In Search of Eastern Skiing
Now, if *I* owned Stowe

In response to my public

Grump, grump, grump. Now, if *I* owned Stowe....

Reggie Cooper of Stowe Mountain Resort replied:

Everything's for sale Wes. Make an offer.

I can come up with maybe three grand, although that wouldn't leave me much to cover the taxes

But, if I owned Stowe....

• Leave Mansfield alone. Maybe clear out some brush in some of the more obvious woods. Definitely NO new chair between Nosedive and Perry Merrill.
• I give in to the new lodge, if it's tastefully designed (lots of wood, no Snowbirdesque concrete). Food, tables, bigger ski shop OK, no need for boutique shops, plenty of those in town.
• Keep old lodge as a lodge, not a museum. Good location, historical significance, best fireplace on the mountain. Expand the bar, reposition the stage, find a new act (I'm so tired of Agony and Smith, or whoever those guys are). Upgrade sound system.
• Underground funicular, a la French Alps, from new lodge to top of Big Spruce. Visit Tignes for prime example. This would make that $4,000,000 storage pond look like pocket change, and blow the paint off the Killington SkyeShip, Sugarloaf SuperQuad, Stratton whateverthatis, and Jay Tram. Cut a new narrow switchback trail with glade options back down to 108, through a tunnel under the road, and across a bridge over the brook back to Mansfield.
• Barring that, I could live with a dark brown or green detachable transfer lift across 108. Detach chairs/cabins in summer to preserve Route 108 scenery.
• Buy out Smuggs, replace Madonna I lift with windproof high-speed detachable triple, expand trail network between Spruce/Madonna/Sterling. Have to check a map, see if this can be done without fooling with the Long Trail or exposing resort to liability if some trouthead falls through the ice trying to cross Sterling Pond.

Wesley Moneybags Wright

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