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Peak Resorts to buy Ski Liberty, Ski Roundtop, and Ski Whitetail in South Central PA

slatham

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Liberty and Roundtop were my day trip mountains as a kid growing up outside DC.

Interesting strategy - get the DC, Baltimore, Philly and NY day trip crowd to move to bigger resorts further North. Compared to Vail/Alterra trying to get the Northern skiers to also head West.
 

jimmywilson69

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If I can't buy a cheaper pass for the 3 local mountains I am out... They better think this through or those 3 mountains will go belly up quicker than Peaks can buy another feeder hill.

I have no interest in Hunter or Mount Snow and upping my pass price 167% for those places isn't going to work for me.

This sucks... Living by an affordable ski hill just got taken away from me.
 

catskillman

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I know Hunter and Mt Snow saw a huge increase in the # of skiers from PA resorts when the peak pass covered these mtns. Most were shocked at the size and difficulty of Hunter compared to their anthills and their ability was lacking in a lot of cases. Again - this is what I learned from conversations with mtn mgt and random chair lift "where are you from" conversations.

This again, will just drive up the crowds. None from NY, NH or VT is going to drive to any of these newly added resorts. They will all be coming north

Hunter could be a day trip, long one from JFBB, but Mt Snow apparently saw a big boost in lodging.
 

jaytrem

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I have no interest in Hunter or Mount Snow and upping my pass price 167% for those places isn't going to work for me.

How much was your pass for the 3?

I'll probably take a weekend and hit the 3 of them. Never been to any and I always try to get 10 new places each year. Gets harder every year for some reason.
 

jimmywilson69

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Current price is $499 for unlimited skiing at 3 local places. there is a reason I drive right by Hunter and farther north in Vermont to Ski. Hell I never ski in the Poconos because its crazy crowded and I can hit all 3 of these places within 1 hours drive. Roundtop is only 5 miles from garage to lift.


It does appear that their mid-west mountains have local passes, so hopefully things roll status quo down here and the rest of Peaks is just an add on. I just worry because jack frost and big boulder are included with the "main" Peaks Pass.
 

jaytrem

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So those 3 aren't too crowded compared to the Poconos? Don't know much about them at all. Would no doubt go during a regular non-holiday weekend. Maybe hit Bear Creek on the way out and pick up a bonus.

Seems like there's never a lift line at Jack Frost, but the lodge can be a bit crazy.
 

jimmywilson69

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Roundtop, the closest to me, is not out of control busy on most weekends. Liberty, the closest to Washington DC gets really busy. Whitetail is the best skiing out of all of them, and draws a strong DC Crowd. They too are really busy on the weekends. On a MLK Sunday I only got 9 runs in 4 hours at Whitetail. Needless to say I pick and choose when I hit up both Whitetail and Liberty. Usually in Late feb. They both have crappy eastern exposure. HOwever, in late feb they can start to have some great corn snow due to nice warmer days.
 

p_levert

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This seems like a reasonable deal to me. Good for skiers and stockholders alike (I'm in the latter group).

But, wow, all this east coast concentration means terrific vulnerability to bad weather patterns. It would make so much sense to have a Rocky mtn resort or two or three.
 

njdiver85

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I hope Peak knows what they're doing, as they are taking on $50m in debt with a 2 year note. Seems a gamble. A bad eastern snow season or two, and rising interest rates, and they could be in a difficult position in a few years.
 

p_levert

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I hope Peak knows what they're doing, as they are taking on $50m in debt with a 2 year note. Seems a gamble. A bad eastern snow season or two, and rising interest rates, and they could be in a difficult position in a few years.

Well I won't disagree with that. The current market cap for Peak is 73.4 million. They are doing a debt-fueled acquisition for $76 million. So a bad snow year or two could well be disastrous. Otherwise, a great deal :)
 

jimmywilson69

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South Central PA winters are always bad! These places are 100% covered in Snowmaking and need 1 solid week of snow to make enough base to last all winter, baring any massive warm up like we've been getting these last few febs. Snowmaking teams at each resort really know how to get it done in marginal conditions.

They consolidated operations at Liberty last year, even though Roundtop had 100% coverage on closing day which was March 25.
 

FBGM

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Okay, we all know I hate this company, let’s puy that aside for this comment.

Who in the right mind is lending these people money?!? First it was eb-5 funny money. Then more for hunter. Then this. What an upside down business. They are gonna be under water in 3 years.
 

Newpylong

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Okay, we all know I hate this company, let’s puy that aside for this comment.

Who in the right mind is lending these people money?!? First it was eb-5 funny money. Then more for hunter. Then this. What an upside down business. They are gonna be under water in 3 years.

You've been saying this for 3 years already. They're making payments on current debt service and have plenty of collateral to place attachments or liens on. Someone would be dumb not to loan them money.
 

catskillman

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FBGM;1007993 They are gonna be under water in 3 years.[/QUOTE said:
maybe that is the intention.......bankruptcy is a wonderful thing. Just ask your president.
 

Quietman

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Current price is $499 for unlimited skiing at 3 local places. there is a reason I drive right by Hunter and farther north in Vermont to Ski. Hell I never ski in the Poconos because its crazy crowded and I can hit all 3 of these places within 1 hours drive. Roundtop is only 5 miles from garage to lift.


It does appear that their mid-west mountains have local passes, so hopefully things roll status quo down here and the rest of Peaks is just an add on. I just worry because jack frost and big boulder are included with the "main" Peaks Pass.

Good luck with a local pass. The big areas like Hunter and Snow got nice price drops, smaller areas get increases. My Crotched pass jumped $80 and I talked to the marketing people(I worked there in previous years) and tried to convince them that they needed a Crotched only pass as all the other Peaks areas were almost 2 hours away, but got no where.

For you, the early bird Ranger pass was $529 this year so not a big increase likely next year. Overall they've do a descent job at the Crotch and bringing in the Rocket was a game changer.
 
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