The Pines Hotel -- This is vhere zee photos dwell

The ski chalet, as you can see, has been damaged pretty considerably by vandals. There is an entire other floor below this, with a garage for ski patrol vehicles and VERY complicated electrical and HVAC machinery.

As the sleuth that I pretend to be, I am forced to observe a few things about the work of the vandals. First, the vandals left physical evidence in the form of cigar tobacco. Clearly, the work of a pot-smoker or group of pot-smokers rolling a blunt. Second, women tend to not engage in acts of random violence so much as men do. Third, unprovoked crimes of destruction generally are not the work of the elderly. Therefore, I conclude that the damage to this facility was the result of partying teenage males. You can see that this is very trashed. You CAN'T see that every window in the building, including the huge plate glass windows looking up to the slopes are smashed -- shattered intentionally no doubt.

The entrance to the ski chalet is still well signed, although unfortunately the road has been chained off and the new owners have posted no trespassing signs. *sigh* Oh well, maybe some old photographs of the place will turn up eventually.

Two fine people named Tiny and Casey used to run these lifts (and the ice rink), and used to help me on and off when I was little. From what I hear, Casey works now at either Holiday Mountain or Davos, and Tiny is a lumberjack. Not like anyone reading this page knows who either of those two people are. Or do you? If you do then e-mail me and tell me!

Flags still flying, losing more and more of their once vibrant colors each day. The ski chalet is one spot that bothers me more than other spots because I learned how to ski here. I went on to learn to snow board, but still, this is where I learned to fly down a hill on a piece of wood. I remember as a young child thinking -- their black diamond slope here is so hard! I remember one instance where the snow was deep and powdery and I had difficulty turning, and for some reason I got frustrated and just stayed in the lodge.

And this is that awesome black diamond trail. About 500 feet long, tops. When you're a kid everything seems bigger than it does when you're older.