VAIL SUCKS

[FBGM]

Same here, we are done. Vail has made every effort to inform us that they do not want our money. We sold a rental property on the seacoast last summer with every intention of buying a condo in bartlett. One positive from covid is that we decided to rent for a year due to the overheated real estate market. We will do a seasonal rental at sunday river until vail leaves town, at which time we will return to the valley. Maybe add a pats or gunstock midweek/night pass if there is such a thing.

I don't know that I have any issue with the snowmaking effort, the problem is getting the whales pushed out and open. There are massive whales all over the place on closed trails at attitash and bear. Best guess they are saving them for the holiday week?

If I had to guess they don’t have the staff to push them out. No one wants to run a cat at $14/hr for Vail.

 

[FBGM]

Short of a massive turn around, I'll be taking our pass spend to Cannon next season. Sucks because I love Wildcat and Stowe plus having Crotched fairly close, but the snowmaking efforts and customer service has been so piss poor, Vail doesn't deserve my money.

Hard to believe Peak ran their resorts so much better

The fact of even suggesting Peak ran something better then Vail just amplifies how horrible Vail is doing life this year. What a junk show.

 

[thetrailboss]

The fact of even suggesting Peak ran something better then Vail just amplifies how horrible Vail is doing life this year. What a junk show.

I wonder if Vail has plateaued. It certainly has a lot of resorts and is not having a good year due to COVID as well as bad weather. It is not an easy business. ASC tried to hedge their bets by having resorts on both coasts only to have a couple bad seasons in all areas.

 

[Mainer]

I had a reservation at wildcat today, when it’s not sold out it’s probably not a big deal to switch to attitash or vice versa. I saw they were supposed to open learning center at attitash, I called to confirm. Guest services had no idea what I was talking about when I called about it. Told me just summit triple and Abenaki quad were open today. Stayed with my original reservation at wildcat.

 

[thetrailboss]

The difference being, Ikon is still operating as a collection of individual resorts. Whilst Vail is enforcing corporate policy to every mountain.

By and large, yes. That said, Alterra does own a significant number of their "own" resorts now. The list that comes to mind includes Stratton, Sugarbush, Tremblant, Steamboat, Solitude, Big Bear, Blue Mountain, Crystal, June, Mammoth, Deer Valley, Winter Park, Squaw/Alpine, and Snowshoe. As you probably know, Alterra is a new entity created by KSL (owners of Squaw/Alpine) and the Crown Family (Aspen). They've tag teamed with Boyne, POWDR, and some other independent resorts to make up IKON. Alterra manages that pass and I imagine takes a pretty good cut of the pass revenue. But yes, the independent resorts are still independent, but Alterra does have a lot of pull with them. Case in point--when IKON first came out and resulted in crowding problems, almost all of the independent resorts (Jackson Hole, Alta, Aspen namely) trotted out identical explanations for the crowding to shift blame from IKON.

 

[thetrailboss]

I had a reservation at wildcat today, when it’s not sold out it’s probably not a big deal to switch to attitash or vice versa. I saw they were supposed to open learning center at attitash, I called to confirm. Guest services had no idea what I was talking about when I called about it. Told me just summit triple and Abenaki quad were open today. Stayed with my original reservation at wildcat.

Was your customer service agent in a suburb of Denver reading from a computer screen? Serious question. I would not be surprised if that was the case.

 

[Mainer]

Definitely a local. They told me they got only 6 inches from the last storm.I said I know that, was skiing on Friday. They had huge whales on all the green trails by learning center on Friday should have been able to groom it open by Sunday. But basically all I want is this:
Good morning skiers and riders. Attitash and bear peak will be open for top to bottom riding today. Be advised early season conditions exist and it will advanced/expert only from the top. If you don’t feel like your ready to shred the gnar, the learning center triple will be open to shake the rust after a lonnnnnng offseason. See u on the slopes. ps don’t forget your mask.
It took me 30 seconds to write that, I’m sure a dedicated vail employee could do the same or hopefully better.

 

[thebigo]

"Dedicated vail employee" reminds me of jumbo shrimp or new and improved.

 

[BenedictGomez]

Are we 100% sure all Vail base webcams are down this year, or is this just speculation based on a couple of resorts?

Because if it really is the former, wooo boyyy.....

 

[cdskier]

Are we 100% sure all Vail base webcams are down this year, or is this just speculation based on a couple of resorts?

Because if it really is the former, wooo boyyy.....

Hunter's base cam is up on their website right now. Wasn't working on their own website for a bit, but seems to be back now from what I can see.

 

[kingslug]

Lift tickets for December 25 through January 3 are sold out.
Gore Mt.
Hunter sold out sat , sun , mon
glad I bought a ski 3 card and an epic pass...too bad I can't use them. I guess everyone is just loading up on dates as fast as they can.
But after this "event" I don't think I want to be out there. Let them all recover for the week.

 

[asnowmobiler]

Sadly because of the travel restriction, I'm stuck skiing Jack Frost and Big Boulder. They had two top to bottom runs on opening day, since then they have opened one new run, even though we received over a foot of snow and it has been cold enough to make snow almost 24 hrs a day for over a week. They opened BB this past weekend with just one Park run. Blue Mountain which is further south has made tons of snow and has 20 of 40 runs open with twice the vert.
Defiantly regretting not getting a Pass at Blue, hell I would even rather have one at Camelback.
Wondering about getting a refund, if it's even possible since I really didn't look into the details yet.

 

[jimmywilson69]

I think if you've used the pass you are screwed on a refund from Vail.

 

[jaytrem]

Looks like Jack Frost got 2 more open for today. Was there yesterday, they had 4 top to bottom and the trees were skiable. I guess they're not into opening trails that could be described as thin cover. Seemed like plenty of snow everywhere, and all closed trail were tracked out and packed down. Not sure what going on with East Mountain, the lift has been listed as "On Hold" for at least 3 days, but I'm not sure if they even made snow over there yet.

 

[abc]

I think if you've used the pass you are screwed on a refund from Vail.

You think? Did you look?

There's very limited options for refund. But it's not linked to using the pass or not.

For everyday you've used the pass, subtract $~70 from the refund, if you qualify for one.

 

[jimmywilson69]

I didn't look thanks for clarifying.

 

[2Planker]

Was your customer service agent in a suburb of Denver reading from a computer screen? Serious question. I would not be surprised if that was the case.

BINGO - Wifey called Attitash w/ a simple lift question.
- 5 mins on HOLD
- CUT OFF
- 5 MORE mins on HOLD
- Gal eventually answers, "...sorry but I'm in CO, you'd have to call Attitash for a lift question..."

DONE w/ VAIL, Went to Black Mt, walked up, bought a Tik, had a great day !!!

We also decided NOT to rent our Jackson Place to anyone from VAIL, as we've had 2 seasonal offers from their Corp idiots

 

[Katahdin]

Does anyone know what's up with the Attitash summit triple? Is that hunk of junk broken again?

From the Attitash Facebook page yesterday: "In preparation for the upcoming holiday week, we will be performing maintenance on the Attitash Triple"

 

[thetrailboss]

Does anyone know what's up with the Attitash summit triple? Is that hunk of junk broken again?

From the Attitash Facebook page yesterday: "In preparation for the upcoming holiday week, we will be performing maintenance on the Attitash Triple"

Because NOW is the perfect time to do lift maintenance--right in the middle of ski season.

 

[Smellytele]

Because NOW is the perfect time to do lift maintenance--right in the middle of ski season.

No choice when the thing is not working. Maintenance or repair whatever.