killington closing day - sunday 4/25

[skiadikt]

mammoth mountain recently announced they would be staying open until july 4th

Mammoth Chairman Rusty Gregory said, "With as much snow as we have, our customers would riot if we closed down as early as the other ski resorts."

 

[drjeff]

mammoth mountain recently announced they would be staying open until july 4th

Mammoth Chairman Rusty Gregory said, "With as much snow as we have, our customers would riot if we closed down as early as the other ski resorts."

Check out this Mammoth TR over on Firsttracksonline from this past weekend. In particular, look at the photo of patrons walking off the snow onto the 3RD FLOOR DECK about mid way through the post to see why July 4th is likely happening there

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8899

 

[Rambo]

Check out this Mammoth TR over on Firsttracksonline from this past weekend. In particular, look at the photo of patrons walking off the snow onto the 3RD FLOOR DECK about mid way through the post to see why July 4th is likely happening there

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/posting.php?mode=quote&f=3&p=54182

If someone were to ski at Mammouth Mountain, late spring, how wide a ski would they need? Would a Fischer Watea 94 or a Line Prophet 100 be wide enough to provide good flotation in Spring conditions or would something wider be required?

 

[drjeff]

If someone were to ski at Mammouth Mountain, late spring, how wide a ski would they need? Would a Fischer Watea 94 or a Line Prophet 100 be wide enough to provide good flotation in Spring conditions or would something wider be required?

Folks have been skiing Mammoth pretty successfully in spring mashed potatoes for decades. It's not the ski, its the skier

 

[dmc]

Folks have been skiing Mammoth pretty successfully in spring mashed potatoes for decades. It's not the ski, its the skier

I ski that shti on barrel staves...

 

[deadheadskier]

Check out this Mammoth TR over on Firsttracksonline from this past weekend. In particular, look at the photo of patrons walking off the snow onto the 3RD FLOOR DECK about mid way through the post to see why July 4th is likely happening there

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/posting.php?mode=quote&f=3&p=54182

check out the pics of Superstar from powbumps 4/21 TR. By the same logic, shouldn't K stay open a bit longer.

 

[drjeff]

check out the pics of Superstar from powbumps 4/21 TR. By the same logic, shouldn't K stay open a bit longer.

Check out the number of people on that deck at Mammoth vs. the number of people on SS in powbumps TR

 

[Geoff]

Check out the number of people on that deck at Mammoth vs. the number of people on SS in powbumps TR

Spring skiing at Killington has always been a weekend thing. You don't get many people on a Wednesday who don't have green license plates on their cars. Friday through Monday, it's always much busier if it's sunny.

 

[bobbutts]

I was up there yesterday (great bumps!) and the headwall and last pitch on SS are getting a little thin and rocky. Next weekend would have been possible, but conditions would probably have been pretty marginal. I can see why they're calling it a season. This April was way warmer and rainier than average. It caused their base to dwindle faster than they expected.

 

[riverc0il]

I was up there yesterday (great bumps!) and the headwall and last pitch on SS are getting a little thin and rocky. Next weekend would have been possible, but conditions would probably have been pretty marginal. I can see why they're calling it a season. This April was way warmer and rainier than average. It caused their base to dwindle faster than they expected.

I do not agree with the observation that any part of Superstar was thin or rocky. Great coverage on Superstar from top to bottom. The bumps on Superstar were not that great, though. But I can not see why they are calling it a season as they have plenty of snow on the trail and plenty more snow to move around. I should have pictures up by later today. I thought that they had very impressive coverage still and I was SHOCKED at how much coverage they have considering they are closing a full weekend early.

 

[bobbutts]

all I'm saying is I can see why they are doing it, they never should have said May 2 this year if they didn't plan on pushing it, and they could easily run and have better conditions vs. closing weekends in the past.
But I don't think they expected the snow to be going so fast now given the coverage they had on Apr 1, and there will very likely be a big gaping bare spot up top by next weekend.

