 Poster: A snowHead
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... of a ski resort in Nebraska, USA.
'Devil's Nest' is a ski area that simply died in infancy. Littered about a mountainside abutting the Missouri River are the ghostly remains of a lift system and trail network born in 1970, that ground to a halt just two winters later.
33 years on, and the cables and pylons of the chairlift are engulfed by the branches of trees. It's very unlikely ever to run again.
This report from Sioux City Journal.
Do you have personal knowledge of a ghostly abandoned ski area?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Yep, Chambon des Neiges, well I went to the Auvergne and I think it was there I went, I remember there was no snow, it was a poor season that year (about 4/5 years ago). Story/info here
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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crazy_skier_jules, interesting, I know that place. I used to live in Clermont Ferrand and I've seen a number of abandoned ski stations in the area, most are just a couple of rusting poma lifts and in the late 90's in the winter it was hard to see they'd be any good.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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FWIW, there are several active organizations in the 'states that try to preserve the history and memories of "lost" ski areas. NELSAP (http://www.nelsap.org/) - New England Lost Ski Areas Project - is the first that comes to mind, but there are many more. The home page of NELSAP has links to the expected (ie, other parts of the US and Canada), as well as lost areas in Germany and even Afghanistan. (!)
A lot of these folks have a great time hiking around the "ghost" ski areas in the summer and return with loads of pix and artifacts.
Tom / PM
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Physicsman, Interesting link to the New England Lost Ski Areas Project. I was sitting on a chair lift at Bromley Mountain a couple of years ago and was chatting with a local chap who was on the chair with me. From the chair you could see Magic Mountain and Stratton quite cleary ( I have skied at both of these a number of times ) he pointed out another mountain which he said used to be quite a big ski area. You could clearly see the old runs through the pine forest. He said the area around Manchester used to be known as something like the 'White Circus'. I wonder if this 'lost area' is included in the nelsap web site report.
CP
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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CP, if you are thinking of the one which sits atop the ridge just west of Manchester, it's probably Mount Equinox (or vicinity):
http://www.equinoxmountain.com
Several years ago, I had an email exchange with an acquaintence who lives in that area, and he said that there are some abandoned ski trails on (or near) Mt. Equinox visible from the east. Apparently, the trails are overgrown, but I remember seeing them as well.
There is a paved auto (toll) road to the top of Mt. Equinox which is open in the summer, so you would think that would be the obvious route for the locals to skin up to the top. OTOH, I didn't see anything about skiing this mountain on either the Mt. Equinox site or on the NELSAP site.
That entire east-facing ridge is an obvious place to cut ski trails. Perhaps the main group of them is not actually within the Mt. Equinox property boundaries, but just N or S of it. This has me curious and I will look into it further in the next couple of days.
Tom / PM
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Physicsman, I have driven up the Toll Road and taken a walk on one of the trails at the top of Mt. Equinox during one of my non winter business trips to Manchester. Fantastic view down the Manchester valley from the top here.
The ski area I saw would, I am pretty sure, be North of Equinox and Manchester. The chair I was on at Bromley gave a view of Magic Mountain to the left and Stratton almost directly ahead. The area in question was to the right and in front of Stratton. I will take a look at my maps of VT and try to be more precise.
CP
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Here's a similar site for Colorado:
http://www.coloradoskihistory.com/lostresorts.html
When I lived in the Vail Valley, locals often used to go sledding at Meadow Mountain ( http://www.coloradoskihistory.com/lost/meadow.html ).
Then the Forestry Service decided that there was too much potential for sledding accidents and a risk of litigation (same old story) and banned all sledding. Recently some entrepreneurs have put in a rope tow and some proper protective fencing. They now charge about $8 for a sledding session, which unfortunately excludes a lot of the less well-off local Hispanic families that used to sled there.
Perhaps if Meadow Mountain had survived it could have been linked to Beaver Creek, as happened to Arrowhead.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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CP, I think I've solved the mystery. It sounds like you were on one of the two main chairs on the frontside of Bromley. I've enjoyed the same view many times. Swinging your gaze from the left to right (facing back down the chair), Magic, Mt. Snow, and Stratton are all obvious, with Mt. Snow being the most distant, and Stratton being just a few degrees to the right of Mt. Snow and considerably closer.
Bromley is one of the few south facing ski hills in New England, and these chairs run almost exactly N-S. You are correct that Stratton is almost directly in back of you as you are going up either of the two main chairs. I don't think there is any way you could see areas to the north of Manchester from these two chairs, as they would be directly to the west of Bromley, and I believe there are larger mountains in the way. Even if you could, such areas would obviously be much further to the right (ie, at least 90 degrees) than Stratton.
I think that the "lost" area you saw was probably "Snow Valley", officially in Winhall, VT.
Go to maps.google.com, key in Manchester, VT., and select "hybrid" in the upper RH corner. Set the magnification to about the 6th click from the top of the scale. The trails at the various ski areas are all quite apparent at this magnification. Drag the map around until you place Bromley at the top center of your screen and then zoom in one more click. SW of Bromley and very close (ie, just south of the intersection of Rts 11 and 30), you will see the trails of a former downhill and XC area called "Snow Valley". There is a nice write up of it on NELSAP: http://www.nelsap.org/vt/snowvalley1.html
Do you think this might be the area you saw?
Tom / PM
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Physicsman, Yes I think your are right and we were looking back down the chair. I have had a look on Google Earth and Snow Valley would be just about in the right position.
Thanks for checking it out for me.
CP
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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And also close to home, there's the sad sight of the hillock that once was Hillingdon dry slope, as you drive out of London on the A40...
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Indeed! I'm not sure which is the closest plastic slope to central London now. I used to teach at slopes at Alexandra Palace (where the archaelogical remains are visible) and Lords Cricket Ground (a slope used to be mounted on a scaffolding structure in the autumn). There was a slope at Crystal Palace, and one in Woolwich (I think - never went there). Beckton Alps has gone, and was never replaced with the planned snowdome. There was a slope in Watford at one time.
I believe Sandown (Esher) is still going - can anyone confirm?
In my neck of the woods, Gosling (Welwyn Garden City) and Hemel Hempstead are the main slopes. And Wycombe is the best of all, in my experience.
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You know it makes sense.
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David Goldsmith, bit of a sad list. Given that potential users were in sufficient numbers in the London area, what do we think killed them? Were they just too small to attract repeat business? Or did more people go for the real stuff with the increase in firstly package holidays and latterly DIY helped by low cost airlines and the internet? Or were there just too many constructed in fits of optimism by developers?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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In the case of Alexandra Palace, the owner was in prison when I worked there (1975-6), but I don't think that had anything to do with its eventual demise. The land is now derelict, overcome by vegetation.
Lords now has a magnificent indoor cricket training 'terminal' where the ski slope once stood.
Watford (Garston) has been overcome with development, so I guess the land was put to more profitable use.
Beckton Alps is, as far as I know, a graveyard of skiing - but a slope and mound like that could have no other use, as with Hillingdon.
I think that's the general point with graveyards of skiing - the tilted land has few other uses, except perhaps for grazing animals with two legs shorter than the other two.
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Poster: A snowHead
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David Goldsmith, there also used to be a dry slope at Harlow, did some part-time instructing there, now a housing estate I believe.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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