Oct 27, 2002 3 min read

LIGONIER, Pa. (AP) – After an aborted Internet auction and a land deal, a cash-strapped historic ski resort, once known as the “Ski Capital of Pennsylvania,” will open this season. But next year is up to Mother Nature. Operators of the Laurel Mountain Ski Resort say they will open the resort in December. Balmy winters and the fact that not many people knew the resort reopened after being closed for almost a decade led to questions about the resort’s future.

“We are back. We’re going to be running,” said manager Jim Darr.

Owner George Mowl, who took over the Ligonier property in 1998, said this summer he was more than $1 million in debt.

The lodge’s electricity was cut due to unpaid bills and the resort was briefly for sale on Internet auction site eBay, although Mowl said the listing was only intended to attract investors.

After those efforts failed, Mowl opted to sell about 5 percent of property he owns in the Laurel Mountain Village, a housing tract near Laurel Mountain, to pay operating expenses this year.

Mowl sold 25 nearby home lots to a Pittsburgh developer for $375,000 and has received $75,000 from the sale so far.

The deal “should be finished next week. That’s what saved us,” Mowl said.

While the resort will be open, it won’t be skiing as usual.

The resort will close on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and will only have about 110 employees, down from a high of 150 in past years.

But Mowl said he hopes the resort will draw more than 60,000 skiers this season, the biggest draw for the resort since it reopened.

Mowl also said he can’t rule out an eventual sale.

“If we don’t get the snow, I’ll be in trouble,” Mowl said. “I can’t sustain these losses.”

The resort was once part of the Rolling Rock Club, a private resort where the elite used horse-drawn sleighs instead of ski lifts.

The land was given to the state in 1962 by Richard King Mellon, the conservationist chairman of Mellon Bank, and passed through several concessionaires before being closed completely between 1989 and 1998.

Skiing buffs say Laurel Mountain is unique. Many say it isn’t technically a resort because Laurel Mountain offers few of the amenities expected at modern ski destinations.

Mowl built a new lodge where skiers can go for an apres ski, but there aren’t any onsite accommodations or spas.

At 900 feet, the slopes have some of the greatest vertical drops in Pennsylvania and some of the most challenging terrain.

The black-diamond Upper Wildcat slope run feeds expert skiers into the double-black diamond Lower Wildcat below. Operators say it is the steepest continuos skiing slope in Pennsylvania.

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On the Net:

Laurel Mountain: http://www.skilaurelmountain.com/