similar sort of question (so not an answer to your question). Kids have finally gone back to school in person so am taking a ”Mum day” tomorrow, Tuesday, to check out Attitash or Wildcat to see if worth bringing the family up. Have never been to either, and from this forum sounds like both are getting a poor deal from Vail. But wondering which to try. Will only be skiing on trail, steep is okay, don’t even mind ice, but no bumps. Hate slow lifts. Seems like midweek the slow summit triple is the only option on one side of Attitash? so even though it larger takes a long time to access that terrain. And wildcat says 90% open so tending that way. Driving from MA.
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VAIL SUCKS
- Thread starter thebigo
- Start date
similar sort of question (so not an answer to your question). Kids have finally gone back to school in person so am taking a ”Mum day” tomorrow, Tuesday, to check out Attitash or Wildcat to see if worth bringing the family up. Have never been to either, and from this forum sounds like both are getting a poor deal from Vail. But wondering which to try. Will only be skiing on trail, steep is okay, don’t even mind ice, but no bumps. Hate slow lifts. Seems like midweek the slow summit triple is the only option on one side of Attitash? so even though it larger takes a long time to access that terrain. And wildcat says 90% open so tending that way. Driving from MA.
thebigo
Well-known member
If you are buying tickets, like groomers and fast lifts: bretton woods.
If you are looking to use epic pass and like fast lifts, the attitash side is useless midweek. Terrain is good but the triple is brutal. Both bear and wildcat have a fast lift and three groomed ways down. Wildcat terrain is better and the view makes for a better overall experience.
Loon is an easier drive from ma and offers more terrain. Cannon is also an option but the best terrain is off fixed grips.
If you're using your epic pass i suggest Sunapee.
If buying a ticket i suggest anywhere but Attitash or Wildcat. Honestly somewhere like Ragged would be an easy drive and has fast lifts and fast groomers
I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure Vail never owned Snowbasin.
ss20
Well-known member
Drive to Mount Snow if you can swing it- they're getting 6-8" starting tomorrow AM. Wildcat/Attitash probably not even a dusting.
No, you are right, Pete seibert owned it for a time after he sold his share of vail, mr seibert sold it to the holding family
jimk
Well-known member
I've been hearing from acquaintances that crowds have been off the hook at Snowbasin pretty much all this season, and it was especially tough during a period of low trail counts until the recent dump.
Maybe longhornskier can give us a fresh take on crowds at Snowbasin?
LonghornSkier
Active member
On Sunday 1/24, it was 10-15 minutes on strawberry/needles, 2-3 minutes on John Paul and Wildcat, ski-on Middle Bowl and Porcupine.
Not bad compared to what I’ve experienced at Hunter/Mt Snow/Okemo/Sunapee this season.
Unrelated but skied Alta today and it was 5 minutes on Collins and ski-on elsewhere. Going to work Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, ski Snowbird Friday, and TBD Saturday/Sunday (probably PC one day to get some value out of my epic pass plus I like 9990 and Jupiter). The WFHCation rolls on!
Depends, if they come out this COVID 19 in decent shape, some regional players or feeder mtns may be ready to cash it in, I think vail needs to add a feeder hill in ct, Rhode island maybe north of Boston.
I don’t think Vail is buying anymore resorts for a while....
Yes I have the world famous epic pass! We go to Sunapee on weekends quite a bit, and were so excited last year when Peaks were added to Epic mainly because of the good things I heard about Wildcat. But the short season meant we never got there last year. And if it is a disaster there this year I’d rather find out on my own without dragging the family up. Don’t really want to pay for a ticket somewhere (or not yet anyway), trying to get some value from Epic without the possibility of a trip west this year.
so will post a middle age Mum opinion of the skiing after tomorrow, thanks to everyone who made suggestions.
They are getting killed by the weather, the pandemic, and bad press from pissed passholders. They are in survival mode.
thebigo
Well-known member
You are aware that there is one ski area in Rhode Island and one ski area between Boston and the nh border? Neither exceed a few hundred vertical. Pretty sure vail is not drooling over yawgoo valley or Bradford.
The weather and pandemic not having any effect on boyne, alterra, powder?? The bad press seems to be wildcat and atitash, but lets carry on like it’s happening at every vail resort.
Don’t forget about nasoba valley blue hills, another one outside of Worcester, vail has lots of ski resorts in the Midwest with small verticals Boston / New England is one of the biggest ski markets in the country, yawgoo valley fits into their business model very nicely as does ski sundown in ct, my guess vail is done buying big resorts in New England but will add two to four feeder mtns. Time will tell
thebigo
Well-known member
My guess is that vail is done buying resorts period, they need to figure out what to do with the property they own before acquiring more. I hope for the sake of all the school kids in the Merrimack valley that they never get anywhere near Bradford.
However, if they were going to acquire more property, the populated areas in Quebec and Ontario are obvious holes in their portfolio.
jimmywilson69
Well-known member
This needs to be the smart move. They bought up 22 resorts that for the most part are completely different animals than what they are used to running. Way closer to population that really likes to do day trips, and way more regionalized than "destination" resorts. With some reasonable thought they can save this ship and still be profitable. It for the most part comes down to operations. What are they willing to do to operate these resorts as they have operated historically. and the reason to do this is to keep your customer base happy, so they continue purchasing your pass product. They don't have a complete monopoly in the northeast like they do in Summit County. My guess is they really haven't thought about how easy it is for many in the northeast to just go somewhere else, locals aside of course.
RichT
Active member
I can only comment on my home Mtn (Hunter), if Vail let them run it as they have for the past 50+ years. Instead of pushing their stupid ideas on them, we would be in ALOT better shape.
