AZ Challenge 2011: Angie Carroll of Mt. Abram

[Nick]

Angie Carroll, Director of Sales & Marketing at Mt. Abram, has agreed to participate in the 2011 AlpineZone Ski Area Challenge!

The AlpineZone Challenge is your chance to offer up questions, suggestions or praise to the people who run the mountains in the northeast. For more information on the challenge itself, please see the stickied post at the top of the forum.

We will pick ten of the questions asked here and submit them for review and response, and post them in the Challenge area when complete!

Caveats: we may edit/change your question for grammar, tone, or something similar. Questions may be merged. If we don't get to all the questions, we will encourage followup from the representatives, but no promises.

Please be respectful as well to those answering questions - please refrain from asking specifics about skier visit numbers, financials, demographic information, etc. as these may be confidential to the mountain.

Mt. Abram profile

This is Mt. Abram's first time participating in the challenge, so fire away!

 

[Smellytele]

I see that you are putting up a temp lodge. What are the plans for the permanent replacement?
Another question - I know the past few years you have allowed skiing anywhere within the boundaries of the ski area. Are there any plans of thinning out any of the trees?

 

[riverc0il]

Nice one! Not a question, but I just want to say I am pulling for Abram to weather the lodge issue successfully. Smellytele already addressed the question. And Smellytele already beat me to the tree thinning question as well. There were at least four off map shots when I was last at Abram four years ago. I'd be curious to hear how much work has been done on Abram's tree skiing. Okay, three questions:

Many other mountains have work days for tree skiing enthusists to assist with glade clearing and maintenance under the direction and guidance of ski area ops. These programs usually involve a free lift ticket for a day's work. Would Abram consider creating such a program to build its tree skiing network, better maintain existing shots, and better establish Abram as a great place for powder tree skiing?

Due to Abram not being open 7 days a week, it is uniquely setup as a mountain will good terrain for "days after the storm" powder day skiers. If a snow storm happens mid-week (say, Monday for example) when the ski area is closed, how much grooming should be expected between the storm hitting and when Abram opens for the weekend?

Would Abram consider opening on a "closed" day for a "powder day"? Magic Mountain currently does this with great success. I think Abram has a lot of potential for creating a name for itself as an untracked powder mecca when the bigger ski areas are tracked out. Of course, you might need to worry about killing the goose that laid the golden egg due to Abrams low capacity.

Man, I gotta get me back to Abram sometime. Especially if they have continued to expand their glades.

 

[AndyEich]

Does Mt. Abram own the east face of the mountain, down to the southern peak sometimes called Tibbett's Mountain? If so, is there any chance we'll ever see it developed?

Why do the lights stay on overnight? I've seen them stay on till sunrise.

I wish you all much luck and look forward to the rebuilt Loose-boots Lounge!

 

[Magog Fishy]

Well if nobody else is going to step-up, I will step up with a few even though I skied Mt. Abram last year for the first time. I loved the mountain, and was able to hit it in 8" of powder.

1. Any chances of seeing some more trees planted on Upper Zephyr? I loved Lower Zephyr for its pitch, but was disappointed in Upper Z.
2. I know you are a small resort, but any chance for a better trail map? I got confused by it, which perhaps was a good thing as it caused me to find a real sweet off map glade. BTW, keep the way that you do your lift tickets – I loved it, as it added character to the experience
3. Skied The Zone my first run, and it turned out to be my worse run of the day – chose skiers left; top was wind-blown and some side scrapers had already been through. Any chance you could cut some of those stumps lower? Most of the powder was blown to the bottom – I am not sure if this is common, with Upper Sweeper (where you get off the chairlift) serving as a wind tunnel. Any chance you could perhaps install a snow fence or plant some trees at the entrance to The Zone to cut down on the wind blowing the snow down the trail?

I thought you did a good job at keeping a lot of the mountain ungroomed. I don't want to give away on the internet the off map glade that I found that was real sweet (since it is not one of your more noticeable off map glades, although is probably one of your longer ones), but it did dump me out onto a cruiser that was groomed – would have loved it if part of this trail was ungroomed.
Good luck with rebuilding the part of the lodge destroyed by fire, and if you keep maintaining those woods I will certainly be back!:beer:

 

[deadheadskier]

If I'm not mistaken, Mt. Abram has a boundary to boundary policy. Has any work been done this summer on clearing/opening up new gladed terrain?

 

[riverc0il]

If I'm not mistaken, Mt. Abram has a boundary to boundary policy. Has any work been done this summer on clearing/opening up new gladed terrain?

This is a good question. Like many areas that have used "boundary to boundary" policies as marketing tools, Abrams woods are too tight and thick for turns where the woods have not been cleared, cleaned, and maintained. Here's hoping for continued work between all of their trails. With trees between every trail, Abram could quite easily become the best powder day tree skiing for a mountain under 1500' in the east.

 

[salsgang]

Thanks for participating. Mt. Abram is a gem of a mountain offering some great terrain. I have had some really, really good days at Mt. Abram when the snow is on.

Some questions that may have been covered earlier:

- I think last year you had a pretty decent terrain park way to the skiers right - used to be the tubing hill. How did that work out? It did not get a lot of visibility from the lodge area so I wonder if that impacted use at all. What are the terrain park plans for this year?

- What is your snowmaking plans this year? Which trails will you hit first?

- It seems like on the west side there are some on-mountain lodging? Is this all privately owned or are there some ski and stay opportunities over there?

- Best of luck on the temp lodge and overall lodge replacement. Our school will be participating in the Class C state meet at Mt. Abram in February and we are looking forward to supporting the mountain this year.

For those that don't know Mt. A, For on-trail skiing Rocky's Run and Fearless leader are great trails with very good pitch that rule on snow-days. Mt. A rarely goes on wind-hold and is a great option on any day.

 

[deadheadskier]

Question regarding the Summit T-bar. Is that used only when there are wind holds on the Way Back Machine or do you open it on crowded days to ease lift lines? I don't believe I've seen it running when I've visited the mountain.

 

[deadheadskier]

Does Mt. Abram offer any discounts for season pass holders at other mountains as an incentive to visit the area?