The "Sugarbush Thread"

[kingslug]

Pretty happy these days with vail and alterra...
I try to focus on the good stuff...
And Stowes new GM is great so far...

 

[thetrailboss]

there's really no reason to dislike alterra in the northeast.

vail resorts are a consistent shitshow here, ikon resorts arent. i am an extremely satisfied alterra customer. not a negative thing to say.

Yep.

the windham example is extreme and has very little to do with alterra, if anything. sucks to lose the only catskill option on the pass, but the windham mountain club is making their bed. let's see how they go with sleeping in it and selling fancy memberships to a catskill hill. i think they'll actually do ok only bc of proximity to big money clientelle

Absolutely. This was a business decision by Windham. It sucks for folks who bought IKON expecting to have some access to Windham and now are getting something different.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

i reserved the only two sat and sundays they kept open for plebs like me, tho i doubt i want to ski the cats in late march. got 1 early season groomer day in. i never hit windham more than 3x a year. its a nice to have, not a need to have. now i just have an excuse to go pay platty.

just rode the elevator in my building with a guy who had a 2021 private mountain rental platty lift ticket (lol at keeping lift tickets on your coat, youre a grown ass man). but we chatted. they rented it for a friends bday with like 30 guys total. pretty cool. ive been trying to sell my company on this as an outing for years, they dont bite.

 

[thetrailboss]

Pretty happy these days with vail and alterra...
I try to focus on the good stuff...
And Stowes new GM is great so far...

"Awww, thanks man! Love you too! Like and subscribe to stay EPIC!"

 

[kingslug]

He likes me! He likes me!!!

 

[thetrailboss]

He likes me! He likes me!!!

Looks like he grew some facial hair for you.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

skis so short and narrow!

outerwear so corny!

 

[BenedictGomez]

just rode the elevator in my building with a guy who had a 2021 private mountain rental platty lift ticket (lol at keeping lift tickets on your coat, youre a grown ass man).

LOL. I just clipped a 2019 Mont Sutton ticket off one of my ski coats the other night. I must have looked at it 50 times & said, "I need to clip this thing off" before finally doing so the other night.

Who even is still using lift tickets with widgets anymore? The list in 2024 must be few.

 

[thetrailboss]

skis so short and narrow!

outerwear so corny!

"You know what they say about a guy who skis on short and narrow skis?"

(I think he likes you Kusty!)

 

[thetrailboss]

So anyways, back to Sugarbush......

 

[cdskier]

So anyways, back to Sugarbush......

Looks like FIS is finally open. Not sure what took so long. Although it also seemed like the snowmaking run time on it was oddly short.

 

[Boxtop Willie]

Snowing kinda hard here in Fayston. Maybe 3 inches in the last couple hours. This storm will be interesting given storm track, moisture content, elevation, wind and back end cold.

 

[BodeMiller1]

Frankly, folks here still like IKON and Alterra. I consider them to be just another version of Vail. There is a lot of focus on Vail as a publicly traded company, but the amount of money that Alterra has is easily in over $1 billion. And Alterra has managed to use PR spin to deflect criticism about crowding.

Everyone knows the Vail name. Unfortunately the place has lost luster and street cred.

I thought IKON was a camera company.

Alterra sounds like a black market razor blade company which the world needs.

 

[BodeMiller1]

there's really no reason to dislike alterra in the northeast.

vail resorts are a consistent shitshow here, ikon resorts arent. i am an extremely satisfied alterra customer. not a negative thing to say.

i'm sorry utah is fucked. it's not only alterra's fault.

the windham example is extreme and has very little to do with alterra, if anything. sucks to lose the only catskill option on the pass, but the windham mountain club is making their bed. let's see how they go with sleeping in it and selling fancy memberships to a catskill hill. i think they'll actually do ok only bc of proximity to big money clientelle

Interesting position. It's odd that many of the hills for the Uber rich never make it. Except for Russia. It costs so much to run a resort.
Is the lightening round over?
Take care crusted one.

 

[Hawk]

Looks like we dodged a bullet. Net gain of probably 9 wet inches. I hope they keep people off Parradise, Castlerock and other steeper rocky terrain until it freezes and consolidates. This base will go a long way. Let's also hope we get a net gain on Saturday and then some lighter snow. That should make for a brighter future.

 

[mikec142]

I saw someone else in another group complain about no IKON reservations for weekends for the rest of the season. The lesson here is that if you want to ski Windham regularly then buy a Windham season pass. IKON should be viewed as an unlimited season pass at Alterra-owned resorts with bonus days at other areas that have restrictions and blackouts. It is not meant to be an unlimited pass for every single resort. That said, it does suck for those that bought IKON to see that Windham is now clamping down on IKON.

I'm not really bent out of shape about this...having Windham as a 2.5 hour drive for a day trip was nice, but not life changing. Since Windham has been Ikon I've probably skied there 2x/year. If I were Windham, I would have announced the changes and made them effective for the next season. What effectively happened is that Windham is enjoying the profit from being part of Ikon, but has moved the goalposts in the middle of the season so the vast majority of Ikon pass holders can't use a benefit that they paid for (and maybe planned to use).

Sorry for the thread drift. I'll stop now.

 

[cdskier]

I'm not really bent out of shape about this...having Windham as a 2.5 hour drive for a day trip was nice, but not life changing. Since Windham has been Ikon I've probably skied there 2x/year. If I were Windham, I would have announced the changes and made them effective for the next season. What effectively happened is that Windham is enjoying the profit from being part of Ikon, but has moved the goalposts in the middle of the season so the vast majority of Ikon pass holders can't use a benefit that they paid for (and maybe planned to use).

Sorry for the thread drift. I'll stop now.

Is Windham actually still profiting from being part of Ikon if they're going to ultimately end up with not that many redemptions this year? I can't recall if there's a minimum payment they get regardless of number of redemptions. Although on the flip side, I'm somewhat amazed that Ikon didn't have some sort of "minimum reservations per day" clause in their contract with Windham. Seems bizarre to me that after the fact a mountain can just make it essentially impossible to use Ikon on weekends...

And fwiw, I personally used 1 day at Windham on Ikon. That was 2 years ago with my ex who also had Ikon and we were just looking for a quick day trip from NJ around New Years at the time and didn't see the point in paying to go elsewhere.

 

[VTSkiBike]

Definitely rained very hard this morning around here but it looks like the rain cleared out pretty quick and some blue sky is poking through.

I bet it's pretty decent soft snow out there.

 

[Mak]

Looks like a female fell out of a chair. Umm

It was a lot more than that, and it wasn't her fault. The chair seat had been blown into the "up position" (which is where they put them so that snow doesnt; asccumulate, and four went to sit own with nothing to sit on. Two bailed immediately, the woman fell off trying to escape as well and fell on her shoulder. The last skier had to be removed by ski patrol.

 

[tumbler]

Sounds like the liftie was taking a snooze. I assume this was on Bravo?