22/23 Passes

[djd66]

LOL where did you quote this from? I was trying to find the post(s) to get some frame of reference and I didn't find it. I only went back to page 6 because I didn't care that much

Page 1, #16.

 

[jimmywilson69]

thanks for helping my lazy ass!

loop closed on my end and I agree with TB

 

[thetrailboss]

LOL where did you quote this from? I was trying to find the post(s) to get some frame of reference and I didn't find it. I only went back to page 6 because I didn't care that much

It was a post from like March. It was in reference to Pow Mow saying they have had a rush on passes and, "golly, gee we need to put a hold to sales because we have so much demand." I'm skeptical.

 

[PAabe]

So I got a letter from ORDA saying frequent skier card renewals are discounted but they dont seem to have the rates listed anywhere - maybe not yet published? Deadline for the season pass discount rate is mid august but maybe that doesn't apply to the frequent skier cards

 

[MadPadraic]

Assuming that said passholder has days left at two of those three (though SB is not a bad option at all).

And Vail has never been about the late season.

I remember Breck going pretty darn late, and even re-opening after a late spring blizzard.

 

[machski]

I remember Breck going pretty darn late, and even re-opening after a late spring blizzard.

Only after A-Basin jumped ship off the Epic. And this season, Breck didn't make their planned late May close, they closed two weeks early due to lack of snow. The following weekend the town got 18 inches alone, mountain got more. Sorry, Vail totally isn't into the late game. They'll throw the CO front range crowd a bone when they don't have to do much. But any effort to keep late season going, they bow out.

 

[snoseek]

I'm in strafford County now and a pretty chill drive to gunstock so ot looks like I'll carry gunstock midweek and cannon but Jesus is gunstock an expensive pass!

 

[Edd]

I'm in strafford County now and a pretty chill drive to gunstock so ot looks like I'll carry gunstock midweek and cannon but Jesus is gunstock an expensive pass!

It’s amazing how locked in their customer base is, especially considering they share a pass with no other mountains and, since COVID, they’ve limited day tickets to the point where the drop in crowding on weekends was noticeable; the bar for weekends they used was to not have to shuttle customers from remote lots anymore, even holidays. When busy, it’s employees who park remotely and get shuttled.

And, with those high pass prices, they make more $ than before COVID. Can‘t think of another New England mountain that operates so independently with good profits. Maybe Smuggs, but there’s a lot I don’t know about their operation.

 

[snoseek]

It’s amazing how locked in their customer base is, especially considering they share a pass with no other mountains and, since COVID, they’ve limited day tickets to the point where the drop in crowding on weekends was noticeable; the bar for weekends they used was to not have to shuttle customers from remote lots anymore, even holidays. When busy, it’s employees who park remotely and get shuttled.

And, with those high pass prices, they make more $ than before COVID. Can‘t think of another New England mountain that operates so independently with good profits. Maybe Smuggs, but there’s a lot I don’t know about their operation.

I was gonna go all in on a full pass but it looks like with a midweek I could get half off tickets anyway. Not sure what I'll be doing for work over the winter yet so not really sure what days I'll be skiing but I assume midweek. Good to know they've got the shitshow under control. It used to get packed there on weekends

 

[Zand]

It’s amazing how locked in their customer base is, especially considering they share a pass with no other mountains and, since COVID, they’ve limited day tickets to the point where the drop in crowding on weekends was noticeable; the bar for weekends they used was to not have to shuttle customers from remote lots anymore, even holidays. When busy, it’s employees who park remotely and get shuttled.

And, with those high pass prices, they make more $ than before COVID. Can‘t think of another New England mountain that operates so independently with good profits. Maybe Smuggs, but there’s a lot I don’t know about their operation.

I've heard more than a few times over the years that Wachusett has had a few years where they were the most profitable independent ski area in America. These days they dont seem to quite get the crowds they did 20 years ago though.

I've never been, but Gunstock seems like a pretty similar operation overall.

 

[Edd]

I've heard more than a few times over the years that Wachusett has had a few years where they were the most profitable independent ski area in America. These days they dont seem to quite get the crowds they did 20 years ago though.

I've never been, but Gunstock seems like a pretty similar operation overall.

Good call on Wachusett, that hadn’t occurred to me. I’ve never been there.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

no one wanted to talk about panorama in the ikon thread, so i will say again that ikon added panorama bc yesterday. i am intrigued and am considering revamping my February trip and steering to louise/revelstoke/panorama. i dunno tho.

 

[machski]

no one wanted to talk about panorama in the ikon thread, so i will say again that ikon added panorama bc yesterday. i am intrigued and am considering revamping my February trip and steering to louise/revelstoke/panorama. i dunno tho.

Panorama is intriguing, considered a trip there years ago. But it doesn't get a ton of snow, probably retains what does fall well given it's Northern Latitude. Also a bit of a pain lift-wise to move around that massive an area. But being in-between several other areas on the pass, makes for an interesting trip you can string together for sure!

 

[jimk]

no one wanted to talk about panorama in the ikon thread, so i will say again that ikon added panorama bc yesterday. i am intrigued and am considering revamping my February trip and steering to louise/revelstoke/panorama. i dunno tho.

That would probably be a fine trip (probably flying in/out of Calgary) especially if you get reasonably decent conditions. Don't know Panorama, but I'm sure it would be fun for a couple of days.

My two cents on Revy, I have only skied Revy for two consecutive days in mid-March 2018, take with grain of salt.

The good: the slopes and base village were empty during my visit, conditions were excellent on the upper mtn Stoke and Ripper chairs and we skied in 6-8" new snow on the second day. The motel we stayed at in town of Revy also seemed about half empty in mid-March with more snowmobilers than skiers. I thought the tree skiing was very good at Revy. The easily accessed trees adjacent to the Stoke and Rippers had some nice spacing. I only made a couple passes through "the big woody" gladed area between those two chairs.

