14 replies to this topic

[SkiBachelor]

I'm assuming most of you don't know who Harbor Resorts is, but it owns two decent size ski resorts, Stevens Pass, WA and Schweitzer Mountain, ID and I was just wondering if its now just in the ski industry. I recently visited its website and it's just a forwarding page for its two resorts and I thought that was kind of weird since it is/was a Seattle commercial real-estate firm. If Harbor resorts did get out of the commericial real-estate stuff in Seattle, could this be another company that is trying to model itself like Intrawest?

Anyway, it seems that a lot of the lifts at its resorts, espically Stevens Pass are looking pretty run down and need some T.L.C. It just makes me wonder if Harbor Resorts is getting into some money issues after its home lots haven't been selling and it just sold Mission Ridge. :help:

But anyway, my main question still is if Harbor Resorts is now in the ski industry.

[floridaskier]

Did they own Schweitzer when they built that CTEC HSS with the custom base terminal?

[SkiBachelor]

That's the year that Harbor Resorts bought it and dropped in that lift. Before that, Schweitzer was in Chapter 11. But one nice thing about Schweitzer is that it's all on private property.

[bramat]

Harbor Resorts is actually one half of two pieces, the commercial real estate piece is one side (www.harborproperties.com), and the resort piece is the other. I remember hearing when they bought mission ridge that they were considering buying some more ski areas to expand its ski resort side, like a new ski area every few years. just last year or maybe late the year before, the real estate side opened a new upscale apartment building on Capitol Hill in downtown Seattle called The Press, which is quite nice...

i was kinda wondering what is going on with the ski area side myself. i worry that all the money in the quite-profitable Stevens Pass operation is all going to Sandpoint Idaho. Stevens is a zoo on the weekends, probably the worst as far as crowds in all the washington ski areas. I really hope in their next master plan that they try to expand their boundaries, the hill gets kinda small sometimes. . . i have heard rumors that they want a high speed lift somewhere in place of or around BigChief. And other ideas that have been proposed to the Forest Service over the last 5 years have been converting The quad on the backside to a high speed, and replacing the beginner Daisy with a HSQ. It seems nothing has been going on at Stevens in quite a few years, quite possibly cuz in my opinion the money was going to the marginally (un?)profitable Schweitzer, which is apparently their little gem because they own the entire 5000 acres instead of the forest service and can do lots with the real estate and have plenty of room to expand.

When they first were working out the plans for their newest lodge that was put in a few years ago, it was supposed to be 40,000 sq feet, then was lowered to 30,000, and then the final size was 20,000. That lodge should have stayed planned at 40,000.

[liftmech]

I agree; it's kind of small for what it does. Sometimes I wonder if Intrawest doesn't treat its more profitable resorts like it appears Harbor is treating Stevens- we make money at Copper, but it seems like we never get to spend any. I've also heard unsubstantiated rumours that Harbor may expand Stevens over into where Yodelin used to be, putting in a lift to connect the two areas and then a detachable to serve the runs over there.
Granted, the last time I was at Stevens was over two years ago, but I remember the lifts being well-maintained, especially the old Riblets. Big Chief in particular could have used a coat of paint, but it was in fine shape otherwise.

[hyak.net]

I believe Harbor still owns Mission Ridge too. Last news I read on the sale of Mission was that it had fallen through and if that is true, then Harbor still owns it.

[SkiBachelor]

I think Mission Ridge did sell, but I'm not 100% sure. I recall reading about the sale in SAM magazine. Also if you visit any of the habor ski resort pages like Stevens and Schweitzer, the Mission Ridge link at the bottom of the pages have been removed.

[bramat]

i have not heard anything a bout that sale not going through, a woodinville developer guy bought it...

mission would have been great with some snowmaking and a high speed quad for c2. otherwise it is pretty much stuck in the same realm as Loup Loup or Bluewood or 49 north, just basically serving the city below the mountain.

i had heard that suggestion of Harbor going toward Yodelin... im really curious how the skiing in the yodelin area is. i think that is a very wise idea, since yodelin has already been deflowered once, why not continue developing it, compared to expanding east on the backside of Mill Valley where the trees are untouched. seems like all the people that object to ski area development object most to new untouched terrain being used in expansions.

has anyone back countried or hiked through the old yodelin trails? does anyone else know of plans for stevens to go that way?

The most recent thing i heard was some sort of reorganizing with a new lift/additional lift in and east of big chief, above the RV lot. this seems like a great idea, hopefully the terrain is good, Stevens is too crowded.

