Gas Prices = Apprehension for Next Season?

[deadheadskier]

Originally Posted by SkiDork

Rofl!!! Potd!!!

I think this is what snoseek was referring to regarding his feeling that his sister takes a somewhat 'elitist' attitude over him because she has kids and he does not.

Look I think it goes without saying that someone who is a parent has a different perspective than someone who doesn't have kids. This doesn't mean however, that someone without kids can't have a valid opinion on what constitutes good parenting. There are great parents and bad parents no matter what level of wealth and I don't think it takes having a child of your own to see the difference.

I don't know Greg, but he seems to be a stand up guy and I assume a great parent. I don't think snoseek was saying he is a bad parent or made the wrong choice by having a two income family with kids in pre-school.

Probably isn't really worth discussing further. Perhaps were all just a little moody because our fuel tanks are on E and there are no lifts spinning even if they were full

[Greg]

deadhead - it wasn't that long ago that I wasn't a parent. You go into it with some idea of what to expect, but most of it is on the job training. One thing is for sure - it will challenge just about everything about yourself you thought you knew.

[snoseek]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

No we just need some good ol' summer flame wars in this bitch!!!!!!!!!


I was pretty high last night when I made most of my post!!! I'm going skiing now.

I'm sure Greg is a great example of a good parent-when he let's the kids out of the basement

Side note-bobr is one of the few guys I've met that chose both paths.

[deadheadskier]

Originally Posted by Greg

deadhead - it wasn't that long ago that I wasn't a parent. You go into it with some idea of what to expect, but most of it is on the job training. One thing is for sure - it will challenge just about everything about yourself you thought you knew.

I have no doubt that this is true. No delusions there on my part

[trtaylor]

Although we'll each need to make adjustments as fuel costs rise, there is a LOT of good work going on in this area. Two examples:

Toyota fuel cell hybrid (I could do a roundtrip from Pa. to Mount Snow in this.)

Cat electric drive dozer (Maybe we'll see this technology on groomers?)

As others have posted, home heating oil costs remain a concern.

[awf170]

Originally Posted by skiboarder

I find the increased gas issue is blown way out of proportion for the non poor. It takes about 22 gallons of gas for me to go from westchester to Killington roundtrip. Say gas prices will increase $2.00 a gallon from this ski season from the previous. My weekend is costing me $44 more. At $2.50, $55 more. For my wife and I , discounted lift tixes will be $172 for 2 days. Lodging about $250. Food, maybe about $150. If gas is $5 a gallon, it will cost $110. $682 for the weekend instead of say $630. That's an increase in total cost of less than 10%. Add an extra day or kids to the mix, and the % price increase gets much smaller. Is this really a big deal? Hell, bring a hot plate or stay at a place with access to a microwave and don't go out for dinner and your ahead of the game.

Yes, but there are some of us who's only cost is gas, then the percent increase is huge. More than half my days on the east this year were hiking for turns. I bring a lunch and don't eat supper until I get home. Sometimes I'll spend $4 for breakfast. An increase from $3 to $5 will therefore make a huge difference for me since I do so many long day trips. It won't really affect me too much though since I'm such a cheap bastard in every other aspect of life that I always have a lot of money saved up. It will just make me reconsider going up when conditions are marginal if I don't have someone to split the gas with.

[ski_resort_observer]

For me....the high price of gas is a problem but not one to go screaming into the night. Most of us have services/products and recreation which are discretionarey items....we don't need them to survive. You have to evaluate that and decide which ones are the most important. Not easy but imperative. Assess, adapt and overcome.

With three teenagers/young adults, all who drive, this has been an incredible learning, dare I say, reality check for them. They all work.

Personally I believe the prices of crude are not supported by fundementals but by speculation, it's bubble, it will burst.

A Geoff mentioned part of the unreal price of crude supports is the weak dollar. It's a big one.

Supply is another part of the problem but increased drilling for increased supply will do nothing as we have a huge bottleneck in the pipeline. With no new refineries builtt in 37 years, some have expanded, means that without refinery capacity expansion, more production would solve anything. There are some new huge refineries close to being put online in Russia and China.

Drilling in places like the tiny ANWR would be totally lame IMHO as it would do nothing to solve the problem. The big oil companies are trying to increase production at places where it makes sense. They whine alot but billions in profits means they have plenty of money to invest in this. They know that they have to find new oil to keep the money rolling in.

I worked in Gillette, Wyoming(1976-197 the nations center of low sulfur coal production for potential clean energy producing source. They have several huge surface mines employing thousands to mine the coal. This is surface mining, the miners drive huge air conditioned Trex trucks. This is not Kentucky coal mining. If Campell County was a country it would be 5th in the world in coal reserves. With advances in power plant environmental emission controls like scrubber on their stacks it could be part of the solution.

There is not much we can really do at the moment about demand. Domestically we have reduced our demand by about 5% but the demand by the energy sucking industrial growth of Chine, India and other countries growing like weeds means demand has been great. That demand might be flattening out?

We have to stop thinking short time and start being serious about alternative energy.

There are currently several major headwinds in the present for the ski business as well as many of the businesses nationwide. If things do not break as far as the price of oil soon there is alot of discussion out there as to whether that will hurt or help the ski resorts in New England.

[pepperdawg]

Originally Posted by ckofer

A) D) The phrase "worker bee" may offend some

Yeah some of us prefer "Data Monkeys"....

[pepperdawg]

Originally Posted by snoseek

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I'm sure Greg is a great example of a good parent-when he let's the kids out of the basement

POTD for Thursday??

[wa-loaf]

Originally Posted by snoseek

I'm getting older @ 35 but g.f. is 25 so we have +- 15 years to change our minds. I don't think it will ever happen though.

If you are still together in 10 years she will.


I want the price of gas to go where it is going and settle down. Whether it is $4 or $7 or more. But the constant and rapid rise is the problem, once it hits it's equilibrium everything else will catch-up sooner or later. Some stability is key.