Skied Bluewood today, seems like a pretty cool place!
I was surprised to learn that that they are only using about 400 acres of their lease from the forest service, which in total is about 1700 acres.
Appearently they want to replace Skyline Express with either a fixed grip or high speed quad. Based on it’s length and the topography (it’s a lot steeper and longer than it initially appears), I think a high speed quad would be the way to go.
I also heard they were thinking of putting a lift up Vintner’s Ridge.
While Skyline Express hasn’t become dangerous like the lift at Timberline, WV, the 1978 Borvig is showing it’s age. It has peeled paint on pretty much every chair, tower, and crossarm, and hanger, and the diesel engine at the bottom of the lift is probably the loudest lift motor I’ve ever heard. The wooden backrests are also banged up and have little to no paint left.
After seeing this post a while back, I found a map online in a Forest Service document, but I can’t find it again.
The permit area includes the entire drainage to the west of the existing ski area, west of the ridgeline (Vintner’s Ridge) where Triple Nickel tops out, and north to the road. As noted, it’s more than double the size of the current area.
It appears it could be served well with either a single bottom to top chairlift; or, two short lifts, chair or surface, one to the ridgeline from midway down the westernmost current run and one as a return at the bottom to the top of Triple Nickel (like Honeycomb Return at Solitude, UT, or the new T-bar at Ski Cooper).
TBH, looking at Google Earth, they could make that drainage a large lift-served powder sidecountry area, a la Southback at Crystal or whole swaths of Powder Mountain, UT, with just one ~1200 foot long surface lift returning from the vicinity of FS road 725 to the top of Triple Nickel, plus a marked or cut traverse/hike from the top of Skyline.
For all I know, having never skied there, people might already go OB and ski that route, and hitch back up the road.
I’m not sure this place has the crowds or funds to warrant an HSQ. I think a new FGQ would be a nice upgrade, based on what I’ve heard though it appears this Borvig has aged better than many eastern ones. Plus to my knowledge this place has some of the only western Borvigs (excluding the defunct one at Red Lodge).
Lift Blog 
Is it just me, but I really like these small ski areas that still look the way they did when they first opened.
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Skied Bluewood today, seems like a pretty cool place!
I was surprised to learn that that they are only using about 400 acres of their lease from the forest service, which in total is about 1700 acres.
Appearently they want to replace Skyline Express with either a fixed grip or high speed quad. Based on it’s length and the topography (it’s a lot steeper and longer than it initially appears), I think a high speed quad would be the way to go.
I also heard they were thinking of putting a lift up Vintner’s Ridge.
While Skyline Express hasn’t become dangerous like the lift at Timberline, WV, the 1978 Borvig is showing it’s age. It has peeled paint on pretty much every chair, tower, and crossarm, and hanger, and the diesel engine at the bottom of the lift is probably the loudest lift motor I’ve ever heard. The wooden backrests are also banged up and have little to no paint left.
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I mean it is a giant turbocharged cat diesel but that just makes it quirky
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You’re right, it is kind of endearing.
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After seeing this post a while back, I found a map online in a Forest Service document, but I can’t find it again.
The permit area includes the entire drainage to the west of the existing ski area, west of the ridgeline (Vintner’s Ridge) where Triple Nickel tops out, and north to the road. As noted, it’s more than double the size of the current area.
It appears it could be served well with either a single bottom to top chairlift; or, two short lifts, chair or surface, one to the ridgeline from midway down the westernmost current run and one as a return at the bottom to the top of Triple Nickel (like Honeycomb Return at Solitude, UT, or the new T-bar at Ski Cooper).
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TBH, looking at Google Earth, they could make that drainage a large lift-served powder sidecountry area, a la Southback at Crystal or whole swaths of Powder Mountain, UT, with just one ~1200 foot long surface lift returning from the vicinity of FS road 725 to the top of Triple Nickel, plus a marked or cut traverse/hike from the top of Skyline.
For all I know, having never skied there, people might already go OB and ski that route, and hitch back up the road.
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Ski Bluewood’s master plan has the Permit Area and some planned lifts https://bluewood.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Bluewood-MDP_20220524.pdf
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I’m not sure this place has the crowds or funds to warrant an HSQ. I think a new FGQ would be a nice upgrade, based on what I’ve heard though it appears this Borvig has aged better than many eastern ones. Plus to my knowledge this place has some of the only western Borvigs (excluding the defunct one at Red Lodge).
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A re-used high-speed quad from either Europe or somewhere in America will be re-installed here, it was announced today!
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