Mt Snow Trip Reports 2019-2020

djaskipa68

One of the things not being mentioned is the lay-offs at the end of this season. Every single employee will have to go through Vail Resorts application process including drug-testing. Vail is very serious when it comes to staffing their resorts and properties. When I lived in Vail, Vail Resorts acquired the Lodge at Vail in 1997. Every employee was notified that they had re-apply for their job and take a drug test including my ex-wife. Needless to say, they weeding out the those that didn't care and risk-takers. They lost several cooks and other essential staff members, bottom line that year was a low point for them and they rebounded from it.

With that said, let's look at the current scenario, every Peak resort will have to do this, including down here in PA. Whitetail which received their notifications back in December has taken a different approach than Mt Snow. All levels of staff are fighting for their jobs as seasonal and full-time year-round employment. Whitetail's Director of Marketing has made herself visible in online video postings about events and snow reports, that wasn'ty the case in the past. The VP for the Eastern resorts is keeping a watchful eye on the new resorts. The GM at Roundtop was let go a week after they open for a weekend then closed. Many speculate that stunt didn't sit well with higher up and the shuffling of GMs happened. VR VP for the Mid-Atlantic region, Jeff Lifgren is now overseeing Liberty for now.

If you look at the Blog from the GM at Mount Snow, Eric has not posted anything at all this year so far, nor has any Marketing person since October. We already know Marketing, HR, Accounting and possible other departments will be moved to Denver at Vail's HQ as they consolidate duplicate positions. Who is going to move cross country and not be doing the same roll they had it is a big risk with no guarantees. Has the culture and attitude changed with its employees, quietly behind the scenes...absolutely. No one admit it publicly unless they are disgruntled.

On FB, Mt Snow gave updates about the lift holds but still took a backlash. Where they dropped the ball is assuming ownership and publicly apologizing to everyone, eventhough no one can control Mother-Nature. Stratton did that yesterday and assumed responsibility of the lift issues. They took ownership and let their guests and passholders know they value their business as they supported the resort and the local businesses this past week. Changes will happen at the former Peak resorts, hopefully for the better.

jaytrem

Stratton was zero lines all day except for 5 min at the gondola. Trees were nice with lots of leftover powder if you went off the main tracks at all. Even ran Shooting Star for some reason.

yardsale

It appears Snow prioritized Nitro over Bluebird for deicing with a decision on Monday. By Tues afternoon, Bluebird had not been touched - despite having all the bubbles in the barn - They were on the top towers of Nitro around noon on Tuesday. Canyon was also being worked on on Tues afternoon for an eventual late opening on Tuesday. At 2:19pm Tues, a update to the Snow website warned of further deicing needed on Bluebird and GSE for today - I think that update was edited later to add in the lightning strike (to both non-deiced lifts).

I will play the BS card on the Bluebird lightning strike. If it was hit by lightning it was negligible as they opened it this AM. I think they knew by Tues afternoon they had a mess on their hands by not working on Bluebird 1st. The thunder and lightning on Monday afternoon was the perfect excuse.

And...How do you not think thru the lift line management that would be needed on Tues by operating so few lifts with a holiday crowd. The ice on Monday kept most away. The dramatic change in conditions from Monday to Tuesday and the correlation to crowd size should have been foreseen. Management should have known there was a cabin fever element coming their way on Tuesday after 4" of snow overnight. Where was staff deployed on Tuesday? 2 lifties worked at the base of Outpost setting up the coral Tues mid morn. There was another guy in the top shack of Outpost the whole time I was over their. 3 folks deployed to a lift that they never planned on opening. Their staff deployment was reactionary - senior staff showed no ability to be proactive over all 4 mountain faces. I felt bad for the lifties that were at the running lifts.

I, generally have low expectations during a holiday week and often avoid these periods - skiing mainly mid week now. But I do subscribe to the theory that a day on snow is always better then being at home. I'll just need to move the bar lower.

ski_it

So much to go through..
I saw 2 bolts while at the bottom of Tumbleweed and apparently missed another previously that closed the mountain. Then saw two more close by on the hike back to Seasons. Everything I saw was above or to left of Sundance, but I can't be everywhere at once.

