AZ Challenge 2011: Jeff Crowley, Wachusett Mountain

[Nick]

Jeff Crowley, President of Wachusett Mountain in Massachusetts, has agreed to participate in the 2011 AlpineZone Ski Area Challenge!

The AlpineZone Challenge is your chance to offer up questions, suggestions or praise to the people who run the mountains in the northeast. For more information on the challenge itself, please see the stickied post at the top of the forum.

We will pick ten of the questions asked here and submit them for review and response, and post them in the Challenge area when complete!

Caveats: we may edit/change your question for grammar, tone, or something similar. Questions may be merged. If we don't get to all the questions, we will encourage followup from the representatives, but no promises.

Please be respectful as well to those answering questions - please refrain from asking specifics about skier visit numbers, financials, demographic information, etc. as these may be confidential to the mountain.

Wachusett Profile

2004 AZ Challenge Results

 

[Watatic Skier]

Are there any plans to offer more Moguls/better quality moguls at Wachusett? Whenever I'm there they are mostly Icy/shaped odly. I liked that moguls were returned to the hitchcock trail, but the trail is relativly flat.

More moguls doesn't mean more on different trails, you could make most of the Tenth headwall moguls like this photo, but groom a strip underneath the lift. Skiers would be more spread out on the bumps and cause less deterioration of the conditions.

 

[xlr8r]

How often do you plan to/actually run the Vickery triple? It seems as if it is barely open when I am there. Last winter there were multiple nights when both Polar and Minuteman had very long lines and the Vickery chair was not open at all that night, particularly during Christmas vacation and Saturday nights in January. I appreciate being able to use Vickery when Polar and Minuteman lines get too long. The chair and piece of cake trail seem like a complete waste because of this.

Any plans to turn the Vickery liftline into an actual trail? Or perhaps you could just remove the rope that blocks its entrance.

Any plans to add lights to balance rock?

 

[jack97]

What was the thought behind setting the following bump formation on tenth? The bumps seems widely spaced with an odd pattern. Most places would either let the bumps form by not grooming or set the bump formation for short turns down the fall line.

 

[wa-loaf]

1. Me and the kids will appreciate the new lift on Indian Summer.
2. The bumps on Hitchcock were great last season, please keep that up. Low angle bumps are key to getting people to like them more.
3. The bumps on 10th are usually a disaster. Uneven and spaced to far out in most cases. It's rare that you can find a good line there. Not sure who makes them, but a better job seeding them would go a long way to getting more traffic there. Maybe check with the groomers at Ski Sundown, they seem to have bump seeding down.
4. Any chance you would host an amateur bump comp?
5. As someone who does night league racing I would appreciate (and likely buy) VIP parking if it was offered in the evenings. Any chance you can offer that?

 

[wa-loaf]

One more Q: Please, Please, leave 10th or Smith ungroomed when it's storming out. Let the powder be, let it get chopped up, let the bumps form and I'll be there. Nothing like heading out to catch a storm and seeing the groomers come out to pound the fresh snow in. They can groom the next morning. There's no point in bragging that you got a foot of fresh snow if you are just going to groom it in right away. Thanks!

 

[deadheadskier]

One more Q: Please, Please, leave 10th or Smith ungroomed when it's storming out. Let the powder be, let it get chopped up, let the bumps form and I'll be there. Nothing like heading out to catch a storm and seeing the groomers come out to pound the fresh snow in. They can groom the next morning. There's no point in bragging that you got a foot of fresh snow if you are just going to groom it in right away. Thanks!

agreed

only time I've been to Wachusette recently was a couple of years ago after a foot of snow fell over night. The entire place was groomed flat as a pancake the next morning. Powder days are so rare in Southern New England, they should be embraced for what they are and not as an opportunity to pack and build your base.

 

[speden]

1. Will you make any changes in the beginner area to leverage the new quad lift you're installing? That area is way underutilized, so will you add jumps or do any regrading to make the terrain more interesting, and pull some traffic off the overcrowded Minuteman express? Possible ideas: an inground shallow half pipe, a banked slalom run, dig out some area for a short section with more pitch, some giant wide spaced bumps, etc.

