Poley Mountain

Poley Mountain is a small alpine ski resort in New Brunswick, Canada. The ski area is located in the community of Waterford, 10km outside of the town of Sussex. Poley Mountain has 23 trails and five lifts (a fixed-grip quad chairlift, a t-bar, two handle-surface lifts, and a newly installed conveyor lift). Poley Mountain claims to have a summit elevation of 277 meters (909 feet) and a base elevation of 76 meters (249 feet), giving the ski area a vertical drop of 201 meters (660 feet). The ski hill's skiable terrain totals 61 acres. [ [http://www.poleymountain.com/mtn_aboutmountain.php] Poley's about the mountain page] According to Environment Canada, the nearby town of Sussex averages 245 centimeters of snow per year. [ [http://www.climate.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/climate_normals/results_e.html?Province=NB%20%20&StationName=&SearchType=&LocateBy=Province&Proximity=25&ProximityFrom=City&StationNumber=&IDType=MSC&CityName=&ParkName=&LatitudeDegrees=&LatitudeMinutes=&LongitudeDegrees=&LongitudeMinutes=&NormalsClass=A&SelNormals=&StnId=6268&] Environment Canada's climate data for Sussex, New Brunswick]

Poley Mountain is one of four ski areas in New Brunswick and caters to skiers from Moncton and Saint John, the province's two largest metropolitan areas, as well as skiers from all points in between, including Sussex.

Poley's Resurgence

Since 1999, when the resort nearly closed permanently, Poley Mountain has experienced a resurgence of sorts. A group of local investors rescued the ski area and is operating it to this day. Ever since the takeover, profits have apparently been invested back into on-mountain improvements. New trails have been cut, a terrain park and a half pipe were built, and snowmaking capacity has been increased. As a result season pass holdership seems to be up.

Expansion Plans

Poley Mountain recently purchased the assets of the defunct Copper Creek ski resort in Baie-Verte, Newfoundland. These assets include a fixed-grip triple chairlift, which is currently being installed and is slated to begin operation in December 2008. The new lift will have a vertical rise of nearly 500 feet and will service easy and intermediate terrain. Poley's board of directors is currently in discussion with a potential sponsor for the new lift. A board member has said that the board of directors will be offering more shares in the mountain in order to raise more capital for expansion plans so that the mountain can avoid a large amount of debt.

The new lift should alleviate the long lift lines that are commonplace on weekends and holidays and will cater to novice skiiers and boarders primarily. The new chairlift will open with six new trails which have already been cut and were skiable over the past season due to an abundance of natural snowfall. Blasting has taken place this summer to extend one of the new trails and to widen Porky's Pass.

With the new trails Poley now has a total of 29 trails. This summer the T-bar will be removed which will create another run on the mountain which would bring the total number of trails to 30. Glad thinning between Shotgun and L'Acadienne is also possible this summer.

Mountain operation staff will also be installing more snowmaking pipeline complete with electric hook-ups and hydrants on the new mountain area so that the new trails will have snowmaking covrage. The resort is also planning on expanding the lodge or building a new building next to the existing lodge. This could also happen within the next few years but no concrete plans are in place at this time.

References

External links

* [http://www.poleymountain.com Poley Mountain]