ALPINEZONE CHALLENGE SPECIAL: Chris Nyberg, President & GM, Killington/Pico

[Highway Star]

Has any thought been given on how to make early and late season skiing feasable again? It has little to do with global warming, and everything to do with proper strategy, marketing, and non-ticket revenue.

A short lift on Killington Peak would allow an early season, upper mountain opening with downloading on the K-1. There would be strong food/bev sales at the peak.

For late season, simply operate Friday - Sunday. Build a proper deck facing Superstar, have a bar, bands, etc. Build a mogul course facing superstar. During the season, blow extra snow on Superstar and build several large terrain features with it on the far side of the trail - hip jumps, quarter pipes, etc. Then plow them down for spring skiing. Build a jib/rail park above where the waterside used to be.

Early and late season skiing is very important to the Killington brand, and VERY important to the viablity of a BASE VILLAGE. That real estate is very attractive if it surrounded by soid year round attractions - 8 months of skiing is much more attractive than 5!!!

 

[Highway Star]

Lift layout?

A long, long time ago, a man with vision came to Killington. His name was Les Otten. He bought Pico, planned to connect the two, and build a 1,400,000 skier visit per year, MEGA resort. He would build a base village, and the new interconnect lifts would allow more parking further down the access road. He installed several new lifts at Killington - the Needles Eye and Rams Head HSQ's, the North Brook Quad, and finally, the K-1 Gondola. Then he ran out of money. Oops.

Problem is, Otten's vision is not complete. It is only about 1/4 of the way there. No interconnect, and the lifts that he added have seriously screwed up the lift layout of Killington. Why is the Needles Eye quad so redundant? Why doesn't rams head lift go to the top? Why is the K-1 layed out like it is? Why is the northbrook quad so useless? It's all because they are part of a puzzle that hasn't been completed yet.

What is POWDR's vision for correcting the lift layout, and making Killington whole again? Will you move lifts? Remove some? Add others? Does POWDR really understand how screwed up things are?

 

[snowmaker4191]

what does POWDR see killington as in 5 years?
a mega resort or a minor part of the north east ski industry?

 

[mister moose]

Other than the stated expectation of being less crowded, what are the top 5 positive changes most likely to be noticed and appreciated this year at Killington?

 

[Greg]

I think we have enough to work with here. Gonna close this one down.