Ober Gatlinburg

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Ober Gatlinburg is an amusement park and ski area, located in the mountains overlooking Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The area contains a large mall with indoor amusements, a large skating rink, snack bars, a big full service lounge, a quality restaurant, and gift and clothing stores. Outside there is an alpine slide, one of the few in the United States, a scenic chairlift to the top of Mount Harrison (the longest in the U.S.), a go-kart track and kiddie rides, a black bear habitat where bears can be seen close up and water rides as well as one of the best scenic overlooks in the area. During winter months, it is a ski resort, and in the summer, the 120 passenger aerial trams carry an average three to four thousand people a day to the resort from downtown Gatlinburg.

1 Ski area
- 1.1 Chairlift
- 1.2 Tramway
2 Amusement park
3 Controversy
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Ski area

Ober Gatlinburg has eight skiing trails and three chairlifts.

Slopes	Length	Drop
Alpine Way	2600' / 792m	279' / 85m
Bear Run	3200' / 975m	393' / 120m
Castle Run	1100' / 335m	163' / 50m
Cub Way	1800' / 550m	163' / 50m
Grizzly	3800' / 1158m	556' / 170m
Mogul Ridge	300' / 90m	235' / 72m
Ober Chute	4400' / 1340m	556' / 170m
Ski school	(teaching area)

[edit] Chairlift

The main chairlift is a few dollars per person to ride, and the weight capacity on the lift is 155kg (342 pounds). The total ride lasts about 30 minutes.^[1]

[edit] Tramway

The tramway departs from downtown Gatlinburg and travels to the ski area. There are two 120-passenger cabs.^[2]

[edit] Amusement park

The amusement park provides the following attractions:

Alpine slide
America's largest aerial tramway
arcade & redemption center
black bear habitat
bungee
water race
go-karts
indoor ice skating
Kiddie Land
miniature golf
Spider Web Velcro wall jump
water ride
Zeke's Place shooting range

[edit] Controversy

There is growing controversy in the town of Gatlinburg, as well as among visitors to the Ober Gatlinburg amusement park, about the living conditions and general treatment of the bears in the Black Bear habitat. Detractors point out that the "habitat" is little more than a series of three concrete "bowls" or enclosures that in no way resemble the natural habitat of black bears. With little shade throughout the day and little to do or space to roam, many people feel the bears are being mistreated. The Ober Gatlinburg amusement park points out that these bears were born in captivity and would not survive in the wild.