Ski area closing dates 2008

[loafer89]

Anyone hear about offical or rumored closing dates for mountains in the east this year? Perhaps we could start a thread with what we know:

Black Mountain Of Maine: March 30th, 2008
Killington: April 13th, 2008 - pathetic

 

[WJenness]

This thread makes Baby Jesus cry...

-w

 

[bvibert]

Sundown is planning on going to April 6th.

 

[Bostonian]

Anyone hear about offical... Killington: April 13th, 2008 - pathetic

WTF? With all the snow KMART has they could go into June for crying out loud. Furthermore, how on earth am I going to do my annual late may/early June pilgrimage to KMART to ski for a couple of hours in the morning and then off to the Long Trail Brewery for lunch to bask in the sun?

:uzi::flame::angry:

 

[hammer]

From a recent Pats Peak e-mail:

Our record ski season marches on and instead of closing on Easter Sunday as originally planned we are going to continue operations.

Unless we have a major weather pattern shift, I think there will be a lot of places that will close this year with plenty of snow on the ground...

 

[Vortex]

Rumors from the Loaf board is 2nd weekend in May if possible. That has to be a contender for the last one. Wildcat has the advantage of just opening up for weekends. I plan on May lift serviced with a couple of options and then hike.

 

[loafer89]

Rumors from the Loaf board is 2nd weekend in May if possible. That has to be a contender for the last one. Wildcat has the advantage of just opening up for weekends. I plan on May lift serviced with a couple of options and then hike.

Skiing Sugarloaf lift serviced in May would make me one very happy puppy. All Sugarloafer's know that mountain keeps natural snow well onto May without much extra effort on the part of snowmaking.

 

[billski]

..April, May, June

hmmm..April, May, June... should I go to my daughter's soccer game or skiing....
.


...I could make up for my sins in July, August and September, no?

 

[ozzy]

sugarbush spring pass

anyone hear about a tenative closing date for sugarbush since they announced the $199 spring pass from march 17- closing?

 

[drjeff]

Mount Snow has no set closing date and will go as long as either a) there's still snow on the hill and b) there's still enough folks coming to ski/ride it. So all the K-mart diehards, are more than welcome to shorten their weekend drives from the major metropolitan areas and get their turn fixes in starting April 14th

 

[severine]

This thread makes me want to cry.

 

[SIKSKIER]

Bummer to start talking about this subject.Cannon April 13th.

 

[ski_resort_observer]

WTF? With all the snow KMART has they could go into June for crying out loud. Furthermore, how on earth am I going to do my annual late may/early June pilgrimage to KMART to ski for a couple of hours in the morning and then off to the Long Trail Brewery for lunch to bask in the sun?

:uzi::flame::angry:

Has nothing to do with how much snow there, much more to do with if there are enough paying customers to make it worthwhile to stay open longer.

How did that "annual late may/early June pilgrimage to KMART" go last season?

The ski resort business is a tough business to make a profit so only a complete fool would keep the resort open late only to give away profits, if there actually is some, that they have worked hard to produce during peak season.

Staying open into May and losing money everday the lifts are turning means higher prices next season. Do you want higher prices?

 

[Bostonian]

Has nothing to do with how much snow there, much more to do with if there are enough paying customers to make it worthwhile to stay open longer.

How did that "annual late may/early June pilgrimage to KMART" go last season?

The ski resort business is a tough business to make a profit so only a complete fool would keep the resort open late only to give away revenue that they have worked hard to produce during peak season.

I cannot remember if it was last year or the year before that we skied into June, but I do recall always going in may or so to ski at K-Mart. Clearly running a ski resort is tough business to make a profit in, and to gain a ROI in a business that depends heavily on snow is tough. However, what is the actual cost of running the Superstar quad and maintaining those trails traditionally left open til the very end? I would be hard pressed to find out that after all the great skiing this season thus far, that Killington has not made it into the black for the year. Furthermore, with brand new ownership, extending the season to "very end" also build up good will among skiers who have come to expect and enjoy the end of the year.

 

[ssudha17]

If the resorts have a liability and need to maintain a minimum number of ski patrols, first aid personnel, other service personnels in addition to keeping the lifts running, I can see that eat into the profits pretty quick but if that is not the case, I can't see why it would be so expensive to run on the snow they have and just keep it limited to the die hards that are willing to ski in anything that looks white for the most part.

 

[Geoff]

The town is in the process of 'punishing' Killington by voting in a 1% local sales tax. The resort generates about 70% of the sales tax revenue in town. This will get voted on in town meeting tomorrow. The town has already ground any property development plans to a halt. I can't imagine that the Texas money that was behind the purchase of the resort and the developable land at the bottom of the hill from ASC is particularly pleased with the way the new Killington management has pissed off the town.

Killington has announced a lot of things this year that caused an uproar in the town. On most of them, Killington changed their position. They surrender more than the French. It wouldn't surprise me if they moved the closing date since that's a real hit on local businesses and hotel/condo rentals. If they don't, Chris Nyberg risks getting run out of town on a rail. The tar & feather party is scheduled for April 13th.

Sugarbush already announced a $199 spring pass and I've heard rumors about further price breaks for Killington pass holders. Really smart marketing, if you ask me. There's also talk that some southern Vermont mountains will sell a 2008 season pass that you can use for spring skiing this year. That may drain another bunch of people.

 

[billski]

The Solution

I can't see why it would be so expensive to run on the snow they have and just keep it limited to the die hards that are willing to ski in anything that looks white for the most part.

The Solution

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Rumors from the Loaf board is 2nd weekend in May if possible. That has to be a contender for the last one. Wildcat has the advantage of just opening up for weekends. I plan on May lift serviced with a couple of options and then hike.

A May trip to Sugarloaf would be oh so sick..and the lodging then would probably be really cheap..

 

[loafer89]

A May trip to Sugarloaf would be oh so sick..and the lodging then would probably be really cheap..

And you won't have to compete with every snowmobiler within 1,000 miles for a hotel bed.

 

[billski]

Late season (a long time from now...) we should have an AZ close-up partee at some select resort. Warm days, tailgate barbeque, select junk-board skiing and boarding, suntan. Once the powder days are over (when?) we become friends again and may even recognize a face under the helmet/mask/hat.