Newpylong
Well-known member
For anyone interested I went to the annual passholders Q&A with management today.. I sat in from 10 to 11am and I will outline what was discussed. First of all, I expected a couple employees haphazardly answering a few questions. I couldn’t have been further off. A representative from every department was there ranging from Operations to Food Management. One person was fielding the questions and it really was well run and went smoothly. They were more than receptive to our opinions as well. I am sure I missed a few things but I after a long day I did my best. Anyway, to the details:
The general feeling was that of excitement. While they couldn’t discuss a lot of things because the sale wasn’t final yet; The idea I got was that the management at Mount Snow is a group of hard working individuals that have had their hands tied but have tried their best to do well with what they have had. In general, they seemed to be pumped with the sale, and they said so far Peak Resorts has not marched in gun’s blazing telling them “this is how it’s going to be”. They said the new owners have thus far been very receptive and were interested in what needed to be done to turn the place around.
The initial topic was Season Passes. A poll was taken of who had Bronze/Silver vs. the other passes. They said they wouldn’t know prices until the sale to Peak’s went through but they asked what we looked for most. Common answers were: a similar pass to the Bronze All4one with blackout dates, a midweek pass, and also a senior pass. Some looked for multimountain passes, other said a Mount Snow only is fine. There was also a little talk about passholder benefits such as food discounts, etc. We will know more in April.
The most talked about topic by far was on-hill improvements. They said so far Peak Resorts has said Snowmaking is going to be priority #1. They want to go through with the Somerset connection. They want to get as close to 100% capabilities on the mountain as possible. Also, we were told they were big on fan gun technology. The head of Mountain Ops liked this because he said they tested one out this year and he is impressed at how much terrain they can cover. He said look in the future for them on trails such as Snowdance, Standard and South Bowl when the water problem is solved. Look for snowmaking to be installed on Big and Little Dipper in the Sunbrook area first.
As for lifts: (Keep in mind these are just ideas and tentative to change or never happen). They said the priority of Peak’s is getting people out of the base area as it is always crowded. But they really STRESSED that this would not happen before more snow could be made. Once the snowmaking is increased, the Grand Summit Express will be replaced possibly with a 6-Pack. They seemed to be keen on a Gondola at some point but said the summit is susceptible to bad winds, and so are gondolas, so one’s placement would have to be looked at very closely. Once a main face lift is installed they said look for lift replacements on Sunbrook and North Face. They said for next year half of the chairs would be removed from the Sunbrook Quad to increase line speed. They think this is the most effective thing to do as only one run (Thank’s Walt) has snowmaking right now over there, so a high-speed lift would flood the area before more snowmaking can be added.
The topic of Terrain Parks was very heated. They were supposed to turn Nitro into a park this year, but due to the crap winter they did not. Everyone at the meeting (no boarders that I saw) expressed grave concern with the placement of the park on the only trail off the top of Carinthia for cruising that had snowmaking. I told them that if next year if this park will be built, they better think long and hard about getting snowmaking on Upper Titanium. The head of Mountain Ops seemed very keen on this… Also, they said they have a whole summer to discuss and nothing is in stone yet for next year so they will take everything under consideration. No one had a problem with another trail for parks (we were given back Stugger’s and Fairway), but the choice of Nitro was def. an issue.
The last discussion was about secondary lift’s on weekends. A fellow behind me was pretty irate that on busy days lately Sundance and Ego lift’s were either slow to open or not at all. We were told this was not a money thing (every lift was provisioned to run on the weekend), but a staffing issue. They said when the winter was bad a lot of staff members just left because they weren’t getting that many hours. This forced management to go out and either work lift’s or scan ticket so others could work lifts. We stressed that Sundance was needed every weekend when that section of the mountain was open as it alleviated pressure from the base. Guy from Mountain Ops said first lift to not run without enough staff is Ego, then Sundance, then Heavy Metal. We thought it was weird that Metal ran ahead of Sundance, but he said when Nitro is jammed you’re kinda out of options over there. He said next year things would hopefully be better, and maybe the Sundance lift eventually would be replaced when snowmaking is added over there.
