Mount Snow: Inside Track

[drjeff]

I wonder how much of those new visits were one offs midseason because of the publicity versus an increase in early or late season visits because of increased trail and acreage counts thanks to snowmaking.

They led the northeast from Veterans day through Christmas-ish in skiable acres. They also stayed open later with more trails than their So VT competition and made big resurfacing efforts after rainstorms and thaws were others did not.

I'm not a Mt Snow skier, but I bet they turned a good chunk of that 14% increase into repeat customers due to fast lifts and excellent snowmaking. If you're looking for good groomed conditions early season or after rough weather, Snow is now the place to go in VT. I bet they'll keep it up and set another record this year (assuming it is not a disaster year).

Frankly as someone who was skiing Mount Snow most weekends last season, I'm pretty sure that it was their early season and late season crowds that put them over the top numbers wise last season based on my own anecdotal crowd notes. Mid season suffered from the cold stretch at Christmas and then melt outs just before MLK weekend and around Pres week. Crowds were solid by my accounts, mid season weekends, but not a consistently large amount over historical mid winter weekends, and the holiday periods seemed to be below normal. Early season (from opening until Christmas week) the weekend crowds seemed above normal, and then late season (basically from March 1st on and especially after the huge storms in Early March), the crowds were BIG, and never really fell off on the weekends until the beginning of April. I really can't speak much for what the mid week volume was like , as I hardly has any mid week, non holiday week days last season at Mount Snow.

My hunch if monthly numbers were ever released, is that the first 1/3rd of the season would be comfortably above historical averages, the middle third a bit below historical averages, and the last 1/3rd way above historical averages, with the end result being up 14% with a record year

 

[skiur]

Snowmaking is great but groomers get boring real quick. When you average less than 150" of snow a year you cant make up or it with snowmaking. Add in the crowds and it makes for a place I'm not too interested in. I do have to say I havent skied there since the ASC bronze pass days but apparently the crowds were worse this year so I plan to keep driving north past mt snow.

 

[cdskier]

Snowmaking is great but groomers get boring real quick. When you average less than 150" of snow a year you cant make up or it with snowmaking. Add in the crowds and it makes for a place I'm not too interested in. I do have to say I havent skied there since the ASC bronze pass days but apparently the crowds were worse this year so I plan to keep driving north past mt snow.

I would suspect though that the "typical" AZer is not the main demographic interested in skiing Mt Snow. If everyone simply found groomers boring, then why do places with that type of terrain continue to do well (Snow, Stratton, Okemo, etc)? Because there are a significant number of people that don't mind skiing mostly groomers all day and don't need/want a lot of technical and challenging terrain at a resort (my brother would fall into that category as even when he used to ski at Sugarbush he'd usually stick 98% to trails that were groomed).

So maybe Mt Snow would not be able to sustain the numbers they had this year, but I do think as long as they have a pass reasonably priced that they will find many people that are interested in exactly the product they are offering now thanks in large part to their improved snowmaking system.

 

[Jully]

I'd even say most skiers PREFER (rather than don't mind) to ski nothing but groomers all day.

 

[sull1102]

Okemo, Stratton, Snow boring, flat, "I keep driving north" and yet they are some of biggest mountains in the region. Same could be said for Wachusett and Loon. The crowd on here typically keeps driving, yet these are the major players in the game and the VAST majority do ski these mountains so they're doing something right. Also the woods at Snow were fantastic this year straight into April and North Face is good enough for some steeps for most so it isn't all groomers.

As far the crowds, I can say from my point of view as an almost exclusively midweek guest that the crowds on Monday through Friday were at least double the previous two years. I can think of just a couple of days that were the usual empty, ski on Bluebird all day weekdays I love so much.

And to those wondering if they can keep this up, I would plan on seeing a very noticeable bump in numbers next year. At the very least Hermitage members will struggle mightily to spin their lifts. If that doesn't happen, most likely scenario, those folks will be headed for Mount Snow. Yes most were already going to Snow, but now they'll be there every weekend. That's another 500-600 people overall.

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[Smellytele]

Everyone has their likes and dislikes with ski areas. If they didn't everyone would ski at the some one. Terrain and crowds are what drives me to ski a certain area. If a ski area has great snow making and poor terrain it is not high on my list. Same with poor terrain and great lifts. Rather have poor lifts and great terrain.

