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Mt. A debate waste of time
At last the Ashland City Council is moving to restore balance between the irreplaceable city watershed and the desires of the Mt. Ashland proposed expansion. Subsequent litigation, threatened by the Mt. A. board toward the city, would be a waste of limited monies and good will for either party. No one wants that to transpire!
Unfortunately, the 25-year lease was written with naive trust. Common sense holds that the city, when faced with an assault on its watershed, which it is obliged to protect in perpetuity, would have the right to adjust the language of the lease to include oversight.
The board's continuing insistence to first cut acres of trees for new runs is incomprehensible.
The proposed new lift, apart from tearing into the watershed, really misses the Mt. A. stated goals about easy terrain for the beginner/novice. The terrain is too far removed from the base area, and the proposed means of access, a rope tow and a "Skiway", are altogether inappropriate for the target users! My opinion is based on my six-year experience as a full time ski instructor at Mt. A. Then, a rope tow was the only access up the beginner hill. It frequently broke down and consistently was full of fallen, tangled riders and equipment. People were injured and considerable time was lost to real instruction. This proposed rope tow leads to the "Skiway," a narrow new cut, removing hundreds of trees, for approximately a quarter mile path. An extensive narrow path is scary for the target users. We ski instructors had to use "Falstaff" pathway to return to the lodge after taking novice students to "Dream." They dreaded it! Where is the collective memory of how happy the management was to eliminate both the unsafe rope tow and the "Falstaff" path?
A sensitive, responsible Board would first develop affordable, non-controversial improvements:
1) Adjacent to the lodge, install a chair lift to replace the old "Poma," and add night lighting. That run had been used for race training; do so again to open up the areas now used for race training on "Dream" and "Romeo."
2) Regularly groom "Bottom" and "Pistol" which are significantly underused runs. Both options would relieve "crowding" that the Board claims can only be alleviated by clear cutting acres of new terrain.
3) Install a new "Ariel" chair.
It's clearly time the Mt. Ashland Board partners with the Ashland City Council to keep this ski area viable!
Marilyn Briggs
Ashland
