Vail Resorts is buying Peak Resorts.

[GregoryIsaacs]

Would really like to get the new passes in the mail more than I want my refund right away. I have no desire to deal with the craziness on Saturday when X number of Epic people show up wanting tickets. Who knows, maybe my Peaks passes will still work since no refund yet.

https://outrageouscookiedough.com/

I talked to Mount Snow with this same issue and they indicated that until you get your refund, your peak pass will still be active. So congrats you now own two season passes! Doesnt it feel great!? (Coming from someone still waiting on my refunds from an Oct 23 upgrade date)

 

[jaytrem]

I talked to Mount Snow with this same issue and they indicated that until you get your refund, your peak pass will still be active. So congrats you now own two season passes! Doesnt it feel great!? (Coming from someone still waiting on my refunds from an Oct 23 upgrade date)

Got an Ikon pass too, 3 passes!!! Wife's cousin has a place at Squaw, was really pulling for Alterra to buy Peak. It will probably be our last Ikon for a while.

Thanks for the info, I was wondering if the old ones would still work.

 

[Funky_Catskills]

Hunter is making a shtiton of snow...
I personally don't remember this many guns on at once.. This weekend is going to be awesome..
Go Vail!!!

 

[Funky_Catskills]

Hunter is already making snow. Very aggressive compared to years past! Windham has nothing going on.

Windham has an issue... Not finished with their snowmaking projects.. Bad planning..

 

[KustyTheKlown]

Hunter is making a shtiton of snow...
I personally don't remember this many guns on at once.. This weekend is going to be awesome..
Go Vail!!!

smart of them to have a catskills option the same time mt snow is having their first weekend. will disperse people.

 

[andrec10]

Windham has an issue... Not finished with their snowmaking projects.. Bad planning..

I said the same thing about bad planning on a facebook group and people went nuts defending them.

 

[thebigo]

smart of them to have a catskills option the same time mt snow is having their first weekend. will disperse people.

Not to mention wildcat for the boston people.

 

[drjeff]

I find it kind of interesting that Okemo won't be spinning lifts this weekend, as apparently Okemo has the ability to actually print Epic passes on property, whereas all the acquired Peak properties won't apparently have that ability until next season...

For those still waiting for their Epic passes in the mail, this could of "solved" the issue that waiting in line at the ticket window for a day pass will be until they get their Epic's in the mail, or Okemo or Stowe opens..

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[Funky_Catskills]

I said the same thing about bad planning on a facebook group and people went nuts defending them.

Not a good idea... Widhham "homers" are pretty vocal

 

[SnowRock]

Anyone know hunter‘s plans for tomorrow? Was considering a maniac day trip to mt snow to stretch the legs, but would much prefer the drive to Hunter from north Jersey

 

[Funky_Catskills]

Probably open by 9am.. A couple trails open from top 2 bottom..

 

[drjeff]

Not a good idea... Widhham "homers" are pretty vocal

I just hope for Windham's sake that once they get the project finished, that it works properly from day 1. It's one thing for things to take a little longer than planned and have it work properly when ready, it's an entirely different thing to have it take longer than planned and then potentially have something not work as planned!

I'm also guessing that in some way, for some ski areas, the combo of a late Thanksgiving and this GOOD run of snowmaking windows we've had the last week or so that a vast number of resorts have taken advantage of, threw a bit of a monkey wrench at what I'm guessing was a long ago penciled in target opening date for those that try for Thanksgiving, of Saturday the 23rd

 

[andrec10]

Not a good idea... Widhham "homers" are pretty vocal

I see that....

 

[jimmywilson69]

While I'm sure no one on this board really cares, but its relevant to the topic. I've heard through the Grapevine (ski patroller)that Roundtop in PA, will be opening this weekend. Could just be a J-Bar park, could be lift served with 2 of their typical first to open top to bottom routes! If its the J-bar, I'll pass. if its lift served I'm there!

Haven't received my Epic Pass yet, just uploaded photos last Friday. This would likely be the earliest opening ever for them.

Surprised that either the Peaks or Vail regime would allow this to be honest. That being said they have a very powerful snow making system and can lay down a lot of snow. Its been 20 each of the last 2 mornings at my house 4 miles away. Production has been impressive for mid-November even in PA!

 

[andrec10]

While I'm sure no one on this board really cares, but its relevant to the topic. I've heard through the Grapevine (ski patroller)that Roundtop in PA, will be opening this weekend. Could just be a J-Bar park, could be lift served with 2 of their typical first to open top to bottom routes! If its the J-bar, I'll pass. if its lift served I'm there!

Haven't received my Epic Pass yet, just uploaded photos last Friday. This would likely be the earliest opening ever for them.




Surprised that either the Peaks or Vail regime would allow this to be honest. That being said they have a very powerful snow making system and can lay down a lot of snow. Its been 20 each of the last 2 mornings at my house 4 miles away. Production has been impressive for mid-November even in PA!

