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VAIL SUCKS
- Thread starter thebigo
- Start date
Good question.
Mount Sunapee Had an Hours Long Traffic Jam on Saturday
I was shredding over at Suicide Six Ski Area on Saturday and dealt with some lift lines, but all under five minutes. I decide to do an obligatory doomunofficialnetworks.com
Why isn't Vail requiring reservations? Seems like the most immediate and impactful change they could make in current season. Just fire up the website from last year
Anecdotally, what I heard last year from locals here was that reservations at PCMR were a complete joke as crowding still resulted.
Not to go on a tangent, but regarding crowds, this past weekend was the only weekend in a four-week span between December 24th and MLK day that the IKON base was accepted at Utah resorts. Solitude Parking filled by 9:49am on Saturday morning. Brighton shortly thereafter. I went up Saturday afternoon and met four digital signs warning me of congestion. I've never seen so many cars. I left at 5:30pm to go home and congestion was still an issue 90 minutes after the lifts closed at Solitude. Same deal in LCC. Yesterday Snowbird's parking lots were full at 9:05am. I know that some of you are IKONers and love it, but be thankful you do not have to deal with this kind of crowding nonsense. It's time to go back to quality over quantity.
One of the marketing points of the pass this year was no reservations IIRCMount Sunapee Had an Hours Long Traffic Jam on Saturday
I was shredding over at Suicide Six Ski Area on Saturday and dealt with some lift lines, but all under five minutes. I decide to do an obligatory doom
Why isn't Vail requiring reservations? Seems like the most immediate and impactful change they could make in current season. Just fire up the website from last year
kendo
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Wildcat and other NH resort folks take note. . .
Lawyers comment on possible recourse Epic pass holders may have (even with Vails restrictive T&C's) regarding the Stevens Pass situation.
www.heraldnet.com
Lawyers comment on possible recourse Epic pass holders may have (even with Vails restrictive T&C's) regarding the Stevens Pass situation.
With slopes limited, do Stevens Pass skiers have recourse? | HeraldNet.com
Lift ticket fine print bars a class action lawsuit, saying passes are non-refundable. But those might not be the last words.
www.heraldnet.com
So Inclined
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Mount Sunapee Had an Hours Long Traffic Jam on Saturday
I was shredding over at Suicide Six Ski Area on Saturday and dealt with some lift lines, but all under five minutes. I decide to do an obligatory doom
Why isn't Vail requiring reservations? Seems like the most immediate and impactful change they could make in current season. Just fire up the website from last year
A little bit of anecdata from Hunter this past Saturday which I think illustrates how little failures of management - specifically, allocating the resources needed to hire enough people to make things run smoothly - lead to spectacles like hours-long-traffic jams on mountain access roads and pissed-off skiers.
There's a smallish parking lot next to the learning center (ski school and rentals) which used to be a paid lot a few years ago. All right, that's pretty bougie and obnoxious by Catskill standards. But it was what it was and someone was paid to stand at the little shack out there, collect ten bucks or whatever it was, and shut it down if it ever filled up (who knows if it ever really did.) Last season that lot was changed to an employee lot. A little sign out there denoted that. I'm sure one or two skiers ignored it and parked there, but at least the gesture of a sign (I don't remember seeing an employee actually out there) seemed to keep it controlled. The mountain workers who did park there seemed to do a pretty good job of keeping it orderly on their own, which meant a fair number of cars could get in there.
This year? It is the m-fing Wild West.
By that I mean, it's just another lot. No sign, no plan and of course no worker. An inadequately-small-for-its-premium location, oddly-laid out, one-entrance-and-egress lot - come one, come all. Is anyone out there keeping some order, registering that 100 cars might be able to fit in a decently-regulated 100 car lot, but 150 cars will not?
Is there f***.
You have 8 foot gaps between suburban tanks. You have cars completely boxed in by others. You have cars parked where they should not be parked, and aisles where there should be aisles. It's asshole parking central, and maddening if you're not the one of the first in or last out. So good luck to ya.
I was already in this little lot around 9:30 on Saturday morning, but decided to pop out for breakfast at the bagel shop across the road (because the Hunter cafeteria's breakfast offering was...4 wrapped bacon egg and cheese muffins sadly waiting under a heat lamp. Total.) and then drive to the North side. Luckily I could get out. Leaving, I could see that the furthest-out overflow lots were already heaving with cars, and the motionless line on 23A went up far as the eye could see.
