Wind Holds?

[Breeze]

rant on/


Given that lift-served skiing is largely dependant on Mother Nature's whims, do you give ticket agents grief when lifts go on Wind Hold?


Do you huff and puff and work yourself into an angry, frenzied, frustrated, characterization of a rational person?

If you are totally and truly entitled ( under an Hour Snow Guarantee, for example) to a voucher for a ticket on ANY OTHER DAY OF YOUR CHOICE FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE SEASON, do you feel it is necessary to complain loudly about the conditions that place you as a recipient of that largesse?

Do you feel that it is worthwhile to your personal cause to cuss out the ticket agent? Do you think cussing out the ticket agent will enable a better outcome?

Did you have a moment of wonder when you exited your car and had to fight to get the gear out of the Thule? Did you think then that "oops, we will be challenged"

Or do you simply use PLEASE < voucher this ticket > and THANK YOU < for offering this option> when you ask the ticket agent for consideration?

rant off\

Breeze

 

[riverc0il]

personally, i love lift holds. but i can understand why the average skier doesn't like them very much. that said, wildcat's first hour guarantee is very generous; however, somewhat useless since the average weekender is driving 2-3 hours to get to the mountain and isn't going to give up on a day of skiing after driving all that distance. great if all the lifts are off line... but if wildcat has the triples running, there is more than enough to keep entertained for the day.

any ways, i also work in a service industry and it is amazing how much more sympathetic and understanding i can be to someone that calmly and rationally explains their situation. hostilities only make a bad situation worse and trigger the knee jerk reaction of toughening up the policies when i normally might have bent over back wards for someone and made an exception to the rules. once the curses start flying, my policy is the customer can head to the door and not come back. no service industry needs that type of customer, period.

all that aside, why would you go to wildcat on a high wind day following a storm and not expect a wind hold? bad choice in mountains. human nature being what it is, we are always quick to blame other people for what they can't control, especially when we ourselves made a bad decision.

preach it breeze, i've been there and those situations are amongst the worst examples of humans being human.

 

[adamti91]

Why do you love lift holds?

 

[millerm277]

I was up at Killington last year before presidents weekend, and they handled it quite well. We were up there on a package deal, so we had 3-day tickets. There was a large storm, and it was obvious that almost all the lifts weren't coming off wind hold anytime soon, as it was hard to even drive up the road in a straight line. We went in, explained that we would like vouchers for another day, and if possible for our rentals as well, and they handled it professionally, and gave us vouchers good for a year for both our tickets and rentals, and the guy messed up and printed off the wrong number of rental vouchers and just gave us the extras. Basically, always approach in a friendly and rational manner, you will get much more out of it.

 

[awf170]

Why do you love lift holds?

Because they keep terrain untracked way longer.

For a mountain like Wildcat it isn't that great because you can't get a good hike per skiing ratio for untracked. About 700 vertical feet of hiking for about the same of skiing. Jay wind hold on the other hand is awesome. Hike 15-20 minutes and have untracked skiing the whole day. Another mountain that is awesome to have wildhold IMO is Cannon. Hiking from the top of the peabody quad to the summit is cake then taft to middle hardscrabble is one sweet long run. Plus Mittersil would stay untracked a lot longer.

 

[riverc0il]

unfortunately, if cannon goes on wind hold, you'll likely be hiking a lot further than the top of the quad as that would go off line along with the tram before the other lifts. it still means untracked every run you hike vs. untracked for only one or two runs.

 

[56fish]

Because they keep terrain untracked way longer.

Jay wind hold on the other hand is awesome. Hike 15-20 minutes and have untracked skiing the whole day.

Getting a Burton Split Board for just that reason.:smile:

 

[Warp Daddy]

Tremblant gave us vouchers good for up to a yr

 

[JD]

Split boards are nice for bc terrain, but to hike to the top of J from any of the chairs it may be over kill. At areas, when snowboarders boot pack around anyway.....Prior makes some nice split boards. One is sort of an East Coast special. Simular to the fish from burton, it has a set back inserts, a big soft nose, not overly sidecut with alot of taper. I think it's caller the Klymer.
I love wind hold at Stowe. The Gondi is prone to wind hold and I can hang out in the lift shack all day (warm with a radio) and lap the top 1/3 of the Mtn.

 

[56fish]

Split boards are nice for bc terrain, but to hike to the top of J from any of the chairs it may be over kill. At areas, when snowboarders boot pack around anyway....

