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LOCATION 200 Route 94 Vernon, NJ 07462 USA CONTACT
HISTORY OF MOUNTAIN CREEK Mountain Creek originally began as two separate ski areas, Vernon Valley and Great Gorge. Great Gorge Great Gorge was founded in McAfee , an unincorporated area of Vernon, NJ , in 1965 by a group of three families who worked at the Milton Snowbowl in Milton, NJ . The founders sold $1000 bonds to help cover the costs of the construction and land acquisition. The original Great Gorge featured a few trails on what is now known as Mountain Creek's Bear Peak, with 3 double cahirlifts manufactured by the Borvig Corp of nearby Pine Island, NY and installed by Dolomite Ski Contstruction, also of Pine Island. The base lodge was designed by Alexander "Sandy" McIlvaine, who also designed the lodges at Stratton, VT and Squaw Valley, CA . The trails of Great Gorge were designed by Otto Schneibs and by Luis Schafflinger, two renowned Austrian ski trail designers. Within a short time, Great Gorge expanded to the current South Peak (then known as Great Gorge South) and in 1971, they expanded to what is now Granite Peak (then known as Great Gorge North). This expansion was part of a masterplan that included an olympic ski-jump and training facility. Also in 1971, Playboy opened their $20 million, 700 room Playboy Great Gorge Resort on 1,000 acres (4 km²) of land a few miles away from Great Gorge. Great Gorge and Playboy founded a partnership, and had grandiose plans for connecting the hotel to the resort via an aerial gondola. In late 1971, Great Gorge was foreclosed by their lender after a number of practically snowless seasons left them with barely enough money to operate, let alone pay off their enormous loan. The lender then sold Great Gorge to Vernon Valley. Vernon Valley In 1968, a new ski resort, known as Vernon Valley, opened adjacent to Great Gorge, to the north. Vernon Valley was founded by investors who saw the area as a big money maker. Rather than invest time and effort into carefully designing their ski area, the investment group cut a number of trails straight from the top to the bottom of the moutain. Shortly thereafter in 1968, state wildlife officials demanded that the owners of Vernon Vallery be evicted after the improper use of land leased to them by the state, causing much embarrassment to the investment firm. After the foreclosure of Great Gorge, it was sold to Vernon Valley, who merged the two areas forming Vernon Valley/Great Gorge (VVGG). In 1974, VVGG was purchased by Great American Recreation, under the leadership of Eugene Mulvihill. Under Great American, VVGG built up a large arsenal of snowmaking, which allowed it to not fall to the fate of the original Great Gorge. VVGG, which claimed 53 runs (emphasis on "claimed") and the largest snowmaking system in the country became an incredibly popular skiing destination in the region. In 1976, VVGG opened Action Park, an amusement park comprised of over 75 rides and, attractions including over 40 water slides, bungee jumping, go karts, bumper boats, mini golf, concerts and shows. Action Park became as popular in the summer as VVGG was in the winter, also becoming a regional destination. The future years saw great success for VVGG. During the 1980's, Coblestone Village was built, which included restaurants and shops including a Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream shop as well as the "Vernon Valley Brauhaus" brewery. The decade also saw rise to Great Gorge Village, a condo development comprised of hundreds of luxury housing units, many of which are slopeside, allowing ski-in/ski-out access, and The Spa at Great Gorge, a 4-star luxury resort and spa complete with an 18-hole golf course and a number of indoor and outdoor swimming pools. Great American's developments along with VVGG became known collectively as the Great Gorge Resort. VVGG continued to upgrade their skiing operations, installing a number of new lifts, including a triple chairlift in 1981. VVGG continued to see success throughout the late 1980's, but during the early 1990's, poor attendance combined with poor and corrupt management led the Great Gorge Resort on a downward spiral. Great American Recreation, who was fined by the SEC in 1984 after pleading guilty in 1984 to five counts of fraud, theft and conspiracy related to the unauthorized operation of an insurance company, was traded publicly on the Nasdaq, under the symbol GRAR. The stock was traded through shady investment fronts and behind the scenes, Mulvihill and his partners were alleged to have skimmed profits and cut inside deals. Eventually, the stock collapsed and in 1995, GAR filed for bankruptcy. For a few years, the resort operated with no insurance policy, which led even fewer patrons to come. In 1996, a number of large lawsuits stemming from the resort having no insurance policy led Action Park to close its doors. Eventually, money became so tight that in 1996, Great Gorge North and South were