VAIL SUCKS

[chuckstah]

Based on the email I received today from Vail promising a dollar sum as my discount next season, it seems for the first time in a long time the EPIC pass price isnt going to be increased.

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Assuming others come to the same logic I wonder if the stock's down tomorrow. This is a beast that survives on price increases.

52 week low today. I think the discount is on lost value for this season, not next, and that the pass will see it's usual 8 percent increase, but it's certainly possible that they will hold the price and try to retain as many customers as possible.

 

[BenedictGomez]

Rode the lift with two Costa Rican girls today who are Vail employees (1 Park City, 1 Beaver Creek). The Park City girl's Vail accommodations are fine, 3 people in a 2BR apartment at the base of the Cab, she says it's nice.

But the girl who lives near Beaver Creek is essentially living in Chinese garment factory sweatshop accommodations. There are 15 of them in a 2BR, 2 bath place, 12 from Costa Rica, 3 from Peru (10 guys, 5 girls). One room is for guys (5 bunk beds) and the other is for the girls (also bunks). We all know ski resort housing is getting tough, but this is the worst situation I've heard of yet.

 

[ThatGuy]

Rode the lift with two Costa Rican girls today who are Vail employees (1 Park City, 1 Beaver Creek). The Park City girl's Vail accommodations are fine, 3 people in a 2BR apartment at the base of the Cab, she says it's nice.

But the girl who lives near Beaver Creek is essentially living in Chinese garment factory sweatshop accommodations. There are 15 of them in a 2BR, 2 bath place, 12 from Costa Rica, 3 from Peru (10 guys, 5 girls). One room is for guys (5 bunk beds) and the other is for the girls (also bunks). We all know ski resort housing is getting tough, but this is the worst situation I've heard of yet.

PC employee housing might be the best in the whole industry. Especially in the summer you have a whole apartment to yourself for $600 a month.

 

[Ski the Moguls]

I can’t afford to go there anymore.

In Telluride, the cheapest hotel room in town is now about $400 a night peak season. Getting up to 7 days on a full Epic pass helps bring the cost down a bit.

What makes Telluride worth it, in my opinion, is the best scenic views in the States, and being able to stay in the very walkable, cool, funky, historic town, while being slopeside at the same time. Oh, and dining options galore. Did I mention no lift lines?

 

[thetrailboss]

 

[Smellytele]

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What did they do for Attitrash?

 

[thetrailboss]

What did they do for Attitrash?

That was my question as well!

New Summit HSQ I guess. But in exchange the Flying Bear is down.

 

[oldfartrider]

Two new chair lifts at Attitash

 

[deadheadskier]

I've heard positive reports of Attitash snowmaking performance since they finally got rolling in January. That's the problem though. Vail waits until January to get aggressive. Peak would often start hammering in late November and have both sides open for second weekend in December. It was often just Illusion on Bear for racers in the morning the first weekend, but the public could ski it come afternoon. By Christmas week they ALWAYS had the two sides connected and by MLK weekend they'd have most everything done. You'd only be waiting on trails like Avenger and Ptarmigan after MLK.

Ultimately there are two major problems with Vail in NH.

1. Late and lackluster start to snowmaking. They basically are too conservative and unwilling to potentially lose early season efforts to the typical early season big thaws we often get.

2. The mountains are much more crowded due to the cheap passes.

When you combine these two operational strategies, you get typically horrible experiences for December and January. February and March tend to be fine. That may work for the casual skier, but it doesn't for me. I'm looking for a 5 month season with 4 of those months being good to great. I get that with Gunstock + Indy. Vail's NH model is more like a 4.5 month season with 2 months being good to great.

 

[pinion]

Vail's NH model is more like a 4.5 month season with 2 months 3 weeks being good to great.

If you know where to go, Wildcat is skiing great the last 2 weeks. If you're showing up to ski Polecat and Upper Catapult to Bobcat with everyone else, good luck to you. Attitash at least pretends to offer a resort experience, and the 2 new lifts help. Still, if you are Epic Pass Exploring and come off of a weekend at Stowe, Okemo, Snow... even Sunapee or Attitash... and then hit Wildcat you're gonna be questioning things. There is nothing even remotely close to value parity for the average Epic Pass holder between other resorts and Wildcat.