Also, in the future base lodge improvements are on the list.
Before I left we all thanked them for such a good job they have done this year all things considering (lack of snow and money) and made it a wish that everyone stays employed by the new owners.
Anyway, I hope this was an interesting read.
The general feeling was that of excitement. While they couldn’t discuss a lot of things because the sale wasn’t final yet; The idea I got was that the management at Mount Snow is a group of hard working individuals that have had their hands tied but have tried their best to do well with what they have had. In general, they seemed to be pumped with the sale, and they said so far Peak Resorts has not marched in gun’s blazing telling them “this is how it’s going to be”. They said the new owners have thus far been very receptive and were interested in what needed to be done to turn the place around.
The initial topic was Season Passes. A poll was taken of who had Bronze/Silver vs. the other passes. They said they wouldn’t know prices until the sale to Peak’s went through but they asked what we looked for most. Common answers were: a similar pass to the Bronze All4one with blackout dates, a midweek pass, and also a senior pass. Some looked for multimountain passes, other said a Mount Snow only is fine. There was also a little talk about passholder benefits such as food discounts, etc. We will know more in April.
The most talked about topic by far was on-hill improvements. They said so far Peak Resorts has said Snowmaking is going to be priority #1. They want to go through with the Somerset connection. They want to get as close to 100% capabilities on the mountain as possible. Also, we were told they were big on fan gun technology. The head of Mountain Ops liked this because he said they tested one out this year and he is impressed at how much terrain they can cover. He said look in the future for them on trails such as Snowdance, Standard and South Bowl when the water problem is solved. Look for snowmaking to be installed on Big and Little Dipper in the Sunbrook area first.
As for lifts: (Keep in mind these are just ideas and tentative to change or never happen). They said the priority of Peak’s is getting people out of the base area as it is always crowded. But they really STRESSED that this would not happen before more snow could be made. Once the snowmaking is increased, the Grand Summit Express will be replaced possibly with a 6-Pack. They seemed to be keen on a Gondola at some point but said the summit is susceptible to bad winds, and so are gondolas, so one’s placement would have to be looked at very closely. Once a main face lift is installed they said look for lift replacements on Sunbrook and North Face. They said for next year half of the chairs would be removed from the Sunbrook Quad to increase line speed. They think this is the most effective thing to do as only one run (Thank’s Walt) has snowmaking right now over there, so a high-speed lift would flood the area before more snowmaking can be added.
The topic of Terrain Parks was very heated. They were supposed to turn Nitro into a park this year, but due to the crap winter they did not. Everyone at the meeting (no boarders that I saw) expressed grave concern with the placement of the park on the only trail off the top of Carinthia for cruising that had snowmaking. I told them that if next year if this park will be built, they better think long and hard about getting snowmaking on Upper Titanium. The head of Mountain Ops seemed very keen on this… Also, they said they have a whole summer to discuss and nothing is in stone yet for next year so they will take everything under consideration. No one had a problem with another trail for parks (we were given back Stugger’s and Fairway), but the choice of Nitro was def. an issue.
The last discussion was about secondary lift’s on weekends. A fellow behind me was pretty irate that on busy days lately Sundance and Ego lift’s were either slow to open or not at all. We were told this was not a money thing (every lift was provisioned to run on the weekend), but a staffing issue. They said when the winter was bad a lot of staff members just left because they weren’t getting that many hours. This forced management to go out and either work lift’s or scan ticket so others could work lifts. We stressed that Sundance was needed every weekend when that section of the mountain was open as it alleviated pressure from the base. Guy from Mountain Ops said first lift to not run without enough staff is Ego, then Sundance, then Heavy Metal. We thought it was weird that Metal ran ahead of Sundance, but he said when Nitro is jammed you’re kinda out of options over there. He said next year things would hopefully be better, and maybe the Sundance lift eventually would be replaced when snowmaking is added over there.
Also, in the future base lodge improvements are on the list.
Before I left we all thanked them for such a good job they have done this year all things considering (lack of snow and money) and made it a wish that everyone stays employed by the new owners.
Anyway, I hope this was an interesting read.