2. Can you give some technical details on the new Monadnock Easy-Rider Express? Will it be fixed grip or detached? Is there a loading carpet? Any funky stuff like automatically lowering restraining bars? Will it be ready for opening day? Is it fully new or are you re-using the old towers?

3. What can Wachusett do to decrease the long lines at the Minuteman and Polar Express? Is there any hope of adding new terrain or is everything hopelessly locked in by protected old growth forests? Can the mountain buy up and protect some other old growth area elsewhere in the state and pitch it as an offset to cutting some new trails at Wachusett? Why not try to extend the almost unused vickery bowl lift up to the top of the mountain and make it a decent pod?

4. Any thoughts of setting up a season pass arangement with Boyne so that pass holders could get a combined Wachusett/Boyne pass? Lots of Boston skiers like to ski Wachusett for a close to home workout and then hit up Loon/Sunday River/Sugarloaf for the bigger stuff. Seems like there would be a lot of demand for a combined pass, and good synergy for the two organizations for revenue without really adding much traffic.

5. I was disappointed with the Wachusett spring skiing last season and I wonder what the philosophy is on late season trail grooming and operating hours at Wachusett. I bought an end of season pass expecting to do a lot of night skiing, but suddenly Wachusett stopped doing grooming for the evening session and then started closing early to preserve snow. You get so much day traffic there that the trails are a mess without an evening grooming. If you can't groom twice a day with warmer temps, it seems like you should just close at 6pm rather than pretend you have night skiing. I went there a couple nights and there were maybe five people out getting hammered by horribly rutted trails, with everyone else sitting in the lodge or heading home disappointed.

6. Could you talk a little bit about the demo center expansion. What type of demo skis will you be adding and how will you speed up in-out access? I was frustrated last season that they would only allow three demo skis per session and would rather see a time limit than a ski limit. Will the online reservation system be overhauled? I found it difficult last year to see online exactly what skis you had in the demo shop. But it's a good demo shop and I hope you will make it number one in Mass. for demos.

 

[Nick]

I dig number 4. I certainly fall into that category!

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[bobbutts]

I'd seed smith wall to wall and keep 10th groomed..

 

[wa-loaf]

I'd seed smith wall to wall and keep 10th groomed..

Smith is for racing all season. They do let it bump up in the spring once racing is done.

 

[HD333]

Any intention of adding some glades?

 

[Nick]

Any intention of adding some glades?

That would be awesome but where would they go?

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[wa-loaf]

Any intention of adding some glades?

That would be awesome but where would they go?

Sent with Tapatalk

They can't do any expansion/glading due to the old growth forrest. They tried to do a big expansion in the 90's that got shut down. Now all they can do is try and improve what they already have.

 

[bobbutts]

Smith is for racing all season. They do let it bump up in the spring once racing is done.

ah, makes sense then.. only having 3 summit trails really limits the options. every acre counts

 

[thetrailboss]

How often do you plan to/actually run the Vickery triple? It seems as if it is barely open when I am there. Last winter there were multiple nights when both Polar and Minuteman had very long lines and the Vickery chair was not open at all that night, particularly during Christmas vacation and Saturday nights in January. I appreciate being able to use Vickery when Polar and Minuteman lines get too long. The chair and piece of cake trail seem like a complete waste because of this.

Any plans to turn the Vickery liftline into an actual trail? Or perhaps you could just remove the rope that blocks its entrance.

Any plans to add lights to balance rock?

And to add to Vickery Bowl: Before this area was constructed, there was a lot of protest and bitter opposition to this expansion. If I recall correctly, you scaled down this project to compromise with opponents. Now that it has been in operation for several years, in hindsight was it worth it considering that it is so small and that the lift does not run often?

I also concur with the spring grooming comments. I visited on a March even a few years back and the grooming crew started to groom and then abruptly stopped, resulting in icy runs. Now it had been a warm day and the temperatures were not dropping fast enough, so that might have been a factor. But I was surprised that they just gave up considering that there were a fair number of folks skiing.

 

[massbmx]

1. Will you make any changes in the beginner area to leverage the new quad lift you're installing? That area is way underutilized, so will you add jumps or do any regrading to make the terrain more interesting, and pull some traffic off the overcrowded Minuteman express? Possible ideas: an inground shallow half pipe, a banked slalom run, dig out some area for a short section with more pitch, some giant wide spaced bumps, etc.

