The Official "Blue Mountain 2021" Thread

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The Official "Blue Mountain 2021" Thread
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flag Ryan2949
O+
Posted: May 4, 2021 at 16:35 Quote
freeride84 wrote:
bluemtnbikepark wrote:
*

What did Blue Mountain post then delete?

Same thing Jpetznick posted, he just posted it on the wrong account.

post was: "I'm pretty sure the majority of the slope is Crown Land. However it also falls under the Niagara Escarpment Commission. As mentioned, it's a busy area with the Bruce Trail running through there, so any building at all is going to draw attention."
flag freeride84
Posted: May 22, 2021 at 12:38 Quote
Turns out my season would have been cancelled anyways because of a blood clot. Can't seem to win this year.
flag Venturebikes
Posted: May 22, 2021 at 19:20 Quote
freeride84 wrote:
Turns out my season would have been cancelled anyways because of a blood clot. Can't seem to win this year.

Sorry to hear that brother. Get well soon
flag bags1
O+
Posted: May 23, 2021 at 9:24 Quote
Hey @freeride84, personal question, and totally understand if you choose not to answer, or to tell me to take a hike, but is it vaccine related? And hope you get it looked after regardless. And on the bright side, next year is getting closer every day! Best of luck man!
flag Notbn
O+
Posted: May 24, 2021 at 7:34 Quote
Hopefully not vaccine related. Most of those (extremely rare) cases end up being fatal very quickly.

Edit: after some quick research the latest number I could find was 41 total deaths out of 22 million AZ vaccinations in the UK. Extremely low odds, but odds none the less. People will make of it what they will.
flag Venturebikes
Posted: May 26, 2021 at 11:13 Quote
Article from Canadian Cycling Magazine, dated May 25, 2021

https://cyclingmagazine.ca/mtb/blue-mountain-bike-park/

CCM had a chat with Dan Skelton, Pres and COO of Blue. Y'all pretty much nailed it on the head for reasons behind the decision to close down.

Notable quotes:

"Unfortunately, when you put DH biking through the multiple filters of risk, liability, profitability, growth potential and environmental sustainability it doesn’t pass."

"...there remains a fundamental challenge for the sport in Ontario, where, unlike many other jurisdictions, new case law continues to weaken the assumption of risk doctrine and there are no laws and regulations that emphasize personal responsibility and help to prevent claims against responsible operators. This leaves the financial burden and liability primarily on the shoulders of Ontario business operators."

"An entire summer of biking business is about the same as one mid-winter Saturday of skiing and riding at Blue."

"On environmental sustainability, Blue Mountain is blue and red clay. We made beautiful pottery with it in the ‘70s. Unfortunately, it’s the worst base for DH biking; it turns to mush when wet and dust when dry and it always travels downhill leaving exposed roots and barren soil."

" as long as the fundamentals stay the same, we do not have a plan for lift-access downhill mountain biking to return to Blue."
flag Ryan2949
O+
Posted: May 26, 2021 at 16:34 Quote
Venturebikes wrote:
Article from Canadian Cycling Magazine, dated May 25, 2021

https://cyclingmagazine.ca/mtb/blue-mountain-bike-park/

CCM had a chat with Dan Skelton, Pres and COO of Blue. Y'all pretty much nailed it on the head for reasons behind the decision to close down.

Notable quotes:

"Unfortunately, when you put DH biking through the multiple filters of risk, liability, profitability, growth potential and environmental sustainability it doesn’t pass."

"...there remains a fundamental challenge for the sport in Ontario, where, unlike many other jurisdictions, new case law continues to weaken the assumption of risk doctrine and there are no laws and regulations that emphasize personal responsibility and help to prevent claims against responsible operators. This leaves the financial burden and liability primarily on the shoulders of Ontario business operators."

"An entire summer of biking business is about the same as one mid-winter Saturday of skiing and riding at Blue."

"On environmental sustainability, Blue Mountain is blue and red clay. We made beautiful pottery with it in the ‘70s. Unfortunately, it’s the worst base for DH biking; it turns to mush when wet and dust when dry and it always travels downhill leaving exposed roots and barren soil."

" as long as the fundamentals stay the same, we do not have a plan for lift-access downhill mountain biking to return to Blue."

I will admit, the clay did suck. Hated spending 3-4 nights hotel, driving 350kms each way, spending hundreds on food and merch/shopping only to get a day and a half of riding in (this happened two years ago lol) because of a very light drizzle. You're stuck waiting around hoping for the okay and sometimes it never comes.

