Mountain Creek has been known as Vernon Valley and Great Gorge.
Snowshoe’s parent company Intrawest appears to have shed another resort asset as part of its ongoing effort to curtail debt in the wake of the last winter’s embarrassing threatened foreclosure. A New Jersey newspaper is reporting that the resort long known as Vernon Valley and/or Great George, but which operated under Intrawest as Mountain Creek, has been sold to a team that previously owned it.
Snowshoe officials will surely be eyeing the $25 million lawsuit filed against Massanutten Resort in Virginia after a snowtuber there was paralyzed. The Daily Progress has the story.
Thanks to several recent sales of once-promising resorts and a reported infusion of $150 million in new money, Snowshoe’s parent company, Intrawest, will remain in the hands of the hedge fund, Fortress, that nearly lost the chain of resorts in the middle of the Olympic Games.
Only Wisp now stands ahead of Snowshoe (in the mid-Atlantic, one presumes), according to OnTheSnow.com.
The plaza on a snowy day (file photo by hawes spencer)
With more snow having fallen than typically falls in a year, and plenty more snow in the forecast, Snowshoe has announced that it is extending the season to April 5, a week after the original season-ending date.
Snowshoe, now touting the best conditions in its 36-year history, has received 193″ of snow at this writing, 13″ more than the season average. That translates into a 55-inch base, and all 60 trails are open with packed powder and groomed conditions. Can’t beat that– except on powder days!
Sepp Kober, the 89-year-old “father of southern skiing,” was honored Saturday with a celebration, covered by the Staunton newspaper, prior to his expected induction into the U.S. National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame.
A Knighthawk during a 2003 refueling operation. (U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate Airman Ryan O'Connor)
Stranded for half a day after a mountain crash and suffering from broken bones and winter cold, the 17-member crew of a military helicopter were rescued thanks to two snowcats and six snowmobiles lent by Snowshoe Resort. The equipment helped rescuers reach the remote scene where the helicopter crashed February 18, according to a story in the Beckley Register-Herald. The Thursday crash of a Norfolk-based Navy Knighthawk helicopter occurred around nightfall, three miles from the nearest road, according to a story in the Virginian-Pilot.
Panorama, Copper, Squaw; and now it’s sunny Sandestin that appears to be leaving the Fortress/Intrawest resort chain. The good news for us Snowshoers is that reducing debt = higher likelihood of investment in the other Intrawest assets, e.g. Snowshoe.
That’s according to the website— which also has a new aerial view of the Village (at left) which we hadn’t seen until now. And the National Weather Service is calling for up to seven more inches today— with a chance of snow for 5 of the following 8 days. Rock on, Snowshoe, you powder heaven!
Squaw Valley, circa 1957 (photo by Mary Randolph Coleman Spencer)
Snowshoe’s parent company appears to have accelerated its efforts to shed assets to raise cash to hold off creditors who have threatened to take over the company’s assets— as Intrawest’s sale of the Village at Squaw, a major component of Squaw Valley, was announced January 29, just a day after a proposed sale of Panorama Village, a Canadian resort, was announced. These efforts come on the heels of the sale of Copper Mountain, Colorado. Intrawest’s flagship resort, Whistler Blackcomb, is a major Alpine site for the upcoming Winter Olympics.
