Yeh, 42 degees, ice and hard-pack, off camber to the left, no runout, and a must-make egress trail tangential to the run on the right. What’s not to like? I’m jonesing for it just thinking about it. 
Lutsen’s plan is to install one of their old chairs to the south / skier’s left of The Plunge. Although that would solve the problem of the must-make turn up the Valley Run egress trail, I am very concerned that it would cause even further problems, for by removing the very long egress trail, and by changing the direction of that trail from uphill to downhill where it intersects the 39 (Adrenaline), 40 (Freefall) and 42 (The Plunge) degree runs, I expect that there will be a significant increase in use by wofuks who will increase the number of injuries to themselves by slam dancing with trees due to the lack of runouts, and (more to my personal concern) also create a very big new risk of wofuks shooting out of what will then be a downhill egress trail directly into the path of skiers who will be running at high speed on the steep runs. Quite simply, by forcing skiers to earn their turns due to the present uphill and flat sections of the egress trail, and by having a very long egress, the wofuks tend to avoid the steep runs. If egress is McDonaldified, we’ll lose the wofuk bug repelant, which will cause ongoing delays waiting for them to clear the slopes, and close the sloops for extended periods (sometimes the entire day) when they are injured, even if they don’t take-out another skier in the process.
The first time I skied Adrenaline, I found a fellow wrapped around a tree who has suffered a broken femur. He wasn’t an irresponsible skier: he was an competent intermediate skier whom I has seen cruising easier runs earlier that day.
Chisquirrel, you may have heard about a skier from the Cities down your way who tried The Plunge for the first time last year. One of the patrol later told me that the fellow was unresponsive and that at first they thought he was dead. Surprisingly, he lived thanks to the patrol, EMTs, an air ambulance to the Cities, and the medical professionals there, although he was busted up pretty badly with organ, bone and muscle injuries. Friends of his friends told me that he had been skiing with he more skilled friends – all responsible people, but lost an edge.
These two intermediate skiers were responsible skiers, not wofuks, so I dread the carnage that will ensure once egress from the three steep runs becomes much easier and thereby makes those runs much more enticing for wofuks.
The best analogy that I can think of is that what Lutsen is proposing would be the equivalent of having the front doors of a high-school open directly onto an interstate, and trusting that the teenagers would always stop, look and listen before they walk across the highway rather than just run out into it and play in traffic.
I think the best solution would be to connect with the proposed lift only after creating runouts for the steep runs, closing the present egress trail, and cutting a new gated egress trail with its gates near the end of each runout. There is just enough room to do this without violating the resort’s boundaries. In any event, gates are absolutely necessary at the intersections or their will be serious injuries and deaths due to wofuks being where they have no business being.
For me personally, I would prefer that the present layout remain unchanged, for it is ideal for the type of skiing that I prefer. I ski on alpine race skis (Nordica Dobermann GSR World Cup with the old 21m radius), dampening race plates and a 3/4” riser, so they are ideal for making the turn onto the egress trail at speed and coasting along the uphill section past the other two steep runs and along the rest of the long egress trail, and since I use telemark rather than alpine bindings, on slow snow days I have an easy time cross-country skate skiing up the egress trail and along a couple of other flat parts of the egress trail. The very long runout around to the other side of the mountain is very pretty and often has deer and other small critters using it, so scooting along it offers a type of skiing that is very relaxing and in touch with the environment through which I am skiing.
For me skiing is about the exhilaration of literally living on the edge while pushing my mind and body to their limits; the fluid, lyrical, graceful dance in which I express how I feel by how I ski; the tranquility that comes from emotionally melding with the surrounding environment as I flow along quiet trails through it. Lutsen’s Plunge and the its long, occasionally uphill, Valley Run egress, is one of the very few lift area runs that fulfills these three very different dimensions of skiing for me, so I would very much prefer that it be left as it is.
I’m saying that it’s very close to physically impossible to do so on non-race gear and it’s far more likely that your GPS device read incorrectly, which they do all the time.
