Snow Basin -- simply another Salt Lake City ski resort?
NYT reporters appear to have missed the Mayor's memo on the Ogden City "high adventure recreation" meme
By Curmudgeon
Some not-so-great-ink for Ogden in the New York Times this morning. There's a long and very appreciative article about Snow Basin, touting the food, the skiing --- think Vail, minus the crowds the article says --- and the magnificent lift systems, and the fact that you can still find untracked powder days after a storm while it's all gone by noon at the more crowded SLC Cottonwood Canyon and Park City resorts. Really an up-beat favorable article, telling serious skiers that Snow Basin is not to be missed.
What then is the problem? This: here is how Snow Basin's location is described --- "The ski area, 33 miles north of Salt Lake City...." Travel time to the resort is given in terms of minutes [45] from Salt Lake City. In the entire long article, Ogden is mentioned only once. The reporter rode the John Paul lift and the Mt. Allen tram to the top. And then: "After taking in the expansive vista off the ski area's back side --- the town of Ogden spread out below, and Wyoming, Idaho and Nevada in the distance...." That's it. Nary another word. Snow Basin is treated in the article as simply another SLC resort, just a little further off than the rest, and with no hotels. And there's this little town [not city] you can see if you take the Mt. Allen tram all the way to the top.
© 2005 - 2014 Weber County Forum™ -- All Rights Reserved
10 comments:
Godfrey is going to be pissed when he finds out about this article.
Some news of one of our Ski companies. Apparently Rossignol, who leases some significant space in the BDO is being sold by it's parent Quicksilver. Announced last month, Rossignol is on the block. Don't know how this would affect local ops but any sale like this signals consolidation and strategic realignment. In short, anything is game for closure or relocation. Look out BDO. You may be losing a prime tenant. This is only speculation.
I also read that stated Earl Holding paid for the access road which was bogus. He pledged to pay for it but then backed out and it cost the stae $6M. Also if you work up there you are restriced as to beards and appearance. Looks like they want that clean Provo/Disneyland image. I enjoyed the beer and nachos photo, like you can get a drink anywhere in Utah.
tec:
Aw, hell, Tec. Any business can be subject to buyout, take over, or failure. There was no reason to assume the sports gear companies are an exception to changes in business conditions that affect pretty much any other company in any other business. If Hizzonah's failed plan to turn Ogden into Silicon Valley East had worked, all the companies that might have located here would have been similarly subject to buyout, takeover, failure. Kind of comes with the territory... being in business at all, that is. Nothing comes with guarantees. Just ask the investors in Bear Stearns. Or Enron. Or Worldcom. Or Adam Air.
Beer and Nachos..real 5-star fare.
While Snow Basin has awesome lodges, big terrain, minimal crowds....the food actually sucks. It's overpriced and pseudo-euro. You cannot get a veggie pizza or anything "your way".
The head chef is a presumptious arse, Obsessed with pork and beef. Yesterday there were 6 pizzas on display, not a single one with a single smidgen of a garden vegetable. The soup is THE SAME all season. Heard of soup du jour, chez euro???
The rolls were cold and stale. Ask for anything extra from the idle items behind the counter and you will get a look of scorn. I am told the heads chefs verbally abuse staff for garnishing with any client requested extras. I have news for them...
Fresh concept to some...I WILL PAY FOR WHATEVER, JUST GIVE ME WHAT I REQUEST AND FRIGGIN' PRICE IT.
I have gotten so many lame excuses in refusing to spruce up their lame fare with a few items that are clearly fair game in my view.
Snow Basin needs to ditch their Haute Cuisine wannabe chef for a real man who knows the customer is right.
Curm,
I'm not surprised by the buyout. There is a concept called local sustainability. Like agricultural land preservation, and Transit infrastructure that will provide a foundation of local industry. Little of what is going on in our current local economy is geared to sustainability yet it was just such local sustainability that put Ogden on the map.
Good Reader said...
I also read that stated Earl Holding paid for the access road which was bogus. He pledged to pay for it but then backed out and it cost the stae $6M.
I recall that Earl pledged to pay for it if the state build Trappers Loop. Then got the Feds to pay for it ($15 million?). Some of the state legislators were so ticked off, they were looking for ways to turn down the money to make Earl pay.
I really can't fault Earl too much: he asked, the Feds said "yes."
Southsider,
"I really can't fault Earl too much:..."
Let's see he promised to pay for the connecting road if they moved trappers loop over from where it was originally planned to go in. UDOT did move the Trapper's Loop road, based upon his promise (a legal verbal contract in most States) and at greater expense than would otherwise have been the case.
Then Earl H. refused to pay for the connecting road.
Then Earl H. got his Mo buddies to get Federal money to pay for it.
Hmmm, sounds like he is a "Utard" who was brought up to believe lying is OK. And screwing the little people is OK, to line his on pockets. Sounds like the Utah legislature to me.
But ya can't fault ole Earl H.? Wonder where your ethics came from? Apparently you are a Utard (born and "raised" in Utah to an LDS devout family) also?
You need to know this is not normal and not admissable in "normal" America.
Ed,
The state took care of their part; Earl took care of his part. The state didn't have to pay for the access road, as was the deal.
BTW, wonder how you came up with this?
"Apparently you are a Utard (born and "raised" in Utah to an LDS devout family) also?"
I was not born in Utah, not reared in Utah, and am not from an LDS family. You're not very perceptive!
Earl said HE would pay, not that he would get you and me to pay the 15 Million for the connecting road.
If you don't see the difference you have some strange sense of ethics. That's the answer to why I guessed apparently incorrectly. Regardless you need to examine your own ethics if you can not see the difference.
Post a Comment