 

[MountSnow]

Any additional questions for us?

 

[drjeff]

Any additional questions for us?

Is the pace of construction for the Carinthia lodge on target for an opening by the beginning of the season?

Also, when I drove by it about 10 days ago, the pile of rubble/rocks that was roughly situated where the old, now demolished Carinthia lodge was, sure didn't look like old, shattered foundation debris. Is that some of the rocks from the blasting of Long John last Summer for it's widening that I believe I read at one point were going to be brought down the mountain to the Carinthia base area for fill purposes as the lodge nears completion?

 

[MountSnow]

Is the pace of construction for the Carinthia lodge on target for an opening by the beginning of the season?

Also, when I drove by it about 10 days ago, the pile of rubble/rocks that was roughly situated where the old, now demolished Carinthia lodge was, sure didn't look like old, shattered foundation debris. Is that some of the rocks from the blasting of Long John last Summer for it's widening that I believe I read at one point were going to be brought down the mountain to the Carinthia base area for fill purposes as the lodge nears completion?

1. Yes, the lodge is still on schedule to open with the start of the 2018/19 season.

2. That fill is indeed from our Long John Widening Project last summer. It is being crushed onsite to create fill for our new preferred parking area that will be located where the old Carinthia Lodge stood.

 

[skifree]

is preferred parking area code for you need to pay $$ to park here?

 

[MountSnow]

is preferred parking area code for you need to pay $$ to park here?

As with the Main Base Area, Preferred Parking will be available there Friday through Sunday and during holiday periods throughout the winter season. During these periods, this lot will be access controlled providing paid parking on a first come-first serve basis.

 

[skiur]

As with the Main Base Area, Preferred Parking will be available there Friday through Sunday and during holiday periods throughout the winter season. During these periods, this lot will be access controlled providing paid parking on a first come-first serve basis.

How many spots will the pay to park lot have?

 

[MountSnow]

How many spots will the pay to park lot have?

That hasn't been finalized yet.

 

[GregoryIsaacs]

Are any of the new carinthia lodge bars going to be considered "late night" options? (i/e a later closing time that cuzzins)

 

[MountSnow]

Are any of the new carinthia lodge bars going to be considered "late night" options? (i/e a later closing time that cuzzins)

That's all going to depend on demand. If the demand is there, then it's something we'd look into doing.
The new Carinthia Base Lodge will be an evolving project for the first year as we see how people choose to interact with it.

 

[drjeff]

That's all going to depend on demand. If the demand is there, then it's something we'd look into doing.
The new Carinthia Base Lodge will be an evolving project for the first year as we see how people choose to interact with it.

If you run a shuttle about 6PM with Pete, and Alyzabeth and the rest of the usual crew of the Taproom about then from the main base lodge over to the new Carinthia base lodge most weekend evenings, then let's go late over there this season!! If not, let's just all eventually meet up at the "Best Dive Bar" in ski country per Ski Magazine a number of years ago located about 50 yards South of Snow's Mountain Market, and call it a day! [emoji16] [emoji16]

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[Jcb890]

Nope!
We gave a ton of time and notice for everyone.

Sorry man.

Oh I know, just giving you a hard time.


On a side note... no idea why I didn't get notifications about this thread.

 

[MountSnow]

Oh I know, just giving you a hard time.


On a side note... no idea why I didn't get notifications about this thread.

The notifications seem to be a bit spotty. Hence why we miss posts sometimes for a few days.

 

[sull1102]

Just reading up on Hunter's great expansion project this summer and the snowmaking they are installing got me wondering, does Mount Snow have any automated guns on the hill and do you plan to go that way in the future as more Polecats start to cross the ten year mark?

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[MountSnow]

Just reading up on Hunter's great expansion project this summer and the snowmaking they are installing got me wondering, does Mount Snow have any automated guns on the hill and do you plan to go that way in the future as more Polecats start to cross the ten year mark?

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We actually do not, but with the new West Lake Water Project we've made it so that we can run a phenominal amount of snowguns with a small crew of 6-8 snowmakers.