Bay White, 14, clearly doesn’t mind a long wait in line when it comes to skiing, showing up at 6 a.m. or so for the annual Juneau Ski Sale that began at 10 a.m. Saturday morning at Centennial Hall. So while he might also be facing long waits at Eaglecrest Ski Area this season, where one of the two lifts to the top of the mountain will be out of operation, he says he’s actually excited about that prospect.
“I think without the lift there there’s gonna be less little kids on that area of the mountain,” he said, referring to the east side that skiers will have to walk a few hundred yards to access some of Eaglecrest’s most difficult bowls and trails. “So then I think that it’ll just be easier for the better skiers to do what they want to do.”
Bay White, 14, and Henry Maier, 13, examine the length of the checkout line during the annual Juneau Ski Sale at Centennial Hall on Saturday. The teens say they were the first in line at the event, showing up sometime between 6 and 6:30 a.m., with the doors to the sale opening at 10 a.m. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Eaglecrest leaders did get an earful of concerns about the current season and beyond later during the day at an hour-long public forum at the resort’s Fish Creek Lodge attended by about 40 people. The two events bookmarked the wide range of anticipation and anxiety being expressed by skiers, workers and management with the ski area’s target opening date of Dec. 7 exactly four weeks away.
Buying into the enthusiasm about upcoming ski season
White and his friend, Henry Maier, 13, had a credible claim to being the first in line of what officials estimated was about 800 shoppers at the three-hour ski sale featuring winter activity items from hundreds of sellers. The participation was roughly in line with previous years’ events and people interviewed generally said their ski plans this season won’t change with the loss of the Black Bear lift at Eaglecrest due to a mechanical failure.
“I’m sad — I love skiing the east bowls,” said Megan Behnke, getting ready to depart with her purchases. “But I’ve got a season pass. I love supporting the fact that we have a community around a ski hill. I think it’s great for the city. I’ll be touring when the lifts are not running and I’ll be in line skiing with the lifts on good Saturdays.”
Rather than skis or poles, Behnke was dragging an old-fashioned wooden sled with a $20 price tag loaded with a couple of other cold-season items as she approached one of the checkout attendants.
“We didn’t have any big needs, but when you see a perfect treasure like this antique sled we’re going to definitely take it to the sledding hill this winter,” she said.
Salar Peirovi (right) helps Lelehua Fujimoto Vertido, 18, try on a ski boot during the annual Juneau Ski Sale on Saturday at Centennial Hall. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
The Juneau Ski Sale — which according to organizers has taken place for at least the past 70 years — is a nonprofit fundraising activity for the Juneau Ski Club and Juneau Ski Patrol, with 25% of sales going to those groups. Plenty of students were among the buyers and volunteers at the event.
Lelehua Fujimoto Vertido, 18, was trying on boots with a friend, Jasmine Louwagie, 18, both students at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé. They said regular school trips to Eaglecrest have fueled their enthusiasm for the coming season — although Vertido said she’s still getting past some “really bad” initial experiences in middle school where she had ill-fitting equipment and a friend got injured.
“I went back in high school because they took us up for free every Friday because it was like ‘We’re older now, maybe that was just a one-time experience,’” she said. “And then my boots didn’t fit, so it hurt a lot again, but it was fun. So now I’m here to get boots that actually fit.”
Hoping to cultivate a much younger snow enthusiast was Seth Bader, whose purchases included a decorative multicolored small snowboard for his daughter, Wren, who just celebrated her first birthday. He said if she can walk she might take to sliding on snow as well, although “it may not be for this winter.”
“Maybe my plan is to save it. I didn’t think I’d find a board that I like as much as this one,” he said.
Obviously the loss of the Black Bear lift wouldn’t mean much to Bader on days he’s helping his daughter stay upright on the beginner hill, if that comes to that this season. But on other days he — like White — sees a silver lining in having to wait in longer lines for the Ptarmigan lift to the top of the mountain.
“Black Bear closing down presents kind of a cool opportunity where the east bowls, that whole area, is going to be unskied a bit more. It’ll get skied out, but it’ll take longer. And so if the resort will allow it my plan is to do some days where if it’s a long line on Ptarmigan to go over there and do some touring with the backcountry setup. Normally you wouldn’t do that because the lifts are running.”
Accumulating concerns about aging equipment and costs
The shutdown of the Black Bear lift this season due to a broken bearing is just one part of a much wider problem involving aging equipment and infrastructure at the city-owned ski area that’s badly in need of maintenance and/or replacement.
Eaglecrest Ski Area General Manager Craig Cimmons (right) listens to a question from an audience member during a public forum Saturday night at the resort’s Fish Creek Lodge on Saturday evening. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
But Mayor Beth Weldon and other city leaders have said other urgent and expensive needs — notably flood protection after hundreds of homes were damaged by record glacial outburst floods from Suicide Basin the two summers — means extra municipal funds for Eaglecrest’s backlog of projects are unlikely. Furthermore, the ski resort is facing the paradox of a major expansion into large-scale, year-round operations within two to three years with the opening of a gondola — meaning staff and resources also have to be spent on that development.
“So much faith has been put in the savior of the gondola coming in and saving Eaglecrest,” said Craig Cimmons, Eaglecrest’s new general manager as of Sept. 30, during Saturday evening’s discussion at the resort. “We’re ignoring things waiting for the gondola revenue to come in and these systems that need money — and time and labor and people to spend time at — won’t make it to the gondola revenue coming in.”
Deborah Craig, who said she was part of a fundraising crew that in 2008 sold towers at Eaglecrest to sponsors, suggested during the meeting additional fundraising and grant-seeking should be part of Eaglecrest’s current plan.
“I think we need to look beyond CBJ to get the half-million more that’s going to get us to the next phase,” she said.
While repairing the Black Bear lift may cost about $500,000, Cimmons emphasized there are a multitude of additional projects needing near-term attention, including the Ptarmigan lift that is the other transport to the top of the mountain, buildings with leaks and other problems, snowmaking equipment, and other items.
Offering refunds, discounts or other incentives to people who purchased season passes with the expectation all of the lifts would be functioning was suggested by Kelly Sweny. But in addition to Cimmons saying that wasn’t likely, especially since all of Eaglecrest’s terrain will still be accessible, some other residents at the meeting agreed refunds would do more harm than good for everyone involved with the ski area.
A situation years ago where Eaglecrest offered refunds season passes ended up causing problems that the ski area is continuing to struggle with now, said Bruce Garrison, a longtime member of Eaglecrest’s board of directors, including two years as president before stepping down in 2020.
“It took over 10 years to pay a million dollars back,” he said. “And the problem with that is that’s why we didn’t get the maintenance done because every extra dime we got went back to the city. So when you ask for money back, when you ask for special things it costs down the road.”
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
