5 replies to this topic

[Don Coyote®]

Early in March of 2012, after a wonderful snowfall, some College students shot some video footage of the spectacular amenities at our primative and nostalgic ski hill, Mt Mancelona. We all hoped to celebrate the birth of a dream becoming reality in bringing this antique ski resort back from desolation and abandonment to become a thriving enterprise.

Three days after shooting some spectacular footage, our Friend Joe passed away in his sleep..... exactly a year and a day after finally sucessfully ressurecting our 1958 Doppelmayr T-Bar.

Suddenly, this vision of hope and encouragement had to become a memorial.

Bless you, Joe......... It was fun while it lasted.



http://vimeo.com/55222473

This post has been edited by Don Coyote®: 14 December 2012 - 07:52 PM

[Bogong]

Thanks for telling us of your adventures with the Poma and later, the T-bar at Mt Mancelona Don. As a fellow fan of vintage lifts I've followed your story with interest for years now.

It's tragic to learn of Joe's death, but at least he got to see his ski hill being used again and appreciated as a great ski location.

What has become of Mt Mancelona? Is there a new owner and if so, are they letting you play with the lifts and allowing people to ski there?

[Don Coyote®]

Bogong, on 19 December 2012 - 05:30 AM, said:

What has become of Mt Mancelona? Is there a new owner and if so, are they letting you play with the lifts and allowing people to ski there?

At the moment, Joe's Daughters still own it, but they have it listed for sale. The lodge has recently gotten a new well and a new roof, in hopes of raising it's value. That roof leaked like crazy, Joe just kept putting tarpaper on it..... but the Fellow handling the estate is a very close friend and is doing his best to make certain that everyone involved is getting the best service he can provide.

.....*Thanks, Richard*.

In the meantime, we are still maintaining it as a private park. We broke the plow off the "New" groomer, last year... but it will be fully repaired by the weekend. We're gonna need it with all the snow they're forecasting before Christmas.

Joe bought our "New" groomer in September of 2011. It's a 1977 Thiokol Packmaster 2100. It's got issues, but it fits in just great with all our other rusty gadgets.

Is everyone able to open the video? It is so great to see these guys enjoying the amenities on video. I love the shot of me driving by in the old Tucker,, pulling the roller I just built. I love watching those guys riding the T's up the lift-line. They did a great job with BOTH videos. If anyone has missed and/or would like to see the FIRST documentary, it is called "A Man And His Mountain" and BOTH videos can be found at miskireport-dot-com.

Joe was only 56 years old. That's too young to leave this world with valid dreams still waiting for execution. I hope someone can pick up where we leave off, whenever we actually "leave off". In the meantime,..... yes, we're going to play with our hill as much as we can.


By the way, I'm only "Don" online,..... in real life, I'm Mikey.

[Don Coyote®]

I was, ...like..., 98% finished with the Poma Platter lift when I abandoned it for the T-Bar. The cable was just so rusty that it just made more sense to make the attempt to ressurect the T-bar. Someday, perhaps we could actually replace the cable and I can make the last 2% effort and have TWO functioning lifts!!!
.
.... Wishful thinking, but worth thinking about.

[Bogong]

Thanks, it isn't hard to work out who you are from the two films, as well as your other clips. I still remember your shout of "It's alive" when you first got the T-bar working a few years ago.

I've been looking at skimap.org and other sites to see how many lifts there were at Mt Mancelona, but the only thing I could find was an out of focus shot of a lift map on the website advertising the sale of Mt Mancelona. Were there just two main lifts?

I thought Joe looked pretty young, but to die at only 56 is doubly tragic. :(

My favourite mini ski resort, Mt Buffalo, was abandoned in 2007. Since then the five lifts have fallen into decay and the huge, 100 room Buffalo Chalet (built in 1911) has been slowly falling to bits. But people like you show that a small group can keep things alive. Next week I'm visiting a small "club field" at Mt St Bernard that still operates ski lifts built in 1953 and 1958. They have the same sort of enthusiasm and work ethic that you guys have displayed. :)

[Don Coyote®]

The T-Bar was erected in 1958. There's also two platter lifts, one on either side of the T-Bar. They were installed in 1961. A neighboring ski park had a catastrophic malfunction in their only platter lift in the early nineties and attempted to purchase the upper bullwheel from our larger platter lift, but Joe wouldn't sell it....... so they tried to STEAL IT!!! They dropped the bullwheel and discovered that it was too big to walk off with, so they left it there, on the ground. If they had attempted to steal the bullwheel on the SOUTH side of the hill..... they would have gotten that one. It was much smaller.

I'd love to see all three back in operation, someday.