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5-8$ a gallon

snoseek

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well, that would be me :lol: I don't make a ton of money, but even as a broker college student I always found a way to go. I can get to Gunstock and back in under 4 gallons. Probably cost me $28 round trip at $8. I can live with that. It costed me more already to go to most of the places I went this season. End of season it was pretty much $35 round trip to Killington when it was $3.60. I just wouldn't go skiing as much in VT, ME and farther reaches of NH. Maybe only 4-5 times a season, instead of double that.

I don't blame you at all for getting this pass. Especially considering your wife(?) doesn't ski. Easier for you to get in some turns and still do other things in the same day. Plus you could squeak in the occasinal after work session. Gunstock can be plenty fun IMO.
 

snoseek

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I would also suspect that there would be an increased market for affordable lodging near the mountains
 

AdironRider

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Im with you guys on all three points. I think were all a different mindset of people though, we do post about skiing, in the summertime, on the internet. Loveland was probably a poor example, but they would definitely feel hit hard.

Gunstock is a great little hill, Ive had a season pass there myself. I do think that the majority of their clientel are the never evers, or a couple times a year skiers that would be absolutely shut out of the market if gas gets much higher than 4 bucks a gallon. Its not just the gas to get to the hill, its the overall inflationary effect that higher gas prices really kills the middle class on. Living in Wyoming my grocery bill has gone up easily 10% in the last few months.

Im not saying skiing would cease to exist, or that the vast majority of ski resorts are going under, but rather the only ones that stuck around would be the ones with solid balance sheets and realistic sustainable year round operations.

I also find it interesting that everyone thinks snowmaking and lift ops would stay relatively the same. I would argue that if gas prices shot up to 8 bucks a gallon and that price level became the new normal, the modern ski area as we know it in the East would be a vastly different place.

Areas would switch from snowmaking coverage on 100% of terrain to more like 60-70 with better quality.

The biggest change would be in the lifts utilized and overall layout. Lots of doubles, triples and quads are going to be replaced with gondolas, trams, funitels and chondolas that access much larger swaths of terrain from one main lift. Much more efficient. Kinda like the Euros do already with their energy costs.
 

Nick

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Don't forget with higher gas prices is usually correlated higher energy prices in general. So electricity is up... natural gas is up... Probably means higher ticket prices :(
 

Cannonball

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I tend to have 2 different types of seasons. Some seasons I get a lot of local-ish day trips. Other seasons I get a lot of 'destination' days (UT, CO, or local rental). If gas prices went that high I'd end up doing more 'destination' skiing where the cost of travel is defrayed by the number of days per trip. So increased gas prices could actually be a benefit to lodging operators.
 

UVSHTSTRM

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I think the large resorts, Killington, Stowe etc would be fine. They would definitely see a rise in op costs, and a slight dip in skier visits, but overall those resorts would survive.

Magic ... dead. Gunstock, dead as well. Pretty much anything smaller than an Attitash or Waterville would go belly up.

Same would apply for the Western resorts. Vail, Jackson, Whistler would all still be successful, but the Lovelands, etc of the world would be gone as well.

I disagree completely, and I would think the opposite would happen (in regards to gunstock).
 

AdironRider

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Do you ski there? I held a pass there for a couple years, those families are not rolling in dough to begin with.
 

Black Phantom

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Do you ski there? I held a pass there for a couple years, those families are not rolling in dough to begin with.

Were you conducting market and demographic research for your high school paper while there?

One of the largest vacation areas in NE in terms of housing and no one has any money. Interesting statement.
 

deadheadskier

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I'd imagine both Gunstock and Sunapee have core groups of affluent skiers that have lake houses.

When I lived in Maine, I met a fair amount of affluent skiers at Shawnee Peak who had lake homes on Sebago.
 

AdironRider

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Were you conducting market and demographic research for your high school paper while there?

One of the largest vacation areas in NE in terms of housing and no one has any money. Interesting statement.

Winnepesauke and Gunstock are not one and the same. If you think the guys with million plus vacation homes on the lake are blowing their wads at Gunstock, you are sorely mistaken.
 

AdironRider

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Again, as I mentioned previously, high gas prices are tolerable in Euroland cause the countries are so small. Public transportation works much better there as well for the same reasons.

Try and realistically take public transportation anywhere in New England outside of the immediate Boston area and see how good it works. Unless you want to have every small town with a system like the T, which aint ever going to happen in this country. We are just too big.

Last I checked, even after the big dig and with arguably one of the most efficient and well implemented public transportation systems in the country, Boston still has horrible traffic.

Cars just are more convienient. The worst part of public transportation is no matter what, it takes twice as long. Sorry, but Im not turning what should be a 20-30 minute trip into a couple hour long half day excursion.
 
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deadheadskier

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Again, as I mentioned previously, high gas prices are tolerable in Euroland cause the countries are so small. Public transportation works much better there as well for the same reasons.

Try and realistically take public transportation anywhere in New England outside of the immediate Boston area and see how good it works. Unless you want to have every small town with a system like the T, it aint ever going to happen in this country. We are just too big.

very true

and it's cost prohibitive. the gov't would need to subsidize the trains in a huge way in rural areas. We've taken the train round trip to Boston from Exeter, NH. 1 hour train ride. It's $30 round trip per person. So, the economics of it works fine for 1 person, but if you've got 2 people, it's cheaper to drive into the city and park.
 

AdironRider

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very true

and it's cost prohibitive. the gov't would need to subsidize the trains in a huge way in rural areas. We've taken the train round trip to Boston from Exeter, NH. 1 hour train ride. It's $30 round trip per person. So, the economics of it works fine for 1 person, but if you've got 2 people, it's cheaper to drive into the city and park.

The kicker being that the Downeaster line as part of Amtrak is already subsidized....
 

Geoff

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The kicker being that the Downeaster line as part of Amtrak is already subsidized....

The Downeaster line is an example of why trains don't work in the US. It takes 2 1/2 hours to get from Boston to Portland. That's an easy 2 hour drive. It stops in a bunch of useless places and it's on old, slow track. In Europe, you'd take an Intercity for that trip and it would be an hour. You wouldn't consider driving since it's so much cheaper and easier to take the train.
 
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