A million dollars to buy an entire ski operation ...that seems pretty cheap. The construction cost of the facilities you are buying would probably far exceed that. Even middle class folks like us could almost come up with that money. Hell, a 4 bedroom house in the DC area sells for close to a million.
I have an idea, why not have DC SKI buy the resort. We'll take up a collection, have bake sales, raffles, etc. and soon we'll have a hefty down payment, get a mortgage and badabeem-badaboom...we'll own a ski resort. What do say Scott..we'll put you in charge of the resort website, Laurel Hill Crazy can be the director of skiing, the funny Jimmy guy can run the pub, and the other cast of characters on this web site can be liftees, burger slingers, snow makers, etc. We'll all quit our day jobs, divorce our wives, chase young ski babes, and just have a blast.

Whoops- I fell a sleep and had this weird dream....

and win the lottery while we're at it.

MAD RIVER GLEN CO-OP FAQ
http://www.madriverglen.com/coop/?Page=.%2F3faq.htm&dir=.

CO-OP Bylaws
http://www.madriverglen.com/coop/?Page=.%2F5bylaws.html&dir=.

Here is some information on a co-op owned ski resort. With some large cities within driving distance to the slopes, a co-op may work. A CO-OP with bylaws set up like these may have a chance at the tax exempt status and grants available. The cost of the Assets present at the resort are considerable in regard to the price Somerset Trust will probably release them for. Is anyone good at marketing to get this out to the public and see if there is enough interest? I love the resort and don't want it as a memory.

RJ, that's the model, the new holy grail. Who wants to sit on the board of directors? Most of us just want to ride our boards. All we need to do is raise 1.5 million and we be skiin' Laurel.

Bake sales and flea markets anyone?

I would love to sit on the board of directors. I also think that we could find grants to absorb a large part of the 1.5 million.

Well, here we go again.

Besides the group of us who want to reopen Laurel as a not for profit operation starting '08-'09, I have confirmed from 2 different sources that there is at least 1 party who is very interested in the ski operations and possibly the Village lots.

Stay tuned, as a deal may happen soon (within the next 2 weeks). If something does happen, I fully expect the ski area not to open this year, but who knows.

It would be great to have 3 ski areas open in the Laurel Mountains with solid management in place at all of them.

Is there any speculation as to who the potential buyer is? Yes it would be great to have 3 ski areas to choose from. It would seem that there should be enough skiers to support all three. This is afterall the east coast megalopolis. What I have noticed is the successfull business have one or two aspects that make them work: 1) a quality product or 2) good marketing or 3) both. Laurel Mountain has the potential for 1) but has never had 2).

I noticed the following hyperlink does not work:

http://www.laurelmountainskipatrol.org/

Is the LM Ski Patrol officially disbanded? I hope not.

No, it's just an issue with the domain name. The site is still up at: www.laurelpatrol.org.

The patrol is still together, we just had our refresher on Saturday.

I received an email from Tyson Cook of Somerset Trust regarding the most recent attempt to sell Laurel's assets and he gave me permission to post it here:

"Unfortunately our most recent prospects have decided to withdraw their bid at this time. I don't believe that we're through in hearing from them, so we'll see what the future holds.

Fortunately we have never stopped working every and any lead in regards to the sale and therefore we still have 3 parties that are interested in the Mountain. Hopefully one of them will find it a perfect fit for what they're looking for.

We're doing our best to sell this thing..."

So the saga continues... what a nice combo Laurel and Hidden Valley would be for the Buncher Group. Laurel and the Village could be had for 15% of the sticker price they paid for HV with a lot more on-hill potential (no disrespect to HV intended).

Sorry, wishful thinking again...