VAIL SUCKS

[deadheadskier]

why is it people are not using those middle mountain runs? To me looks like the best part of the mountain and they are blues for the most part...

I'd think they'd be jammed with everyone who dosent want to ski the greens and/or can't quite ski the blacks. I can ski the blacks and I'd still put a ton of time on them.

FWIW i have never skied wildcat, but will make a couple trips there next season.

Thanks!

Nothing between Lynx and Alley Cat is groomed. Catenary, Cougar and Panther are all low angle, natural snow bump runs. So, much of the season they are not open. Also, the connector trails to these are also ungroomed and easy to miss if you are not familiar with the mountain.

 

[ericfromMA/NH/VT]

Nothing between Lynx and Alley Cat is groomed. Catenary, Cougar and Panther are all low angle, natural snow bump runs. So, much of the season they are not open. Also, the connector trails to these are also ungroomed and easy to miss if you are not familiar with the mountain.

ahh i see. makes sense now. Thx!

On the flip side, I guess I know where to go to get practice on the bumps. I've never been a bump skier till last year when my then 7 yr old daughter started loving them, so I started learning. I suck, she is a natural.

 

[ericfromMA/NH/VT]

That was fairly typical of SB midweek though even when they had cheaper tickets...

Can confirm. The last 4 years we have to gone to SB on weekdays only with 1 exception, we did a Mt. Ellen only pass on a sunday (and there were no lines other than a 2 minute wait at most), and an all moutain pass on Monday. 4 inches of snow all day sunday, 5 inches overnight sunday into Monday. The attached pic is my kids on Mt Ellen that sunday in a snowstorm. I've never waited in a line at SB on a weekday. Ever. And I get quadpasses and pick my days very carefully.

 

[MogulMonsters]

Went to Sunapee yesterday. ALL of their lifts were running. People were nice - really nice. Upon arrival an ambassador asked if we had tickets and then scanned my toddler and gave him props for the high number of days he skied this year. One of the lifties helped him snap into his skis. Later in the day I saw different staff helping kids get into their skis at the summit quad. Unreal.

We got a ton of vertical in short time.

Conditions were decent for mid March. They had a waffle cabin and a grill slinging burgers outside at the summit lodge for quick eats/snacks outside.

Staff there apologized to my kiddo for not having helmet stickers this year. Free stickers are a thing?

Overall I was blown away. I wish At/cat ran half as smooth. They totally made lemonade out of lemons. Others are still looking for sugar.

 

[ericfromMA/NH/VT]

I've read this whole thread and it seems like Vail screwed up at Wildcat and Attitash a bit for sure. I haven't heard anything really bad about anywhere else. And I read this whole thread. Lift lines were going to be bad this year, period. Not having all the lifts open and WC and Attitash certainly made it worse there.

But, I'm going to go with the Epic Local pass instead of passes at Ragged, where we've been for 5 years. Why? Here's why:

It's $1185 for me and my 2 kids (9 and 12), that's a deal when you put it up against spending $600 for my passes at Ragged plus the cost of tickets for trips to 6-8 other places throughout the year. On average, I'd say it costs me $250 per day for day trips away from Ragged- do that 8 times and that's $2000, add in Hotels for another $1K. and we have done at least 8 trips away from ragged in a normal year. All in the last 5 years, its $3K.

Now, Sunapee becomes our new home mountain for easy weekend day trips, its an hour away from us, we mix in Crotched a few weekends - 50 minutes away- add in a few trips for night skiing which my kids love, and go to Mt. Snow and Stowe probably 3 times each for the price of gas and a cheap motel room, costs I would have incurred anyway.

Okemo is only 2 hours from my house, we will be there more than 3 times. I pull my kids from school and do weekday trips as often as I can (they are doing great in school and that's not an issue) and I won't expect the crowds to be crazy on a weekday. If Its jammed on a weekend and we only get 10- 12 runs in all day, fine, I didnt drop $250 on lift tickets. The same can be said for Mt. Snow and Stowe.

We will get to WC and Attitash, hopefully they handle things better there this year. If not, I'll still go, because again, if we only get 10- 12 runs in, I didnt drop $250 on tickets. Either way, the lines will be better this year even if they dont run all the lifts again because the lifts that are running will be FULL each time they go up.

I am also lucky that with my job, I can also drop everything and do solo weekday trips. Now instead of Ragged, those solo trips will be Okemo, Mt Snow WC, and Attitash. That's an upgrade and again, I just dont think we'll see huge weekdays crowds next year.

