If snowpack holds, Easter Sunday is potential last day for downhill skiers. Maybe

Tue, 03/03/2015 - 11:29 am

Lynda Clancy

A view from near the top of Ragged Mountain, Feb. 28. (Photo courtesy Peter Lindquist)

CAMDEN — The reports from Camden Snow Bowl were upbeat Monday evening, as the mountain’s stewards told a roomful of interested skiers, bikers and town staff that the massive improvement project were beginning to stabilize. They agreed that there is much tweaking yet to do, and more erosion mitigation to complete this spring; but for now, Ragged Mountain is a skier’s paradise, with visitors arriving from all over the state, and beyond.

Camden Director of Parks and Recreation Landon Fake said he hopes for at least another month of skiing, with a tentative closing date pushed to Easter Sunday. If the snow is still good and interest holds, the municipally-owned Snow Bowl could even stay open later, he said.

With its widened trails, deep snow pack, and new triple chairlift, the Snow Bowl is attracting skiers. During February school vacation, the Snow Bowl drew $120,000 in revenue, in spite of being closed on a Sunday during a blizzard. That amount equaled February vacation 2014 figures, and has given hope that the improvements will pay off.

The Snow Bowl staff has been firing on all cylinders since last March when the mountain closed to skiers and earthmoving and tree-cutting machinery moved in, representing first steps of the Ragged Mountain Recreation Area improvement project. At that point, the project entailed terrain changes, dismantling and removing the old T-bars, relocating the double chairlift, erecting a new triple chairlift and building a new lodge, all within a budget of $6.5 million.

But then, copious spring and summer rains combined with poor logging methods resulted in cost overruns of more than $500,000. Other glitches stalled progress, and the Snow Bowl did not open as originally planned just before Christmas. The triple chairlift, which takes skiers to the top of the mountain, did not officially begin operating until Jan. 31, while weather hampered snowmaking for much of January.

As compensation, the Snow Bowl had offered its 1,200 season pass holders the option of turning in their passes for a full refund, with a Feb. 5 deadline.

Last month, the committee apprised the Camden Select Board of the project, and reported that the cost estimates had increased from $6.5 million to $8.4 million. That meant that construction of a new lodge would be on hold while another $1.6 million in private fundraising is secured and ground work at the mountain is finished.

The Ragged Mountain Recreation Foundation, the nonprofit that committed to raising the larger chunk of private donations for the project, went back to work.

Then the snow began falling, and the mountain gradually opened all of its trails to enthusiastic skiers.

At the March 2 meeting, with one month of operation under the belt, the outlook was brighter, even though more work lies ahead this spring, such as installing the double chairlift, regrading earth, finishing electrical lines, improving the parking lot, mitigating erosion damage and ensuring proper stormwater management. All of that will take place after the mountain closes and later next autumn.

Ragged Mountain will, however, be turned over to the community for summer use, pledged the Redevelopment Committee and the town.

And hopes remain high that ski ticket sales will remain robust for the remainder of this season.

Last week, Feb. 26 to March 1, the Snow Bowl reported $56,000 in revenue, Fake reported. During the same week last year, the revenue was $22,000.

“What we got for our money is incredible,” said Camden Snow Bowl Redevelopment Committee member Sam Appleton, speaking at the community meeting convened by the Redevelopment Committee and the nonprofit Ragged Mountain Recreation Foundation.

“Conditions are perfect and over the past month I have ridden up with considerable number of people from away, from Ellsworth, Topsham, Bar Harbor,” he said. “They are all talking ‘wow.’ We really have small exquisite ski area.”

“I don’t think we have wasted any money,” said Fake.

Still, the mountain lost its anticipated January revenue, and while Fake reported an uptick in recent ticket sales, he said that overall, the Snow Bowl business had suffered.

We’re way down,” he said, when Redevelopment Committee member Molly Mulhern asked him about the finances.

Fake said revenue at the Snow Bowl is currently $250,000 less compared to 2014. The Snow Bowl lost out on its lucrative Christmas break week, which traditionally contributes 10 to 20 percent to the mountain’s overall season revenue stream.

The Snow Bowl also was closed during the traditionally high-earning Martin Luther King holiday weekend.

He said 132 season passes were refunded, amounting to $26,000. This year, the mountain received $200,017 in revenue from passes.

“A couple dozen turned them in,” he said. “Then, a few who turned them in came back for new ones.”

He said that operating expenses next year will be 15 and 20 percent higher than last year, and added, “We have known all along we have to attract people from farther away for day tickets.”

A 2011 economic study of the Redevelopment Project proposed growing the winter ski traffic at the Snow Bowl to 30,000 to 35,000 skier visits a season. The mountain should comfortably accommodate 600 skiers on it at one time, the study projected, and the redevelopment was designed with that ratio in mind.

