Wisconsin
Podcast #87: Paul Bunyan, Wisconsin Owners TJ and Wendy Kerscher
Who
TJ and Wendy Kerscher, Homeowners of Paul Bunyan Ski Hill, Wisconsin
Recorded on
Could 23, 2022
About Paul Bunyan
Owned by: TJ and Wendy Kerscher
Situated in: Lakewood, Wisconsin
Closest neighboring ski areas: Keyes Peak, Wisconsin (1 hours); Ski Brule, Michigan (1.25 hours); Camp 10, Wisconsin (1.25 hours); Granite Peak, Wisconsin (1.5 hours); Pine Mountain, Michigan (1.5 hours)
Vertical drop: 150 ft
Common annual snowfall: 65 inches
Path rely: 6 (2 black, 2 intermediate, 2 newbie)
Elevate rely: 3 (1 T-bar, 2 ropetows – view Elevate Weblog’s of stock of Paul Bunyan’s carry fleet)
Trailmap: Paul Bunyan has but to create an up to date trailmap. This overhead-oriented model created by skimap.com is the closest factor I might discover, although TJ advised me that the ropetow and tubing park – and related trails – looker’s left on this map haven’t but re-opened (he hopes to have them prepared for the 2022-23 ski season, together with a top-to-bottom ropetow that runs parallel to the T-bar):
This map, from 1993, reveals the state of the ski space simply earlier than it closed, in 1995:
This map, from 1980, might be my favourite from an aesthetic perspective:
Why I interviewed them
In 2016, a California businessman named Jeff Katofsky bought the long-dormant Sugar Loaf ski space in northern Michigan. An actual property developer and minor league baseball workforce proprietor, he appeared to barely perceive snowboarding, declaring shortly after taking possession of the property that he had visited Whistler “to get concepts.” Which is like visiting the Palace of Versailles to get concepts on the way to beautify your searching cabin. The subsequent 12 months, he stripped all 5 Corridor* doubles from the hillside. “The ski hill presently has to mainly be gutted as a result of nothing on there can work,” he advised the Glen Arbor Solar. “Whether or not we will put one other ski hill collectively or not, we’re crunching loads of numbers collectively to see if that works.”
The Crunchinator got here up with some fairly intense numbers. For Katofsky, snowboarding was a high-end pursuit, which might solely be offered in an ultra-luxurious context. “Snowboarding is solely a monetary query,” Katofsky advised the Solar in 2018. “I’ve to take it severely as a result of I do know it’s vital to folks. However I’m not doing this for charity. We’ll make investments actually tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} on this. If snowboarding works financially, you’ll have it. If not, you gained’t.”
Snowboarding should not have labored financially. In December 2020, Katofsky offered the property to an nameless purchaser and disappeared, with out remark, into the void.
Katofsky, to be truthful, was not making an attempt to spend tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} to resuscitate a ski resort, explicitly. He meant to spend tens of thousands and thousands to construct a year-round spa-and-valet form of place that had slightly ski hill as an addendum. One thing like Villa Roma in New York’s Catskills, which gives a minimalist ski expertise however way back mothballed a complete terrain pod.
That’s a disgrace. Sugar Loaf was as soon as top-of-the-line ski areas in Michigan’s Decrease Peninsula, a nationally unsung ski mecca as nuts about this silly snoskiing factor as anyplace that’s chilly and remotely hilly. The entrance aspect was 500 ft of pure fall line, the bottom woods and slender lanes. The summit view was attractive. The vibe pure zest and zeal. No pretention right here. The place was fabulous, pretty much as good as Boyne Mountain from a pure snowboarding perspective. I couldn’t imagine it when the hill closed in 2000.