Thanks for the heads-up on the Prior, JD. Checked the specs and, they're extremely close to the Burton. Being a Burton/Voile dealer - the cost made it a no-brainer for me.

Beats packin' snowshoes...or, post-holin' to Big J.:wink:

 

[dmc]

Split boards are nice for bc terrain, but to hike to the top of J from any of the chairs it may be over kill. At areas, when snowboarders boot pack around anyway

I've skinned on my split during windhold.. It's much easier then booting - but I have one in my locker at the mountain so it's not such a big deal...

 

[JD]

from the bottom of the hill, I skin. From the top of the quad at J to the summit, I would just hoof it. I guess if you had a new toy and wanted to use it....to each their own experience. Big J on the other hand... Think I'm gonna be there tomorrow.
Prior uses the viole system. How does that compare to what Burton does. The only complaint I've heard about the Burtons is they can ice and be difficult to convert back to a board after a long cold icey climb. Never really talked to anyone about how the viole system works in the field. Any Experience?

 

[dmc]

Prior uses the viole system. How does that compare to what Burton does. The only complaint I've heard about the Burtons is they can ice and be difficult to convert back to a board after a long cold icey climb. Never really talked to anyone about how the viole system works in the field. Any Experience?

Burton uses the voile' system now..
The Burton system sucked... When it's cold out it's tough to switch... and it gets gummed up with ice.. totally unreliable.. I'm in the process of switching an old Burton Split Descision over the the Voile' - JUST picked up a Prior the other day... Can't wait to get it...
So now I'll have 2 with skins for partners...

 

[riverc0il]

careful with big jay, i don't think it is completely ready yet but certainly doable. i was still nailing snow snakes around the orchard today. just gotta go slow and pick your lines with care.

 

[kickstand]

rant on/


Given that lift-served skiing is largely dependant on Mother Nature's whims, do you give ticket agents grief when lifts go on Wind Hold?


Do you huff and puff and work yourself into an angry, frenzied, frustrated, characterization of a rational person?

If you are totally and truly entitled ( under an Hour Snow Guarantee, for example) to a voucher for a ticket on ANY OTHER DAY OF YOUR CHOICE FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE SEASON, do you feel it is necessary to complain loudly about the conditions that place you as a recipient of that largesse?

Do you feel that it is worthwhile to your personal cause to cuss out the ticket agent? Do you think cussing out the ticket agent will enable a better outcome?

Did you have a moment of wonder when you exited your car and had to fight to get the gear out of the Thule? Did you think then that "oops, we will be challenged"

Or do you simply use PLEASE < voucher this ticket > and THANK YOU < for offering this option> when you ask the ticket agent for consideration?

rant off\

Breeze

ah, you gotta love the totally irrational customer trying to take advantage of a good thing.....

Breeze, I'm not sure exactly how you handled this person, but if it were me, I would've tried to be as creative as possible. Arguing with the person is pointless, since there is no winning that argument. I think I may have apologized profusely for ordering Mother Nature to kick up the winds on this person's day at the mountain. I would've apologized for making the snow so firm it turned to ice. I may have even started making up stupid crap and apologize for it, just to patronize this person - all the while with a smile on my face.

Long story short, you don't need folks like that at your place of employment. Taking out your frustrations on a ticket agent over conditions nature supplied is just plain dumb. I wonder if this person would've reacted differently if he/she were discussing this with ski patrol or mountain ops.....

 

[JD]

A bit on the cold side, so I decided on a short tour close to the rig. Went out and did some xc freeriding on my alpinas. I am SO in love with those skis BTW, they have gobbled more powder then my Ravens this year. Anyway, skiing along on a local singletrack near the waterbury res., sessioning this little shot that is ussually very steep climb, when I discover some cutting down the slope below me where some random hiuking tracks are coming up from the res. Drop in to discover someone's stash. 30 turns or so. 2-300 vert., perfect pitch for the snow cover and manicured. lapped it 5 times. So simple w/o skins. It seems the lighter the gear gets, the more fun I have, and you don't need gnar to feel like you're shredding it. Great day anyway, good snow up north right now, of course we could use another foot.
ps
sorry for the hi jack.

 

[Breeze]

LOLOLOLOL~~ Kickstand!

You are a peach to respond on topic, but this thread has been SO well hijacked. I'm over the rant and happy to know a few heard my wail... appreciate the good words.

Breeze


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