I average 35 trips a year, so we will get our money's worth-lets say I do 30 trips to the Epic resorts, that's 1185 / 30 = $40 per trip. I'll probably do more since I'm not buying tickets.

And I can sprinkle in a couple $30 dollar NH resident days at Cannon, my kids do lessons at Pats and get 1 free ticket at WV and BW, so I'll ski there 1 day each for just the price of my ticket.

I see my season going like this:

Sunapee 10 -15 trips
Crochet- 5-8 trips
Okemo- 5-8 trips
Mt Snow 2-3 trips
Stowe- 2-3 trips
WC 2-3 trips
Attitash 2-3 trips
Cannon 2 trips
BW 1 trip
WV 1 trip
thats between 32 and 46 trips. for about $1500. That works for me

And I'll still get a couple days at sugarbush as well. We love it there, cant miss another year there. add in another $600-700.

I know, if we love Sugarbush so much why not the IKON? Simple. Loon is the only place remotely close to me on the IKON, I'd only get 7 days, and I have skied that place on the weekends before, I'm not going back. We ski every weekend, my kids are 9 and 12, I need somewhere close to be our home mountain.

If the IKON pass had Sunapee, Ragged or something similar closer to me with unlimited days, yeah, I'd do that just for Sugarbush.

Why not both? also easy, I just can't swing the cost.

We'll see how it goes. Its a 1 year try out. We are bored of Ragged after 5 years, although it is a GREAT place.

If Vail really does suck and screws things up this year, I'll figure something else out for 22/23.

 

[urungus]

Went to Sunapee yesterday. ALL of their lifts were running. People were nice - really nice. Upon arrival an ambassador asked if we had tickets and then scanned my toddler and gave him props for the high number of days he skied this year. One of the lifties helped him snap into his skis. Later in the day I saw different staff helping kids get into their skis at the summit quad. Unreal.

We got a ton of vertical in short time.

Conditions were decent for mid March. They had a waffle cabin and a grill slinging burgers outside at the summit lodge for quick eats/snacks outside.

Staff there apologized to my kiddo for not having helmet stickers this year. Free stickers are a thing?

Overall I was blown away. I wish At/cat ran half as smooth. They totally made lemonade out of lemons. Others are still looking for sugar.

Glad to hear this hasn’t changed. I’ve only been to Sunapee a few times, all pre-Vail, and I too noticed the friendliness of the employees, everyone from the greeting ambassadors to the shuttle drivers.

 

[Zermatt]

Whistler just closed due to covid.

 

[urungus]

Whistler just closed due to covid.

“Iconic Resort”

Outbreak Of Brazilian P.1 Coronavirus Variant Closes Iconic Whistler Ski Resort

The iconic skiing resort in Whistler, BC has been ordered to close following a surge in Covid-19 cases caused by the P.1 variant.

www.forbes.com

 

[kingslug]

Amazing the biggest resort in N America closes...but all ours are open.

 

[jimmywilson69]

and supposedly Canada is closed down to outsiders, right?

Id be curious to see what the deal is. Were they just not doing proper social distancing, mask wearing, bad luck?

Aside from some operational issues discussed at length in this thread the USA ski season ran largely normal. As skiers we should be super thankful for that. If things had shutdown in December or a larger part of the season was missed it could've been very bad for us skiers.

 

[drjeff]

and supposedly Canada is closed down to outsiders, right?

Id be curious to see what the deal is. Were they just not doing proper social distancing, mask wearing, bad luck?

Aside from some operational issues discussed at length in this thread the USA ski season ran largely normal. As skiers we should be super thankful for that. If things had shutdown in December or a larger part of the season was missed it could've been very bad for us skiers.

It will be interesting to look back at a societal level with respect to ski area operations (or lack of) and see the differences between the US, Europe and Canada and what worked and maybe was over reactionary?

And I fully understand that each country/region isn't an apples to apples comparison.

By in large, it does seem that the day to day operations for the ski industry that the US sure seems like it got things about as correct as they could have

 

[fbrissette]

and supposedly Canada is closed down to outsiders, right?

Id be curious to see what the deal is. Were they just not doing proper social distancing, mask wearing, bad luck?

Aside from some operational issues discussed at length in this thread the USA ski season ran largely normal. As skiers we should be super thankful for that. If things had shutdown in December or a larger part of the season was missed it could've been very bad for us skiers.

