The ALTERRA SUCKS Thread

[Smellytele]

While they may increase rev this year, next yesr people may not buy the full ikon and just go with base decreasing their rev.

 

[thetrailboss]

While they may increase rev this year, next yesr people may not buy the full ikon and just go with base decreasing their rev.

Exactly. They are conditioning folks now to buy a cheaper pass and expect more.

 

[cdskier]

I did not look at the fineprint. Are there any blackouts?

I think it is another effort to try to increase revenue for Alterra. Honestly, there is a segment of the market that they are not serving and it is the 1-3 day a season skier or rider. There is the EPIC day pass product for Vail.

Ikon has the session pass...but the pricing on that is pretty crappy compared to Epic day passes. And the mountain-specific offerings aren't any better. Quad Packs used to be a great deal at Sugarbush (which admittedly many SB regulars thought was too cheap and hated back in the day). Now it comes out to nearly $130 a day and is a far cry from a great deal. So agree they are definitely missing the mark on that handful of days a year skier.

 

[BenedictGomez]

I did not look at the fineprint. Are there any blackouts?

Yeah, the typical holiday dates.

 

[4aprice]

One of the things that helps A Basin is a lack of parking. They charge on the weekends and reservations are required. Want the beach? you're going to pay for it if you can get it. Unlike the Cottonwoods they will not let you park on US 6.

I think that it is meant to offer an early-season offering for IKON passholders that drives traffic from POWDR's Copper to Alterra's A-Basin. I don't know if Winter Park has any real early season offerings.

WInter Park gets up and going pretty quickly. Base elevation is around 9000. Have advertised snow making improvements. Heard from my son who knows some employees there that word is they plan to be aggressive this year. (maybe a stab at an Oct opening). Once they get Prospector open it is worth it.

 

[urungus]

Yeah no. 99 out of 100 people buying the full Ikon are doing so for Jackson / Aspen access.

Guess I am a 1 percenter … I get full IKON for no blackouts, extra 2 days at Killington, (and now) 2 days at Jiminy and 2 days at Butternut.

 

[thetrailboss]

Yeah, the typical holiday dates.

And I imagine that the tickets do not include parking.....

 

[crank]

We originally started getting the full Ikon for Jackson Hole but now I think we like it more, we certainly use it more, for unlimited access at Sugarbush and Stratton.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

Guess I am a 1 percenter … I get full IKON for no blackouts, extra 2 days at Killington, (and now) 2 days at Jiminy and 2 days at Butternut.

same. full ikon for me is entirely about no blackouts + killington access

i take a big trip every year and i have gone to alta, jackson, sun valley, but they are just more places on my list of options. i went to them because i had the full ikon, but i definitely did not acqure the full ikon specifically to go to those places

full ikon this year and my destination trip is going to be Banff/Rev again or (more likely) Big Sky + Indy Montana. No need for full pass there.

i/we are edge cases, but i have to suspect plenty of east coast weekend warriors/families pony up for the full ikon for the holiday skiing and more killington early/late season access

 

[cdskier]

Same for me...full Ikon is about no blackouts. There's no chance that 99% of people are buying it for Jackson/Aspen access alone. Many people buy it specifically for holiday access.

 

[4aprice]

KInd of wanted to move the discussion about Alterra, the Deer Valley expansion, Winter Park and A Basin over here instead of cluttering up the Sugarbush Thread.

Sounds like some others have more information about who owns what or is running what then I want or need to know. I'm not the hugest Deer Valley fan but my wife and BIL (RIP) have been so I've been many times. 1st skied it in 1995 so I also saw it pre Alterra. I just never found it my cup of tea either then or more recently (last visit 2 seasons ago). I never liked the crowding that 4 and 3 lifts disembarking at the same points presents. While we don't have the Cottonwood Heights place anymore, It's not that long a drive over to Utah so we will probably go check out the expansion when its all done.

To answer TB's question. We are still in transition between the working world and retirement. Was going to stop working last June but we had a minor set back so I'm haven't stopped yet. That means we will once again doing an east/west season. We got the condo (bought for retirement) rented for this year but will take an extended vacation in March and will probably get a VRBO at the Ranch along with a week in Aspen. After this rental is finished we plan on just getting the condo rented for the summer season and keeping it to ourselves in winter.

