I noticed in the article about HV they were restarting the MTN bike operations there. Which lead me to think...

What ever happened to the mountain biking operations at Whitetail?

I think it operated for a couple years in 90's and died due to lack of traffic. Can anyone confirm?

Yup. That's pretty much what happened. There weren't enough visitors, nor enough races, to make it financially viable at the time.

When Snowtime took over they took one look at the books and noticed that there was no accounting in the mtn bike #s for wear and tear for operating the high speed chair. When that was factored in, there was no way that the operation was going to be profitable. Since the resort had been losing money prior to the Snowtime purchase (bleeding profusely might be a better description) and since Snowtime had no tie to the real estate operation, this was a no brain decision at the time. Now that Whitetail is making a profit and Snowtime owns the golf resort and is selling real estate at Whitetail, it would not be a surprise to see an effort to promote more offseason activities.