Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to read between the Lines, where Gazette editor Miles Reed takes a look behind the scenes of running the Capital Region's largest locally owned media outlet.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: Hello and welcome to the Read between the Lines podcast. I'm your host, Miles Reed. And today our guest is Kirsten Ford over at Maple Ski Ridge in Rotterdam in Schenectady County. It's this great little family owned ski hill just a stone's throw away from downtown Schenectady. Generations of families in Schenectady county and beyond have taken their kids there. Many people in the region learned to ski there and continue to go back there, many again with their own kids experiencing fun there. And Kirsten is going to talk to us about a number of really exciting things going on at the mountain right now. They have three really big developments this year. The first thing that they have going on is that they're celebrating 60 years in business this winter. That is a remarkable number, especially among family owned ski businesses. So many ski businesses on the smaller end have gone out of business over the last 20, 30, 40 years as the era of the mega center mountain that's owned by a conglomerate that owns five, six, seven mega Resorts, that has really taken over. And so many of these smaller mom and pop mountains like Maple Ski Ridge have gone out of business. But somehow Maple Ski Ridge has been plucky and it has kept going. And then since the pandemic, I think things have improved dramatically to the point where they're celebrating their 60th anniversary, anniversary this year. And they're doing it in exciting style, because just in the last couple of weeks, they've finally put some final touches on the first phase in a massive investment in their snowmaking system. This is a snowmaking system that they first started to install about 40 years ago with an old tractor engine. And they've built onto it and they've kept it going, but it really was in great need of repair and great need of overhaul. So they've invested a lot of money, over a million dollars in this first phase to get a whole bunch of infrastructure. They hired a company from Italy that's come in and it's helped them put it together. It's the first part of a two phase project, and the next couple of years, they'll be installing about another one point three, one point five million dollars of infrastructure in terms of the snow guns, et cetera. So that's super exciting doing that. And then finally this year, the mountain, for the first time ever, will be accepting the indie Pass. And this is a small independent pass that has really caught on around the region and around the whole country, where some of these smaller mom and pop centers can compete with the big players with this pass that is designed to attract new skiers to some of these hills and hopefully make them permanent skiers there. And then finally, we'll talk to her about some exciting additions in terms of their night skiing over there, their additions of Nordic skiing nights that they have going on. And finally, we'll get Kirsten to predict when she thinks is going to be the first snowfall this year and when they can finally turn on the ski.
[00:03:12] Speaker C: Lip.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: You'Re listening to read between the lines with Miles Reed.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: Welcome. Welcome, Kirsten, to the podcast. Read between the lines. It's a pleasure to have you.
[00:03:28] Speaker C: It's a pleasure to be here.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: Why don't we start out, Kirsten, if you can just talk a little bit about yourself, your background, and how you found yourself at Maple Ski Ridge.
[00:03:37] Speaker C: Oh, boy. Okay. Well, I grew up skiing. I've been skiing since I was three years old. Both of my parents are ski instructors. I just am very passionate about the sport, about skiing, about snowboarding, all of it. Just being outside and really enjoying the winter. And I started my kids at Maple ski Ridge taking lessons. Let's see, my oldest was five, so I actually waited a little longer with him. And the director of the ski school came flying out of the lodge one day and ran up to me and said, hey, I want you to teach for me. And I'm like, just kind of surprised and taken aback. And she said, next year, I want you to call me. You have to come and teach for me. So the next year I did. I came out and started teaching, and I really enjoyed it. I got my level one ski instructor certification the first year. Just really felt like, yeah, this was something I wanted to do. And a couple of years later, they were looking for a marketing professional to help them with their communication, their website, their social media, their emails, all that kind of stuff. And my background was in, I have a master's in communication and an undergrad in graphic design and came about, just kind of took all that knowledge and previous work experience and putting it to use over in Maple ski Ridge.
[00:05:14] Speaker B: That sounds great. It's a unique combination of skills. I have to tell you. In all the years that we've dealt here with communications folks at the mountains, a lot of times they're folks who don't necessarily ski, certainly not ski instructors. So that's a great combination.