Redevelopment Committee Chairman Rick Knowlton said the Camden Parks and Recreation Committee is to determine the right pricing for mountain access for the coming season. The committee might also consider seasons passes for mountain bikers, a practice that has been implemented in Vermont with the Kingdom Trail there.

Knowlton emphasized, however, that the Camden Snow Bowl is “all about access and accessibility” and warned against pricing that “starts to be out of whack with us.”

Camden resident Mort Strom urged those who have comments to make about the Snow Bow to “give it a year, give the redevelopment a season and then evaluate and make your judgments as to where you go from there.”

Camden resident John Scholz said he was “amazed at the fullness of the parking lot in the week,” and noted that, as a nearby Hosmer Pond resident, he does not hear the sound of the equipment.

“It’s really quiet,” he said.

Foundation President Bob Gordon, of Camden, said: “Basically, it’s a brand new mountain. The amazing thing is that the lift handles the lines. The lift lines are shorter.”

And at the top of the hill, the skiers disperse more quickly with no bottlenecks on the trails.

“It’s a beautiful, beautiful little mountain now,” he said.

The town has hired Ledgwood Construction to be the construction manager for the remaining earthworks. The company will also include oversee and construct the new lodge. The latter project depends, however, on the success of raising $1.6 million more in private donations.

Gordon said the Capital Campaign Committee has begun reaching out to the project’s major donors, the ones who have already given.

“A lot of them are not shocked,” said Gordon. “A lot have empathy and said how can we help? We say, ‘can you give again.’”

In the first fundraising campaign, the Foundation raised $4.7 million, with 500 donors contributing to the project.

Gordon said the committee has identified new potential donors who need to be cultivated. That involves getting them to mountain to see the progress, he said.

He said the committee is also bringing in new team members.

“We can’t guarantee how quickly we can do this,” he said. “$1.6 million is a big number. I’d like to raise more. I’m confident. We’re excited. The town is going to get another gift of a couple million bucks.”

But, he ended with, “we need help.”

Brian Robinson, of Camden, said, “People can’t believe the quality of experience they are having at our mountain.”

They are happy, he said, because they don’t have to travel 2 to 2.5 hours to ski, and the quality is as good as larger mountains to the west. The Magic Carpet lift, he added, is an asset to cultivating the Ragged Mountain as a place that is welcoming to beginner skiers.

There are a lot of beds in town, Robinson said, “and people will choose us as a destination to learn to ski.”

He emphasized Camden’s “potential to become a small destination.”

That vision is included in the 2011 economic study, which said that the improved Snow Bowl operations could generate more than $3 million annually in economic benefits to the local region.

Those assembled in the Washington Street Meeting Room agreed that the new Snow Bowl systems and facility nonetheless need further adjusting and fixing.

“There’s a lot of tweaking to do,” said Appleton. But, he said, “It will get better and better.”

Knowlton said at the beginning of the meeting that there was much left to do at Ragged Mountain, but the overall goal was to balance capacity with the population that wants to enjoy it.

“You need a place to park, place to sit and change your gear, reasonable accommodation for lift lines and enough terrain that is safe,” he said. “When you put it all together, people will come back, sustain and support you.”

The volatility of the economics “washes out over time,” he said.

Camden’s model of municipal ownership is unusual in the recreation market, he said. But the mission is to encourage healthy lifestyles, access to outdoors, and is the reason “why we are choosing to stay and raise our kids here.”

Making tracks in some dreamy snow at Camden Snow Bowl (Jan. 30, 2015))

Snow Bowl to fire up chairlifts; refunds offered to passholders (Jan 21)

Camden Planning Board to begin Snow Bowl lodge review (Jan. 9)

Camden Select Board brings in old friend to help with Snow Bowl progress (Jan. 7)

• Camden Snow Bowl to start making snow Jan. 5 (Jan. 2)

• Camden Select Board pushes Ragged Mountain redevelopment project forward over protests of many Hosmer Pond neighbors (Dec. 18)

• Snow Bowl progress report to Camden Select Board continues to be positive (Dec. 3)

• One by one, 20 chairlift towers went up at the Camden Snow Bowl (Dec. 1)

• Helicopter to help raise, place 23 chairlift towers at Camden Snow Bowl (Dec. 1)

• Report: Ragged Mountain Redevelopment Project $500,000 over budget (Oct. 8)

• Camden Planning Board approves Snow Bowl lighting plan as proposed (Oct. 6)

• Camden Snow Bowl on target for Dec. 20 opening, weather willing (Sept. 19)