In the major 1997 expansion, that is when they were building Cedar River lodge side and with the excavation work dumped all the additional dirt on top the hill. I remember skiing there when it was the original 4 Riblets on the front face. I’ve golfed there a few times and always wondered about the slope that they have replanted with pine trees to the east of the lodge. I didn’t know there was a third lift at one time at the Summit slopes Where was it located? My only recollection from the early-90s was the 2 lifts that are currently there. It would probably at least $5 million dollars to replace the 2 lifts, utility / infrastructure and get modern snowmaking equipment. They are now just using it for a tubing area on weekends in the area in front of the hotel. However I remember we once stayed at the Summit slopes staying in the hotel there getting there on a Friday night a seeing the place all lit up for night skiing was just magical as a kid.Īnyways, yeah I was by the Summit slopes a few weeks ago to check out the view for the fall colors from the top and its sad to see the state of the ski area. As a kid we often stayed in Traverse City or at the “Resort” (Grand Traverse Resort). Yeah similar feelings as well, Shanty Creek was one of the first places I went skiing as a kid (along with Snowsnake) before I really got into it in middle school. There are a lot of cases where older trail maps imply that lifts were operating when they were not installed yet and more often trail maps do not list new lifts that are operating. Trail maps are misleading, especially older ones. The Challenger lift at Highlands is listed as a 69 install but I do not think it was actually installed until 72. Not sure if that is why the timelines are different than the reality or not. I have noticed that in some cases the dates of install listed are not actually the date of install and more likely the date of purchase or delivery. I know they all went in over a 2 year period. I do not recall the specific timelines for the lifts at Schuss. They can only make snow in one small area at a time. Homestead does have to deal with marginal conditions but their real problem is a real lack of snowmaking equipment. Homestead has some SMI Wizards which are designed for marginal snowmaking conditions. It hadn’t been a real issue prior to that and snowmaking technology for marginal conditions has greatly improved. A lot of the property owners at Summit were upset when skiing was stopped and I think the snowmaking excuse was more of an excuse than a reality. My opinion is that unless schuss becomes so overcrowded on a regular basis that they are fearful of losing skiers to other resorts, they will let Summit rot. Shanty Creek had a lot of financial issues in the 90’s that didn’t help things either. At that time it appears that they stopped investing in the skiing at Summit. In the 80’s they removed a lift and shrunk the size of the area by roughly a third in order to build more condos. Even if they are revived they are not ever going to be as good. The summit slopes are not as good as what is available at Schuss. I learned to ski at Summit so it is sad to see the current state of skiing there.
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