Tamarack

Steve departed for Asia this morning.  He will be gone for 6 weeks, visiting India, the Maldives, and Nepal.  Hopefully, he will find a way to post some pictures and news so I can pass that on to you.

Last Thursday, before he left, we got away to ski at Tamarack for the first time.

 

I hadn't been downhill skiing in 7 years.  My thighs and calves were talking to me.  It took me a few runs to remember what I was doing.  (You can't see Steve's arm holding the camera phone and trying not to drop it from the chairlift with a bare hand in frigid temperatures.  It was 12 degrees when we got there at 11 am and 19 degrees when we left at 4pm. Fortunately, no wind or precip.)

You can start to see frozen Lake Cascade in the background behind us now.  Tamarack is located about 30 minutes from Cascade.  Tamarack Resort opened about 5 years ago, at the height of the building boom.  The construction put lots of people to work in our rural mountain county.  But the owners over-extended themselves, and when the recession hit, they declared bankruptcy.  There was no ski season last year at all.  Lots of people were out of work, contributing to our still 19% unemployment rate in Valley County.  Many of the buildings in the Village are only half complete.

This year, the Tamarack Home-Owners Association (lots of ritzy condos on the mountain - but many unsold) pooled their funds to pay the over-due lease to the Forest Service (about $200,000) and secured permission from the bankruptcy court judge to run a ski season.  They sold 1200 season tickets at $199, pretty good for around here.  (A lot of those buyers live in Boise, of course; that's more people than live in Cascade.) And they hired back 100 people.  Everyone is hoping that a buyer will step up to the plate before the resort is sold off piece-meal to pay all the creditors.

Here's the view from the top, looking south.  Cascade is at the southeast end of the lake.  Cascade's elevation is 4800 ft.  I'm standing at 7700 ft.

There were probably less than 100 people skiing/snowboarding on Thursday, based on the number of cars in the parking lot (about 25-30).  Never had to wait in line.  Twice I sat down for a rest halfway down for about 10 minutes and no one came by. 

Have I tempted you?  Once again, the invitation is open...come and check it out for yourself.  We'd love to see you here.