VAIL SUCKS

[gittist]

Soooo, everyone is looking forward to a wonderful, enjoyable, snowy, uncrowded with excellent snow making at your local well managed Vail Resort next season! . Next year will be great!! And best of all PAID PARKING to reduce the crowding!! wooo hooo!

 

[raisingarizona]

Paying for parking really enhances my guest experience. It’s great.

 

[Kingslug20]

Makes it...special...

 

[Harvey]

 

[RichT]

Soooo, everyone is looking forward to a wonderful, enjoyable, snowy, uncrowded with excellent snow making at your local well managed Vail Resort next season! . Next year will be great!! And best of all PAID PARKING to reduce the crowding!! wooo hooo!

The southern NY and eastern PA resorts are going to be NUTS this year if gas prices stay or go up further then they are now. Northern Vermont ski areas should be sweet!

 

[eatskisleep]

The southern NY and eastern PA resorts are going to be NUTS this year if gas prices stay or go up further then they are now. Northern Vermont ski areas should be sweet!

North Conway area has been a ghost town lately. Gas prices already hitting hard up there.

 

[2Planker]

North Conway area has been a ghost town lately. Gas prices already hitting hard up there.

So true ! Town was empty this past weekend. No reserv necessary anywhere on a Sat night....

NH Toll Traffic has NOT seen any significant drop in #'s so far......

 

[machski]

North Conway area has been a ghost town lately. Gas prices already hitting hard up there.

We were over camping in Franconia Wed-Sat. It was a ghostown at the campground Wednesday but got busier as the weekend approached. Still not full summer season yet, guessing folks will pull back on longer distance short length trips, still to be seen if longer time length travels will be affected as well.

 

[2Planker]

We were over camping in Franconia Wed-Sat. It was a ghostown at the campground Wednesday but got busier as the weekend approached. Still not full summer season yet, guessing folks will pull back on longer distance short length trips, still to be seen if longer time length travels will be affected as well.

At least there are no more Canadians coming to Pittsburgh (NH) to buy gas

 

[machski]

At least there are no more Canadians coming to Pittsburgh (NH) to buy gas

Yeah, it's a bit more up there still, but with their negative exchange rate, not much of a savings now.

 

[thetrailboss]

Former Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz Addresses Overcrowding and Takes Responsibility for Staffing Shortages - SnowBrains

The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast has been given a recording of former Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz's acceptance speech at the NSAA awards

snowbrains.com

 

[Edd]

So those pics of mile long lift lines are the norm? These aren’t the droids you’re looking for? Stowe’s parking problems aren’t real? Fuck off.

 

[jimmywilson69]

He is such a self serving piece of shit. Sure they didn't exceed any peak days. But how many days were closer to the peak than there used to be? the average number of people on the hills has been raised, which is exactly what someone who's only worried about making money for shareholders cares about.

How long are there seriously going to play the covid short staffed card...

 

[eatskisleep]

He is such a self serving piece of shit. Sure they didn't exceed any peak days. But how many days were closer to the peak than there used to be? the average number of people on the hills has been raised, which is exactly what someone who's only worried about making money for shareholders cares about.

How long are there seriously going to play the covid short staffed card...

Number of people average has been raised while operating less lifts, less snowmaking, shorter season, less staff. It’s a shit show!

 

[FBGM]

Rob Katz is the cancer of skiing. Thanks for ruining every resort you touch

 

[cdskier]

He is such a self serving piece of shit. Sure they didn't exceed any peak days. But how many days were closer to the peak than there used to be? the average number of people on the hills has been raised, which is exactly what someone who's only worried about making money for shareholders cares about.

How long are there seriously going to play the covid short staffed card...

"None even came close to their historical peak days". There's just so many questions from that response by Katz. What are they using as that actual "peak" basis? Was it some random powder day on a holiday that drew record crowds years ago? Have other skier behavior patterns changed that result in more crowds at a particular time? For example, maybe on a previous peak day years ago you had 1000 people show up (just using this number for simplicity). But maybe 500 of those people showed up in the morning and 500 showed up in the afternoon and you really never had most of those people on the hill at the same time so it didn't feel overly crowded. And maybe now you had 900 people showing up, but maybe the bulk of them all showed up at the same time. From a numbers perspective, sure, that could be "not even close to historical peak", but from a skier experience perspective it would be very different.

