Thoughts on Killington's shortened season (expected closing day is 4/13/2008)?

[ski_resort_observer]

 

[thetrailboss]

FWIW I hear a lot of people at K-Zone saying they are leaving or looking to leave soon....

If all goes to plan, one more season for us (guaranteed) at Pico and Killington (for me). I've come to like the place....now that I've found the goods and kind of gotten into the community (thanks to Andy Zee!) :wink:

 

[Breeze]

I'm so fried ( worn out, emotionally, and intellectually numb) on this Killington thing.

Whether the real estate market drives the bus, the pass price drives the bus, the day ticket price drives the bus, or the length of ski season drives the real estate bus, or the snowmaking capacity drives the length of season , and thereby the pass price which drives the Real Estate market due to length of season, it is all a crap shoot driven by weather.

No one can guarantee snow-making, Mother Nature Holds the trump card.

People with a whole lotta money can roll the dice on that bet, and win or lose without affecting their dinner menu.

When long term local employees get the steel toed boot in the a$$, because their long term local experience on mountain suddenly is too expensive for the new owners to bear ( or the lifers won't say what the new owners want to hear), all I can see in my mind's eye is a full cascade of SPORE falling downhill because there wasn't a rational or certified rental tech left on duty at the point of sale.

Lawyers, bankers, and real estate agents should not qualify as rental techs when money is being rented in the ski industry. Their goals are not one and the same, their balance sheets cannot be easily obtained or reconciled, and they work for different interests depending on who wants what for how much $$$.

Yet they will willingly put themselves and their clients in harm's way for a buck., and ................

everyone bets on The Weather.

Breeze

 

[Geoff]

FWIW I hear a lot of people at K-Zone saying they are leaving or looking to leave soon....

If all goes to plan, one more season for us (guaranteed) at Pico and Killington (for me). I've come to like the place....now that I've found the goods and kind of gotten into the community (thanks to Andy Zee!) :wink:

The people who are leaving are the recent arrivals who only started skiing there when ASC offered the cheap passes. For the most part.... good riddance. The mountain sucked with that influx of bargain hunters and weekends that had historically been blissfully empty were jammed with bronze pass people. Early season was so choked with them on the limited terrain that you had to be off the hill by 10:30.

If you own property at Killington, the pass price just doesn't matter. I don't own a wildly elaborate place but my property taxes are $4K and my condo fee is $4K. I'm paying an extra $750 for the increase for two season passes. It's still cheaper than a decade ago.

The shortened season is a big issue for me. I've always suffered through the midwinter Killington B.S. because of their great spring skiing product. Before the ASC malaise, you could reliably ski much of the mountain until the 1st weekend of May before the place shrank down to one trail pod. If Killington doesn't get MUCH better midwinter, I'll be selling in the spring.

 

[Mad Skier]

Stay at Killington peeps. Maybe rough times for a few years but those could be the glory years for those who stick around, and think of how in you'll get being there while everyone hates them. Just remember MLB baseball after the strike. Everyone hated it. Its doing alright now.(There is nothing up rt. 100 worth venturing for I swear, nothing):dunce:

 

[MikeTrainor]

We will see the next few years...my prediction is the killington will continue to lose visits, Mt. snow will gain and okemo will stay about the same.