VAIL SUCKS

[abc]

"For employees who work a 40-hour a week and stay through April 15, that’s an extra $1,200. Except it’s really not since bonuses are generally taxed around the 30% mark. "

Can someone translate that?

 

[meff]

"For employees who work a 40-hour a week and stay through April 15, that’s an extra $1,200. Except it’s really not since bonuses are generally taxed around the 30% mark. "

Can someone translate that?

Lump sum bonuses are withheld at a higher rate.

 

[thetrailboss]

Why do so many people pick out head shots where they have "crazy eyes"?

Right? She’s in “communications” so maybe she can tell us.

 

[abc]

Lump sum bonuses are withheld at a higher rate.

That's not the same as "taxed at 30%"! You get all that extra withheld money back as a tax refund.

She phrased it like Vail was doing something underhanded by giving the money out as bonus. That's poor journalism. Vail maybe a lot of bad things. But giving out bonus isn't one of them.

 

[thetrailboss]

So given Vail’s issues, assuming it continues to be rough, what do you see them doing? Dropping Epic prices? Selling some resorts (if so, which ones?)

 

[IceEidolon]

Unprofitable ones. Possibly ones that are seeing reduced hours. Attitash has an excellent excuse if they don't get permitted to replace the summit triple. Laurel Mtn if they can get out of the operating agreement. I don't see any Snowtime properties going away, they're excellent profit when open and really lock down the DC market. Any Midwest mountain with a larger sibling serving the same metro area is at risk. Can't say I see JFBB going away, that's their counterweight to the Blue+Camelback KSL/Alterra team.

 

[PAabe]

Many including myself would have said Big Boulder was at risk but they are doing lift upgrades - On the other hand Big Boulder is suffering the common snowmaking and staffing issues in a big way, and they have allegedly created very few terrain features on what was previously the largest set of terrain parks south of Mt. Snow
Laurel Mtn. is "safe" in that it is owned by the state and had a lot of recent investment to reopen including a brand new lift, but in the event Vail wanted to offload it it could be difficult to find an operator (such as the case with Denton Hill). Maybe the Wisp folks? Used to have a multi Mountain benefit with 7 Springs pre Vail in the area
BTW I commend the Vail bonus

 

[2Planker]

Certified? Jeeze, I remember putting caps on between my legs in a cat and pulling and throwing out the window while driving down a ridge.

Exactly... There's no specific bomb cert.
Just the certs for the Avi courses themselves. Newer tech allows for safer methods than the ol hand tossed grenade stick

 

[Geoff]

"For employees who work a 40-hour a week and stay through April 15, that’s an extra $1,200. Except it’s really not since bonuses are generally taxed around the 30% mark. "

Can someone translate that?

Why would someone making $15/hour have 30% withholding? They’re in the 12% bracket even with the bonus. Single, the 12% bracket extends up to a bit more than $50k. Someone making $30/hour in Colorado would be 22% bracket plus 4-ish percent state tax.

 

[machski]

Why would someone making $15/hour have 30% withholding? They’re in the 12% bracket even with the bonus. Single, the 12% bracket extends up to a bit more than $50k. Someone making $30/hour in Colorado would be 22% bracket plus 4-ish percent state tax.

Because the bonus payment will be tossed into a regular pay check. Most payroll systems calculate earnings for taxes based solely off the individual check's gross at a per annual rate. So that bonus $ could push that check into a much higher withholding bracket. As others have noted, a tax payer would get most if not all of the additional withholding back when they file as a refund, assuming their normal pay was in fact their actual gross income bracket at years end.

 

[snoseek]

I just checked the website and Wildcat is still the same 1.5 run. I also took a peak at the Webcam to look for snow guns and saw nothing so I guess they're hoping nature takes over. Bold move and it's gonna be a quick spring up there.

 

[eatskisleep]

I just checked the website and Wildcat is still the same 1.5 run. I also took a peak at the Webcam to look for snow guns and saw nothing so I guess they're hoping nature takes over. Bold move and it's gonna be a quick spring up there.

Bold move especially with the busiest weekend of the year coming up... sad

 

[deadheadskier]

I'm wondering when the last time was that Wildcat had such limited terrain open for MLK weekend. Vail could be setting a snowmaking era record.