[00:05:25] Speaker C: Yeah, it's been very helpful knowing as much as I do about the sport and about the teaching side, because there's more to the sport than just sliding down the hill. The teaching side is much more complex and much deeper. So having all that knowledge really has helped me be a better advocate for Maple and a better advocate for skiing and use, hopefully, my communication skills to get the word out.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: Sounds good. Can we just jump right into some of the exciting stuff that's happening at Maple this year? And if we can start. To me, the one thing that's really probably top of my mind is the snowmaking investment. So can you just talk about what the system has been like up to now? How old it is and what you guys have been through and how much it costs and things like that?
[00:06:11] Speaker C: Sure. Some of the information, I don't have the exact numbers. Just because it keeps changing and we haven't nailed down some of those things.
Yeah, so it's been really exciting. Last winter, we were really hemming and hawing on whether or not we wanted to upgrade the lodge. But the reality was we really needed to put some money into the snowmaking system. So we decided to go with that route instead. Our snowmaking system was put in. In the. It was meant to patch snow back then. Really was, oh, there's a little bit of snow missing on this hill or this part of the mountain. And they would run it and make just a little bit of extra snow. And that was really all it was needed for. So we never needed to run more than a couple of guns at a time, and it worked fine. And the other interesting thing is, when we put it in, it was used parts. It was reclaimed, recycled. It's very typical of the be like, hey, I have some extra pipes from this job or from this demo.
Let's use it in the snow making system.
Every mountain was doing that. That's really typical in the industry. And the systems were really put in back in the 70s, piecemeal. So kind of like an old farmhouse where you just keep adding on similar. They would add on a little bit like a new branch to the system whenever a new need was shown to arise. So it wasn't meant to make snow for the entire hill all in one shot.
So, with that said, it leaks quite a bit. And we were realizing we were losing about 50 gallons per minute. The snow system was on. That's a huge waste of water. That water would come out, also melt some of the snow that we were already making, which you were ruining the snow you were making with the snow that. With the water that was melting out of the system. So, so many issues and it was really inefficient. We were only converting, see, I have to have all these notes in front of me, so I can remember all this stuff. We were estimating that we were making 1.8 cubic feet of snow per one cubic foot of water, which isn't great. So the new system is put in by techno Alpin.
It's a full, brand new system from the ground up. Like, literally all summer long, we were out there. Not we. I was not doing any of this work.
Our contractors who came in were digging huge trenches. They put in all brand new piping with all new electrical. They built Pits where all the towers will be installed. We put in a brand new pump house with two new electric pumps instead of diesel.
The new system, we're estimating, will make 2.5 cubic feet per one cubic foot of water. So that's a pretty big difference. And we're estimating we're going to save over one and a half million just from the operation.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: Okay, the water.
And does that cover the entire mountain? Now, do you have snowmaking of the whole hill?
[00:09:36] Speaker C: Snowmaking on every trail except for Turkey Run, which has always been natural snow. We've never had snowmaking over there, but we do have connections built in over on that part of the mountain so that we can add it in the future. So we really thought about where we would want snowmaking down the road. So we're looking ahead.
We really tried to plan this so that in the future, we can add easily extra snowmaking.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: And so we finally, this week, had some colder Mornings. It's not too warm or not too Cold this Morning, but how soon do you anticipate that you'll actually be able to start blowing snow? And what are the Criteria? Is it the temperature?
[00:10:20] Speaker C: The criteria is a little bit better than it used to be. It used to be we'd have to have. The temperature would be, like 27 degrees and falling. Now we can have it be, like 28 and steady. So it really gives us a little bit extra opportunity to make snow.
Who knows when that will be? Mother Nature.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: No projected opening date necessarily. Like Killington has always said. We got to try this.
[00:10:50] Speaker C: No, no projected opening date as of now. It would be, as Carolyn always says. She does not have a crystal ball.
[00:10:58] Speaker B: And Carolyn is one of the owners.
[00:11:00] Speaker C: Carolyn is one of our owners. She is the Mountain operations side. She takes care of all things outdoors. So she oversees all of the lift operations. She actually makes all of our snow, and she grooms all of our snow as well. Got you.
She knows everything about everything when it comes to snowmaking and how the mountain works.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: So that brings me to the anniversary. It's exciting. I know you're celebrating your 60th anniversary this year. Can you just talk a little bit about the origins, the family ownership, and talk a little bit about who in the family owns and operates it now.
[00:11:37] Speaker C: Yeah. So this is our 60th year. It's a big deal.
