Bad News--Silver Fir getting new chair

Crazy, definitely. This is a huge improvement for Central, and we should be happy to see the new management is making positive changes. The old chair was slooooooow!! Central is definitely the most popular resort at the pass, and desperately needs more options for the hordes of skiers. I do not know if night lighting is planned. I can only assume it would be. Think of the huge additional night terrain that could be available. As it is currently, the bottom is so flat and the chair so slow, only old crotchety skiers bother to ride it. Wait, I need to be civil. Only, people with lots more patience than me, bother to ride the present chair. Yes, this is the end of lack of use of good terrain. Ticket prices? I am still hoping for a huge increase! It would certainly help with that peace and quiet thing.
Sincerely, Impatient skier - change is inevitable -

As it is currently, the bottom is so flat and the chair so slow, only old crotchety skiers bother to ride it.    Wait, I need to be civil.  Only, people with lots more patience than me, bother to ride the present chair.   
Sincerely, Impatient skier  -  change is inevitable -

RIP, Silver Fir. Everyone's gonna have a different take on this, including "who needs a lift?"

Having watched Sunday River go through it's expansion from a sleepy little slow lift ski area on two peaks to a big resort with fast lifts across 4 peaks, I have mixed feelings. The new lift will presumably draw off some pressure from the other lifts at the ski area. Perhaps that won't result in an equivalent load of new skiers coming to the area each weekend day, but my bet is otherwise (kind of like highways - if you add lanes or highways, you end up with more cars on the road - something governments learned back in the '60s). But we'll see. As for the runs under Silver Fir - they'll never be the same. My Sunday River experience tells me that there will be fun new choke points full of flustered skiers who become gates for the more aggressive to ski around. Sunday River became much better on quiet weekends and weekdays, and much worse on busy weekends (to the point where we'd go elsewhere at busy times). I predict, counterintuitively, the lift line at the new lift will take longer to get through than the old one as more people flock there. The jumpers I've seen sail over my head on the runs there will have a higher probability of scoring a "hit."

I get why the ski area is doing this and don't begrudge them the right to "improve" in this way, but I'll miss the old lift and the quiet refuge I sometimes took advantage of there. I spent more time on line up at chair 2 at alpental anyhow (now if they significantly increase capacity there, things will really get interesting at some choke points...), so it's not a terribly big deal to me - more like a tiny loss. If that makes me old and crotchety to some, so be it.

Stopped by the Silver Fir base area Sunday -- big "keep out" sign.

Looks like all the old towers are gone.

They are doing a bunch of earth work to move the loading area down to the parking lot level -- no more walking up to get to the lift.

I suspect that change alone will make the Silver Fir vastly more popular with the casual skiing crowd -- expect the Silver Parking lot to be the 1st to fill on weekends from now on.

Bleeech!

Yep, that was one tough walk .

I disagree. Without any ticket sales or rental lodges, the Silver Fir parking lot remains the lot of choice only for season passholders -- who frequently avoid Central on weekends anyway. I only use Silver Fir lot for midweek skiing when Alpental is closed.