[vons]

Harbor owns more than 5000 acers at Schweitzer and the realestate side of that resort is doing well as of the last year plus. You tend to see changes occer faster at Schweitzer, even though it doesn't put up huge numbers in operations end of the biz, because it sits on private land and there for requiers less approvals (which arn't cheep and can be very time consuming). Infact Bonner county Id. where Schweitzer is located is very lax on land use and permiting.

[liftmech]

bramat, on Jun 8 2004, 07:54 PM, said:

mission would have been great with some snowmaking and a high speed quad for c2.  otherwise it is pretty much stuck in the same realm as Loup Loup or Bluewood or 49 north, just basically serving the city below the mountain. 


The most recent thing i heard was some sort of reorganizing with a new lift/additional lift in and east of big chief, above the RV lot.  this seems like a great idea, hopefully the terrain is good, Stevens is too crowded.

We pretty much serve the city below the mountain, too- just that the Denver Metro area has around 2.5 million people :---:

A quad would be nice where C-2 runs. That's a long ride, especially if it's windy.

If Stevens does put in a lift east of Big Chief, I wonder if that will be the first stage in connecting to Yodelin?

[scrutch2001]

There are some documents floating around in cyberspace that discuss expansion plans at Stevens. Basically, according to these documents, there was a plan in 2001 that involved putting in a lift on Big Chief mountain above the RV lot called "Northern Exposure," replacing Big Chief with a new chair using the current alignment, and replacing and extending Daisy with a new lift. Sometime later, plans to extend Daisy were cancelled, but the current lift is to be replaced using the existing lift line.

Links:

http://www.skiareaci...a/stevens2c.pdf

and

http://www.skiareaci...a/stevens4a.pdf

There are on a website of an organization that gave Stevens an "A" for environmental issues.

As to extending Stevens to link to Yodelin, I wonder if that would ever take place, given the history of Yodelin. Remember, there was a nasty avalanche there in 1971 that killed several people and damaged the resort. I can't remember if Yodelin ever resumed operations after that. Apparently there were also some lawsuits alleging that the developers of Yodelin either knew or should have known of avalanche danger at the site, and that the area should never have been developed. If Harbor Resorts tried to re-establish an active ski area at Yodelin, I would suspect they would face some opposition because of that.

Steve Crutchfield

This post has been edited by scrutch2001: 09 June 2004 - 07:39 AM

[bramat]

I found this on saminfo.com, which will help clear up the Mission sale, and kinda gives perspective on what is happening in Harbor.

Schweitzer Mountain Gets New GM
SAM Magazine--Sandpoint, Idaho, April 22, 2004--Ron Nova, VP of Operations for Schweitzer Mountain parent company Harbor Resorts, is Schweitzer's new GM. He replaces Tom Fortune, Schweitzer's GM for the past 5 years, who is resigning to join a local real-estate company.

Nova has spent most of his career at Stevens Pass, also owned by Harbor Resorts. He has been a vice president of Harbor Resorts since 1997 and, as an up-and-coming leader in the ski industry, is a past SAMMY Award recipient. Most recently, he directed resort operations at Stevens Pass, Schweitzer Mountain Resort and Mission Ridge. Mission Ridge was sold in November 2003; Nova will now focus his efforts primarily on Schweitzer, which has ambitious plans to build a 1,300-unit resort community.

Fortune, another long-time Stevens Pass veteran, is credited with increasing Schweitzer's skier-day visits from 160,000 to 220,000 annually, and directed its first two condo developments. Appropriately, he was a 1999 recipient of a coveted SAMMY Award. He will remain with Schweitzer until Sept. 1 to assist with the management transition and to complete several projects, and will continue to assist on PR efforts in the future.

Fortune will be joining his wife, Jennifer, at Evergreen Realty, which is involved in sales in and around Schweitzer--it managed sales for Schweitzer's first condo development and maintains close ties to the resort. "Having been involved in the planning at Schweitzer Mountain Resort for the past five years, I have a good understanding of the potential for growth and development," Fortune said.

[liftmech]

I know (or used to know) Nova when he was Stevens' mountain manager. He's moved up since I saw him last...
I believe Yodelin's problem in '71 was where they placed the base area. As far as I know, the actual trails are not in that avy path, so it would be possible to connect them (maybe with a shorteded lift instead of one exactly like the original) with the east side of Stevens.

[bramat]

does anyone know about the vertical that was at Yodelin, or how many trails there were?

[liftmech]

No- I looked on Jack's site in his lost page, and all he's got is the number of lifts, dates of operation, and some news clippings from 1971. All I know about it is where it was and the fact that its Riblet went to Stevens as Tye Mill, while its Hall went to Crystal as High Campbell (C-6). To see the page, go to hyak.net, click on Links, then Lost Areas of Washington, and take a gander. There are some interesting pages there.