Way back in 1963, actually 1962, I should say, the Molka brothers went skiing, and they came home and was telling their dad all about it and said, hey, dad, that was super fun. We love this. We want to ski more, but we don't want to drive that far. What do you think about putting a rope toe right up here on the back pasture? And William Malika was totally game for it, so he set up a rope toe for his kids, and they just spent the winter skiing. And then the next winter, they invited the family and the extended family and their neighbors and the friends, and everyone came out and joined them. And that's when they really started Maple Ski Ridge. And so the grandfather owned it in conjunction with two of his sons and passed it along to George Malika. George's daughters, Carolyn and Marilyn, still own and operate the mountain to this day. So it is still in the family, and it's a family affair.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: Yeah. It's an exciting thing to talk about for me, because I know generations of families have had their kids learn to ski there. I know. I skied there when I was a kid, too. So many people I grew up with. And I think part of that is just how close it is to downtown Schenectady, Niskyuna, Rotterdam, Glenville, just 1015 minutes away, you can drop your kids off, and then if you need to, go to the mall or go somewhere else.
So talk about that tradition with the families and also Schenectady Ski school. And I know you're involved with the ski school. That ski school seems to really be the sort of the lifeblood of the mountain there. And talk about that history.
[00:13:30] Speaker C: I mean, I am newer to Maple Ski Ridge, but I do know quite a bit about the history. A few years after Maple Ski Ridge was founded, Freddie Anderson, who was already operating the Schnectady Ski school, came in, and she proposed that she set up shop there at Maple Ski Ridge. And it was considered a concierge or Ala carte concierge, I'm not sure of the word.
They were not a part of Maple Ski Ridge. They just operated their ski school on Maple Ski Ridge's premises. They sealed the deal with a handshake and rasp really was history. She owned and operated that. I'm not exactly sure of the date when she retired, but she was a legend. Freddie Anderson was a true legend in the PSIA industry, certainly in the area. She also taught at Gore. She's a true icon in the industry, and we're really lucky we have. Our current ski school director actually was one of her students and worked with her for many years. So I feel there's probably a continuity of all the methods and skills that Freddie would teach her. Instructors are probably still being passed along to us today through Dana. Dana Walton is our current ski school director.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: Yeah, certainly an icon in the ski schools of the Northeast. And she passed away within the last couple of years.
[00:15:10] Speaker C: She passed away last year? Yeah, I think, I believe at 101 or 101, I believe. And, yeah, her last day on skis, she was, I think, 98 years old. So absolutely inspirational.
The talent that woman had. Absolutely incredible.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: Another exciting thing that I noticed that you have at the Mount is this inclusion in the Indy Pass this year.
[00:15:34] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: Can you talk about what is the Indie Pass and what it will offer people to ski at Maple?
[00:15:40] Speaker C: Indy Pass is an anti vale resort kind of a pass. The idea behind it is to support independently owned ski resorts. The founder of the Indie Pass actually grew up skiing in western New York at a small hill that has since closed. And it was his desire to come up with a way to support small, independent mountains and help them stay in business, get the word out, and make money so they could be solvent.
They came together, and they set up this pass. The way it works is you buy an Indie pass and you're good for two days at every participating mountain on the pass. Each mountain who participates in the pass gets a reimbursement for every indie pass skier or border that comes through their mountain.
After your two days, you can get a 25% off the third day, if you would like, or you simply go on to another mountain and try something new. It really encourages people to try out all sorts of different mountains and to travel around and to ski different places. So, unlike where you would buy a vale pass and you would only ski at your Vale resort, that's close to you. This is more.
It encourages people to travel and to explore.
[00:17:07] Speaker B: That sounds exciting. And say, somebody doesn't necessarily have the indie Pass, but what's the cost of a regular day pass and rental fee at the mountain? So family gets a sense of if they wanted to go for a day.
[00:17:21] Speaker C: So, I mean, our prices are pretty reasonable compared to so many of our other ski areas. Our adult pass for all day, holiday and weekend is $45. Junior, which goes up to age twelve, is 43. And then we have four hour pass options.
What's kind of fun on a weekend? If you want to come over and just ski from like four to six, it's $25. Or if you want to come over Wednesday and Thursday or Friday from six to eight, which would be great for those people who just finished work. Want to come over and ski a couple of runs? It's just $20 for 2 hours. For 2 hours?
