• Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!

    You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!

Waterville 4/1 - April Fools Dollar Day

mlkrgr

Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
460
Points
18
I went to Waterville today and it was probably almost as best as spring skiing will get. Got ready and was on the slopes just in time for opening bell, and it was a busy one for sure as 80 people were in line for it. After a few firm and fast runs, the crowds started to pile in. Saw Chris Sununu quite a bit today as he was greeting people at the chair shortly after opening, and people were volunteering to run Sunnyside although he said that he called in extra people to run it and wasn't sure if it can be opened today. By 10:30 am, the line for the quad was out of the corral for the 5 lines they put up and were going right into the Quadzilla line which made the line 15 minutes in singles; probably about 20 in the regular line. People couldn't believe Sunnyside triple wasn't open and at 11:00 am they announced over the loudspeaker that they are preparing the chair to open Sunnyside and it was opened by 11:20 am. Quite immediately, Chris took the normal quad traffic liftie's place who then opened up the Sunnyside. Once that happened, the line at White peaks died down to be a 10 minute line, and Sunnyside was almost ski on for singles. So it was a great effort by management and staff to make sure everyone's experience is good.

The skiing was as good as spring skiing gets. Good vibes from the crowd, and both Buckets and T-Bars were busy with plenty of beer flowing. The skiing started firm and fast for the first couple runs. Sunnyside then got nice and soft and enjoyable with carveable runs and True Grit got built up to have nice and soft fun bumps by the end of the day. Northside did get soft as well but not til 2:30 pm. But I ended up getting a lot of laps in at Sunnyside and terrain bumping up in the area drove the lift lines to be quite short for the lift after the first few laps when the chair opened up.
 

jimk

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 1, 2012
Messages
1,790
Points
113
Location
Wash DC area
Some people say a freebie day like this at end of season does not help a ski area's bottom line, but if others there felt the same way you did a tremendous amount of good will was generated by Waterville and people remember that and come back in the future and bring others with them. Hopefully not just for next April 1st :smile:
 

mlkrgr

Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
460
Points
18
Definitely there was quite a bit of gapers who can't otherwise afford regular lift ticket prices plus the gas to get to the mountain. Word was midweek business has been incredibly slow for them lately. Good thing is w/ how much $$ they were making from F&B w/ packed decks, it probably ended up being a breakeven/marginal profit proposition for them as far as costs to get everything up and running for the day. There was plenty of other people who go all around, etc. that appreciated the day especially the great conditions. Also, there's other people who justified to upgrade their mountain for the day that normally go to other smaller mountains as well such as Pats Peak.
 
Last edited:

dlague

Active member
Joined
Nov 7, 2012
Messages
8,792
Points
36
Location
CS, Colorado
I work 2 exits south of Waterville and the number of cars with ski racks heading south after work made me laugh - thinking that they must have been the $1 skiers! Also wondered how many A Zoners were there!

I have always wanted to do this event but just feared the crowds!
 

mlkrgr

Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
460
Points
18
Judging by the traffic going into and out of the resort, I'd find it hard to believe that people would've gone to other ski areas for the day unless they had a season pass.
 

MadMadWorld

Active member
Joined
Jan 10, 2012
Messages
4,082
Points
38
Location
Leominster, MA
Judging by the traffic going into and out of the resort, I'd find it hard to believe that people would've gone to other ski areas for the day unless they had a season pass.

I did. But we had vouchers to MRG. I'm sure people went to Wildcat for $9 deal.
 
Top