It’s not too late for snow tubing, if you find yourself in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Tenney Mountain, located in Plymouth, NH, will be offering on-snow tubing from June through August at its new Glacier Park. SnowMagic Resorts Group, which purchased Tenney this past October, is the exclusive U.S. distributor of Infinite Crystals Snowmaking (ICS), which allows snow to be made at temperatures up to 60 degrees.
The Tenney Glacier Park is a 300-foot hill normally used as a terrain park in the winter. Glacier will be open from 5-9 p.m. seven days a week during the summer. The snow will be covered during the day to protect it from the sun. The ICS system, which will be used by Tenney, has successfully created summertime on-snow recreation facilities in Japan and Australia in climates similar to New Hampshire’s.
For more information, visit www.tenneymtn.com.
In the future, it might be possible to ski year-round on the east coast, if two separate plans underway in New Jersey and New York come to fruition.
The Mills Corporation, which has locally developed the Arundel Mills shopping complex in Maryland and the Potomac Mills shopping complex in Virginia, has its eyes set on East Rutherford, New Jersey, where the company hopes to develop a $1.3 billion family entertainment and recreation complex. Part of the proposed 4.76 million square foot facility is dedicated to a snow dome, which would provide year-round skiing. (Although no snow domes have been built in the U.S., they can be found in other nations such as Japan and the United Kingdom.)
Separately, the Syata Group LLC has signed a letter of intent to develop a $100 million indoor entertainment and shopping complex in Buffalo, New York, which would also include a snow dome.
Both of these ambitious projects are still in the early planning stages.
After years of lobbying by recreation enthusiasts, the National Park Service has proposed a plan to limit weekday traffic on upper Beach Drive at the Rock Creek National Park, paving the way for bikers, skaters, joggers and strollers to enjoy the road without fear of being hit by an automobile. The proposal would provide car-free zones for recreation for six hours every weekday, in addition to existing weekend traffic restrictions.
The People’s Alliance for Rock Creek (PARC), an alliance of more than 40 environmental, recreation, and community organizations, has pushed for this closure for seven years.
The NPS plan is subject to a 90-day comment period ending July 15. PARC’s Jim McCarthy warns that opponents to the plan are already organizing a counter-attack, and encourages recreation enthusiasts to voice support for the Plan by contacting their local political leaders. He also suggests writing D.C. Mayor Williams in order to voice support for weekday recreation zones. The Mayor’s e-mail address is mayor@dc.gov.
For more information, visit www.rockcreekpark.net.
There’s probably still some snow melting at West Virginia’s Snowshoe Mountain Resort, but no matter -; the golf season is now well underway. On April 17, Snowshoe opened its Raven Golf Course, a 7,044-yard course featuring lush woodlands with an elevation change of over 200 feet and meadows accented by lakes, grassy knolls, and rock formations. The resort is rated the #1 public Golf Course in West Virginia by Golfweek Magazine, and one of the “Top 100 Modern Courses.”
The Raven Golf Club will continue operations through mid-November. Visit www.snowshoemtn.com for more information.
On April 1, the Board of Dierctors at Wisp at Deep Creek Mountain Resort named Hank Thiess as General Manager and Randal Georges as Food & Beverage Director.
Mr. Thiess is now responsible for the overall management and operations of the Maryland resort. Most recently, Thiess was Vice President of Resort Operations at Colorado’s Keystone Resort. Earlier in his career, he directed the ski school at Alpine Meadows in Tahoe City, California.
M. Scott Smith is the founder and Editor of DCSki. Scott loves outdoor activities such as camping, hiking, kayaking, skiing, and mountain biking. He is an avid photographer and writer.
There are no reader comments on this article yet.
Join the conversation by logging in.
Don't have an account? Create one here.
