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Mt. Ashland replaces ‘trail of tears’ with magic carpet ride By Mark Freeman Oct 26, 2022 01:00 AM A A Doug Volk, Mt. Ashland director of operations, walks along the mountain’s new magic carpet lift Monday. [Jamie Lusch / Mail Tribune] ASHLAND — For years the arduous walk that beginner skiers had to make at the Mt. Ashland Ski Area was known as the “trail of tears” because of all the sobbing kids who endured it. Rent your skis and boots, then carry them across the parking lot to the main lodge. Put the skis and boots on, and then see if you can stop sobbing long enough to grab a frozen tow rope to your first lesson. “It’s tough for a beginner to grab a rope and get hauled up there,” says Doug Volk, the ski area’s director of mountain operations. This year’s rookies instead will get a magic carpet ride to their first Mt. Ashland ski lesson, and they can save their tears for their first launch down the snow. The ski area has added a new electric skier-mover to transport kids and other first-timers from the lodge to their practice slope. The slope also has been re-contoured for easier and more kid-friendly learning environs just in time for this upcoming ski season at the nonprofit ski area southwest of Ashland. Combined with the move of the rental shop to the lodge’s basement four years ago, new skiers and snowboarders will now get to their first lessons in style — and, hopefully, without their first snowy tumbles. “We’ve wanted to do everything to eliminate the trail of tears from the rental shop to the beginners’ area,” Volk says. “Now, we have.” The 150-foot, covered conveyor cost $160,000, and it took ski area workers about 10 days to build it, Volk says. The ski area has eyed such a conveyor for years, but the project was deemed too spendy for the nonprofit to absorb. However, benefactors who wish to be anonymous ponied up the funds this year to make it a reality, Volk says. “It seemed like a realistic pursuit with the funding there,” he says. “It’s become an industry standard,” he says. “No one wants to latch onto a rope to get pulled up the slope to their lesson.” The ski area runs multiple lesson segments each of the five days it’s open per week. Anchored with about 800 kids in its after-school programs, the ski area initiates about 1,700 new skiers and snowboarders on its teaching slope annually, says Nick Allen, the ski area’s snow-sports manager. Coupled with past changes, the new setup will make for a better learning experience for this years’ first-timers, Allen says. “The magic carpet is a game-changer for us this year,” Allen says. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470, or email at [email protected].