I very much appreciate being able to skin before and after hours but was wondering if we are reconsidering allowing skinning during hours?

I understand the concerns and wouldn't want skinners to get in the way of paying (or higher paying) customers.

How about a designated route up a trail that doesn't get a ton of downhill traffic (lower/upper antelope?).

I know we already charge for snowshoe trails. How about a policy similar to Mt Snow; they charge $10 per day or $49 per season.

Here is(part of) their policy:


I know it would not bring in a lot of money, but by selling a pass, I think this allows us to limit our liability (I recall Mt Snow saying this was the underlying reason for actually charging for the pass) but may also bring people back to the hill to ski lift served--not to complicate things but as an idea, we could offer a credit towards a lift ticket for the same day only. Skinners maybe also spend money on food/beverage before or after skinning too.

Thanks for reading!
Pat

We also used to sell single rides up the single for $10 for folks who wanted to ski the long train to mt Ellen. I'd love to see that brought back. We make some $ and support a cool backcountry adventure. Wildcat over in NH does that for people who want to ski the "wildcat" trail, a 4 hour or so downhill that morphs into a cross country run to Jackson village. It might even be nice to start using this trail more, host a race to mt Ellen! How cool would that be...

There is actually a race that goes up Antelope, across the LT, down Mt Ellen, Lower FIS , up Slide Brook #1, to the top of the gate house quad and down Castlerock connection.

http://www.ussma.org/events/mad-river-v ... ering-race

Single trip could be cool too. I'd probably use that option several times throughout the season.

Pat,

I have revisited the skinning policy with patrol and our liability insurance people again this season. We still feel strongly the risk outweighs the benefit. We have discussed a designated route but the big problem is our narrow twisty trails have many dangerous blind spots that are very hard to avoid. Charging would be hard to police and many skinners are pass holders already. Having a skinning policy actually helps me reduce our GL policy premium. We understand many uphill people would love to see this changed but we are just trying to protect the mountain for everyone. Thanks for your thoughts.

Jamey Wimble

ok, but, what about the $10.00 single ride up for folks who want to use the trail over to MT Ellen? Tthis doesn't in any way, I think, impact our liability, and encourages use of a very under-used trail, and has no down-side, does it?. I recall when on the board, it was an "issue" that we allowed this, and John Goodman put it in a book, in a very positive light, and comapired the experience favourably to skiing the Wildcat trail. Management shortly thereafter cancelled the $10.00 single ride. I do not know why. Can we get an explanation as to why we don't make it easy for people to ski the trail from General Stark to Mt Ellen? If there is a reason, fine…but please explain that one. Maybe $15.00 per ride is more appropriate, but why whouldn't we offer a single ride up for folks who want to enjoy the ridge line experience. Also, what is the policy for people who start the trail at the top of the Ap Gap? Can they ski through? My guess is that the numbers of either of these groups is small, so why not let them, hell we let knuckle draggers hike up, and scrape the snow off all the way down!

shm
bishkek

Single ride tickets were done away with because people were using them to scam. They would try to ski the upper mountain or not show their ticket as long as possible. Operationally we were getting beat is why it was done away with.

Jamey Wimble