I’m nonetheless miffed. I’m not alone: the 5,015-member Buddies of Sugar Loaf Fb group is a web-based watering gap for the nostalgic and the hopeful (although IT’S NOT HAPPENING Bro is an unlucky omnipresent parasite as properly). I are typically It May Occur Bro, sure {that a} minimalist model of snowboarding could possibly be viable. Final 12 months, I exchanged emails with Traverse Metropolis native, former Sugar Loaf ski patroller, and Waterville Valley common supervisor Tim Smith about the potential for a minimalist model of Sugar Loaf resurfacing sooner or later:
Stuart: I am actually interested by your perspective on Sugarloaf, since you’ve got been in snowboarding so lengthy and actually perceive what it takes to deliver a mountain again to life, and also you appear to have a knack for making issues occur. How a lot would it not take to deliver a minimal stage of snowboarding again to Sugarloaf? Like for example you despatched [Waterville Valley’s retiring] Sunnyside Triple there and strung it base to summit up Terrible Terrible and introduced in some cell snow weapons – would that be sufficient? I am in all probability over-simplifying it, however I really feel like the present proprietor has it in his head that snowboarding must be uber luxurious earlier than you promote a carry ticket. However you take a look at Mount Bohemia within the UP, and the man mainly opened the place with some yurts, a base lodge, and a carry.
Tim: Your simplification is fairly spot on. Minimal infrastructure to get going once more can be a brand new/used carry, say $2 million will cowl that with set up. For snowmaking pipe/pond/pumps/electrical for the frontside (Spherical About, Nastar, Waful, k2 and Terrible Terrible) 25 acres or so (that’s twice the dimensions of Waterville Valley’s excessive nation) feed that with 2,000 gpm giving an acre foot of snow each 1.33 hours, so 33 hours at full blast to cowl the realm with a foot of snow. To blast that sort of snow the realm would wish at the least 20 weapons however I might advocate 40 as maxing out requires excessive chilly. That’s 500k in weapons, 500k in pumping, $1.5M for pipe, hydrants, electrical (little bit of a WAG as I don’t know what remains to be there for major electrical). A metal constructing lodge like Crotched runs about $2.5 however a yurt village can be doable for a number of 100k so let say $1M for now. Parking remains to be in OK form however I feel the factor that might kill the challenge is the demo of the outdated lodge, however the county or state might assist as it’s a public nuisance at this level, so let’s say the fireplace division does a managed burn ? All stated and achieved on a shoe string $5M ought to get it up and working. But when it was me I might go all in as I feel the realm might help the next finish resort, simply want the best cash man ?. That is off the highest of my head, some day it will be enjoyable to run these numbers down and see if one thing might actually work.
OK, aren’t we right here to speak about Paul Bunyan? Certainly. Excuse the detour, however I had a degree: In about 9 months in 2020, TJ and Wendy Kerscher and their household achieved what gazillionaire Katofsky couldn’t in 4 years. Within the midst of the early Covid lockdowns, their bar and their figurine manufacturing facility idled, the Kerschers appeared out on the overgrown and long-abandoned ski hill of their yard and set to work. TJ meticulously dismantled and reassembled the 1967 Corridor T-bar and several other ropetows that had been A-Teamed collectively from Nineteen Forties truck elements. With crews of chainsaw-wielding associates, they marched up the hillside and cleared 25 years of forest. They borrowed snowguns from idled Norway Mountain, Michigan; picked up a trio of used Snowcats from Granite Peak; labored with K2 to construct a small fleet of rental gear. In February 2021, the ski space re-opened to ecstatic locals.
“They stuffed this place,” Wendy Kerscher advised me within the interview. “They stuffed the hill. We ran out of leases. It was wonderful.”
The Katofskys and IT’S NOT HAPPENING Bros of the world would have taken one take a look at Paul Bunyan and got here up with a thousand explanation why the place was inoperable. Too decrepit, too small, too distant, too drained, too knotted to a bygone period of snowboarding, when floor lifts and 5 turns top-to-bottom had been adequate.
I’ve little use for such folks. The cynics and the you-can’ts, those who at all times let you know why not. I’m trying to find the TJ and Wendy Kerschers of the world, the optimists and the puzzle-solvers, the people who find themselves too busy working to understand that what they’re doing is inconceivable.