[00:17:57] Speaker B: It's about all I can take at my age.
[00:17:59] Speaker C: Right. But honestly, how many of us? That's about all we can take, especially after a work day. We just want to get a little bit of exercise in $20. Great. Go home, have dinner, and do it all over again.
[00:18:15] Speaker B: How about rentals?
[00:18:16] Speaker C: Rentals are, I believe, $35 a day. We are also running seasonal rentals currently, and those range depending on whether you're an adult or a kid.
From 189 for adults to 129 for kids. And that includes kind of everything that you need. So your snowboard rental package is your snowboard and your boots and your ski rental package is your skis, your boots and your poles.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: What about the lodge? I know especially for kids, a lot of times the time in the lodge is as good as the time out in the hIll. But do you serve food there? Lunch? Dinner?
[00:18:58] Speaker C: We have breakfast and lunch. I believe we close our snack bar around four.
The food is actually pretty good and it's reasonable. You're not going to find the $25 hamburger. You're going to find the $6 breakfast sandwich or the $7 burger. It's much more affordable. It's much more reasonable. And as Carolyn, who's also a trained culinary chef, will say, she won't serve food there. That she wouldn't serve her own family because basically she is serving her own family with all the food that comes out of maple. So usually the food is pretty dang good.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: I'm going to save up next time I'm there and get something. Sounds good. So, just to close out, we're looking at the start of ski season coming along. And do you have a prediction about when we're going to get the first measurable snowfall in our area?
[00:19:54] Speaker C: Can I be wishful thinking?
[00:19:55] Speaker B: You can be wishful thinking. It's fun.
[00:19:57] Speaker C: Okay. I would like it to happen November 2. That's when I would like the first measurable snowfall to be.
[00:20:09] Speaker B: We're going to book it. I'll put it on the calendar.
[00:20:11] Speaker C: All right. That sounds really good.
[00:20:12] Speaker B: Okay. Thank you for joining us. Kiss?
[00:20:14] Speaker C: Oh, you're welcome.
[00:20:20] Speaker A: You're listening to read between the lines with Miles Reed.
[00:20:26] Speaker B: Stories about skiers in the ski industry are close to my heart. Since I was three years old, I've skied just about every winter except for a few years when injuries or health issues kept me off the slopes and trails. I feel profoundly comfortable in this world when I have a pair of flexible boards under my feet and I have freedom sliding, moving across the snow. It's second nature to me now. Indeed, my ski history goes way back, and it includes plenty of mom and pop hills from the early years, places like Maple Ski Ridge. I got my start at Willard Mountain in nearby Washington County. At first, we didn't even bother to buy ski passes. Instead, my parents used to carry my sister and me partway up the bunny hop trail. Then we'd ski down, our parents always ready to swoop in if we fell. And we fell plentY. Over time, we graduated to buy and lift tickets for the old rope toe at the edge of the beginner's slope.
It was a big deal for me and my sister, just three or four at the time, and eventually the chairlift took us up the main face of Willard. We were hooked. Soon enough, my parents started driving us to other small, mid sized mountains, places like West Mountain up the northway, Jiminy Peak over in Massachusetts.
Then we went on. We graduated to even bigger mountains, Gore and Whiteface in the Adirondacks, Killington and Stratton in Vermont. Meanwhile, we also did plenty of outings with ski clubs at school, scout troops, friends, families. We'd pile into buses, into family station wagons, and we'd hit places like Royal Mountain in Fulton County, Oak Mountain in Hamilton county, and even Maple ski Ridge right here in Schenectady County. But we also went to a host of other great smaller mountains in the region that, sadly, have since succumbed to the economic and climate forces that have been shuttering mountains all across the country for 30 plus years now.
Names like Scotch Valley in Skahari county, alpine Ski center in Saratoga County, Brody Mountain in Massachusetts, Gone, gone, and the list goes on. Sadly. Thankfully, many of the ski centers that are still around and have survived are now thriving, thanks in part due to the resurgence of interest in skiing and hiking and other outdoor sports since the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these places are finding ways to adapt to the warmer winters that we see. They're freeing up capital to invest in new infrastructure. They're planning for a bright future, places like Maple Skierridge.
