Day tickets going through the roof in Vermont

[Cobbold]

Got a link for this SWC lodge people are discussing by Stowe?

Google Schenectady ski club

 

[NYSnowflake]

Got a link for this SWC lodge people are discussing by Stowe?

Schenectady Wintersports Club - Home

www.swcweb.org

 

[NYSnowflake]

Looking forward to going to swc midweek for my one day a week Stowe visit, are you still a member?

My membership expired when I didn’t renew my Epic pass. We switched to Ikon because we are staying with friends at Sugarbush this season. I would go back though for sure if I needed a place to stay in that area.

 

[Cobbold]

My membership expired when I didn’t renew my Epic pass. We switched to Ikon because we are staying with friends at Sugarbush this season. I would go back though for sure if I needed a place to stay in that area.

What did you like best about the lodge and what did you not like about the lodge?

 

[Ski2LiveLive2Ski]

Schenectady Wintersports Club - Home

www.swcweb.org

Thanks that looks great. Will likely join when ready to book first Stowe trip of season

 

[BenedictGomez]

I’m about done with this sport.

It relegates people like me with small children to a handful of ski resorts. But even those ski resorts have increased their prices knowing they can do so as a beneficial artifact of the surrounding ski resorts going artificially stratospheric. Vail cant fail soon enough.

 

[BenedictGomez]

It will be interesting to see what impact, if any, this has on the number of people entering the sport.

Terrible. I'm sure you've seen me write about this before, but this has been my prediction from day one, that it will seriously impede new skier/snowboarders entrants, BUT (and this is key) because of the lumpiness of the data & the difficulty in discerning YoY trends given numerous variables simultaneously at play, it will take years before anyone figures this out.

 

[BenedictGomez]

I don't buy this last argument. How many people in the past just randomly on their own decided to try skiing? Probably very few. Even when day tickets were $30-40, by the time you add rentals and lessons you were still easily over $100 which was a lot of money for many people say even just 10-20 years ago. Most people are introduced to the sport by someone else (family, friends, etc). So those family/friends should be the ones telling them how/where to get the best deals to try it out.

As someone who spent years working the beginner area skier counter at a major ski resort, I can assure you you're quite wrong on this belief. Tons of people "show up" to ski for the first time, like uber tons, every weekend, and often it's a last minute thing & they're completely unprepared in numerous ways.

 

[BenedictGomez]

When I started skiing, 59-years ago, yikes! Old I am. Nobody in my family skied nor did anyone I knew. As I became a teenager and started finding skiing buddies it was split about 50/50 between those who had skiing families and guys like me who just tried it and stuck with it.

Would I be right to assume that 60 years ago it was mostly very well-off people who skied? Today we say that skiing is for well-off people, but it's not really true if you're motivated. But back then my perception (which may be 100% wrong) is it was the well-off.

 

[BenedictGomez]

The author's other point was that the market demanded this cheap multimountain product.

Hmmmmm....... I'm not really seeing that.

The market had it stuffed down their throat & forced to like it, like a foie gras duck "choosing" whether to eat or not.

 

[ss20]

Hmmmmm....... I'm not really seeing that.

The market had it stuffed down their throat & forced to like it, like a foie gras duck "choosing" whether to eat or not.

What's the market? Us on AZ who would gladly shovel out "old" prices of a $1,200 season pass for less crowds at one mountain? Or is it the casual skier who skis 5-10 times a year and sees a $600 pass to 194,193 mountains a bargain...crowding and atmosphere be damned.

For every AZ skier, there's 10 Average Joe's. AZ is not a collective sampling of the "market". If people disliked multi-mountain passes for cheap, things would've corrected themselves long ago...this is no longer a new phenomenon or a "phase"... it's what we have for a while.

I think the only major changes you'll see are a return of upscale/expensive independent resorts to fill the shoes of Deer Valley, Beaver Creek, Aspen, Jackson, etc that have been Ikonized. I think Powdr would have a good shot at doing this. Killington, Copper, and Snowbird are all big draws in their respective regions...and in places where people are sick of crowds. Take them off Ikon and charge $1,000 a pop for a season pass (single mountain). Now you're suddenly a "unique experience" in that you're exclusive.

 

[NYSnowflake]

What did you like best about the lodge and what did you not like about the lodge?

Things we liked about the Schenectady winter sports club lodge-

Character and history of the lodge
Great location near Stowe
Easy booking rooms
Free breakfast
Friendly people/made new friends
Clean updated bathrooms
Clean kitchen
Single bedrooms
Great prices
Easy to join club

Didn’t like-
Questionable air quality irritated my eyes and lungs (allergic to wood smoke maybe? I do have a mold allergy)

Dogs not allowed even when you rent out the whole place yourself

Club membership is aging and in need of younger active members

 

[raisingarizona]

Terrible. I'm sure you've seen me write about this before, but this has been my prediction from day one, that it will seriously impede new skier/snowboarders entrants, BUT (and this is key) because of the lumpiness of the data & the difficulty in discerning YoY trends given numerous variables simultaneously at play, it will take years before anyone figures this out.

