Going Downhill at Blue Mountain: An update

by Colin Field

When Collingwood’s Blue Mountain announced it would no longer run downhill mountain biking, Ontario’s DH community went ballistic. It was a devastating blow. Tempers ran high and to this day many are still furious with the resort’s decision.

Dan Skelton, President and COO of Blue Mountain Resort answered some of our questions about downhill operations at Blue and what the future could hold for the resort.

Colin Field: When did DH start at Blue Mountain?

Dan Skelton: We noticed the first poachers and renegade trail builders in the mid-’90s. Around that time Swatty organized the first Ontario downhill race. It was shortly after that we had our, “if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em,” moment and we organized a trail building crew, shuttling bikes to the top of the hill in trailers. The original builders, Gary Scarrow, Ken Klowak and others built miles of trail. In the later years, under Pete Sutcliffe and Mike Towers, with the help of Gravity Logic we significantly upped our game.

RELATED: Thowback Thursday: 1994 O-Cup Downhill racing

When did the Gondola open for riders?

2003

How many DH pass holders are there each year? Maybe from 2015 or so? Do you have number of downhill tickets sold in those years too?

We do not release exact visitation or sales numbers, however, bike visitation is less than 0.01% of total visitation. Downhill riders have been visiting Blue steadily since we permitted access to the gondola in the ‘90s with regular lineups every summer. Although they are passionate, bikers are not a large part of our business. An entire summer of biking business is about the same as one mid-winter Saturday of skiing and riding at Blue. DH at Blue did not begin with a business plan. It was developed and organically driven by the passions and skills of Blue Mountain bike team but was not a profitable offering.

What’s the reason/reasons for shutting down DH MTB? I feel like this is the most upsetting part of it all for riders; the lack of explanation.

The summer 2020 experience forced every business to retool and adapt. At that time, we could not operate biking for the summer but we set out to plan for its future. Unfortunately, when you put DH biking through the multiple filters of risk, liability, profitability, growth potential and environmental sustainability it doesn’t pass.

On risk and liability, downhill mountain biking is a high risk sport, and while we have always put significant resources into mitigating risk as much as possible, there is no way to eliminate all risks, and why we’ve always asked our guests to assume those inherent risks of the sport. Despite this assumption of risk by participants, there remains a fundamental challenge for the sport in Ontario, where, unlike many other jurisdictions, new case law continues to weaken the assumption of risk doctrine and there are no laws and regulations that emphasize personal responsibility and help to prevent claims against responsible operators. This leaves the financial burden and liability primarily on the shoulders of Ontario business operators. This was not a sustainable model for Blue Mountain.

On environmental sustainability, Blue Mountain is blue and red clay. We made beautiful pottery with it in the ‘70s. Unfortunately, it’s the worst base for DH biking; it turns to mush when wet and dust when dry and it always travels downhill leaving exposed roots and barren soil.

Why the lack of communication with riders from April 2020 onward?

Up until this spring, we simply did not have an update on biking. We spent 2020 adapting all of our operations to meet the COVID challenge. Early in 2021, we began looking at summer operations once again and the recreation team was working on a plan for biking this summer. There was considerable discussion but the decision not to move forward with lift access mountain biking was made just a week before our official communication went out. It was not an easy decision, suffice to say the Blue bike team bent over backwards to try to make it work.

So what’s planned for this summer?

We are still navigating a certain amount of uncertainty with summer 2021. We are planning ahead with summer and hopeful that the public health landscape is a better one than last year but I expect we won’t be entirely out of the woods.

We intend to have offerings for bikers in some form. I commend our team for the creativity and effort they put into re-imagining biking at Blue. We are looking at cross-country trails and pedal-access riding on the mountain along with enhanced multi-use trails.

My understanding was that there has always been a plan to move MTB to the south end of the resort. Rumours still abound that either the South Chair or the Orchard chair will one day be moving cyclists up hill. Is this phase one of that?

We are always dreaming, planning, changing and growing. We used to sell clay pottery and harvest maple syrup, and we had water slides and slide rides. We have had a variety of businesses and resort offerings come and go over time. A plan to move biking to the South end was developed but, risk and sustainability aside, there is a fundamental capacity constraint. We have a finite amount of forested acreage across the mountain. Running Southern Comfort would easily triple our uphill capacity but we cannot triple our trails.

Will DH return to Blue?

Never say never but as long as the fundamentals stay the same, we do not have a plan for lift-access downhill mountain biking to return to Blue.

Anything else to add?

Blue will always be changing and adapting and I’m proud of how mountain biking was a part of our growth. There is passion and a sense of adventure in mountain biking that will remain a part of Blue as we continue to evolve.