unable to operate, and only Vernon Valley operated - barely. The resort was never able to get out of bankruptcy and finally, in 1997, the Great Gorge Resort shut down all of its operations. In 1998, the assets of Great American Recreation were sold. Great Gorge Village, the Spa at Great Gorge and the Spa Golf Course remained with Eugene Mulvihill, and renamed Crystal Springs Resort, and VVGG ski area and Action Park were sold to Intrawest , a Canadian skiing company, owner of many of the most prominent ski resorts in North America. Mountain Creek After purchasing the resort, Intrawest renamed it Mountain Creek and invested millions of dollars into the refurbishment of the resort. Intrawest removed 11 of the 13 lifts, replacing them with a high speed 8 passenger open air "Cabriolet" gondola, and 2 high-speed detachable quad lifts, all built by Doppelmayr . The Great Gorge Lodge, which hadn't operated for the past few years and hadn't been refurbished in nearly 30 years underwent a major renovation, and was renamed Mountain Creek South. Intrawest launched Mountain Creek in time for the 1998/99 season. Intrawest also resurrected Action Park , which had been closed since 1996. Intrawest removed Action Park's motor world, which featured go-karts and speedboats, as well as the bungee jumping tower and skyshot rides. Water World was underwent millions of dollars in renovation and reopened as Mountain Creek Waterpark . Intrawest continues to invest in new attractions at the waterpark. Intrawest drafted a master plan for the resort, whose centerpiece was a resedential and shopping village, a staple of Intrawest resorts. Included in the village plans are a conference center, numerous hotels, condos, townhouses, shops, and restaurants. On the mountaintop was to be a golf course surrounded by hotels and condos. This mountaintop development was scrapped however, as the land that it was located on was sold by the State of New Jersey to Mountain Creek's previous owners, Great American Recreation, with a deed restriction that stated that the land was to be used only for passive recreation, such as fishing, hiking, and camping. Intrawest therefore sold the land back to the state, with the state in return giving Intrawest permission to expand skiing on portions of the mountain where it was previously prohibited. Also, Intrawest was given full permission to proceed in building their village at the base of the mountain. In the fall of 1999, just months before the ski season, the Vernon Lodge burnt down to the ground. In time for the ski season, a large complex of prefabricated tents was built by Sprung Instant Structures to replace the lodge. A new lodge has yet to be built (2004). Although the new Appalachian hotel is being built, no plans for a lodge have been announced. In 2002, Mountain Creek opened the first phase of their master-planend resort village, Black Creek Sanctuary, a luxury townhouse community built on the site of Action Park's Motor World. In the winter of 2003, construction began on The Appalachian , a luxury condominium/hotel property built in the parking lot of Vernon base. The 2004 and 2005 Chevy U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix's were held at Mountain Creek. The centerpiece of this event was Mountain Creek's Superpipe, one of the only superpipes in the east. FUTURE OF MOUNTAIN CREEK Intrawest has plans to build one of their signature villages, a community of shops, eateries and luxury housing. Today, Mountain Creek is once again the premiere skiing destination in the region. THE MOUNTAIN Mountains
Trails
Terrain parks
Snowtubing
Lifts
Snowmaking
Other Information Many of the teenagers and young people in the area get seasonal jobs at Mountain Creek. From most employee's perspectives, the resort has grossly inefficent management and is run by a complex bureaucracy. Simple things like paycheck discrepancys take weeks and sometimes months to correct. Staff and local residents often refer to the resort as "Mountain Crack," a derogatory term that conotates how badly run and crazy the resort seems. As of late, Intrawest has been hiring college students on their summer break from countries Africa and South America. These workers often have only rudimentary English skills, so be aware that it may take several attempts to get your point across. These foreign employees make up the majority of the lift operators and food service personnel. There have been increasingly more foreign workers brought in over the recent years, as locals find working there difficult at best due to bad employee/management relationships. The resort is often overcrowded, and this causes dangerous skiing conditions. Several EMTs refuse to work at the resort, claiming it is just too inherently dangerous due to overcrowding and that the resort does nothing to fix the problem. The parking lots are mostly unpaved, so be prepared to deal with mud on warmer days of the season. EXTERNAL LINKS
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