5 replies to this topic

[spunkyskier01]

i brought this topic up once, with no real answer, iron horse is markedon both the moonlight basin and big sky trail maps, who lrealy owns the lift? and how can 2 ski resorts, which have a tipsy relationship, share the same lift?

[SkiBachelor]

Moonlight Basin owns the lift, but Big Sky operates it. It's kind of a trade off I guess you could say.

[iceberg210]

Huh I thought that it was the other way around. Wasn't Iron Horse built before Moonlight along with Pony Express? Then that would mean that they were built by Big Sky which although could have sold them to Moonlight knowing how they love thier land I would think they would have tried to hold onto those lifts.

[SkiBachelor]

No, Iron Horse and Pony Express have always been owned by Moonlight. I presume the reason why those lifts were installed kind of early was because Moonlight wanted to open up the main ski area shortly after, but probably didn't have all the permits done. So instead of letting the lifts slowly rust away and not be utilized until Moonlights actual ski area opened, that they let Big Sky operate them which was a plus of them, since I presume that Big Sky probably did the maintenance on the lift.

[Tin Woodsman]

SkiBachelor, on Jul 22 2005, 03:30 PM, said:

No, Iron Horse and Pony Express have always been owned by Moonlight. I presume the reason why those lifts were installed kind of early was because Moonlight wanted to open up the main ski area shortly after, but probably didn't have all the permits done. So instead of letting the lifts slowly rust away and not be utilized until Moonlights actual ski area opened, that they let Big Sky operate them which was a plus of them, since I presume that Big Sky probably did the maintenance on the lift.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, not exactly. The developers that own Moonlight and all that land on the north side of Lone Peak installed and own those two lifts in order to add value to the real estate they were initially focussed on. It was only when their relationship with Big Sky began to sour that they decided to start up Moonlight Basin as a separate entity at all. AFAIK, the plan had been to continue building lifts but to let Big Sky operate them. It's good to see that with the joint ticket they will have for 05-06, they are now moving back towards this model. At the end of the day, Moonlight Basin, just like Tamarack, is all about real estate, no matter whether it's called Moonlight Basin or Big Sky.

[SkiBachelor]

But the nice thing about that is that the ski in ski out houses are not located on the actual ski slopes. I mean there are a lot homes that are but you have to cross a bridge and the runs are all greens.