Bank threatens to remove Tamarack ski lifts

I also read where Intra-West has a $1.6bn loan coming due on October 23rd. I hope they found someone to roll over the debt for them.... We are going to see some troubled ski areas this season as a reult of the tight credit and all the recent capital improvements and expansions going on during the past few years.
 
NASJA is having quite a run with its annual meetings. Schweitzer/Silver in the extreme PNW meltdown of 2005, 2006 at underwhelming and inconvenient Kimberley, 2007 in Crested Butte after 3 weeks of heat/drought closed over 3/4 of the Extreme Limits. Next up Lutsen in 2009 and .?.?. Tamarack in 2010. I gotta give it to you easterners. Last year in Bretton Woods looks like the best of the recent era.

Fortunately NASJA West regional meetings have been powderfests in Northstar 2005, Jackson 2006 and Whistler 2008.
 
I'm saddened to see Tamarack in financial trouble, but the developers were really hoping for a grand slam from the looks of the size of the unfinished condo/hotel at the base. The main lodge cafeteria and other auxiliary buildings are relegated to heated tents. It looks like a big real estate play rather than an honest ski area.

The worry is that Tamarack is almost a secret spot when it comes to folks who enjoy powder snow. I hope the place makes it! When skiers are forced to climb with headlamps in the dark to access fresh lines in other Western havens, it's nice to know there are still spots that don't have so much crowd pressure. At first I too scoffed at the apparently underwhelming front side, wanting to go to Brundage instead. But now I know. 'Nuff said.
 
I visited Tamarack in 2005 and thought the place would have problems. Perhaps not on scale playing out now but none the less I had worries.

It is just in the middle of nowhere and the two nearby towns had only a couple thousand inhabitants from memory and debatable how many ski/board. The road north from Boise is awful by US standards so why drive when Bogus Basin is close and you also have the competition from Brundage.

Only a handful of resorts in the USA make a profit without real estate and Tamarack appear to have timed their introduction as a ski resort at just the wrong time.

Hope they survive as I did enjoy my turns.
 
Thanks for the notice. I just passed it along to 2 NASJA officers.

FYI my Eagle Pass Heli companions 3 weeks were from Boise. They think Tamarack's inbounds is just OK but that it has impressive sidecountry. Brundage gets more snow. Bogus Basin gets considerably less, but since it has really good terrain they ski there a lot when it does have snow.
 
I haven't been within 400 miles of this place, but I'm apparently the only one who's fascinated by this story -- the first shutdown of a major resort since... when? Funny, you have to dig through the website (horribly designed btw) to find this tiny tidbit of info:
http://www.tamarackidaho.com/events.php?eventid=1545

What happens to it now? They sell off the lifts (including three HSQs!!) and get rid of the condos and base lodges in a fire sale? Or would someone buy it for pennies on the dollar and operate the ski area as a shoestring Mt. Waterman-style operation?
 
What happens to it now?
Click to expand...

Any number of possibilities. The judge gets the fun job of weighing proposals from the creditor as well as any other offers that come up. I'd be surprised if someone doesn't come forward to try and get it for pennies on the dollar as an operating resort. Often times the local economy/jobs created, etc... will trump a financially better outcome for the creditors in a judges eyes, but certainly not always.
 
I'd be surprised if someone doesn't come forward to try and get it for pennies on the dollar as an operating resort.
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Isn't that what essentially happened at The Canyons, relative to the $$$ ASC must have spent to develop the place?

I think this is an interesting comparison. Tamarack is remote, needs compelling reasons for someone to go out of their way to visit. Sort of like Revelstoke, but at least Revy can hawk its 5,600 vertical and high snowfall.

The Canyons is super accessible, but overshadowed by neighboring ski areas. But I think you could see trouble coming in both cases (Canyons and Tamarack).
 
The differences between The Canyons and Tamarack are far greater than their similarities. The Canyons was but one ski resort amongst (IIRC) 10 owned by ASC, which leveraged themselves to the hilt to develop smaller ski areas (Park West, Sunday River) into mega destination resorts. At ASC properties the ski area already existed in a lesser form, and Otten's plan called for developing the ski area at a rapid pace to foster real estate sales. Tamarack, on the other hand, was built from scratch, with real estate sales expected to fund the ski resort development after the initial few lifts were built. When real estate sales went south, Tamarack found themselves defaulting on the construction loans. Tamarack was also its parent's sole ski resort holding.
 
Admin":32scb8v2 said:
The differences between The Canyons and Tamarack are far greater than their similarities.
Click to expand...
You're quibbling... what they shared in common was too much expensive infrastructure combined with real estate that no one wanted to buy.

What I find so interesting is that ski areas usually go under (NELSAP) with old lifts, leaky lodges, vintage equipment, insufficient snowmaking, no financial resources, etc. How do you explain a place with brand new everything tanking after just a few years?
 
jamesdeluxe":7my6fbzl said:
Admin":7my6fbzl said:
The differences between The Canyons and Tamarack are far greater than their similarities.
Click to expand...
You're quibbling... what they shared in common was too much expensive infrastructure combined with real estate that no one wanted to buy.
Click to expand...

Nonsense. Real estate had very little to do with the demise of ASC.
 
Of course ASC was overleveraged. But where did they spend the money they borrowed? A large chunk of it had to be building out The Canyons. We know they didn't spend it on Killington! If we were able to look at the ASC resorts individually, based upon what was invested vs. the returns, I have little doubt The Canyons would show the biggest negative.
 
We all know that ASC sucked the life blood out of Killington, Mount Snow, and other profit-producing EC hills and dumped it into The Canyons. As someone who presently lives in a state that receives back a few shekels for every dollar it contributes to the federal piggy bank, that sort of thinking hits home.
http://www.trackforum.com/forums/printt ... p?t=115285

Admin is correct that the details about Tamarack were different (ASC had many other resorts that already existed in much smaller forms, real estate funding the ski area vs. the other way around etc.) but who cares? What they shared in common was ridiculously outsized plans combined with insufficient revenues to cover the nut.

Instead of arguing a moot point, Admin should "leverage" :lol: his bottomless pit of ski area contacts and tell us who is going to step up and take over Tamarack. Vail again?
 
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