The expanded rail service has the "potential" to be great for us. LIke Alterra and lift plans I reserve the right to be skeptical till all is said and done. Theoretically it could be great. Granby has a station maybe 2 1/2 miles from our condo. Service to there is supposed to be the first phase of the expanded service. We could get people back and forth to DIA without having to go fight I-70 or fight a storm over Berthoud Pass. We had a friend use the train from Fraser to DIA last year and she said it was easy and great. Note that this is not the Winter Park Express train that stops (and ends) at the resort. The current service through Grand County is the California Zepher which gets to Granby at 10 AM going west, and 3ish going east. We could also get to Salt Lake via train as well it just would take forever.

The new service is supposed to split at Kremmling (about 20 mile west of Granby) and head to Steamboat Springs then over to Craig. Yampa Valley airport is between those towns so I would think they would have a connection to there so we might have some more flight choices between the east coast and mountain west. The biggest improvement would be afternoon or evening service out of Denver so one could fly then train up there without having to spend the night in Denver which is pretty much what you have to do now since both west bound trains leave Union Station in the early morning.

Such an interesting discussion just didn't want to drift the Sugarbush thread.

 

[thetrailboss]

KInd of wanted to move the discussion about Alterra, the Deer Valley expansion, Winter Park and A Basin over here instead of cluttering up the Sugarbush Thread.

Sounds like some others have more information about who owns what or is running what then I want or need to know. I'm not the hugest Deer Valley fan but my wife and BIL (RIP) have been so I've been many times. 1st skied it in 1995 so I also saw it pre Alterra. I just never found it my cup of tea either then or more recently (last visit 2 seasons ago). I never liked the crowding that 4 and 3 lifts disembarking at the same points presents. While we don't have the Cottonwood Heights place anymore, It's not that long a drive over to Utah so we will probably go check out the expansion when its all done.

To answer TB's question. We are still in transition between the working world and retirement. Was going to stop working last June but we had a minor set back so I'm haven't stopped yet. That means we will once again doing an east/west season. We got the condo (bought for retirement) rented for this year but will take an extended vacation in March and will probably get a VRBO at the Ranch along with a week in Aspen. After this rental is finished we plan on just getting the condo rented for the summer season and keeping it to ourselves in winter.

The expanded rail service has the "potential" to be great for us. LIke Alterra and lift plans I reserve the right to be skeptical till all is said and done. Theoretically it could be great. Granby has a station maybe 2 1/2 miles from our condo. Service to there is supposed to be the first phase of the expanded service. We could get people back and forth to DIA without having to go fight I-70 or fight a storm over Berthoud Pass. We had a friend use the train from Fraser to DIA last year and she said it was easy and great. Note that this is not the Winter Park Express train that stops (and ends) at the resort. The current service through Grand County is the California Zepher which gets to Granby at 10 AM going west, and 3ish going east. We could also get to Salt Lake via train as well it just would take forever.

The new service is supposed to split at Kremmling (about 20 mile west of Granby) and head to Steamboat Springs then over to Craig. Yampa Valley airport is between those towns so I would think they would have a connection to there so we might have some more flight choices between the east coast and mountain west. The biggest improvement would be afternoon or evening service out of Denver so one could fly then train up there without having to spend the night in Denver which is pretty much what you have to do now since both west bound trains leave Union Station in the early morning.

Such an interesting discussion just didn't want to drift the Sugarbush thread.

I'd also like to know the source of the info as to Extel paying for the ski lifts, snowmaking, etc. I have not seen anything solid one way or the other. FWIW it is not Extel but DVR that is getting all the publicity for the ski expansion, not Extel.

 

[jimmywilson69]

The current service through Grand County is the California Zepher which gets to Granby at 10 AM going west, and 3ish going east. We could also get to Salt Lake via train as well it just would take forever.

If you did have the time, I bet the scenery on the Granby to SLC train route is amazing!

 

[machski]

I'd also like to know the source of the info as to Extel paying for the ski lifts, snowmaking, etc. I have not seen anything solid one way or the other. FWIW it is not Extel but DVR that is getting all the publicity for the ski expansion, not Extel.

Regardless of who is footing the bill, if this expansion is going to be fully interconnected to DVR, why wouldn't DVR generate all the publicity? I mean, it is nearly doubling the size of the resort. If there is some type of revenue share behind the scenes, do patrons really care when a week for the average skier/rider means they may not be able to see it all?

 

[Tin Woodsman]

Exactly. Extel's investments have no value unless interconnected with, and branded as, Deer Valley. This was a win/win b/c Extel now gets an instant customer base to help them monetize the real estate at the base while DV gets to double in size on someone else's nickel while selling a few more passes along the way.

Extel is more than happy for the PR to go to DV - that's a feature more than a bug.