ss20
Well-known member
Here's something that I've always wondered- how is it profitable for mountains to offer night skiing. In browsing Mohawk's pass offerings for next year I saw that they are switching from a 9:30am-10pm schedule Monday-Saturday to a 9:30am-8pm schedule Monday-Wednesday with the traditional 9:30am-10pm schedule for Thursday-Saturday.
For a small mountain, such as Mohawk, which is more rural than urban, night skiing doesn't make financial sense to me. There's lots of school groups, and occasionally race practice (no real events though) whenever I go, which is always a Friday night or a powder day. I get that there's race leagues and weekly ski school programs, but these don't run til 10pm. After 8pm the mountain is dead. Who wants to ski at 9pm on a Tuesday?!?
Let's go further north...to Jiminy Peak. I've night skied there Fridays and Saturdays. It's still dead after 8pm. And they're running that detachable lift, too. I couldn't imagine what it's like midweek.
Essentially, how is night skiing profitable with the added costs of lights and labor, when there's shockingly few skiers on the hill. Especially given the stereotype that the ski industry makes its money Christmas week, President's week, and MLK weekend. It just boggles my mind how much money must be lost by literally "keeping the lights on" for 2 or 3 hours after the hill is done making money.
For a small mountain, such as Mohawk, which is more rural than urban, night skiing doesn't make financial sense to me. There's lots of school groups, and occasionally race practice (no real events though) whenever I go, which is always a Friday night or a powder day. I get that there's race leagues and weekly ski school programs, but these don't run til 10pm. After 8pm the mountain is dead. Who wants to ski at 9pm on a Tuesday?!?
Let's go further north...to Jiminy Peak. I've night skied there Fridays and Saturdays. It's still dead after 8pm. And they're running that detachable lift, too. I couldn't imagine what it's like midweek.
Essentially, how is night skiing profitable with the added costs of lights and labor, when there's shockingly few skiers on the hill. Especially given the stereotype that the ski industry makes its money Christmas week, President's week, and MLK weekend. It just boggles my mind how much money must be lost by literally "keeping the lights on" for 2 or 3 hours after the hill is done making money.