Sadly, Black Mountain (New Hampshire) has closed for the 2023-2024 ski season before it even began.
What went wrong:
Black Mountain put out a statement Wednesday morning that stated that the reasons for closure this season were rising energy costs, unpredictable weather, staffing issues in the region, and other circumstances beyond their control. All very understandable as when we visited in March there was one person working the ticket booth and rental desk at the same time. Black Mountain was once a great community mountain and now has a tall task ahead of them as they could open for 2024-2025 season but as for right now, they will remain closed. A telling sign for this would be if they were to start up summer operations next summer but we will wait and see.
Now let’s look at some other similar situations throughout New Hampshire and Vermont.
Whaleback: Whaleback is no stranger to shutdowns, but they are still here today, showing that it is possible to bring back a mountain. Looking back at their third closure which was based on operation costs causing the mountain to close in 2000-2001 could be like what Black Mountain is facing today with rising energy costs. Whaleback was able to rebound after it was bought by a group called Whaleback Mountain LLC but then when that failed the Upper Valley Snow Sports Foundation took over and was able to keep it afloat to this day. Whaleback is currently a non-profit.
Magic Mountain: Magic Mountain closed back in the 1990 season as there were bad winters that they were not prepared to handle which is like what Black Mountain faced this year after the post-Christmas and New Year’s thaw. It was able to reopen again as a smaller operation but then fell back into debt. Old Fashioned Ski Company LLC took over and slowly started digging them out of the debt and then there was another ownership change to Ski Magic LLC which recently began upgrading the snowmaking and lifts around the mountain.
Granite Gorge: Granite Gorge’s most recent closure came after the unfortunate death of owner Fred Baybutt. How is this relevant to Black Mountain? Well two seasons later they were able to reopen after just sitting idle and did not have any large refurbishment plans.
Tenney: What hurt Tenney in their first closure was their ability to snowmake as the winters were not well those years which is like the unpredictable weather that has been in Jackson in recent winters. Tenney was able to reopen on multiple occasions after that and recently made a comeback last February.
Maple Valley: Maple Valley sat idle after closing and exchanged hands a few times after that. The current plan there is to develop a brewery on the land with a long-term focus on the return of skiing. Black Mountain could do something similar to this even if it is not a brewery but there could be another part to make try and generate revenue.
Options:
1. Take a year off and try to reopen. Black Mountain only said they were closed during the 2023-2024 season, so maybe there will be a comeback the winter after. This is hopefully a regrouping year in which they can evaluate how they want to run things in the future.
2. Have a limited reopening. After taking a year off it may be smart to not run the double lift or platter pull as that would likely save on energy costs. The real problem would then be the limited snowmaking and lack of staffing that is bad news for Black Mountain.
3. Sell. A sad option but one that could be done if they are not able to operate it. If a group comes in to try and keep the independent and community vibe, then we could see them selling especially if there are snowmaking upgrades to the mountain.
4. Try something new. Taking from the Maple Valley idea, Black Mountain could think outside the box here and try something completely new. They just refurbished the J Bar on the smaller hill so they could theoretically make one side of the hill a tubing park and maybe take the brewery idea or make a new restaurant. They also have horses that they do horseback rides in the summer. Along with them they could also offer a hiking trail to the summit, summer concert series, open up Lostbo’s Pub more, or maybe even add a disc golf course to try and generate some revenue.
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