Its definitely the idea with Vail, they specifically called it out with the purchase of Whistler.
Maybe for that one purchase, but the cornerstone of their growth has been the Epic Pass. Then they expanded into the Midwest to capture a "feeder" market. The last year or so we've seen them go outside their focus areas to buy Whistler and then Stowe. Their big play has been to get folks in the big cities to buy season passes. Not to spread resorts out over the country. Most of their big resorts remain clustered in Colorado and California with one in Utah, one in BC, and now one in Vermont. It's different than ASC which had a large presence on both coasts.
I think there was a lot of imprudent, debt fueled expansion in ASC's formula for failure......
Absolutely. They were a product of the 1990's rapid growth.