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RED
MOUNTAIN, RED RESORT, RED MOUNTAIN RESORT…..HMMM Here we go again. The snow is falling, the gear is being dusted off and the anticipation of the new ski season is high. Of course, again this year you have had a myriad of change occur at our beloved Rossland ski hill. We will try to give a summary below: The newest change is the name - yes we are sure many of you did not notice the subtle change. Let us walk you through the process:
At the hill, if you hadn't noticed over the summer, the big hole has been replaced with a crane and the shell of the new condo thingy that has been contemplated for years at the base. Congrats to the developers for almost finishing the construction over the spring to fall building season. If ya thought parking was an issue last winter, wait till ya see the mess this year. We are assured however that construction will be completed next year and parking will not be an issue - please post your comments after the opening on Friday 01 December. In the, "we are going to develop the ski hill facilities department", RMV did what they said in the spring and have cleared some easier terrain along with the usual Alder cut. We also have it on good authority that a new groomer (Winch Cat) was purchased this off season to provide all of you extreme skiers out there with the kind of corduroy that you flock to Rossland for! In the same vain, RMV has contracted Sotheby's Intl. Realty to take care of all the on mountain real estate development. Peter
Katkov, son of Howard is the new Media Relations person at Red and
brain behind Right Brain Productions, a company in the process of
building a new night club in the old fire hall downtown. He also
is quite opinionated in regard to intellectual property (see Trail
Times October 25th) anyway 'nuff said. Lift tickets come in at $52.00 this season. While the price is high in regard to the product, they have at least maintained last year's price. Small victories are as sweet as the big one's! Of course the early snowfall this year has caused all the Western resorts to open early and the much anticipated season gets underway Friday December 1st with a limited opening of the Silverload and Red chairs. The base is good (about 4 feet) and I am sure the riding will be sweet. Looking out a little further, most in and around town have come to terms with the new hierarchy at the hill from the perspective of they are going to do whatever they want regardless of the opinions of the real stakeholders - the people. To that end, we here at the Sall Goodman Report have decided to let virus spread, unchallenged. Banging your head continually against the wall will eventually start to hurt and watching a continuous rape is hard to take. For those of you that criticize these rants, we thought a real alternative may help many to understand our concern. The December 2006 issue of Powder Magazine (Page 114 and further info on Page 30) has a telling story of how a small town ski hill has prospered for the last 40 odd years while taking the local environment and population into consideration as it grew. Surprisingly, the growth wasn't fed by an inordinate amount of real estate development. It was done with good fiscally responsible business management, that to quote, "…all of the development has been paid for by the skiers and snowboarders." The stakeholders, much like Red, are a small consortium with a patriarch heading up the operation. This leader (and I use the term strongly) is a hands on, user friendly manager of the operation. The resort has accomplished an incredible degree of upgrading the operation over the years. The investment has been made in the infrastructure of the resort to enhance the skier experience (i.e. upgrading the existing lift system, continual care and maintenance of the lodges etc.) not line the pockets of a group of speculators from all parts of the continent. The shopping mall concept of the bigger resorts is starting to take shape at the base of Red at the expense of close reasonable parking with access to the main lodge. The model at the other resort provides for parking at the expense of the multi-unit condo development. Brown bag lunches are welcome at any of the lodges (don't think we need to elaborate here) and prices, with the aforementioned long-term improvements still come in well under the cost of a ticket at Red using a very liberal exchange rate. When
you read the article you can't help but see the incredible similarities
between the two ski areas from the perspective of Red was and what
the other area is, with the correct amount of development so not
to affect the real reason Red is such a gem with an incredible amount
of history. The history should be embraced and maintained at all
cost. It is the attraction to the area. New condos, golf courses
and huge housing developments will change this attraction to Red.
This change many will argue, including Mr. Katkov is not occurring at Red. He came here for the small ski town environment, which we commend. The issue we take is the fact his business model is flawed if his desire is to move forward with sustainable skier experience improvements. The flaw is in the definition of the skier experience improvements. Mr. Katkov and his consortium have determined that the only way to pay for the infrastructure improvements is through real estate development and increasing pricing across the board. They made it clear that they did not realize that increasing skier visits would be so difficult. This flaw is evident in the "Build it and They Will Come" model that is taking shape at Red. What about the patron that continues to come to Rossland and the local from the area that continues to go year in and year out? Of course there was some degree of consultation at this level, but the point of this consultation is utilization of the information. Providing a sounding board with no action is redundant. If only a patriarch like the one in the article would come to town and show Mr. Katkov how - wishful thinking. The
read is worth the six bucks. We might even suggest that Mr. Katkov
and RMV's may pick up a tip or two in regard to ski area management.
For a few dollars they could get information that they pay thousands
for to get nowhere. That's
all for now enjoying opening day!
Rock-On |