I wonder how many folks here remember 25+ years ago when the Abruzzo's invested in the construction of Golden Eagle and KOM, and when the ski area had a bustling lift serve summer mountain bike program with rentals and a bike shop on site. They hosted a very early NORBA series at the resort, which was probably my first mountain bike race as a junior (raise your hand if you ever had a NORBA license). I think the Abruzzo family has demonstrated a strong investment in New Mexico, and a desire to accommodate a range of outdoor users (witness that Sandia and Ski SF still openly accept uphill skiing, which is getting increasingly pushed/bullied off other resorts like TSV). A mountain coaster isn't the end of the world, especially in an area that is already gladed out, developed, and has multiple man-made structures already. It gets a user group outdoors that wouldn't otherwise, and with that exposure (hopefully) comes personal connection with issues of environment and conservancy.

Nate

On Wed, Sep 9, 2020 at 12:23 PM Leslie Buerk via Bike-racers <bike-racers@mailman.swcp.com> wrote:

I can't imagine this could be built in a way that would not have a huge impact from the noise level, which would be a disaster both ecologically and for all other users of the mountain.

On Wed, Sep 9, 2020 at 11:37 AM powergwa--- via Bike-racers <bike-racers@mailman.swcp.com> wrote:

Counterpoints: The mountain coaster at Purgatory / DMR is completely compatible with skiing and cycling and provides an income stream to the area in the off season. This provides pay to employees and funds for mountain maintainence and improvements. The winter-serving equipment at Sandia Peak, as a designated recreation area, could use significant upgrades. Having worked/volunteered at multiple ski areas, I have witnessed them to be rational environmental stewards, and compromising entities on multi-use issues. Several of the owners of Sandia Peak are excellent cyclists and supportive of the sport.

Cliff's Amusement Park in Albuquerque is irrelevant with respect to this project. Your statements on destroying the 10k et. al trails are not true; this is from the environmental Q&A that you referenced:

4 to 5 switchbacks of the Golden Eagle mountain bike trail would be rerouted to accommodate the coaster.
The coaster would not affect the 10K Trail, King of the Mountain Trail or South Crest Trail.

-----Original Message-----
From: Benjamin Ubayyed via Bike-racers <bike-racers@mailman.swcp.com>
To: NM Bike Racers <bike-racers@swcp.com>
Sent: Tue, Sep 8, 2020 10:20 pm
Subject: [NMCycling] Sandia Ski Area Roller Coaster Publc Comment

Hey Folks.

I can't believe that we are revisiting this stupid project but the forrest service is asking for comments regarding a roller coaster that a private interest wants to build in federal/public land up at Sandia skia area. This would probably destroy the 10k and Golden Eagle trails and even if not it would render them useless due to conflicting seasonal usage. To my way of thinking, in a time of climate change and rampant forest fires, we need to conserve rather than develop public lands. Besides we already have a roller coaster in town. Anyway I hope you will feel similarly and are willing to make such a comment at the forest service website, which we are able to do through December. Here is the link: https://cara.ecosystem-management.org/Public//CommentInput

--

~Benjamin Ubayyed

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