The best way they did what nobody else might do was to easily do it. No grasp plans. No consultants. No costly crews. No engineers. Simply chainsaws and shovels and a few borrowed heavy tools. A bit help from the ski business. It helped that TJ had sufficient mechanical acuity to rebuild the lifts himself. It was loads of work, however the consequence was a ski hill summoned out of the grave by Midwest FTW grit-and-grind.
“You by no means can rely sweat fairness,” TJ advised me. “It was superior. I might do it once more 5 instances. I don’t rely the work in any respect. We simply had a lot enjoyable with this challenge.”
It’s too unhealthy the Kerschers didn’t dwell in entrance of Sugar Loaf. Had been the mountain’s Corridor lifts – famously dependable machines – actually past restore? May a extra restlessly optimistic soul like TJ have saved them? Somebody who actually cherished and understood snowboarding? I are likely to assume the reply is sure. And we’ve acquired a narrative to show it, a ski space saved, improbably however actually: Paul Bunyan is again.
*Props to Elevate Weblog for ID’ing these lifts for me.
What we talked about
The Kerscher household story; the household’s varied companies; the origins of Paul Bunyan as an area nonprofit; when and why the Kerscher household bought the hill; rising up in an entrepreneurial household; the way you react when your father buys a ski space; working a mountain at age 18; why Paul Bunyan closed within the mid-90s; deciding to re-open the ski space after 25 years dormant; a silver lining in Covid; the state of Paul Bunyan’s lifts, trails, and snowmaking after two and a half a long time idle; improvisational snowmaking and long-term plans for enchancment; that DIY Midwestern grit; restoring the unbelievable home made ropetow community cobbled along with Nineteen Forties truck elements; restoring a Sixties Corridor T-bar; a fortuitous name from a pleasant neighboring ski space; which of the 4 traditional ropetows have been introduced again into service, and that are subsequent; the standing of the tubing operation; reviving the overgrown path community – “we acquired some guys along with some chainsaws and began chopping”; the place the ski space is including runs this summer season; choices for the forthcoming terrain park; skiers are “actually embracing” Paul Bunyan’s “old-school … hang-on-tight ropetows”; restoring the hill’s 1969 Tucker Sno-Cat and why these machines nonetheless beat trendy groomers for sure duties; the big ski space that helped Paul Bunyan modernize its grooming fleet with a deal on used machines; organising a rental store, ski faculty, and patrol from scratch; managing labor as a small ski space; insurance coverage; approaching such an enormous challenge day-by-day; the way it felt to see the lifts spinning once more; “each single weekend, we’re offered out of ski tools”; bringing again evening snowboarding; whether or not Paul Bunyan might ever be a seven-day-per-week operation; optimism and angle are all the pieces; recommendation for aspiring saviors of misplaced ski areas; the generosity of the higher ski business; and whether or not Paul Bunyan had thought of the Indy Cross Allied Resorts program.
Why I believed that now was time for this interview
I spend loads of time shuffling via snowboarding’s on-line fringe. I’m obsessed, for no matter purpose, with completeness. This most clearly manifests itself via the Cross Tracker 5001, the place I’ve been monitoring U.S. America’s season cross costs for the previous couple years. For lots of of resorts, monitoring down these numbers is a reasonably easy train. Northstar – Epic Cross. Mammoth – Ikon Cross. And so forth. However maybe 1 / 4 of the nation’s ski areas exist in a form of steampunk half-world, on-line however and not using a formal web site, a Fb web page normally, pointing skiers in a uneven, inconstant approach towards their little hills, sometimes a neighborhood bump with a set of Rube Goldberg floor lifts trundling up a number of acres of clear-cut.
I’ll steadily message these pages with queries about hours of operation or season cross costs. They virtually by no means write again. So I used to be pretty stunned final month when a question to Paul Bunyan’s account produced a coherent response inside hours. We exchanged a number of messages and I invited them onto the podcast. So right here we’re.