Yeah, yesterday SS had mostly a combo of dug out and spaced out bumps but Ovation was creamy and nice and Skyelark got some nice lines going. Still by my standards a great bump day.

Here's a pic from closing weekend somewhere between 95-97, headwall totally bare. So yeah, if this is the standard, they are closing early this year.

 

[riverc0il]

There was not a bare spot on Superstar until the final pitch, even the "headwall" was wall to wall. And there was 5+ feet of snow at the top. The standard is not having to walk down the headwall as in 95-97. The standard is not having to take your skis off at all. You don't have to have visions of the future to know that they could make next weekend with a good quality product if they wanted to. I am just saying that is not a valid reason and the product is actually VERY good right now. It would take above freezing nights and five days straight of rain to wash it out.

 

[wa-loaf]

Sugarloaf:

Good news folks - the skiing is so good up above Peavey that we're going to keep both Spillway and the SuperQuad running straight through the week! Come up and enjoy the final week at the King of Spring!

 

[Newpylong]

Sugarloaf:

That certainly seems like a waste of cashola...

 

[wa-loaf]

That certainly seems like a waste of cashola...

You must work for Killington ...

 

[Newpylong]

lol def not!

 

[skiadikt]

the cruelest joke is that the forecast has become more more favorable for snow retention w/ cooler temps and nightime lows below freezing w/ the possibility of some snow mixed in. in fact, the very optimistic snow-forecast has up to 4" of snow. for the weekend, which is still a long way out, there's a chance of showers for saturday and sunny sunday high 56.

but this was purely a business decision. and for them to claim they were basing their decision on a 10-12 day forecast is an absolute joke. skied both days at k this weekend and like 180 left it all on the hill saturday since the forecast for sunday was for rain. woke sunday morning with blazing sunshine. sunday turned out to be even better day than saturday as the bumps softened much earlier.

 

[gmcunni]

the cruelest joke is that the forecast has become more more favorable for snow retention w/ cooler temps and nightime lows below freezing w/ the possibility of some snow mixed in. in fact, the very optimistic snow-forecast has up to 4" of snow. for the weekend, which is still a long way out, there's a chance of showers for saturday and sunny sunday high 56.

maybe they'll announce Monday morning that they've extended the season by a week!!!

 

[riverc0il]

but this was purely a business decision. and for them to claim they were basing their decision on a 10-12 day forecast is an absolute joke.

I don't even understand it as a business decision. Saturday was down right crowded on the trails and the lift was never ski on (likely excepting first and last hour of operation when I was not there). At $39-$42 a head (and let's not forget that passholders already paid and are indeed paying customers), Killington should have easily been able to make a profit this past weekend, let alone break even, let alone run at a slight loss for passholder good will, next year's season pass sales, and marketing. It sure as heck was not like Sugarbush last week when I saw more employees than customers which justified the shut down. Worst of all, given all the snow at the top of Superstar, they wasted a lot of money in snow making. The snow making money is already spent, they might as well try to recoup some money by selling tickets as that expense can not be reduced at this point.

Bottom line: this is perhaps the worst business decision I have seen in the New England ski industry in some time.

 

[powbmps]

Right-on. I thought they even had some pretty good crowds during the week recently. Very bummed I couldn't make it this weekend.

They have already switched over their website to biking and hiking. Booooo!

I don't even understand it as a business decision. Saturday was down right crowded on the trails and the lift was never ski on (likely excepting first and last hour of operation when I was not there). At $39-$42 a head (and let's not forget that passholders already paid and are indeed paying customers), Killington should have easily been able to make a profit this past weekend, let alone break even, let alone run at a slight loss for passholder good will, next year's season pass sales, and marketing. It sure as heck was not like Sugarbush last week when I saw more employees than customers which justified the shut down. Worst of all, given all the snow at the top of Superstar, they wasted a lot of money in snow making. The snow making money is already spent, they might as well try to recoup some money by selling tickets as that expense can not be reduced at this point.

Bottom line: this is perhaps the worst business decision I have seen in the New England ski industry in some time.