Page 72 - SOM FALL 2017 BOOK
P. 72
the good life | adventure
to offer more choices for beginning
skiers and riders. Towle believes those
concerns have been met by the Sonnet
Chair accessing easier terrain. And
because there's little overcrowding on
the 23 runs and open bowl—an average
weekend might seek 1,500 to 1,600 skiers
and riders—the focus shifted to improving
skier visits.
"It's about the guest experience. We don't
have crowds on the hill, but we do in the
lodge. It's a matter of putting our money in
areas that need it the most," Towle says of
revamping the mountain lodge. Along with
adding upstairs space, lockers were moved
from the lodge's basement to the rental shop
building. The rental shop, which had been a
significant walk from the lodge and Sonnet
chair, will reopen in the lodge's basement.
"That just was not the way to convince peo-
ple, especially beginners, that they were
going to have a good day," he says of learning
skiers and riders having to haul skis, snow-
boards, boots and other rental gear between
buildings.
70 www.southernoregonmagazine.com | fall 2017
Mt. Ashland Ski Lodge proposed remodel