Maybe they are looking at the climate science and have decided to get everything they can while we still have regular winters.

They gotta be looking at the predictions and making plans based around them. You’d be foolish to not be.

 

[Cobbold]

Things we liked about the Schenectady winter sports club lodge-

Character and history of the lodge
Great location near Stowe
Easy booking rooms
Free breakfast
Friendly people/made new friends
Clean updated bathrooms
Clean kitchen
Single bedrooms
Great prices
Easy to join club

Didn’t like-
Questionable air quality irritated my eyes and lungs (allergic to wood smoke maybe? I do have a mold allergy)

Dogs not allowed even when you rent out the whole place yourself

Club membership is aging and in need of younger active members

Thanks for the list

 

[mister moose]

If you go to a place with the word "resort" in their name for your first ski experience, you're already signing up for high prices. You need to drive there. You need to spend a night since the drive is so far. You need to pay resort prices for lunch and rentals and lessons. (Yes there are packages)

Every year we see busloads of people that buy a lift ticket and rent equipment, and would have spent less if they only went to Snowshed and asked for the beginner package. We see them because they are out floundering on the 6 pack or Ramshead. Or even the top of Skyeship because they parked there.

For any dollar strapped parent that is used to doing just a little bit of vacation planning, there are small day trip local hills. Want to learn to ski cheap go to Otis Ridge. Mount Southington. For the VT 5 day trip there's off the glitz areas like Bolton, Bromley, Pico. How expensive would 5 days be at Pico, buying your tickets well in advance for like $50, staying in Rutland and brown bagging it? And you get low crowds, a family vibe, and freakin 2,000 feet of vertical. Trust me, after Otis Ridge, Pico blows your hair back.

Day one for us was walking up a 15ft of vertical drainage ditch and skiing straight down. We loved it. We did the brown bag thing, we did the rent a farmhouse 45 minutes away from the hill thing. So I have very little empathy for those who complain about high resort prices. They've ALWAYS been high. Sure they might be a little higher now than historic comparisons, but the basics are still mostly the same in that if you want to save money, you don't walk up at a big resort.

*Edit
Just thought of Ascutney. After a decent snow, drive up with the family and ski the T-bar for $20 for adults, $10 kids, under 6 is free. FREE. What better place to learn to ski on a budget than that.

 

[mister moose]

Would I be right to assume that 60 years ago it was mostly very well-off people who skied? Today we say that skiing is for well-off people, but it's not really true if you're motivated. But back then my perception (which may be 100% wrong) is it was the well-off.

You'd only be right if you were at at expensive resorts. 60 years ago there was Roundtop, Hogback, Maple Valley, Mt Tom, Brodie, and dozens of others that offered less expensive skiing and are gone now. But back then Sugarbush had the nickname "Mascara Mountain" for a reason.

When I was teaching my wife-to-be to ski at Bousquet's in the 90s, lift tickets were $12 and increased to maybe $15, and after ski beers (Genessee Cream Ale) were $2. No brainer.

 

[deadheadskier]

All good and well, but the reality is there are a fraction of feeder hills as there once was and fewer mid sized options too that bridge the gap from feeder hills to "resort".

We skied a ton at places like King Ridge and Temple as Boston suburbanites growing up in the 80s. Distant memories now.

The NESAP list is long!

The population is 100M higher today than 1985. The participation rate in the sport is flat since I believe about 1980.

So, in a way the sport continues to contract.

Just seems that there could be a better formula as an industry to grow.

 

[mister moose]

Gotta ask yourself why that is. Partly is increased cost of things like insurance, labor, and electricity. I think much more so it is that the majority of people would rather have the grooming, snowmaking, modern lifts and amenities that are found at bigger resorts. Not enough support for small areas. The market got what it asked for. Thankfully a few small areas survived and continue to offer a more economical entry point.

 

[deadheadskier]

We shall see. The next decade or so as the boomers rapidly age out of the sport will be telling. I'm thinking the industry will wish it had a better farm system plus kept better options for the infrequent skiers. If you don't keep those folks engaged in their 20s and 30s, chances are you lose them for good.

 

[mister moose]

Don't forget what has improved:

Equipment changes have made it truly easier to learn.

Clothing improvements keep the cold out better. Goretex, fleece, microfiber down.

The 20 something price tier.

The internet has honed pricing deals and price comparisons, and has improved snow reporting.

Roads are generally better, more salt is used, and AWD is readily available in small cars.

Are any outdoor sports growing? Golf? Skating/hockey? Surfing? Canoeing? Sailing? Fishing? Hunting? Rock Climbing? Scuba diving?