Dr Jeff if you got a 15 min line at 10 consider yourself lucky. I watched the clocktower slowly click by from 9:25-55 until I loaded, and the queue was huge. Not as bad as the day before, but pretty damn bad. I'm gonna start bringing a fold up chair with me. Although people were already queuing up at BB as soon as they saw action over there at 10.
I still think it was inexcusable they didn't open the other fixed chairs this morning. It shows they don't care. And they could have stayed open later to add some good will. Or free beer........... Oh sure once they got BB, Heavy Metal & Challenger back up the lines were more manageable today. People hung on today to the end for a 1 or 2 group queue at the BB. Probably because they got so little skiing in all week?

djaskipa68 - you have some great points. Some things you mention about personnel I too assume in general were happening. BUT the next year was the low point??? Oh great, so next season.....

Yardsale - Their staff deployment was atrocious. Especially 12/31.

Let's take another view of yesterday 12/31/2019

And no mention of Sunbrook which has been down for how many days now?
And I heard a rumor that the people mover on GS is broken again.

NewEnglandSkier13

Vail seems like they are doing staffing all wrong. The culture of the employees is very important to running a successful resort.

rickbolger

I still think it was inexcusable they didn't open the other fixed chairs this morning. It shows they don't care.

+1

I was willing to accept the explanations/excuses and give them a pass on everything. Everything except this. To have a perfectly functional chair sit idle on a holiday is aggravating. Especially for the rates they charge -- it's like flipping the bird at your customers. Inexcusable is correct. This is reminiscent of the latter ASC days when they really started to disintegrate.

DrJeff

I still think it was inexcusable they didn't open the other fixed chairs this morning. It shows they don't care.
+1

I was willing to accept the explanations/excuses and give them a pass on everything. Everything except this. To have a perfectly functional chair sit idle on a holiday is aggravating. Especially for the rates they charge -- it's like flipping the bird at your customers. Inexcusable is correct. This is reminiscent of the latter ASC days when they really started to disintegrate.

Not having Ego and Sundance spinning at the opening bell yesterday (or heck, even looking at yesterday as a much more typical "mid week operations schedule of lifts" ), especially with the Northface on wind hold at the opening bell, just was a poor decision and had the optics, especially with the general lack of effective and open communication to the guests about what the lift situation was, looking bad as well.

If Ego and Sundance didn't have wind issues yesterday morning, having them up and running at the opening bell, atleast until the Bluebird came on line, would of been a much better thing. It's not like the crowd wasn't there, and there early yesterday, either....

ski_it

Chairs, not chair. Ego, Sundance & Heavymetal too for a couple hours.

jaytrem

The only good thing about this whole debacle is they may have pissed off enough of their customers that we may see lower crowds in the future. :-)

DrJeff

The only good thing about this whole debacle is they may have pissed off enough of their customers that we may see lower crowds in the future. :-)

I think we'll get a feel for that in about 2 weeks when MLK weekend rolls around and the next time the "mega masses" typically show up......

While I sincerely hope for the crowds for the various small businesses in the Valley who's economic lifeline can be made or broken based on the 3 major holiday periods each season, what's going on volume wise at the home hill, anecdotally atleast to me (and I have 16 days in at Mount Snow this year to date) is a regular crowd volume, especially on the weekends and holidays, that is going to need to take a different school of thought from the management perspective (and whether that's in West Dover, or wherever Vail's director of Eastern Resorts is based, or at the mother ship in Colorado) to have a staff and ops plan that is based on what they're seeing today, and not "how it's been for X number of years"

The let downs that I have seen this year so far at Mount Snow more often than not don't involve the weather

BarringtonLevy

The only good thing about this whole debacle is they may have pissed off enough of their customers that we may see lower crowds in the future. :-)
I think we'll get a feel for that in about 2 weeks when MLK weekend rolls around and the next time the "mega masses" typically show up......