And also very valid point you raise about "how many days were closer to the peak than there used to be". In the past people concerned about crowds knew to avoid certain widely well known peak days. If those "close to peak, but not actually peak" days now happen on a regular basis, the perception of those people that used to be able to avoid the worst days now completely changes as they can no longer do that.

 

[jimmywilson69]

Rob Katz is the cancer of skiing. Thanks for ruining every resort you Douche

I fixed it for you because I want the message to be clear!

He's so incredibly full of himself and his "lets make skiing for everyone" mantra. He's right the industry does want to include more people and gather new people to the sport. However, there are better ways to do it besides making it cheap and then nickle and diming people while providing a shitty experience.

 

[ss20]

"None even came close to their historical peak days". There's just so many questions from that response by Katz. What are they using as that actual "peak" basis? Was it some random powder day on a holiday that drew record crowds years ago? Have other skier behavior patterns changed that result in more crowds at a particular time? For example, maybe on a previous peak day years ago you had 1000 people show up (just using this number for simplicity). But maybe 500 of those people showed up in the morning and 500 showed up in the afternoon and you really never had most of those people on the hill at the same time so it didn't feel overly crowded. And maybe now you had 900 people showing up, but maybe the bulk of them all showed up at the same time. From a numbers perspective, sure, that could be "not even close to historical peak", but from a skier experience perspective it would be very different.

And also very valid point you raise about "how many days were closer to the peak than there used to be". In the past people concerned about crowds knew to avoid certain widely well known peak days. If those "close to peak, but not actually peak" days now happen on a regular basis, the perception of those people that used to be able to avoid the worst days now completely changes as they can no longer do that.

Very true, lotta ways to interpret his quotes. Lots of resorts, even the destinations ones, don't/can't run literally all their lifts anymore it seems. Especially this season with staffing shortages. While a few old fixed-grip lifts not running may seem like it wouldn't have an impact on lift lines, it's those fixed-grip lifts that act as "people eaters" since the chair spacing is tighter and the ride time is longer. If you have 400 people, you can fit 200 on 50 chairs on a HSQ and the other 200 will be waiting in line. On a fixed grip you can fit all 400 people on the chair with no line as there's twice as many chairs. And when there's staffing shortages it's usually the long fixed-grip lifts that are first to go unused.

 

[machski]

Very true, lotta ways to interpret his quotes. Lots of resorts, even the destinations ones, don't/can't run literally all their lifts anymore it seems. Especially this season with staffing shortages. While a few old fixed-grip lifts not running may seem like it wouldn't have an impact on lift lines, it's those fixed-grip lifts that act as "people eaters" since the chair spacing is tighter and the ride time is longer. If you have 400 people, you can fit 200 on 50 chairs on a HSQ and the other 200 will be waiting in line. On a fixed grip you can fit all 400 people on the chair with no line as there's twice as many chairs. And when there's staffing shortages it's usually the long fixed-grip lifts that are first to go unused.

Ok, this makes almost no sense. Just because a FGC has more chairs, doesn't mean it reduces lines. They also run at least than half the speed of detaches (often FGC are not run at their full operating speeds to make loading easier. So a FGQ will potentially run at 1/4 the speed of new, modern D-Line equipment). The FG slow speeds negate any line eating capacity over detaches given their slow speeds. They usually don't have lines if they are near detaches as folks vastly prefer riding detach chairs.

 

[gittist]

Ok, this makes almost no sense. Just because a FGC has more chairs, doesn't mean it reduces lines. They also run at least than half the speed of detaches (often FGC are not run at their full operating speeds to make loading easier. So a FGQ will potentially run at 1/4 the speed of new, modern D-Line equipment). The FG slow speeds negate any line eating capacity over detaches given their slow speeds. They usually don't have lines if they are near detaches as folks vastly prefer riding detach chairs.

I guess that's why they're putting FGCs in at Jack Frost and other places. I read someplace that Vail was under the impression that people liked 'quads', what I don't think they realized is that we like FAST detachable quads...but then again maybe there's some ulterior motives involved. Like food kiosks along the lift lines to increase the revenue.