BC is hitting it's third wave, relatively hard right now, at least compared to the first two. Whistler is a hot spot due to the realtively large volume of weekly Vancouver traffic, The recent early March school break also brought lots of skiers from Ontario and Quebec. The COVID outbreak is motly related to the affordable housing where they pack seasonal employees, which are in an age group where social distancing is not known to be strictly followed.
They had started vaccination of whistler staff two weeks ago (using a batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine), but now that it's use has been suspended for the under-55 crowd, they saw no hope of containing the outbreak, which increasingly consist of variants more agressive for younger folks.

All other ski resorts in BC are still open.

 

[abc]

It will be interesting to look back at a societal level with respect to ski area operations (or lack of) and see the differences between the US, Europe and Canada and what worked and maybe was over reactionary?

And I fully understand that each country/region isn't an apples to apples comparison.

By in large, it does seem that the day to day operations for the ski industry that the US sure seems like it got things about as correct as they could have

Some of it are just different standard. Or, different tolerance to risk (of getting infected, death, etc.)

Canada has lower case & death per million population than the US. But it choose to close stuff, when the US choose to remain open with higher cases and death number. The Canadian border is closed to anyone who's not a citizen/residents. The US border is mostly open except for countries/regions with high infection rate.

Europe is the same there. Some country choose to stay open despite high numbers. Other country choose to close even their number aren't all that high.

 

[fbrissette]

Some of it are just different standard. Or, different tolerance to risk (of getting infected, death, etc.)

Canada has lower case & death per million population than the US. But it choose to close stuff, when the US choose to remain open with higher cases and death number. The Canadian border is closed to anyone who's not a citizen/residents. The US border is mostly open except for countries/regions with high infection rate.

Europe is the same there. Some country choose to stay open despite high numbers. Other country choose to close even their number aren't all that high.

Will be hard to come up with solid conclusions. It all depends on the weight you put on saved lives (and up to now, mostly elderly people lives), versus the economy, kids education, mental health problems, postponed surgeries and medical procedures.... The politics involved make it impossible to have a rational discussion on these issues.

 

[urungus]

Cops on skis at Vail:

Cops on skis keep the peace at Vail and Beaver Creek. But they’re more likely to lend a friendly mitten.

VAIL — Det. Greg Schwartz spies a couple in need and skis up to them in front of the bright yellow “Slow Skiing” sign on Vail’s Northwoods run. “Can I take it for you?” he asks, reaching for the phone balancing in Lowell Zarzuela’s hand as he snaps selfies of himself and his wife, Angie. […]

coloradosun.com

 

[snoseek]

Cops on skis at Vail:

Cops on skis keep the peace at Vail and Beaver Creek. But they’re more likely to lend a friendly mitten.

VAIL — Det. Greg Schwartz spies a couple in need and skis up to them in front of the bright yellow “Slow Skiing” sign on Vail’s Northwoods run. “Can I take it for you?” he asks, reaching for the phone balancing in Lowell Zarzuela’s hand as he snaps selfies of himself and his wife, Angie. […]

coloradosun.com

Honestly it sounds like they dont really do all that much. I'm somehow ok with this. If I was a local taxpayer I probably wouldn't.

 

[dblskifanatic]

Cops on skis at Vail:

Cops on skis keep the peace at Vail and Beaver Creek. But they’re more likely to lend a friendly mitten.

VAIL — Det. Greg Schwartz spies a couple in need and skis up to them in front of the bright yellow “Slow Skiing” sign on Vail’s Northwoods run. “Can I take it for you?” he asks, reaching for the phone balancing in Lowell Zarzuela’s hand as he snaps selfies of himself and his wife, Angie. […]

coloradosun.com

All the times I have skied Vail in the past five years, I have never seen one,

We have seen Yellow Jackets that actually do more enforcement to the extreme at times. My son nearly lost his pass for two weeks for braking hard spraying a slow sign as he stopped to meet up. He got in trouble at Breck for doing a 180 and skiing backwards on a beginner trail. Got a written warning. Dad bailed his ass out of those situations.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

those are both ridiculous scenarios to be scolded over.

 

[dblskifanatic]

those are both ridiculous scenarios to be scolded over.

I agree! People spray slow signs all the time and my son skis better backwards than most of the beginners that were on that trail (or should I say wide open boulevard).

 

[Smellytele]

Some of it are just different standard. Or, different tolerance to risk (of getting infected, death, etc.)

Canada has lower case & death per million population than the US. But it choose to close stuff, when the US choose to remain open with higher cases and death number. The Canadian border is closed to anyone who's not a citizen/residents. The US border is mostly open except for countries/regions with high infection rate.

Europe is the same there. Some country choose to stay open despite high numbers. Other country choose to close even their number aren't all that high.

Also less dense population in Canada for the most part.