Its good to see Vail is not afraid to spend money! Takes money to make money.

 

[drjeff]

While I'm sure no one on this board really cares, but its relevant to the topic. I've heard through the Grapevine (ski patroller)that Roundtop in PA, will be opening this weekend. Could just be a J-Bar park, could be lift served with 2 of their typical first to open top to bottom routes! If its the J-bar, I'll pass. if its lift served I'm there!

Haven't received my Epic Pass yet, just uploaded photos last Friday. This would likely be the earliest opening ever for them.

Surprised that either the Peaks or Vail regime would allow this to be honest. That being said they have a very powerful snow making system and can lay down a lot of snow. Its been 20 each of the last 2 mornings at my house 4 miles away. Production has been impressive for mid-November even in PA!

The one thing that you do need to keep in mind, is that some of the old concepts about when to start making snow verses "wait for a better window" don't quite apply as they used to. The data that mountain ops folks have these days about what their range of snowguns can do output wise in various wet bulb temps and what it will cost to do so, is far greater than it used to be. So if they see a decent window that will allow them to put down some piles in a cost efficient way, even if they may not be pushed out for a week or more, if the general weather trend appears that a decent amount of whatever they make will still be there when they're ready to push it out and go for an opening, they're more likely to fire the system up, with the knowledge that business wise, it makes sense to.

Especially when it comes to snowmaking, the Peak portfolio of resorts that Epic acquired, comes with not just some modern, up to date snowmaking systems, but also as much, if not more output data in real world conditions than just about anyone in the business has.

You can probably read something into the fact that in the first Epic By Nature podcast that Vail Resorts released after the Peak acquisition was final, where Vail's Ceo, Rob Katz, was talking about snowmaking, that one of the people he interviewed, and the first now Vail, formerly Peak employee that he had on his podcast, was Brendan Ryan, who has done a huge amount of real world testing and date gathering and pushing the design, upgrades and operations of the snowmaking systems across basically Peak's entire resort portfolio the last few years. It's not just about making snow, it's very often these days about making snow smarter and more efficiently, which ultimately allows the snowamaking budget to go further

 

[machski]

I find it kind of interesting that Okemo won't be spinning lifts this weekend, as apparently Okemo has the ability to actually print Epic passes on property, whereas all the acquired Peak properties won't apparently have that ability until next season...

For those still waiting for their Epic passes in the mail, this could of "solved" the issue that waiting in line at the ticket window for a day pass will be until they get their Epic's in the mail, or Okemo or Stowe opens..

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using AlpineZone mobile app

Not really a surprise, Okemo is fully assimilated now being this is their second year under Vail. I still don't know what to make of the Peak resorts opening this Friday (as to will this continue in future years). I say this because Katz has been upfront that Vail lets newly acquired resorts run on their own mostly the first year before Vail dives in and starts changing things. I really have to wonder what next year will look like for the former Peaks hills in the early season.

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[drjeff]

Not really a surprise, Okemo is fully assimilated now being this is their second year under Vail. I still don't know what to make of the Peak resorts opening this Friday (as to will this continue in future years). I say this because Katz has been upfront that Vail lets newly acquired resorts run on their own mostly the first year before Vail dives in and starts changing things. I really have to wonder what next year will look like for the former Peaks hills in the early season.

Sent from my SM-T830 using AlpineZone mobile app

I agree to some extent that this year vs next year may be different. I also know that Rob Katz wants to keep selling a bunch of Epic passes, and to some extent, that means that he has to pay some attention to what his main competitor, IKON is doing. That played out to some extent in Colorado this year, where to counter the early opening that ABasin gave IKON pass holders, Vail Resorts spent the money to upgrade Keystone's snowmaking capabilities and opened them early as well.

With the now much more significant presence in the Eastern market that acquiring the Peak Resorts gave Vail, and with Killington and Sunday River both currently on IKON and known early season players, I would suspect that Vail, to keep their pass attractive to the Eastern market, especially for those who waiver back and forth between Epic and IKON, that they will choose to have some presence in the Early season market. Given their snowmaking system's capability, and proximity to both the Boston and New York metro markets, my hunch is that even in year 2 and beyond of Vail ownership, that Mount Snow atleast will have some presence in the Eastern early season game to keep the early season demand of the Epic passholder crew satisfied.

 

[SnowRock]

Probably open by 9am.. A couple trails open from top 2 bottom..

thanks. thats probably enough for my first day out. any idea of likely trails? trying to look at webcam looks like quite a bit of snow up top. Hellgate connecting through to Kennedy?

 

[andrec10]

thanks. thats probably enough for my first day out. any idea of likely trails? trying to look at webcam looks like quite a bit of snow up top. Hellgate connecting through to Kennedy?

Looks to be HBK and Belt Parkway. Minya might come online later. Also Mossy Brook is being made on, but thats from B lift down.