Treilly
joshua_segal;c-36395 wrote[
Kayaker;c-36394 wroteWell, there goes my hope for Ski Bradford to be acquired by Peak. Somehow I don't think Vail would be interested in 220 vertical feet. It would debase their brand. But if they did I could say I'm a ski instructor for Vail (resorts).
Seriously, Vail may rebrand the smaller Peak areas into a wholly owned subsidiary or as suggested earlier, sell them off.
Vail runs Afton Alps in Minnesota with 350' vertical.
They also own Mt Brighton in Brighton. Mi and it's only 250' vertical. Vail actually put around 10 million into the ski area, new lifts, new snow making system and remodeled the lodge.
sugarloaf
Looks like more skiing at Berkshire East, Bromley and Magic than last year. If Liftopia is no longer able to offer good mid-week deals at Mount Snow, I'll go elsewhere. It's a shame as Mount Snow is only 85 miles away from my house.
Chuckstah
After sitting on this for a day a few random thoughts
First, I'll ride out my Peak pass for a season and see what happens. Maybe upgrade to the Epic if it's really cheap, and I feel like a couple days at Stowe.
So much for the loose ropes, and boundary policy at The Cat and Crotched.
Mt Snow will be off limits to me at most times, as it was already beyond my threshold of too crowded.
I hope they keep an early and late option, or else I'm surely out.
Wildcat Epic? Nooooo.
It's way too early to think about next season's pass as I'm sure things will change and change again before then, but I think if things are the same I won't be going Epic again.
Rant may continue at any time...Chuck
NewEnglandSkier13
I wonder if this will change Wildcat going for the early and late season market.
flbski
20 years ago the Vail Daily newspaper had a survey and 94% said they hated the way Vail Associates treated their employees. Hope they've learned since......
Chuckstah
NewEnglandSkier13;c-36403 wroteI wonder if this will change Wildcat going for the early and late season market.
It's way too early to tell IMO but
Epic historyy says the season will be shortened.
Hopefully they let the current schedule ride for at least this season
bmwskier
I've only heard rumors but what does Vail really do with the volunteer patrollers and other local folk/workers that make each area unique. Are they cut loose or assimilated? Who owns Killington?
joshua_segal
Killington is owned by POWDR Corp.
My Sunapee friends tell me that they phase out the volunteer patrollers and encourage that by not giving them perks. I'd be particularly interested in hearing from someone works for or has info on Vail's smaller areas: Afton Alps, MN (350' vert.), Mt. Brighton, MI (230' vert.) and Wilmot Mountain, WI (198' vert.).
Remski
NES13 that is my concern too. Will Vail drop that tradition of Wildcat opening as early as possible and closing as late as possible in N.H. It would be nice if they just pounded some of the trails all season long and give Killington a run for the King of Spring Crown and they definitely could pull it off. Also will they let the over flow parking for Tuckerman in spring continue.
Snowmaster
Much of Killington is state forest, much of it is owned by SP Land, and a little bit is owned by Pico Pond LLC. All 3 entities lease to POWDR.
newpylong
Remski;c-36408 wroteNES13 that is my concern too. Will Vail drop that tradition of Wildcat opening as early as possible and closing as late as possible in N.H. It would be nice if they just pounded some of the trails all season long and give Killington a run for the King of Spring Crown and they definitely could pull it off. Also will they let the over flow parking for Tuckerman in spring continue.
Not without a Catapult style upper mountain lift. Any of the runs to the base are extremely long and I think they'd have a hard time recouping the cost to put 25 feet of snow on the entire length.
NELSBEER
Wildcat early season should be secure this year. It may be open before the VAIL sale closes. Peak spent a lot of money on a major snowmaking overhaul to gain visibility, provide an Attitash alternative early season and provide early skiing for NE PEAK pass holders. 150 day seasons have become the norm up there. Will it gain more traffic from EPIC?, enough to justify the expense of competing with Sunday River & Killington (and even Bretton Woods early season)? We'll see.
