Ski Carpool website....is there one?

[deadheadskier]

I'm not aware of one, but I think there should be.

While I'm thrilled for the lower gases prices if they stick as it will save me lots of money getting to the hill this winter, I got to thinking today about carpooling to the mountain. Most of the time I'm traveling to the mountains on day trips and 75% of the time I'm skiing solo. I'd have to imagine there are a lot of others like myself who have similar ski habits.

At the peak of gas prices a lot of ideas on here where kicked around regarding bus and rail service....public transport. Not much was said about carpooling.

I think it would be a cool idea if there was a website that served as a ride board to the mountains. Create a website with every mountain in the Northeast listed under it for each day of the season.

Short Example

Tuesday December 9th

Stowe
Sugarbush
Waterville
Wildcat
Sunday River
every other ski area

Wednesday, December 10th

Stowe
Sugarbush
Waterville

you get the picture

Users could post where they are going for each given day and hook up with other people from their area to share the cost of getting to the mountain. For me as an example, there might not be someone going to Wildcat on a given day from my town, but there most definitely would be someone coming from Boston and I could meet them at a carpool lot and share the expense.

To drive traffic to the website would take each mountain posting a prominent link on their home page as well as visible advertisement at the resort itself.

At college at UVM I recall a 'ride' bulletin board in the Student Center where students would post where they were going or looking to go to and a desire to have others tag along to share the cost. This concept isn't all that different.

For it to work, I think it would require a great commitment from all the ski areas to have the link to the Skipool site.

Thoughts?

 

[mondeo]

I think Greg needs to expand the site.

The general set-up and having ski areas link to the site are good ideas, and I think they'd be on board as it could sway people who are on the fence due to cost. They'd just want to have confidence that the site would be well run and kept up to date. Shouldn't be too hard either, seeing as how with the right architecture it should be decently self-upkeeping.

Personally, my plans for the winter were to make a post in the events/trips section as a running thread to see who else might be spending their weekend at Killington. But making a sort of well-organized craigslist for carpooling would probably work even better.

 

[deadheadskier]

See, I wouldn't want it to be a part of Alpinezone. I'd be too concerned that all the added traffic would turn this place into a tgr / kzone shit show. I would hope Greg and other site administrators would do a link from their sites to the 'craigslist' style ride board.

I'd love to set it up myself, but I'm pretty computarded. If I were to do so, it would just be one main page with monthly calanders on it. From there you'd click on a specific day an there would be sub categories for all the mountains broken down by state.

I would imagine it would be pretty slow going at first, but I think the idea definitely has legs if done properly and would take off once it became well known.

The trip/event forum on here certainly is a great way to announce what your plans are, but the audience is pretty limited. What are there? two hundred or so active posters on here when there are hundreds of thousands of skiers in the northeast. A craigslist type format is exactly what I'm thinking about, not a forum type format like Alpinezone.

 

[Maksim]

Sounds like a good idea... will think about it this weekend.

 

[hardline]

i second it. im not sure how greg could implement it. maybe like that calendar. i think it night help some people.

 

[bvibert]

Such a beast does exist:

http://www.skicarpool.org/

Not sure how utilized it is though...

 

[Maksim]

that site is only for CO, tried creating a profile.

 

[riverc0il]

Mad River Glen... ever the pioneer :lol: on new things... http://www.madriverglen.com/rideshare/ -- MRG determined that the environmental impact of people driving to the ski area was greater than the ski areas' actual environmental impact. This program seems like a no brainer.

Not sure how that will work. I think using a forum would be better than submitting information to a web site and not knowing where that information is going to go or what it is being used for. Would be a lot easier to do ride shares just by posting on a forum like this I would imagine. But sooooo many people are anti-forum. I couldn't believe it. The topic recently came up on Mad River Glen's email based listserv and a forum got shot down as not being user friendly by listserv email die hards

T4T forum uses a calendar add on to show who is going to be skiing what and doing what on Mount Washington. I would imagine a similar feature could be added to AlpineZone.com with all the ski areas in the Northeast as options so people could post where they will be skiing when onto a calendar. With as many users as AZ has.... that could get ugly quick but I think it would lead to a lot more meet ups and ride shares.

I would love to meet up with more folks AND ride share... but it is difficult to plan when my skiing decisions all depend upon conditions and weather and are made the day before or morning of. Though I would estimate at least one third of my days I know a few days out. I think most people likely make their commitments much sooner than that or are regulars and always heading to certain places on a regular basis which is where ride sharing would be ideal.

Biggest problem with ride shares is both parties need to agree when to get there and when to leave. If one person gets tired, they would be obligated to hang out in the lodge until the other person is finished for the day. You really need to hook up with someone on the same wave length as you to ensure it works out for both parties.

 

[riverc0il]

Another issue to consider is what type of car the person you are car pooling with. If I was to split gas with one other person and that person drove a SUV... it would be cheaper for me to drive my own car than split the gas money. So that would be another issue that would have to be considered... both parties would need to agree that the person with the more fuel efficient vehicle should drive and the other person should split the gas as the passenger.

 

[Greg]

Biggest problem with ride shares is both parties need to agree when to get there and when to leave. If one person gets tired, they would be obligated to hang out in the lodge until the other person is finished for the day. You really need to hook up with someone on the same wave length as you to ensure it works out for both parties.

Another issue to consider is what type of car the person you are car pooling with. If I was to split gas with one other person and that person drove a SUV... it would be cheaper for me to drive my own car than split the gas money. So that would be another issue that would have to be considered... both parties would need to agree that the person with the more fuel efficient vehicle should drive and the other person should split the gas as the passenger.

