SARANAC LAKE - With one hand on the T-bar and the other holding his ski poles, 73-year-old Jack Fogarty leaned over to his 3-year-old grandson Paul and gave him a little advice.
"Keep your feet together and lean against the bar," he said. "Hold on. There will be a little jolt. ... Here we go."
With those words, the two Fogartys - separated by seven decades, both all smiles - began the first ride up the new T-bar lift at Mount Pisgah Ski Center. It came just after 10 a.m. on Saturday morning, the first day of the ski season at the village run-ski center, and more than two-and-a-half years after fundraising for the long-awaited lift got under way.
"It's official," Pisgah Manager Charlie Martin said. "We have a new lift, and it's running really well. Now we just need to get some snow so we can stay open."
The opening of the ski season at Mount Pisgah, and the first day of operation for the new T-bar, had been delayed by more than two weeks. The lack of natural snow was to blame along with the unseasonably warm weather so far this winter, including rain, which has hampered snowmaking efforts at the mountain.
A few sprinkles of rain started to fall not long after the Fogartys took the first T-bar ride, and only one trail was open, but the dozen or so skiers and snowboarders who showed up - mostly kids, teenagers and 20-somethings - didn't seem to mind.
Mike and Dan Phelabaum, snowboarders who've been riding at Pisgah since the late-1990s, said the new T-bar is a great addition to the mountain.
"They definitely needed it," Dan Phelabaum said. "They were about a century behind in technology."
"We've seen this whole process go down," Mike Phelabaum said. "It's pretty cool. I remember riding this thing when we were 5 years old, the old T-bar.
"It's nice to see something new."
Jack Fogarty thanked the many people who donated money and helped make the project a reality.
"The people in Saranac Lake are really supportive of the ski area, and the village is supportive and worked hard," he said. "They've done a nice job. It'll last a long time. We're so happy to have this facility here."
The fact that Jack Fogarty and his grandson Paul were the first two people to ride the new T-bar wasn't a coincidence. Jack's son Terence (Paul's father) was the highest bidder for the inaugural T-bar ride at a Friends of Mount Pisgah fundraising event this past fall. But Terence couldn't make it for Saturday morning because he was at a ski race at Whiteface Mountain with his two oldest children, Jack Fogarty said.
Fundraising for the project began in July 2009 and got a major leg up in April 2010 when the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation awarded the village a $600,000 matching grant for a new T-bar lift and a series of multi-use recreational trails at the mountain.
The old T-bar, which was built in the 1940s and had served Mount Pisgah since January 1960, was removed from the mountain in pieces earlier this year. The new lift was purchased by the village from Doppelmayr CTEC for $374,769 and installed this fall. A new lift attendant building has also been constructed. Much of the work has been done by volunteers and businesses that have donated their time, money and labor on the project.
Friends of Mount Pisgah ultimately raised $125,000 toward the project through a series of fundraisers, big and small. The group still needs to find another $30,000 to pay for some unanticipated costs, according to FOMP President Wayne Feinberg.
"It's a great thing for our community to come together and accomplish such a big goal," Feinberg said Friday. "We still have a little more money to raise to pay off our portion of it, but it's an amazing accomplishment that it will be opening and operating."
Both Martin and Feinberg said there are signs that the new lift could bring new life to the mountain.
"I would say about 20 percent of my current season passes are new people or people who haven't been here for a few years because of the unreliability of the old lift," Martin said.
"I have been told by a few people already that they plan on coming there where they didn't in the past because it's more reliable, it runs faster and makes for a better experience," Feinberg said. "The mountain is always an affordable option, for the youth in the region mostly, to get out and ski and do stuff in the wintertime."
Martin said the new T-bar is just one of several upgrades and new offerings that are planned at Mount Pisgah, including 6 miles of nordic ski trails, a half-mile handicapped access and snowshoeing trail, and a ski jumping hill. At its meeting tonight, the village board will consider partnering with Eastern Mountain Sports to host Telemark and backcountry skiing clinics at the mountain.
"This is a 100-acre park," Martin said. "It's not just a 15-acre small mountain with a T-bar on it any longer. It's a viable enterprise. For the village to have this in their quiver, if you will, is awesome."