 

[Edd]

Such bullshit, I skied Gunstock yesterday and the amount of terrain they have compared to Wildcat makes no sense. We’re skiing today and Wildcat isn’t even a consideration. It’s always been the default ski area and I haven’t even gone this season.

 

[pinion]

So given Vail’s issues, assuming it continues to be rough, what do you see them doing? Dropping Epic prices? Selling some resorts (if so, which ones?)

Current strat seems to be pure growth mode so I wouldn't count on them selling resorts. With their CoH so high ($1.5b) it's safe to posit they are actively scouting to buy more resorts. With current PR issues, maybe they scale back some of the purchasing and switch back to building more "relationships" with other resorts to get them looped into the Epic pass, and use some of that cash to improve problematic infrastructure across their portfolio. That said, infrastructure is better addressed through debt but they may be in a tough situation here at multiple properties which could force the use of cash. At their size it will take time to steer the ship away from the rocks. Also, I'm just a dude with a computer and a desk and too much coffee thinking aloud on the internet.

 

[IceEidolon]

Magic has a solid 2.5 top to bottom trails open. Go back five years, would anyone believe Magic would be ahead of a Peaks or a Vail property in snowmaking by MLK?

 

[1dog]

Current strat seems to be pure growth mode so I wouldn't count on them selling resorts. With their CoH so high ($1.5b) it's safe to posit they are actively scouting to buy more resorts. With current PR issues, maybe they scale back some of the purchasing and switch back to building more "relationships" with other resorts to get them looped into the Epic pass, and use some of that cash to improve problematic infrastructure across their portfolio. That said, infrastructure is better addressed through debt but they may be in a tough situation here at multiple properties which could force the use of cash. At their size it will take time to steer the ship away from the rocks. Also, I'm just a dude with a computer and a desk and too much coffee thinking aloud on the internet.

If the problem is strictly a lack-of-employee issue, what does the board here propose to solve it? If we had 'high unemployment' and still lacked help to make snow, run ski shops and food outlets, then one can postulate they aren't paying enough.

It seems to be a lack of desire to work or that people have found work that doesn't require physical labor. With that much cash on hand, the bonus program seems to be putting some ( very little of total) of it to good use. If shareholders want longer term return on their investment, that's not gonna do much to extend the prospect of returns 1-3 years from now. Think there are few who think long term with regards to investments like Vail - Lot of them already received the big returns and have, will, or plan to move on to other lower P/E ratio businesses.( Its 88+) Yet 95% of the shares are held by institutional investors. Go figure. To Edds point, do these folks even care what a legend like Wildcat even means to the larger scale of the business? No, not at all apparently.

 

[JimG.]

Problem is that people keep buying the Epic pass because it's cheap.

If you want Vail to change stop buying the pass.

 

[Tin Woodsman]

It's simple - offer a higher wage to account for the tough hours, tough conditions and often long commuted required to work on a ski hill. Clearly they are below the market clearing price for labor.

The end.

 

[cdskier]

If the problem is strictly a lack-of-employee issue, what does the board here propose to solve it? If we had 'high unemployment' and still lacked help to make snow, run ski shops and food outlets, then one can postulate they aren't paying enough.

The question is how are other resorts somehow managing to avoid the same level of challenges filling positions that Vail seems to be having at their resorts? I'm not saying other resorts aren't having issues, but they do seem to be less issues than the Vail resorts. I don't have details on the NH market, but I can compare Stowe to Sugarbush in VT for example. Sugarbush supposedly has a team of 40+ people on their snow-making team (that actually started at over 50 but a few were lost due to attrition as usual). Yet reports in the Stowe thread are that they're down to a handful of snow-makers. Even if those numbers are wrong and it is double or triple that amount and you add in a few more supervisors/managers/compressor/pump operators, that's still way below a nearby competitor that should be experiencing fairly similar challenges with labor. Maybe Stowe needs less overall than SB in general for some reason, but it still seems like a rather significant difference.

To me it seems clear that the issue is Vail is doing something wrong if they're having the depth of staffing challenges that they reportedly have.