In response to the fact he said a whole season of downhill = one Saturday of skiing, that makes zero sense to me considering the fact that bike sales are booming, which will bring some of those people to Blue to try downhill. Even Horseshoe is expanding due to how busy it was. So I think the liability is the main factor.
flag Adamrideshisbike
O+
Posted: May 26, 2021 at 16:48 Quote
I kind of thought that one Saturday=whole season was hyperbole, but when you think of all those people paying $90 a day vs. a bunch of sweating dudes on cheap season's passes, it kind of makes sense.

Still a huge shame. I like Horseshoe, but the sand isn't much better than the clay. We need someone to build a bike park on some normal dirt! (pipe dreams, I know)
flag dguzzler
Posted: May 27, 2021 at 6:23 Quote
Well, it took them 20 years to figure out. Where is the truth? Where is the competency. I call bullshit, yet again.
flag Thepureface
Posted: May 27, 2021 at 9:33 Quote
Ya there was a time when they paid big money to have gravity logic come build there- some bs for sure. Any business as large as that with administrative people on payroll would have known if it was worthwhile to keep up the bike park or not.

At one point it was worthwhile
flag sweetdaddycool
Posted: May 27, 2021 at 18:04 Quote
I dont think anyone working at blue even follows this thread anymore but is "all" biking now abandoned or is there still going to be trails accessible for pedal access?
Was offered a volunteer position that I declined and word was they still were interested in enduro/xc.
flag R-P-S
Posted: May 28, 2021 at 9:41 Quote
sweetdaddycool wrote:
I dont think anyone working at blue even follows this thread anymore but is "all" biking now abandoned or is there still going to be trails accessible for pedal access?
Was offered a volunteer position that I declined and word was they still were interested in enduro/xc.

Read the article: https://cyclingmagazine.ca/mtb/blue-mountain-bike-park/

Sounds like they'll intend to have some form of biking but haven't decided what that will look like yet.
flag PoeticThreeD
O+
Posted: May 28, 2021 at 18:01 Quote
R-P-S wrote:
sweetdaddycool wrote:
I dont think anyone working at blue even follows this thread anymore but is "all" biking now abandoned or is there still going to be trails accessible for pedal access?
Was offered a volunteer position that I declined and word was they still were interested in enduro/xc.

Read the article: https://cyclingmagazine.ca/mtb/blue-mountain-bike-park/

Sounds like they'll intend to have some form of biking but haven't decided what that will look like yet.

Trailforks currently has all the DH trails listen as permanently closed, with only the XC trails at the top of the hill and the Grind open...was hoping they'd at least keep some of the other trails open for "pedal access" but doesn't look like that's going to happen.
flag R-P-S
Posted: May 28, 2021 at 19:34 Quote
PoeticThreeD wrote:
R-P-S wrote:
sweetdaddycool wrote:
I dont think anyone working at blue even follows this thread anymore but is "all" biking now abandoned or is there still going to be trails accessible for pedal access?
Was offered a volunteer position that I declined and word was they still were interested in enduro/xc.

Read the article: https://cyclingmagazine.ca/mtb/blue-mountain-bike-park/

Sounds like they'll intend to have some form of biking but haven't decided what that will look like yet.

Trailforks currently has all the DH trails listen as permanently closed, with only the XC trails at the top of the hill and the Grind open...was hoping they'd at least keep some of the other trails open for "pedal access" but doesn't look like that's going to happen.

Don’t think Trail Forks is an indication of what the future holds for Blue. Sounds like they’re gonna rework the trail system for sure but might keep some of the existing network intact. Sounds like a final decision hasn’t been made about that yet.
flag Canadmos
O+
Posted: May 28, 2021 at 20:08 Quote
R-P-S wrote:
PoeticThreeD wrote:
R-P-S wrote:


Read the article: https://cyclingmagazine.ca/mtb/blue-mountain-bike-park/

Sounds like they'll intend to have some form of biking but haven't decided what that will look like yet.

Trailforks currently has all the DH trails listen as permanently closed, with only the XC trails at the top of the hill and the Grind open...was hoping they'd at least keep some of the other trails open for "pedal access" but doesn't look like that's going to happen.

Don’t think Trail Forks is an indication of what the future holds for Blue. Sounds like they’re gonna rework the trail system for sure but might keep some of the existing network intact. Sounds like a final decision hasn’t been made about that yet.

Tldr; The bean counters are still waiting for their old Texas instruments calculator to finish computing what is most profitable for the business.

 


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