in the lodge! No $12.00 burgers! Being in that lodge is not about upper class comfort. The old lodges affirm that the day's experience is about skiing outside.
Compare to Sun Valley's major lodges, where all the fixtures are polished brass, the rugs are hand-woven, the chairs are upholstered in leather and fine fabric, and the legs on those chairs are carved walnut. Is that "comfort" for me? Not really. It says that being there is about being pampered by the corporation at a price paid by me. It's just not my idea of what "going skiing" is all about.
Second, an old-school ski area has trails that were originally cut in the old way to preserve snow, before snow-making arrived on the scene. Old school trails were cut narrow, and when they were on any serious pitch, they featured winding switch-backs. This arrangement left trees closely bordering the narrow trails. Those trees served as a wind-break which saved the snow from blowing off the trail into the woods. Snow preservation was important. Most of those trails today have been widened, and they have snow guns alongside them now. The hairpin turns are gone. But at Cannon there are still two trails on the upper mountain that still have those turns; one has been widened (Upper Ravine), and one remains narrow (Upper Cannon).
Wildcat has preserved some of its old narrow trails, and Mad River Glen is full of them. So are Black and Shawnee Peak. But it's just Cannon that has maintained two switch-back trails. They are dangerous now when filled with clueless recreational skiers coming 'round the bend skidding out of control. Those skiers can't stop on that hard snow at those speeds, and they have no idea what or who is around those blind corners. They think they are experts (no). I avoid those two trails like the plague, even though they are quite scenic. It's not the trails that are the problem, it's the skiing public. I'll only ski them when there's next to no one on the upper mountain.
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Slopeside senior living! Yes!
