Vail to buy Stowe?

[boston_e]

Looks like Stowe is to be included in the Epic pass after all...

http://news.vailresorts.com/corporate/vailresorts/epic-pass-stowe.htm

So basically $859 for a Stowe season pass. Will be interesting to see how Killington and others respond.

 

[farlep99]

I just spoke to the Epic office. They will be offering other products for Stowe. They do not know what they are yet (at that level anyway). They did tell me you can buy the epic pass now and if another product gets announced that fits you better you can change products.

That seems to contradict what's on the Stowe FAQ section of snow.com...

If I buy an Epic Pass now, and then decide to purchase a Stowe-only product once they are announced, can I exchange my pass?
No. All Epic Passes are non-refundable and non-transferrable.

http://www.snow.com/epic-pass/info/stowe-faq.aspx

 

[KustyTheKlown]

RIP stowe.

 

[mbedle]

That seems to contradict what's on the Stowe FAQ section of snow.com...

If I buy an Epic Pass now, and then decide to purchase a Stowe-only product once they are announced, can I exchange my pass?
No. All Epic Passes are non-refundable and non-transferrable.

http://www.snow.com/epic-pass/info/stowe-faq.aspx

That sucks and is pretty shitty of Vail to do that. If its anything like Whistler, the Stowe only season pass may end up being more expensive than the epic pass.

 

[thetrailboss]

Ironically it was Stowe that caused Sugarbush to create their For 30s pass. SB had the For 20s pass for 5 years now (and that pass made a lot of sense), but it wasn't until last year when Stowe announced in the late summer that they were doing a Young Adult pass that covered up to age 34 that SB responded and created an "Early 30s" pass which they've now changed to cover the entire 30s age range for next year. I didn't particularly think it was necessary to do that, but it benefits me so who am I to complain?

As for a Stowe-only local pass version, I have a hard time thinking they will end up doing that. The Epic pass itself is already half the price of Stowe's previous adult pass, so is there really a need? I would think Epic alone should have easily driven an increase in Stowe pass sales over previous years due to the cheap price. I think a cheaper local option in Stowe's case would only undercut their own Epic pass sales potentially and wouldn't really steal much from anyone else at this point.

Right. But wasn't the Stowe version pretty limited as to where one had to live to get one? Like literally two or three counties.

 

[cdskier]

Right. But wasn't the Stowe version pretty limited as to where one had to live to get one? Like literally two or three counties.

No...you could be from anywhere. It had a few blacked out days, but other than that you just had to be age 19-34. (Still listed on their website in the season pass section). Maybe you're thinking of the "County" pass? That was only valid for residents of 3 counties and even then it wasn't exactly cheap. Epic is cheaper than the County pass was.

 

[hovercraft]

That seems to contradict what's on the Stowe FAQ section of snow.com...

If I buy an Epic Pass now, and then decide to purchase a Stowe-only product once they are announced, can I exchange my pass?
No. All Epic Passes are non-refundable and non-transferrable.



http://www.snow.com/epic-pass/info/stowe-faq.aspx

Don't know what to say as she assured me you could change products. Since I am a season pass holder with no restrictions I doubt that they would have another product that would fit me better . I was asking out of curiosity anyway. You only put down 49.00 anyway until September so I am not sure why they wouldn't let you change a product if they came out after the fact with one that worked better for their customer. I guess we will see.

 

[hovercraft]

I know someone in the marketing Dept who told me that over 80% of the season passes sold where the college and 30's pass. If that is accurate might be hard to ignore.

 

[SnowRock]

I know someone in the marketing Dept who told me that over 80% of the season passes sold where the college and 30's pass. If that is accurate might be hard to ignore.

Yes.. while I didn't ask about the college pass, I heard from someone who would know that the 30s pass sold extremely well. They felt like they gained quite a few customers from Bush with that product.

 

[cdskier]

Yes.. while I didn't ask about the college pass, I heard from someone who would know that the 30s pass sold extremely well. They felt like they gained quite a few customers from Bush with that product.

"Gained" is an interesting term... Sugarbush passes were on sale way before Stowe passes came out. Most people in that 30-34 age range that wanted a Sugarbush pass should have already bought one by that point in theory in order to get the best SB prices. And then after Stowe announced theirs, SB countered pretty quickly with the early 30s pass and gave a refund of the difference to all the people in that age range that had already bought adult SB passes. I could certainly see some of those people taking the money there were refunded from SB and using that to buy the Stowe pass in addition to the SB pass (so essentially now having both an SB Early 30s pass and a Stowe Young Adult pass nearly for the same price they originally paid for the Adult SB pass).

Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt that the Young Adult pass sold well for Stowe. I just don't think it came at the expense of SB losing sales. It mostly either came from people who didn't have an SB pass at all or people who decided to get both.

 

[dlague]

Don't know what to say as she assured me you could change products. Since I am a season pass holder with no restrictions I doubt that they would have another product that would fit me better . I was asking out of curiosity anyway. You only put down 49.00 anyway until September so I am not sure why they wouldn't let you change a product if they came out after the fact with one that worked better for their customer. I guess we will see.

Well I put money down on the Epic Pass and then tried to change to the Keystone/A Basin pass and they would not let me change.

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[hovercraft]

Well I put money down on the Epic Pass and then tried to change to the Keystone/A Basin pass and they would not let me change.

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That's a bummer.

 

[EPB]

Is Vail really interested in the Vermont College crowd?

My guess is yes...

But only the ones with parents who are going to take them out west to a Vail resort for a week anyway. They'd probably prefer local college kids ski somewhere else when they're on their own.

 

[thetrailboss]

So here are this season's passes: https://www.stowe.com/ski-ride/season-pass/

I did get the "County" deal confused with the Young Adult pass. That was a good price. Their college pass price also dropped compared to when I was in the market.

And 80% of their pass sales (in terms of #'s I assume) were these discounted passes? I hope that is not the case. That is a lot of discounted product.

 

[jimmywilson69]

I might buy the large share of discount pass deal. I spoke to a lot of college kids every time I have visited Stowe.

 

[machski]

My guess is yes...

But only the ones with parents who are going to take them out west to a Vail resort for a week anyway. They'd probably prefer local college kids ski somewhere else when they're on their own.

I agree with yes but full on. After all, the college graduate is the most likely to become a life long skier with the income to support it. I think we are being too narrow minded to think Vail won't try some different products pass-wise in the East. It is a bit of a different market. Even if just for this season to try and hook people onto them.

As for the local pass, isn't that more for Breckenridge/Keystone type skier? So why would they put Stowe on that then unlimited? Cool they allow Stowe, perhaps some may venture there if they are buying this pass to travel west specifically to the unrestricted areas and save some $ off a full epic.

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[mbedle]

Based on last years prices, the good thing is the epic pass price will stay the same till about the end of may. Only thing lost with missing the first deadline was a reduction in the number of buddy passes from 6 to 2.

 

[thetrailboss]

http://www.wcax.com/story/35007884/the-vail-effect

 

[ExtremeRyan]

Anyone ski Rock Garden recently, I'm going up to Stowe tonight and I want to hike up there this weekend , I want to know if it's good before I go up to the ridge.


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[thetrailboss]

Anyone ski Rock Garden recently, I'm going up to Stowe tonight and I want to hike up there this weekend , I want to know if it's good before I go up to the ridge.


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I think you need to go to Kitchen Wall and look for a lost pair of skis.