Imagine it or not, it’s sometimes harder to safe an interview with the operators of the Paul Bunyans of the world than the Steamboats or Beaver Creeks. The big ski areas have budgets, communications groups, advertising departments. The executives have speaking factors and media coaching. They anticipate me to knock on the door, they usually’re normally keen to speak once I do. With the smaller locations, it’s typically troublesome to find out who owns or manages the hill, and there’s not often an apparent strategy to join with them.
So once I had the chance to speak to a household who had the audacity to say, “yeah we’re simply going to re-open this ski hill with 60-year-old lifts on a minimal price range and by the best way for those who assume that is inconceivable we’re simply going to disregard you,” I couldn’t e-book it quick sufficient.
A part of what makes snowboarding nice is the uncooked journey of a four-thousand-footer sprawling throughout a half dozen peaks with 35 lifts driving up and over cliffs and timber and elevator-shaft inclines. However a giant a part of what makes it attention-grabbing is that it’s not simply that. {That a} community of lots of of small-bore variations of this gigantic factor exist wherever that chilly climate and hills collide. If The Storm is after the complete story of lift-served snowboarding, it should be not solely conscious of the world outdoors the Epkon flex palace, however immersed in it. There’s no higher approach to do this – and to deliver you together with me – than to attach with operators just like the Kerschers, whose story is certainly one of pure love and keenness, the one-turn-at-a-time sort of enjoyable that so many in snowboarding have forgotten.
Why you must ski Paul Bunyan
If you happen to dwell wherever close by, the reply to this query is apparent: as a result of it’s there. In-between turns when you possibly can’t make the drive over to Granite Peak. As a result of snowboarding may be your wintertime fitness center. Dip in, get your reps on, bounce. Don’t overthink it.
For the remainder of us – I dwell 1,100 miles away – the reply is extra sophisticated. I acknowledge that solely a handful of essentially the most curious outsiders will ever intentionally go to the Midwest to ski. The ski media has ignored this area for its complete existence, focusing as a substitute on two themes that invariably lead skiers north to New England or west to the Rockies: the ultra-rad or the ultra-luxe. Comprehensible. Nonetheless, there exists a 3rd narrative in snowboarding: discovery. I’ve spent the previous two ski seasons in a state of perpetual ramble, bouncing from neighborhood bump to backwoods freeride to ridgeline 500-footer lodged on the prime of America. It’s enjoyable. You discover little stashes, quirks, thrills. I virtually by no means discover crowds. Elevate-served snowboarding is an impossibly wealthy world, dynamic and various, funky and peculiar, curious and interesting.
Sometime, I’ll roll via Wisconsin, and I’ll in fact ski Cascade and Satan’s Head and La Crosse and Granite Peak and Whitecap. However I’ll additionally float via Paul Bunyan, experience the outdated T-bar, angle jet-fighter type towards one of many hill’s many ropetows and seize on mid-flight, as TJ so exuberantly suggests in our dialog. It gained’t be Vail, however I gained’t go in anticipating that. You shouldn’t both. And what you’ll take away might be fairly cool: a psychological snapshot of snowboarding stripped of all glam and pretense, of a snowsliding enterprise outlined by the exercise itself, of a spot homey and welcoming. That form of ski-them-all completeness is just not for everybody, I perceive. However for these of us who undertake such a mentality, the rewards for getting into on a Paul Bunyan carry ticket are huge.
Extra Paul Bunyan
Protection of Paul Bunyan’s re-opening:
Paul Bunyan’s comeback is inspirational, however it’s an anomaly. The Midwest Misplaced Ski Areas Mission has documented 374 misplaced ski areas throughout the 12-state area, together with 97 in Wisconsin. Let’s hope there are extra folks like Wendy and TJ Kerscher on the market, keen and capable of take the low-budget path again to viability. You possibly can comply with together with updates on Paul Bunyan’s very energetic Fb web page:
The Storm publishes year-round, and ensures 100 articles per 12 months. That is article 58/100 in 2022, and quantity 304 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Wish to ship suggestions? Reply to this electronic mail and I’ll reply (until you sound insane). You may also electronic mail snowboarding@substack.com.