Ticket Sale Limit - how many is too many for a Hunter Mtn Size mountain ???????

catskillman · Jan 22, 2018

So - it was broadcast that on Saturday (January 20th) Hunter sold 6,000 etickets for the day. Then about 2,000 tickets at the window, not to mention the buses that showed up and the passholders and folks that bought tickets at places like Costco, Potter Bros., ski clubs etc.....

I can't begin to tell you how crowded it was. The lift lines met, the west side was backed up down the run out (this was especially interesting - as you know that meant we were all standing in line uphill for 1/2 hour. Everyone was sliding back into each other... fun), the triple line was backed up under the quad (this was unnecessary as they did not have a single line set up, or a ski school line. As a matter of fact there were no line, just one big mosh pit!)

I left around 11 - the conditions were excellent - but it was unsafe and I was not into standing in those lines....

So how many is too many? Do/should mountains have a limit? And and what point does revenue trump customer relations? A portion of those who bought tickets will never return?

cdskier · Jan 22, 2018

Should there be a limit? In my opinion, yes. What that limit is though is specific to each mountain. It sounds like what you experienced this weekend would be beyond the theoretical limit. You're right that a bad experience with crowds can certainly hurt in the long run with some people choosing to go elsewhere in the future. Then again, if a mountain is that crowded, are they losing enough future business vs what they would lose if they cut off sales? Probably not. Some mountains would value the "experience" enough to cut off sales even at the expense of cutting off some revenue. Others don't care and will just keep selling tickets.

VTKilarney · Jan 22, 2018

I think that there should be a limit. But it's hard to set a limit on something that people drive a long way to get to. If you turn those people away, you are going to have some seriously mad customers. I am sure it can be done, but it's no doubt a challenge to do it the right way.

andrec10 · Jan 22, 2018

It was busy, but if you worked the mtn, it was not that bad!

gnardawg · Jan 22, 2018

Didn't places like Wachuesset and Attitash used to sell out for the day?

ss20 · Jan 22, 2018

Wachusett has sold out before and still does. Magic has their new ticket limit in place this season.

Ticket limits are in place at Magic and Deer Valley because limited crowds are part of their business model/marketing scheme.

Hunter doesn't praise its self on uncrowded slopes so why should they promise that to their clientele? It was 40 degrees this weekend, with sunny skies, and fresh snow. It was going to be a zoo and you knew it. Working at Thunder Ridge and being exposed to the NYC crowd has shown me they have an incredible tolerance for crowds and poor ski conditions. They simply don't know better, or put precedence of the accessibility over a superior skiing experience.

My guess is that there were less unhappy people there than you'd expect. This forum is the upper-echelon of ski enthusiasts so we're all going to be for ticket limits. When we go skiing, our idea of a positive ski experience is a world apart from the "casual" skier. And the closer you get to a metropolitan hill, the greater this disparity becomes apparent.

Just my $0.02.

JimG. · Jan 22, 2018

It wasn't that crowded Sunday. Not by a long shot.

I thought it was a great day; nice to see the mountain make some money too.

I admittedly did not ski Sat because of pent up demand but friends who did reported it was very manageable.

Too fussy?

dhmcgill87 · Jan 22, 2018

i think the crowding complaints at hunter are largely overblown, even for weekend warriors.

The key is to be smart - If you can only ski hunter on weekends, Sunday is almost always the less crowded day. Sunday 11am-4pm is a good window. MLK day i don't think I waited more than 3 minutes for the flyer all day. Same goes for new year's day.

If you have to go Saturdays, wait for a cold day or keep to the F lift or Hunter West.

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nycskier · Jan 22, 2018

Also if you avoid the Belt Parkway like the plague Hunter is usually not so bad even on very crowded days.

catskillman · Jan 23, 2018

dhmcgill87 said:
i think the crowding complaints at hunter are largely overblown, even for weekend warriors.

The key is to be smart - If you can only ski hunter on weekends, Sunday is almost always the less crowded day. Sunday 11am-4pm is a good window. MLK day i don't think I waited more than 3 minutes for the flyer all day. Same goes for new year's day.

If you have to go Saturdays, wait for a cold day or keep to the F lift or Hunter West.

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Those days were freezing cold, so the crowds were nothing compared to historical data.

