Indy Ski Pass

[KustyTheKlown]

church street can definitely be pretty damn weird. ive never noticed any of that staying in south burlington tho. the delta by marriott is very nice. the comfort inn right off 89 (i think?) is decent + very affordable.

in general ive been using marriott properties a lot this year. the fairfield inn in revelstoke was excellent and the free hot breakfast had serious value. this is truly growing up.

 

[deadheadskier]

VT had a homeless hotel voucher program that started during Covid that was pretty expansive. They have reduced the program considerably in recent years. I personally never ran into a problem staying at business class chain hotels throughout the past 5 years traveling for work or recreation in VT. If there were "residents" , I never noticed them. I have run into this a lot in CT though.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

VT had a homeless hotel voucher program that started during Covid that was pretty expansive. They have reduced the program considerably in recent years. I personally never ran into a problem staying at business class chain hotels throughout the past 5 years traveling for work or recreation in VT. If there were "residents" , I never noticed them. I have run into this a lot in CT though.

rutland would like a word.

the days inn on 7 is a touch below 'business class', but it was and i think still is doing split business between the public and the program.

ive stayed there many times over the past few years and have never had a problem, tho once there was a not so subtle police raid of a room on my hall

(see prior post about upgrading to that marriott life lol. but really for central vt ive found an independent hotel in queechee i really like)

the one south burlington hotel ive encountered that seemed to be in the program was the anchorage inn. not the chains.

 

[deadheadskier]

Yeah, thankfully my company isn't so cheap as to have us stay in the Days Inn type places. I basically only stay in Marriott or Hilton business class hotels. Haven't seen residents in those in VT, but very much have at Hampton and Residence Inns in CT, RI and Mass.

 

[deadheadskier]

Jay is the winner on redemption process. Really busy day and fairly long lines at the Stateside ticket window at 9. Mountain ambassador asked those in line if we were Indy customers and informed that we could also go into the gear shop to redeem. One minute process. Hand him my ID, asked for a ticket for me and my kids. No waivers, no pictures, no charge for the RFID cards. Boom. Done in one minute max. This is the way.

 

[Edd]

Jay is the winner on redemption process. Really busy day and fairly long lines at the Stateside ticket window at 9. Mountain ambassador asked those in line if we were Indy customers and informed that we could also go into the gear shop to redeem. One minute process. Hand him my ID, asked for a ticket for me and my kids. No waivers, no pictures, no charge for the RFID cards. Boom. Done in one minute max. This is the way.

No charge for the cards is odd.

 

[deadheadskier]

No charge for the cards is odd.

Yeah, I'm used to paying $5 and expected to today, but Jay says they don't charge for them. Couldn't find our cards from last year in my Rolodex of them from all over. That was refreshing.

The one place I didn't expect to pay or even need one this year? Black Mountain. That was a head scratcher. Place is owned by Indy/Entabeni. They use Entabeni tech. You'd think if there was one mountain that you could just go direct to lift with the actual Indypass it would be Black. Nope. Still needed to go through the waiver process and get a picture taken and pay for a Black specific RFID. Made zero sense.

 

[Mum skier]

Yeah, I'm used to paying $5 and expected to today, but Jay says they don't charge for them. Couldn't find our cards from last year in my Rolodex of them from all over. That was refreshing.

The one place I didn't expect to pay or even need one this year? Black Mountain. That was a head scratcher. Place is owned by Indy/Entabeni. They use Entabeni tech. You'd think if there was one mountain that you could just go direct to lift with the actual Indypass it would be Black. Nope. Still needed to go through the waiver process and get a picture taken and pay for a Black specific RFID. Made zero sense.

Waterville also doesn’t charge. I made a point of taking ours from the prior year last weekend and the ticket lady just took them and gave me two new ones.

 

[jaytrem]

No charge for the cards is odd.

Seems to run about 50/50 I'd say. I also noticed some give free to Indy Pass holders but charge otherwise.

 

[LoafSkier19]

The oddest one so far for me was the Camden Snow Bowl. The ticket desk had the Entebeni machines. They charged $5 for an RFID card, I had to create an account and sign a waiver. All for what? There were no RFID gates or scanners at the lifts. You could get on the lift with just the assumption there was a ticket in your pocket. Really weird and unnecessary for such a small operation

 

[deadheadskier]

I need to get to Camden one of these years. Must be cool to view the Ocean. Bet you can find reasonable hotel rooms in winter too

 

[LoafSkier19]

The view is great. Especially the last minute or two of the lift ride. The runs are longer than you’d expect from an 800’ vert. mountain. Just not a lot of steeps. They do have some decent glades when there is snow.

If you are there in the summer I recommend hiking the trail up the backside (The actual mountain is called Ragged Mtn). Some really great views on the way up and at the true summit.

 

[deadheadskier]

The view is great. Especially the last minute or two of the lift ride. The runs are longer than you’d expect from an 800’ vert. mountain. Just not a lot of steeps. They do have some decent glades when there is snow.

If you are there in the summer I recommend hiking the trail up the backside (The actual mountain is called Ragged Mtn). Some really great views on the way up and at the true summit.

Well that explains why when I googled Camden Snowbowl to look at some pictures of the place, a couple of the images that turned up in Google were of Ragged Mountain ski area

 

[RH29]

Yeah, I'm used to paying $5 and expected to today, but Jay says they don't charge for them. Couldn't find our cards from last year in my Rolodex of them from all over. That was refreshing.

The one place I didn't expect to pay or even need one this year? Black Mountain. That was a head scratcher. Place is owned by Indy/Entabeni. They use Entabeni tech. You'd think if there was one mountain that you could just go direct to lift with the actual Indypass it would be Black. Nope. Still needed to go through the waiver process and get a picture taken and pay for a Black specific RFID. Made zero sense.

Same story at Whaleback IIRC. Though at least they occasionally scanned me. It's weird. The places with the actual ugly Entabeni boxes and computers are the ones I've had to pay at.

 

[jaytrem]

The oddest one so far for me was the Camden Snow Bowl. The ticket desk had the Entebeni machines. They charged $5 for an RFID card, I had to create an account and sign a waiver. All for what? There were no RFID gates or scanners at the lifts. You could get on the lift with just the assumption there was a ticket in your pocket. Really weird and unnecessary for such a small operation

Oddest for me by far is Little Switzerland, mainly since they're the only place that had me use my Indy Pass as the RFID. Mind you there were no scanners anywhere to be found, so I guess it didn't really matter what they had me use. Also, they not using the Entabeni system. Go figure! Afterwards I was disappointed that I didn't didn't get souvenir RFID.

Missed out on Camden on my Maine trip, summit chair was down so we went to Lost Valley instead. Guess I have a reason to head back out that way.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

I need to get to Camden one of these years. Must be cool to view the Ocean. Bet you can find reasonable hotel rooms in winter too

I love Camden Maine. We spent 2 nights based there during our trip last summer. Beautiful town.

 

[deadheadskier]

I love Camden Maine. We spent 2 nights based there during our trip last summer. Beautiful town.

I should have said Camden Snowbowl. The town of Camden itself I've been to many times. It's one of many great Mid Coast spots. Of the larger Maine Mid Coast towns, I probably like Boothbay a little bit better because it's off the main RTE 1 drag, but I'm really splitting hairs.