VAIL SUCKS

[snoseek]

28 degrees and from what I can see no snowmaking going on up at wildcat. It feels like they are intentionally trying to tank the place. Sunapee has guns on so I won't hear the argument about marginal temps.

 

[Edd]

I wonder if local media would be interested in covering this. WMUR or someone.

 

[eatskisleep]

I wonder if local media would be interested in covering this. WMUR or someone.

A nice front page article on The Sun would be good too!

 

[Geoff]

Yesterday at Mount Sneaux, I parked at Corinthia, did a lap on the rolled out crunch on Nitro, and skied the novice trail over to the main mountain. No bubble chair. Wind hold. Did some laps on the detachable quad that goes 2/3 of the way up to ski the death cookies and golf balls. No way to ski back to Corinthia. I decide to bail and take the shuttle back. No shuttle loop to Corinthia until tomorrow. Some bus driver does 10 stranded people a favor and runs us to Carinthia asking that we not tell anyone because he’s not supposed to do it.

So no signage at Corinthia and no human warning customers. The no shuttle back was pretty over the top in poor service. I got to listen to 10 people bitch about pay parking for 30 minutes.

I lived through the Chris Nyberg year #1 when POWDR bought Killington so I’ve experienced worse bitching. POWDR had to correct things when their skier visits dropped 40%. Vail probably doesn’t care because people will continue to buy their season pass product. They’ll sell plenty of $25 burger/fries/soda on weekends.

 

[Killingtime]

Yesterday at Mount Sneaux, I parked at Corinthia, did a lap on the rolled out crunch on Nitro, and skied the novice trail over to the main mountain. No bubble chair. Wind hold. Did some laps on the detachable quad that goes 2/3 of the way up to ski the death cookies and golf balls. No way to ski back to Corinthia. I decide to bail and take the shuttle back. No shuttle loop to Corinthia until tomorrow. Some bus driver does 10 stranded people a favor and runs us to Carinthia asking that we not tell anyone because he’s not supposed to do it.

So no signage at Corinthia and no human warning customers. The no shuttle back was pretty over the top in poor service. I got to listen to 10 people bitch about pay parking for 30 minutes.

I lived through the Chris Nyberg year #1 when POWDR bought Killington so I’ve experienced worse bitching. POWDR had to correct things when their skier visits dropped 40%. Vail probably doesn’t care because people will continue to buy their season pass product. They’ll sell plenty of $25 burger/fries/soda on weekends.

That sucks. I haven't been to Mt Snow in over 15 years but this year I picked up an Epic Pass. I remember having some fun times there but I'm not hearing good things from people who go there frequently. I was told to stay away on weekends but with work its not always possible. Hopefully they pull it together.

 

[abc]

Vail probably doesn’t care because people will continue to buy their season pass product.

If so, they deserve the poor service!

It's not like there's no other choices. With the exception of those who live right at a mountain Vail bought, the rest of the skiing population can always vote with their wallet!

 

[raisingarizona]

28 degrees and from what I can see no snowmaking going on up at wildcat. It feels like they are intentionally trying to tank the place. Sunapee has guns on so I won't hear the argument about marginal temps.

This is pretty interesting to me.

Why would Vail tank Wildcat?

If this is true, it’s going to have negative impacts on the areas local economy. That’s kind of F-d up. This really sucks for the loyal, Wildcat following.

 

[asnowmobiler]

This was just posted on Facebook
Hunter

 

[JimG.]

Well that's not as bad as it looks in terms of crowds.
But the lack of snow is more concerning.

 

[asnowmobiler]

Well that's not as bad as it looks in terms of crowds.
But the lack of snow is more concerning.

Exactly.

 

[JimG.]

Hopefully winter is coming for a while.

 

[Edd]

A nice front page article on The Sun would be good too!

Wouldn’t hurt but you’d think they’re already pretty interested. I don’t see anything on the website. They can blame weather a little longer but when Cranmore and BW do major trail expansion, the jig is up.

And I understand Cattitash is small potatoes in Vail’s world but Xmas to New Years is coming quick, which is one of the key revenue periods for a normal ski area. There’s a lot of second homes in the MWV and the market there has been hot. Is Vail’s plan just to shrug their shoulders and send people to nearby competitors? The longer they act like this the easier it is to believe they’ll let Wildcat tank and MAYBE put all local effort into Attitash.

