This is an expensive hobby, I wonder how much inflated prices on everything across the board has an effect on Vail's skier visits being down. Alterra is not a public company but I'd guess their numbers were down too for last season. In any event, I thought it was odd that Vail's CEO didn't bring that point up.
-
Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!
You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!
VAIL SUCKS
- Thread starter thebigo
- Start date
I mean...I can think of quite a few ski areas that are NOT owned by either Vail or Alterra that see a hell of a lot more than "virtually no traffic per year".
jaytrem
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2007
- Messages
- 2,049
- Points
- 83
I don't mind if you disagree with me, but is it really necessary to be a dick while doing it?So Cochran, Whaleback, and Shawnee aren't charging $285 a lift ticket due to their benevolent heart & sense of altruistic duty to mankind?
I'm not really sure you've thought this through.
I didn't say why most resorts aren't trying to shock you into buying a pass. I just said most resorts aren't. Of course a big part of the reason is most of them don't have the ability to do so. No shit, you must be one of them there geniuses to have figured that out! See I can be a dick too. At any rate, it seems like you're agreeing with me, other than the fact that you disagree on the meaning of "most resorts". Those 2 words put together don't seem all that complicated, who knew??? Funny you mention Cochrans, when I took my kids there they let the 3 of us ski for $10 total, maybe they were feeling altruistic that day, or maybe they just liked my smile.
Not sure why you think the other 384 places see "virtually no traffic"? The 50% or whatever that Vail/Alterra don't control means nothing? Most of the ones I went to this year seemed to have a decent crowd, and there seems to be more of them reviving than going out of business. I'm guessing you don't ski off-pass much, so you probably wouldn't know much about that.
thebigo
Well-known member
Last three seasons I have logged a total of 306 ski days across five states and around 20 unique areas without an epic, ikon or indy pass. I have never paid >$100 for a day of skiing. Think the most was $99 for a summer ticket at timberline, most days were far less. I just play the game, buddy tickets, vouchers, off peak days, race family, etc.
Congrats, that is a lot of skiing over the last three seasons and not easy to do! Im guessing you had some sort of season pass for a majority of those days. 306 days over 3 seasons on Epic or Ikon comes out to about 10 dollars per day. As much as people hate Ikon and Epic It's hard to believe skiing could be any cheaper than that for those amount of days put in without some sort of pass.
jaytrem
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2007
- Messages
- 2,049
- Points
- 83
Pretty crazy that you've never paid over $100 for a ticket at this point. I guess that's still a rarity for me, but not unheard of. I do buy Indy and Epic though. I think my highest ever was Sun Valley this year. Just under $200, but it didn't feel so bad since my kids skied for free.
Any chance you can list the areas? Curious which places you're able to pull that off at. Thanks!
Exactly. And even some of the ones that are on Ikon are not owned by Alterra and only allow limited days. I don't think that can really count as "Alterra marketshare" since they'yre paying the partners for any days on Ikon used at those resorts. Maine and MA both have no resorts owned by Vail or Alterra and only a few partners. Expand it to the northeast and NYS alone has only 1 resort actually owned by Vail and one partner on Ikon. To say there are few ski areas that people want to visit outside of Vail/Alterra owned areas or that they have virtually no skier traffic is really stretching it...
Newpylong
Well-known member
Next year is their plan.
Newpylong
Well-known member
The issue is this may not be the easiest for the casual skier to figure out and it removes all aspects of spontaneity from the sport. There is no doubt things cost more (due to rising energy, labor and insurance prices chiefly) but they are not commensurate with the recent walk up rates. They want you locked in with a pass whether you go once or 100 times. Personally I am disgusted by the practice, and it isn't just a Vail thing though they certainly have led the charge.
Its every industry- ours just happens to be expensive. Didn't Adobe start with the subscription model years ago? Now I pay for MS Office every year instead of a larger sum when the new software is released.
Predictable cash flow is king. Skiing/riding never had that before.
Read a piece in Barrons on Hims. 75% or more is recurring revenue so stock shot way up- they are those folks that proffer ' hopefully under the radar' products. . . . . Hough had a great column on it.
I've never skied cheaper- under $35 a day at 7 areas. Yet I understand why your angst is raised - no impulsive ability to just go, keeps people away if they are just 3-4 days a year, etc.
Guess we will see long term how it plays out, short term, its a private equity-like ' gimme margins NOW'.
Those aforementioned smaller areas are key to new growth. It's how most of us started.
thebigo
Well-known member
Agree, the casual skier still wants to ski when weather cooperates but cannot navigate the landscape. I am known as the ski guy among family and friends, people reach out when planning their handful of ski days because they know I follow the deals and can advise on crowding and cost. I suspect families without a resident ski fanatic check the prices at the place they grew up, find themselves aghast and give up.
Vail is somewhat more complicit as the one place that requires passholders to be present to redeem buddy tickets. Passholder does not have to be present elsewhere I have used buddy tickets: ragged, gunstock, cannon, loon, sunday river, sugarloaf, sugarbush off the top of my head.