Last year Mount Snow flexed its new snowmaking muscle and had 4x more trails open for Thanksgiving than Kmart. What materialized was better than expected... people showed up, skied & spent money. If there is a potential for Thanksgiving to consistently achieve near Xmas/MLK/Spring Break type crowds then opening days should creep back before the Boston Ski show (second weekend of November) to whet people's appetites for a good early season skiing experience. Lots of drone footage will be needed to convince people this is the real thing, not a WRD with stairs.
yardsale
Lots of yellow coats on Long John this year might be a good thing?
riverc0il
Remski;c-36408 wroteWill Vail drop that tradition of Wildcat opening as early as possible and closing as late as possible in N.H.
How short of a period of time does something take to make it a "tradition"? They have only been in the early season game since the new snow making was installed after their catastrophic pipe blow out, I think that was 2014.
It would be sad to see another option removed from early season. Wildcat opening early takes pressure off the early season upload at Sunday River. I usually end up at SR because the price is almost half as much as the Cat (less vert but I'd rather pay less).
Wildcat late season could be in jeopardy and that is the bigger concern. Late season at the Cat is definitely a tradition. Wildcat has excellent late season skiing. Late season profitability is very weather dependent. I could see them not putting in the extra effort to save a few bucks.
joshua_segal
Stowe could easily ski into May, but designates closing day at the beginning of the season. Vail didn't change Stowe's closing date.
I think it was dropped a bit at Sunapee.
BarringtonLevy
Well they did make quick work with the Mount Snow Fan Club. I was on that from the beginning.
If i recall correctly, it was Kelly P. who created it. What a great resource
newpylong
That is too bad - Kelly did get that going more than a decade ago (I was an ASC passholder then).
DrJeff
The official response that I got when I replied to the link that said that my account had been suspended and I felt that I had been wrongly suspended, was that they ended the forum for a few reasons.
First they were expecting a large number of questions once the announcement of the merger broke and wanted to address all questions in their public social media forums to be completely transparent. Secondly, the implication was there that this forum, wasn't something that fit within current Vail resorts operating policies.
I certainly have enjoyed that forum over the last decade or so. I hope that going forward that Vail resorts will continue to encourage such direct and open communications with their customers. That was certainly one of the many great characteristics that Kelly P had in her management style, and characteristics that she appears to be bringing to her new job as President of the National Ski Areas Association. She had a nice way of weaving the fine line between true industry corporate "secrets" and complete and open transparency with one's customers, and many of those who worked under her guidance over the years have continued to follow in her communication styles
newpylong
Their current Comm Director could use a lesson from her, both in tact and presentation.
MtTom
DrJeff;c-36424 wroteThe official response that I got when I replied to the link that said that my account had been suspended and I felt that I had been wrongly suspended, was that they ended the forum for a few reasons.
First they were expecting a large number of questions once the announcement of the merger broke and wanted to address all questions in their public social media forums to be completely transparent. Secondly, the implication was there that this forum, wasn't something that fit within current Vail resorts operating policies.
I certainly have enjoyed that forum over the last decade or so. I hope that going forward that Vail resorts will continue to encourage such direct and open communications with their customers. That was certainly one of the many great characteristics that Kelly P had in her management style, and characteristics that she appears to be bringing to her new job as President of the National Ski Areas Association. She had a nice way of weaving the fine line between true industry corporate "secrets" and complete and open transparency with one's customers, and many of those who worked under her guidance over the years have continued to follow in her communication styles
I too was quite upset to see the notification of a suspended account and messaged the mountain on Facebook Messenger and was told the same thing. I told them that the passholder forum was something that set Mount Snow apart from the other mountains in Southern VT as you could voice something and management would hopefully see it. What I did not like was that once Kelly left Erik Barnes GM never once posted and responded to things like Kelly. We just were left to deal with Jamie who was just a middle man in a sense and I feel sometimes we never got an exact clear answer to things.