 

[Former Sunday Rivah Rat]

BW continues to ski really nice and NO LIFT LINES!

 

[MadKitty]

This is pretty interesting to me.

Why would Vail tank Wildcat?

If this is true, it’s going to have negative impacts on the areas local economy. That’s kind of F-d up. This really sucks for the loyal, Wildcat following.

The higher ups at vail are from finance/management consulting backs grounds. None of them have actually worked at a ski area. They provide a strict formula for their ski areas to operate in and put someone from within the company to implement it. They give their high profit areas (think gaper Meccas such such as Mont Snow, Okemo, unfortunately Stowe, Vail and Beaver Creek) enough of a budget for this to work.

At places like wildcat, the rest of NH, and their areas in the midwest they have austere nonfunctional operational budgets. The end result is someone from outside the area trying to run a ski area on a shoestring budget with a pile of corporate BS on top of them. For example, they can't start hiring employees until fall, if something breaks the replacement part has to go through corporate procurement in Broomfield, and they can't increase wages if the local labor market won't support their shit wages.

 

[thetrailboss]

The higher ups at vail are from finance/management consulting backs grounds. None of them have actually worked at a ski area. They provide a strict formula for their ski areas to operate in and put someone from within the company to implement it. They give their high profit areas (think gaper Meccas such such as Mont Snow, Okemo, unfortunately Stowe, Vail and Beaver Creek) enough of a budget for this to work.

At places like wildcat, the rest of NH, and their areas in the midwest they have austere nonfunctional operational budgets. The end result is someone from outside the area trying to run a ski area on a shoestring budget with a pile of corporate BS on top of them. For example, they can't start hiring employees until fall, if something breaks the replacement part has to go through corporate procurement in Broomfield, and they can't increase wages if the local labor market won't support their shit wages.

All that matters is that Vail's stock closed up .54% yesterday to $322.21.

 

[abc]

hey give their high profit areas (think gaper Meccas such such as Mont Snow, Okemo, unfortunately Stowe, Vail and Beaver Creek) enough of a budget for this to work.

Add Whistler, Northstar and Heavenly to that?

I think I should try my best to get my proper share of Crested Butte as quickly as I can this year! Before it go down the route of Kirkwood or worse, Wildcat.

I'm not planning to renew my Epic pass next year. Or the year after... It's a once in a few year thing. But 2 year ago, I was at CB when the "big shutdown" happened. So, once I got my week or 2 at Crested Butte, I'll be moving on...

 

[Kingslug20]

Not into writing long posts...so...my prediction for the future..is going back to the old days...earn your turns...
Yeah. It may suck....but..maybe not...
Thoughts??

 

[raisingarizona]

The higher ups at vail are from finance/management consulting backs grounds. None of them have actually worked at a ski area. They provide a strict formula for their ski areas to operate in and put someone from within the company to implement it. They give their high profit areas (think gaper Meccas such such as Mont Snow, Okemo, unfortunately Stowe, Vail and Beaver Creek) enough of a budget for this to work.

At places like wildcat, the rest of NH, and their areas in the midwest they have austere nonfunctional operational budgets. The end result is someone from outside the area trying to run a ski area on a shoestring budget with a pile of corporate BS on top of them. For example, they can't start hiring employees until fall, if something breaks the replacement part has to go through corporate procurement in Broomfield, and they can't increase wages if the local labor market won't support their shit wages.

Thanks for the reply.

Ive been thinking a lot about numbers recently and it seems to me that large organizations or corporations focus on numbers without taking into account human factors or reality. I think it generally results in a less than quality product. I know my statement here is extremely broad but I really feel this is true. This opinion has been formed recently from experiences with work the last few years and is very different than the current WC situation but I think it totally relates.

 

[raisingarizona]

Not into writing long posts...so...my prediction for the future..is going back to the old days...earn your turns...
Yeah. It may suck....but..maybe not...
Thoughts??

I’ve ski toured a lot over the years but have been primarily a lift riding hot laps skier the last two seasons. The last two years have reminded me that if you want to ski your strongest you need that mileage.

 

[cdskier]

Vail may not have money to pay enough to attract people to fill their open positions in the east, but they apparently have money to spend on advertising on TV. I saw an ad for Stowe and Hunter back to back a couple times tonight on TV here in NJ encouraging people to buy tickets now.