2. Can you give some technical details on the new Monadnock Easy-Rider Express? Will it be fixed grip or detached? Is there a loading carpet? Any funky stuff like automatically lowering restraining bars? Will it be ready for opening day? Is it fully new or are you re-using the old towers?

3. What can Wachusett do to decrease the long lines at the Minuteman and Polar Express? Is there any hope of adding new terrain or is everything hopelessly locked in by protected old growth forests? Can the mountain buy up and protect some other old growth area elsewhere in the state and pitch it as an offset to cutting some new trails at Wachusett? Why not try to extend the almost unused vickery bowl lift up to the top of the mountain and make it a decent pod?

4. Any thoughts of setting up a season pass arangement with Boyne so that pass holders could get a combined Wachusett/Boyne pass? Lots of Boston skiers like to ski Wachusett for a close to home workout and then hit up Loon/Sunday River/Sugarloaf for the bigger stuff. Seems like there would be a lot of demand for a combined pass, and good synergy for the two organizations for revenue without really adding much traffic.

5. I was disappointed with the Wachusett spring skiing last season and I wonder what the philosophy is on late season trail grooming and operating hours at Wachusett. I bought an end of season pass expecting to do a lot of night skiing, but suddenly Wachusett stopped doing grooming for the evening session and then started closing early to preserve snow. You get so much day traffic there that the trails are a mess without an evening grooming. If you can't groom twice a day with warmer temps, it seems like you should just close at 6pm rather than pretend you have night skiing. I went there a couple nights and there were maybe five people out getting hammered by horribly rutted trails, with everyone else sitting in the lodge or heading home disappointed.

6. Could you talk a little bit about the demo center expansion. What type of demo skis will you be adding and how will you speed up in-out access? I was frustrated last season that they would only allow three demo skis per session and would rather see a time limit than a ski limit. Will the online reservation system be overhauled? I found it difficult last year to see online exactly what skis you had in the demo shop. But it's a good demo shop and I hope you will make it number one in Mass. for demos.

Yes #4 is a great idea! They need to do this. Will they? Doubtful, they treat their passholders like shit.

Which brings me to my first question...will you give ANY perks to bronze pass holders. Last year I tried to ski closing day at and was kicked out of line (at noon after having taken 4 laps already) and told "we decided to let bronze pass holders in at 2 today like they were being nice." The mountain closed for the SEASON at 3, and there more people watching the (joke of a) pond skim than in line at either quad.

Another question is will they tell the guys in orange with the red blinkers to stop being powertripping dicks! If you go any faster than a crawl past them they blow the whistle and threaten to pull your pass. I can see it in certian crowded areas of the mountain, but I had it happen in the upper portions of smith and 10th multiple times.

And just for the record there are "glades" if you know where to look, not good ones but I found them on the only powder day I've ever had there. I also found out that same day why they groom all their powder away and its because most parts of the mountain aren't steep enough to get through even 6" of fresh.

As far as the Vickery triple, the only thing that lift is good for is safety meetings because barely anyone's ever on it when its running. Wachusett to me (and I'm sure a lot or people on here) is a tolerate/hate (as opposed to love/hate) relationship.

 

[makimono]

Not so much a question, but a comment. As a season pass holder, I was really disappointed that the mountain closed for the season last year with 100% coverage still.

Also add 1 more skier to the long list that demands more better BUMPS!

 

[makimono]

Oh one more thing...on the terrain park the corral, subway turnstile, magnetic card setup that went into effect halfway through the year plain sucked. The chute was always narrow and icy and a pain to navigate on a single ski or board, the turnstile did not work once for me, maybe I had a defective card, but every single time I had to bump into it getting that video game "life over" sound until one of the guys came out to manually release the gate and then accost me about needing a pass till I dug it out of my jacket to prove I was in compliance with the terrain park police...:roll:

 

[Nick]

I probably should know this but does the terrian park always cost extra $$? I was surprised when I went on the last day of the season last year and the terrain park was off limits unless you shelled out extra $.