The bad: lower 3000' of vertical was not user-friendly due to a recent rain-freeze event and that gave the mountain a more limited feeling terrain-wise compared to other large ski areas I visited on the same trip (e.g., LL and SV). I think we only skied the long groomers to the base maybe twice in two days, and downloaded on the gondi the rest of the time. Never did the long bump run under the gondola line, it was concrete.

I really couldn't complain about our two days there, excellent snow and no people. It's just that Revy skied like a nice 2500' vert western mtn, not a big, huge 5000' vert western mtn that its statistics might imply. Not my first recommendation for someone flying from the east coast to spend a week at. LL and SV would be for that part of Canada. And if I had experienced any crowds it might have surely decreased my fun factor further. They've added another upper mtn chairlift since my visit.

More Revy discussion and a bunch of photos here.

This is another report and includes discussion and photos on Revy, Lake Louise, Sunshine Village, and Norquay, here.
Sunshine Village has an unusual mix of relatively easy terrain, and exceptionally challenging terrain. It had the best snow conditions during my visit to that part of Canada and that added to my favorable impression, but I liked Lake Louise a great deal too. Lake Louise is like a day-trip ski area on steriods. No development at the bottom except for one giant base lodge.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

That would probably be a fine trip (probably flying in/out of Calgary) especially if you get reasonably decent conditions. Don't know Panorama, but I'm sure it would be fun for a couple of days.

My two cents on Revy, I have only skied Revy for two consecutive days in mid-March 2018, take with grain of salt.

The good: the slopes and base village were empty during my visit, conditions were excellent on the upper mtn Stoke and Ripper chairs and we skied in 6-8" new snow on the second day. The motel we stayed at in town of Revy also seemed about half empty in mid-March with more snowmobilers than skiers. I thought the tree skiing was very good at Revy. The easily accessed trees adjacent to the Stoke and Rippers had some nice spacing. I only made a couple passes through "the big woody" gladed area between those two chairs.

The bad: lower 3000' of vertical was not user-friendly due to a recent rain-freeze event and that gave the mountain a more limited feeling terrain-wise compared to other large ski areas I visited on the same trip (e.g., LL and SV). I think we only skied the long groomers to the base maybe twice in two days, and downloaded on the gondi the rest of the time. Never did the long bump run under the gondola line, it was concrete.

I really couldn't complain about our two days there, excellent snow and no people. It's just that Revy skied like a nice 2500' vert western mtn, not a big, huge 5000' vert western mtn that its statistics might imply. Not my first recommendation for someone flying from the east coast to spend a week at. LL and SV would be for that part of Canada. And if I had experienced any crowds it might have surely decreased my fun factor further. They've added another upper mtn chairlift since my visit.

More Revy discussion and a bunch of photos here.

This is another report and includes discussion and photos on Revy, Lake Louise, Sunshine Village, and Norquay, here.
Sunshine Village has an unusual mix of relatively easy terrain, and exceptionally challenging terrain. It had the best snow conditions during my visit to that part of Canada and that added to my favorable impression, but I liked Lake Louise a great deal too. Lake Louise is like a day-trip ski area on steriods. No development at the bottom except for one giant base lodge.

ive been to rev with fair snow. not great. not terrible. i fully agree that conditions can change massively traveling 5000 vertical feet, and that i very rarely skied lower than the top of the gondola, unless i was going down to the bottom to leave.

sunshine is fucking weird. did not really like it. goat stuff is cool. dive was closed when i went. but fuck what a bunch of annoying little 800-1000 foot pods. its sunday river! also hate that approach gondola. i preferred louise vastly.

kicking horse remains my favorite that I've skied in that neck of the woods, and i'd pony up for a day at the horse as a stopover between rev and banff.

however, i think I'm gonna stick with jackson sun valley and utah trip as planned.

 

[jaytrem]

I broke down and grabbed an Indy Pass again. Just too good a deal to pass up. With that, I decided to go with 2 Indy based trips to go along with my Utah "Yeti Pass" trip.

First one will be Oregon attempt #3,will be with the kids this time. The first 2 attempts were low snow years and we ended up driving to Idaho both times. Plan is for Hoodoo, Warner, maybe an hour at Cedar Pass, Ashland, Shasta, Willamette, Hood Meadows, Cooper (night skiing), Ski Bowl. Only been to Hood Meadows out of that bunch. The other years almost every one of those other place was completely closed in the middle of winter. Hopefully I don't end up with another drive to Idaho for Bogus/Tamarack/Brundage.

Second will be WY/SD/MT, Snowy Range, Hogadon (night), Meadowlark, Terry Peak, Red Lodge, Sleeping Giant, Antelope Butte. All new paces for me, so very excited for that one. Almost did this trip a couple years ago but covid killed it and I did a road trip down south instead.

Utah will be whatever is still open in early April. Taking the kids for their spring break, they can ski (almost) free in Utah this year. My Yeti Pass is good for 1 ticket at each place, but I have an Epic so I can hit Park City as much as needed. More likely to do extra days at Powder with the Indy though. Only new area for me will probably be Woodward. Would love to get Cherry Peak, but odds of them being open are not great. Already looks like Sundance will be closed, but I've been there before. I am holding out hope for Beaver, the "new" terrain opened about a week after I was last there, doh! So hopefully get to check that out.

 

[bigbob]

I'm in strafford County now and a pretty chill drive to gunstock so ot looks like I'll carry gunstock midweek and cannon but Jesus is gunstock an expensive pass!

Howdy neighbor!