North lot (shhh) was blissfully easy. You just lose a half hour of ski time by parking there.
Now, thank god I did not have to experience the main lots that day, but if Vail can't or won't pay what it has to get enough food and bev staff, snowmakers, etc., then what are the chances they're paying enough to draw a few locals to stand in a cold lot waving Jerrys from Jersey into place to maximize the space there? I'm guessing between slim and none. And so there's chaos, delays and lines - I'm betting it's my little lot story writ large - and you're (we're) all on our own.
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ss20
Well-known member
This past Saturday? Certainly not the same deal in LCC. Alta was sold out of parking but Albion was never more than 3/4 full. I went up and skied onto supreme in the singles line at 12:30. Ski-on. I left to go home at 4:15 and it took an extra 20 minutes to get home. Not fun but not apocalyptic like BCC which has been bonkers every day from what I hear/see...
Remember that Alta's parking requires an IKON passholder to pay. Hence why they flooded Snowbird.
I agree that Alta was not bad this weekend. Now that the initial drama is over, and I have been able to get parking reservations when needed as a passholder, skiing on weekends at Alta has been nice. Busy, but not like overrun like before.
Must be that wind is terrible. I think it is likely a money-hold. Vail's stock is down $14.38 just today.
Good that will bring change.Must be that wind is terrible. I think it is likely a money-hold. Vail's stock is down $14.38 just today.
Still don't see any sort of snowmaking on lynx which blows my mind. I mean it would be bad ass as a top to bottom natural trail if it ever fills in but noone knows if that will happen. I swear wildcat will be alot of fun this year if mother nature can cooperate. I still haven't been there yet
eatskisleep
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Even Black is closed the next few days... I know I would NOT want to be at Wildcat tomorrow!
Nothing listed for snowmaking on Atticat website or any of the webcams
They don't really list much about snowmaking these days
More about what bar is open, than where they made snow...
drjeff
Well-known member
With the temps and wind tomorrow the margin for error if something goes wrong, even for an experienced crew, is minimal, and less if you have an inexperienced ladened crew. Last thing any mountain wants to happen is for something to go wrong in extreme cold and end up freezing up a feeder line.
There certainly are many operational decisions you can fault Vail for this season, however sometimes, and this may be one of those times, just because you don't agree with their decision, doesn't mean it's the wrong decision
There certainly are many operational decisions you can fault Vail for this season, however sometimes, and this may be one of those times, just because you don't agree with their decision, doesn't mean it's the wrong decision
eatskisleep
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Very true. I’ve been there on some pretty terrible days. That said, I was younger then
pinion
Active member
Three years ago skiing Wildcat with my kids (then 6 and 10) we arrived to the mountain and it was 0. By the time I had them booted up it was probably negative degrees and the staff was warning everyone who had exposed skin to be extra careful. Wind was really high as well. We were one of the last ones to the top of the quad before they shut it down for wind, made it down Catapult to where it meets Cat Track, found a protected spot around the corner in the woods and hunkered down for 15 minutes. Then made our way down to the top of Bobcat lift and hunkered down again.
My pack has these therapy "instant heat packs" and friends ask why I carry them and the answer is "because Wildcat". Place can be brutal, especially for kids. It's a source of pride for my kids now that they survived that.
My pack has these therapy "instant heat packs" and friends ask why I carry them and the answer is "because Wildcat". Place can be brutal, especially for kids. It's a source of pride for my kids now that they survived that
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Dickc
Active member
Current Summit Conditions - Mount Washington Observatory
www.mountwashington.org
This also shows the wind for the the day in one of the graphs. It WAS windy as all get out on the top of big George!
Whiteface, Loaf, Smuggs....Three years ago skiing Wildcat with my kids (then 6 and 10) we arrived to the mountain and it was 0. By the time I had them booted up it was probably negative degrees and the staff was warning everyone who had exposed skin to be extra careful. Wind was really high as well. We were one of the last ones to the top of the quad before they shut it down for wind, made it down Catapult to where it meets Cat Track, found a protected spot around the corner in the woods and hunkered down for 15 minutes. Then made our way down to the top of Bobcat lift and hunkered down again.
My pack has these therapy "instant heat packs" and friends ask why I carry them and the answer is "because Wildcat". Place can be brutal, especially for kids. It's a source of pride for my kids now that they survived that
Nothing compares to The Cat when the wind gets honkin'.