I guess the idea has some merit, but I'd never use it. I don't like to be locked into someone else's schedule or preferences, especially if I've never met them before. That coupled with the fact that I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be locked in a car with a total stranger for 3 hours. Not having to deal with someone who's whacked or annoying is worth the premium of driving myself.

What really works quite well is the T&E forum. Post gatherings at local hills and get to know people in your area. Then you'll at least have an idea of how they are before committing to a long drive together. I've met a lot of AZers offline who have now become personal friends and I travel north with many of them. Usually if I'm driving, I won't expect my passengers to help pay for gas. It's nice if they offer and if they really insist, I'll accept it, but my feeling is that I'm going to the mountain with or without you so if you want to tag along, hop in! Buy me a beer or two afterward or some snacks for the ride home and we're cool.

 

[bvibert]

that site is only for CO, tried creating a profile.

Thanks for checking, that's pretty lame.

 

[deadheadskier]

That coupled with the fact that I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be locked in a car with a total stranger for 3 hours. Not having to deal with someone who's whacked or annoying is worth the premium of driving myself.

Definitely a valid point. When drumming up the idea, I really didn't think about the reality of being stuck in the car for three hours with some radical teenage grundge music listening dork like you :razz:


okay, bad idea, mods please lock the thread :dunce: :lol:

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Definitely a valid point. When drumming up the idea, I really didn't think about the reality of being stuck in the car for three hours with some radical teenage grundge music listening dork like you :razz:


okay, bad idea, mods please lock the thread :dunce: :lol:

Ahahahahaha...I remember the ride board as well at UVM. Back then I was usually the one doing the driving because I brought my car up 2nd semester Freshman year. The reason I hardly ever carpool is that unless the two people live in the same neighborhood..it can be a pain..and most people are putzes..when it comes to being ontime. When we had a PASR day at Belleayre I took my own car because I wanted to leave at 5:30AM and nobody else wanted to leave so early and when I'm done skiing whether it's Noon or 4:00PM I want to bounce..It was cool carpooling up to Mount Snow with a ski buddy because he offered to drive on the way back..I fell asleep around Albany and woke up in New Jersey..saweetness. I also like to reserve my passenger seat for all my snacks..lol

 

[riverc0il]

I guess the idea has some merit, but I'd never use it. I don't like to be locked into someone else's schedule or preferences, especially if I've never met them before. That coupled with the fact that I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be locked in a car with a total stranger for 3 hours. Not having to deal with someone who's whacked or annoying is worth the premium of driving myself.

What really works quite well is the T&E forum. Post gatherings at local hills and get to know people in your area. Then you'll at least have an idea of how they are before committing to a long drive together. I've met a lot of AZers offline who have now become personal friends and I travel north with many of them. Usually if I'm driving, I won't expect my passengers to help pay for gas. It's nice if they offer and if they really insist, I'll accept it, but my feeling is that I'm going to the mountain with or without you so if you want to tag along, hop in! Buy me a beer or two afterward or some snacks for the ride home and we're cool.

Yea, I completely agree. The T&E forum here has worked really well. I have managed to hook up with a few other people at the mountain, ski with them a few times, and then PM for car pooling once we get to know that we are on the same wave length for what to expect out of a day and that the car ride would not be awkward.

Interestingly enough, I have met some of my favorite skiing partners by them seeing me on the hill randomly and recognizing my jacket from pictures or avatars :lol: Or vice versa. The T&E forum is tough for me because I make a lot of last minute decisions and don't like to make commitments, especially if weather is unknown. But I think it is the best option for car pooling because most people won't want to car pool with random strangers.

 

[nycskier]

Great idea! As a carless Manhattanite I am always looking for rides up to the mountian. I know I would be more than happy to pay for gas to get a ride.

In the past I have used Craig'slist rideshare to get up to Vermont, taken buses and even took Amtrak to Rutland. But having a site dedicated to ski rideshares in the North East is a great idea. If you set it up I am on board!

Also sometimes Amrtak has really big discounts for group train tickets. Having a board like that might be great for finding 10 people to split cheap train tickets with!

 

[Greg]

The T&E forum is tough for me because I make a lot of last minute decisions and don't like to make commitments, especially if weather is unknown.

You should throw up threads in T&E as soon as you have an inkling anyway. I think most of us know how you roll in terms of terrain, and following the weather. I would bet even if you posted something the evening before, you might get a sucker or two from this board to join you... :lol:

 

[deadheadskier]

Great idea! As a carless Manhattanite I am always looking for rides up to the mountian. I know I would be more than happy to pay for gas to get a ride.

In the past I have used Craig'slist rideshare to get up to Vermont, taken buses and even took Amtrak to Rutland. But having a site dedicated to ski rideshares in the North East is a great idea. If you set it up I am on board!

Me set up a website??

That's like asking Verne Troyer to dunk a basketball :lol:

 

[mlctvt]

How about getting paid for sharing rides? My brother in law owns a company called www.nuride.com that gives credits for sharing rides. I'm not too sure how many skiers are utilizing it but if we could point poeple there it may work.

 

[riverc0il]

You should throw up threads in T&E as soon as you have an inkling anyway. I think most of us know how you roll in terms of terrain, and following the weather. I would bet even if you posted something the evening before, you might get a sucker or two from this board to join you... :lol:

Word. I'll give it a shot this season. I think I generally have dropped my plans in weather threads or in the Skiing/Riding Forum but never bothered to post an Event. I figure most people know I am at Jay more often than not and can PM for a hook up so I definitely haven't been very proactive in that respect.

 

[Maksim]

Will look into something tomorrow. It can be done, and fairly easily. ran an investment site based on a similar concept, and I think I have something that can be used.