Surviving Winter at Garnet Hill Lodge

By Dan Ladd
Published in The Chronicle on Feb. 8, 2007

If you are an avid or even occasional cross country skier it’s more than likely that you’ve been to Garnet Hill Lodge in North River at least once. And if so, it’s also quite likely that you have encountered Dick Carlson there; either on the trails or in the ski shop.

Dick’s official title at Garnet Hill is Director of Skiing and he has been overseeing the Nordic ski program there since the early 1980’s, at least to the best of his recollection. That’s somewhere in the vicinity of 25 years and in that time Dick has seen the lodge change hands twice and watched the regional cross country ski industry blossom during the good winters and struggle during
the mild ones.

Through it all he simply remains throughout the year. Hopefully, with a workable amount of snow available to groom and pack down, a busy President’s week looms. I recently sat down with Dick to talk about his experiences, the business of Nordic skiing and these not so favorable winters we’ve been having. So, pull up a ski pole.

From the Island to Garnet Hill

A Long Island native, Dick was fortunate enough to be introduced to the Adirondacks at an early age. “We spent two weeks every summer at Elk Lake Lodge up in North Hudson,” he said. “So I kind of knew the Adirondacks. Elk Lake was great, what a wonderful spot.”

Eventually Dick’s family moved to Broadalbin where he went to Bishop Burke High School and was a member of the cross-country ski team. He also Alpine skied during his high school years and attended Northwood School in Lake Placid before moving on to college, which led to even more skiing in the Adirondacks.
.
“I went to Merrimack College and got a summer job at Northampton Beach (Campground) in Northville,” said Dick. “When I got done with college a buddy of mine said ‘they got a ski area up north, let’s go work there.’ So I got a job at Gore for seven or eight years working ski patrol. I even went to the (1980 Winter) Olympics a couple of days.”

Soon enough, Dick got his first taste of running a Nordic ski center. “One winter we leased Elk Lake Lodge and ran it just like this place (Garnet Hill),” says Dick. “So it was a lodge with groomed ski trails. We only did that one year and we didn’t make any money. The lodge wasn’t winterized so we had a lot of ice and heating problems. Everyone that came had a great time; it was really a great
winter. “

In the early 1980’s Dick met George Heim who along with his wife Mary owned Garnet Hill Lodge. "I was going to go back to Gore but George said he needed someone to work here,” says Dick “It was quite small, I was the only guy here. I taught the lessons, rented the skis, groomed the trails. It was probably 20K or so. We went out to the old Farm Clearing, the beach and then the trails up to
the lodge and I think out to Harvey’s Tailings.”

These days’ when snow conditions allow Garnet Hill grooms 55k of trails The road to Farm Clearing has been closed to motorized use for years but skiing is usually possible on Thirteenth Lake up to Elizabeth Point and back down the old road to the Garnet Hill trail system.

The Heim's sold Garnet Hill Lodge in 2001 to the VanCotts from Utah who in turn sold the Lodge to Joe and Mary Fahy from the Boston area in 2006. The Fahy’s however are originally from Ireland. Dick is very optimistic about the Fahy’s and the future of Garnet Hill. Even with the winters we haven’t been having.

A Roller Coaster Ride

During his tenure at Garnet Hill Dick has seen many ups and downs in the Nordic Ski industry, which at times can be hard to gage. “I try to put my finger on it all of the time," he says. “From mid to late ‘90s it sort of peaked and then the numbers started going down. We were in the late ‘80s early ‘90s,
overwhelmed. We had parking problems, crowding problems. A lot of people were skiing. We used to do about 10% of what they did at Gore. If they had 4,000 people, we had 400.”

He continues: “I remember one President's weekend we had great snow, great
weather and I said ‘lookout, we’re going to be very busy.’ We were busy but we
were ominously not that busy. I figured people were backcountry skiing or doing
this or that but it’s been a decidedly backward trend and there is a lot of a
factors.”

One of those factors is obviously the lack of winter weather, especially the past few years. The 2005-06 season started off promising with two early storms and open trails in November. But by January things were going downhill (pardon the pun). This season, the trails were late in opening but they have been making due with the snow they’ve had. Skiers should note that Garnet Hill’s elevation is above 2,000 feet so their snow accumulations, even from small storms, are usually greater then what we see in the Glens Falls region.

Still, Dick implies that weather elsewhere can affect participation in Nordic
skiing in the Adirondack region. “Now we don’t have all those little feeder
areas where people get introduced to skiing. They’re not open this year and they
didn’t open last year. So you tend to get a lot of new people that aren’t
coming, they’re not even starting.”

"I also think a lot of people got into cross-country skiing in the early ‘70s and the late ‘60s when they were in their 40s and 50’s,” says Dick. “Now their gone, and they haven’t been replaced. I keep waiting for the resurgence. It’s an interesting conundrum for the industry and the leading thing, snow, is in short supply and you’ve seen it this year.”

Snow Solutions

Dick remains confident that skiing remains popular and points out that media coverage (such as this) remains consistent. Still, the industry could use a shot in the arm. That shot could be a promotional media campaign from within the ski industry, which Dick feels is something that’s missing.

But it still comes down to the white stuff. He states, “I think what it really needs is a scat of snow for the northeast for two, three, four years in a row. Then people can get used to seeing a lot of snow with people skiing in Central Park, the Catskills and it just becomes almost like ‘that’s what you do in
winter.’ "

Dick contends that people who hike and backpack in the summer tend to turn to cross-country skiing in the winter to satisfy their desire to be outdoors. While backcountry skiing can draw skiers away from the ski centers people still need equipment and advice and often turn to Garnet Hill and other centers for that as well as to participate in some of the guided backcountry excursions the Lodge offers.

While the popularity of snowshoeing has also helped to offset the lower ski numbers good snow cover is still needed for that. The Lodge is also turning to other activities. For example, just this past weekend a skijoring (skiing with dogs) clinic was held. During the warm weather months the trail system and ski shop fill the same purposes for mountain biking. Some other possible future activities at the Lodge may include bird watching and perhaps even sailing.

This is all good stuff but Dick says there is one important factor that determines participation in any outdoor sport, summer or winter. "People have no time, for anything. They’re working two jobs; their kids are involved with this and that. Even people that have enough resources don’t have enough time," he says.

Dan Ladd is a freelance writer and avid outdoorsman who lives in West Fort Ann, NY.
He enjoys Nordic skiing, kayaking, hunting, fishing, camping and hiking in the Adirondacks and writes a weekly outdoors column for The Chronicle in Glens Falls, a monthly column for Outdoors Magazine ,and authors the Web site ADKHunter.com. Dan is also a member of the New York State Outdoor Writer's Association.