This Oct. 29, 2011 photo courtesy of Chandler Burgess for Killington Resort shows a skier on the slopes during opening day at Killington Resort, Vt. (AP photo)Ski area operators want people to know they can still get to the mountains, despite severe road washouts and other damage caused in August by Tropical Storm Irene.
Ski areas suffered trail washouts as gallons of water streamed down mountains, snowmaking ponds were damaged, parking lots washed out and roads collapsed mostly in Vermont and Massachusetts.
Killington, in central Vermont, was hardest hit. It lost the entire Superstar pub, had water and silt damage to all five of its base lodges, and water damage eroded parking lots. But all that is behind them.
"We have been open for one and a half weeks," Sarah Thorson, communications manager for the resort, said of the area's Oct. 31 opening, "We were so excited to open up the lifts two months after the storm hit us."
The huge volume of water swelled the small Roaring Brook at Killington and destroyed the foundation of the Superstar pub that was built above it. The middle of the structure then collapsed, she said.
The pub was attached to the lodge at the main base, but it was on a separate foundation. The structure of the lodge was not damaged but had to be enclosed on that side, she said.
Now Killington is planning to take the misfortune and use it to make what was an infrequently used pub better. It is creating a new bar with an outside area with glass walls that is covered by a retractable roof, Thorson said.
Despite the severe damage, all the resorts in Vermont managed to recover quickly and roads, some of which were destroyed, have been repaired so skiers will still be able to easily reach any of the areas, said Jen Butson, director of public affairs for Ski Vermont.
“It turns out Vermont’s people are incredibly hardy and support their local businesses,” she said.
At Mount Snow, located outside of the devastated community of Brattleboro, officials sent skilled workers and heavy equipment to help homeowners and businesses.
It donated thousands of tons of ledge rock, blasted from the mountain to install a new chair this summer, to help fix roads, said Dave Meeker, communications manager.
"We are 100 percent back. Everything is repaved and regraded, and new guardrails are being installed to replace the ones that washed out," he said.
Meeker said they had to replace their main pumphouse that runs the snowmaking system, since it was submerged. “It was a very important pumphouse to us but we are ready to flip that switch and get snow on the mountain as soon as it gets cold enough.”
Many areas had trail washouts and had to regrade parking lots.
Magic Mountain, in Londonderry, Vt., was lucky to get away with no damage to its lodge or lifts, but did have to repair its snowmaking pond, a snowmaking pipe and washouts on its trails. It, too, is ready to open, Geoff Hatheway, vice president of marketing, said.
“One trail became a rock slide with 8-foot boulders coming down it. It was a little bit of a mess,” he said.
At Okemo, in Ludlow, Vt., the water pouring from the mountain peak hit the main base area, damaging some of the lower beginner lifts and some offices. A small pond used for snowmaking also breached and destroyed the road, said Bonnie MacPherson, public relations director.
In many cases road damage was a big concern because it would make it difficult for people to reach the mountains. When of the main roads to Okemo, Route 131, opened in November, it was a huge relief, MacPherson said.
Ski areas in other states were not hit as badly.
New Hampshire areas did not get hit as hard. The worst problem was the main bridge to Loon Mountain was washed out in the storm. A temporary bridge has been installed that will be fine until a new one can be built in the spring, Karl Stone, the marketing director for Ski New Hampshire, said.
In Massachusetts, most of the areas escaped severe damage from Tropical Storm Irene and the October storm.
Mountains got as much as 30 inches of snow during the recent storm, but temperatures were lower than they were in the Pioneer Valley, so the snow was lighter. Additionally a lot of trees had lost more leaves before the storm.
“Luckily we didn’t lose the bridge (that crosses the Deerfield River),” said Christopher Loftus, marketing director at Berkshire East in Charlemont. “We suffered minor damages but we were able to repair them.”
With 30 inches of snow falling, Berkshire East saw more snow than anyone else in the area and people were hiking up to get early turns, he said.
Butternut in Great Barrington and Bousquet in Pittsfield were also fortunate to avoid any serious damage in Tropical Storm Irene or the October snowstorm.
Blandford Ski Area had some minor damage when culverts overflowed, taking out a small pedestrian bridge that passes over a culvert from the parking lot, David Fraser, marketing director said.
Cross-country areas were not spared either. At Notchview in Windsor, there was no damage from the October snowstorm, but the tropical storm was a different story, said James Caffrey, superintendent for Notchview.
The flooding took out two of the bridges on trails. Employees found one and were able to rebuild it. The second was never found and there is not enough time to build a new one, he said.
“It is a back country trail. We will just put a sign up that says the bridge is out and if people want to keep going they can,” he said.