The official Snowcat status for at least 6 weeks has been the Snowcat repairs are underway, and we are on track to reopen it for operations soon. You may see it spinning while we run some tests on it. Imagine "graduating" from the World Famous Snowbelt and then getting dumped onto Wild Kitten or Polecat. You'd never want to ski again.

Year 5 of "well, it can't get worse than this next year"...

 

[Edd]

Instead of just slowly starving Wildcat just put a bullet in its head to put it out of its misery. More humane.

 

[snoseek]

I thought by now I would miss skiing at wildcat and would cave to go back to epic next year. I do miss wildcat but I don't miss the constant disappointment from shitty day to day operations.

I'll be back there someday it's my favorite peice of skiing real estate in nh but I highly doubt it will happen while owned by vail. They either need to all in on the place or sell it.

 

[deadheadskier]

I'm skiing Sunapee tomorrow and Wildcat on Friday. This is the second year I've done two Epic Day passes. Next year I might do just one for use at Cat depending on price.

I concur that when it's got the snow, Cat is my favorite place to ski in NH. Tough to stay away for that reason, but I also don't want to give Vail a dime of my money. I would love nothing more than to see them implode like ASC and Intrawest did.

 

[Smellytele]

Only been to Wildcat once since Fail bought them. Used to ski it 10-12 times a year in the 90’s/ early 00’s and then quite often when peaks owned it.

 

[reefer]

I'm skiing Sunapee tomorrow and Wildcat on Friday.

Mount Snow is probably twice the ride especially with kids, but they have gotten twice as much snow. It is skiing fantastic all over the hill. Was there yesterday and will be tomorrow for the first spring skiing weekday! Would love to take a couple runs for old times' sake but don't know if I can do that audible to Sunapee.
This rock-solid base should last a while! If anything, this chilly winter is preserving every inch of snow that has fallen.
I have also been ecstatic with Snow leaving lots of ungroomed terrain to play in. Bumps in places on trails I've never seen bumped up before.
I was also the first to bitch about paid parking and if I were still a weekend warrior I probably still would. But weekdays Mount Snow has some of the best parking in New England out of Carinthia and Sundance (my go to now). It isn't the beach but.......

 

[BenedictGomez]

Vail spending millions of dollars to install new high-speed lifts at Wildcat!

Who wants to be the one to tell him?

 

[deadheadskier]

Mount Snow is probably twice the ride especially with kids, but they have gotten twice as much snow. It is skiing fantastic all over the hill. Was there yesterday and will be tomorrow for the first spring skiing weekday! Would love to take a couple runs for old times' sake but don't know if I can do that audible to Sunapee.
This rock-solid base should last a while! If anything, this chilly winter is preserving every inch of snow that has fallen.
I have also been ecstatic with Snow leaving lots of ungroomed terrain to play in. Bumps in places on trails I've never seen bumped up before.
I was also the first to bitch about paid parking and if I were still a weekend warrior I probably still would. But weekdays Mount Snow has some of the best parking in New England out of Carinthia and Sundance (my go to now). It isn't the beach but.......

Hey bud, it would be great to see you, but I only have Epic Day passes valid in NH, not VT.

I also have to race at Pat's tomorrow night, so I wouldn't have time to make it over to Snow. Hope you're having an awesome season. Say Hi to Mario for me!

 

[reefer]

Hey bud, it would be great to see you, but I only have Epic Day passes valid in NH, not VT.

I also have to race at Pat's tomorrow night, so I wouldn't have time to make it over to Snow. Hope you're having an awesome season. Say Hi to Mario for me!

Didn't realize that about the day passes. Decent season. Have a lot of free time in March! I will see Mario Sunday at the BEast. Got his grandkids (not a typo) in lessons and we see what kind of trouble we can get in for a couple hours.

 

[thetrailboss]

Vail spending millions of dollars to install new high-speed lifts at Wildcat!

Who wants to be the one to tell him?

"So where exactly is Wildcat? Isn't that one of those shithole resorts owned by Alterra?"

 

[kingslug]

Its...ah...um...over there....