This Saturday F and Z lines were very very long. I never saw Z that long. F lift has been closed several times a week ago Sunday if I recall the correct day. Some mechanical thing.......

dhmcgill87 · Jan 28, 2018

catskillman said:
Those days were freezing cold, so the crowds were nothing compared to historical data.

This Saturday F and Z lines were very very long. I never saw Z that long. F lift has been closed several times a week ago Sunday if I recall the correct day. Some mechanical thing.......

total shitshow yesterday at hunter. Broke my rule and went up on a nice warm Saturday because some friends were pushing to ski. 10-15 minute wait for the flyer all day. F lift broke down around 1030 and didn't reopen until we left at 3. Need that lift to spread out crowds.

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JimG. · Jan 28, 2018

dhmcgill87 said:
total shitshow yesterday at hunter. Broke my rule and went up on a nice warm Saturday because some friends were pushing to ski. 10-15 minute wait for the flyer all day. F lift broke down around 1030 and didn't reopen until we left at 3. Need that lift to spread out crowds.

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I went Friday to avoid the Saturday nightmare.

A great move...they blew a ton of snow Thursday night and there were large snowmaking whales everywhere. So some nice bumps set up in a few places. They even did a nice grooming job on Claire's and Purna.

bdfreetuna · Jan 28, 2018

Turning people away is a risky move. I think any one of us would be pissed to arrive at a mountain to find out we just missed the golden ticket.

Sweet spot for capacity for guests is best managed through parking lot sizes, lift and lodge infrastructure, pricing and marketing.

Not Sure · Jan 28, 2018

bdfreetuna said:
Turning people away is a risky move. I think any one of us would be pissed to arrive at a mountain to find out we just missed the golden ticket.

Sweet spot for capacity for guests is best managed through parking lot sizes, lift and lodge infrastructure, pricing and marketing.

IDK ? If they advertise the policy well enough I would be more likely to go knowing things won’t be too nuts. That being said I would be an early bird and have a plan B ski area nearby if I miss the cutoff. I purposely avoid weekends for mainly safety reasons ,secondly if you breakdown the number of runs you get vs $ it’s a better value.

If I go further than a day trip it’s usually somewhere large enough for a crowd to be dispersed.

lerops · Jan 28, 2018

Yes, people would get pissed but that is because everybody expects to buy a ticket and ski. If safety based limits become the new norm, then people will change their behavior over time. For example, they’d call before going, etc.

I also like what Alta does. One instructor had told me that when the mountain gets crowded, they slow down the lifts so the experience during skiing does not suffer.

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cdskier · Jan 28, 2018

bdfreetuna said:
Turning people away is a risky move. I think any one of us would be pissed to arrive at a mountain to find out we just missed the golden ticket.

I'd tend to think the majority of people on this forum are the types that get there first thing in the morning and would be generally safe from any such policy...I could be wrong though.

180 · Jan 28, 2018

The Slutsky's always said they would never turn anyone away. The big problem on the 22nd was F lift going down. Without that, we are screwed. But on all the days, the crowds eventually thinned.

raisingarizona · Jan 28, 2018

JimG. said:
It wasn't that crowded Sunday. Not by a long shot.

I thought it was a great day; nice to see the mountain make some money too.

I admittedly did not ski Sat because of pent up demand but friends who did reported it was very manageable.

Too fussy?

Or maybe you have really low standards?

I wouldn’t ski in that sort of environment. Seriously, F that.

Dick Gazinya · Jan 28, 2018

raisingarizona said:
Or maybe you have really low standards?

I wouldn’t ski in that sort of environment. Seriously, F that.

What a snob. Go back to blowing Harvey on the ski blog.

benski · Jan 28, 2018

lerops said:
Yes, people would get pissed but that is because everybody expects to buy a ticket and ski. If safety based limits become the new norm, then people will change their behavior over time. For example, they’d call before going, etc.

I also like what Alta does. One instructor had told me that when the mountain gets crowded, they slow down the lifts so the experience during skiing does not suffer.

Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

Why don't they just remove some of the Chairs if they don't want to run the lifts at full capacity. That would make more sense when a lot of trails are closed. I wish Sugarbush would do that early season.

Ticket Sale Limit - how many is too many for a Hunter Mtn Size mountain ???????

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