While I sincerely hope for the crowds for the various small businesses in the Valley who's economic lifeline can be made or broken based on the 3 major holiday periods each season, what's going on volume wise at the home hill, anecdotally atleast to me (and I have 16 days in at Mount Snow this year to date) is a regular crowd volume, especially on the weekends and holidays, that is going to need to take a different school of thought from the management perspective (and whether that's in West Dover, or wherever Vail's director of Eastern Resorts is based, or at the mother ship in Colorado) to have a staff and ops plan that is based on what they're seeing today, and not "how it's been for X number of years"

The let downs that I have seen this year so far at Mount Snow more often than not don't involve the weather

I completely agree. Some very strange things are happening behind the scenes for sure. Even heard rumblings of a worker walk-off. Someone needs to grab the reigns ASAP because a disaster like this past week is not good for the valley

ski_it

I completely agree. Some very strange things are happening behind the scenes for sure. Even heard rumblings of a worker walk-off. Someone needs to grab the reigns ASAP because a disaster like this past week is not good for the valley

You all know I don't know a mountain from a molehill, but it seems to me a lot of familiar faces over the last few years, and even from the beginning of the season are absent.

I'll never blame the workers down in the trenches & on the front lines.

ski_it

1/5/2020 The Grand Summit Express is still down. I believe since the 30th. They were working up in the terminal yesterday. They had snow guns blasting all over since the wee hours of the morning. The Bluebird queue returned to north-south for most of the holiday week, well at least when the GS wasn't running IIRC.

yardsale

I skied 1/2 day on Sunday. I'm tired of skiing Mt. Snow with all the lift issues and with no Grand Summit, the main base was a tad crowded for a Sunday at the end of a 2 week holiday period. Not a condition problem, though on Sunday. They committed to resurfacing a bunch of terrain on Sat nite and all day Sunday - so the terrain that had new snow making was pleasant. Rode the slow Sunbrook quad for the 1st time this season on Sunday and meandered down little dipper which now has snow-making on it. Nitro lift line was short but the whole pod was icy. Never went to North Face - they didn't open NF until 9:30 so the timing was off for me. After Sunbrook and the icy Carinthia, I quit. Skied Okemo on monday 1/6 for an Epic change of scenery.

DrJeff

Saturday... Wet, hero snow, variable visibility, thanks to the 1st AM Express of the season and low crowd volume due to the weather, and some fun laughs with my friends I was skiing with got 11 Bluebirds, a Beartrap and 2 Nitro rides in by 11 for just under 20k vertical feet. Will end up being one of my most memorable days of the season for the non skiing afternoon and evening which was supposed to be a snowmobile tour with 5 of my friends (that got canceled last minute due to the poor snow conditions on the VAST trails) which then became a few hours at The Snowrepublic Brewery and then culminating in a surprise 50th birthday party for one of my friends who's wife had held Saturday night up in the Station Taproom for about 50 of us who are all "Mount Snower's" who have met through skiing the mountain we all call home! Truly a fun day inspite of the weather!!

Sunday.. frozen up and after about a 2 week "rest" Mount Snow got to flex it's Snowmaking prowess in a BIG way! Full on recovery effort was impressive with good results... The crowds returned though.... Had a 25 minute Bluebird line from the Southside between 10:30 and 10:55.... Ugh

ski_it

which then became a few hours at The Snow Republic Brewery .....

It's a great place even though their dog Ziggy is an Arsenal supporter.
It'd be even nicer if they could turn the music down just one notch to 10.

rickbolger

with all these lift horror stories, MLK rental in West Dover has me thinking the run up to Okemo might be worthwhile. If the weather is a complete bust I can walk to that new brewery :) :) :)

yardsale

Back at Snow today. The snowmaking continues which makes for a quality day. It remains a man made / machine groomed hill for the foreseeable future. Ventured on some non groomed today (Roller Coaster for 1 run) and decided not to bother further. The $39 college promo brought an OK crowd. Sunbrook quad running. Beartrap not running so a commitment needed over on Sunbrook. Northface groomers completely edgeable - fun.

Top of Chute

Little Dipper

ski_it

with all these lift horror stories, MLK rental in West Dover has me thinking the run up to Okemo might be worthwhile. If the weather is a complete bust I can walk to that new brewery :) :) :)

Yes everyone please go to Okemo!

Speaking of the brewery, new on their FBook page:

That must be what I think it is? I guess I could research this online but is that legal in VT?

And how legal is pot in VT, because I watched two f boys load the Tumbleweed each with a joint in their mouths. I gave them the benefit of the doubt until they lit up a couple chairs ahead of me.

NELSAP

Aren't those just dried hops for their HiPA?

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