Mt Snow Trip Reports 2020-2021

Beast Patroller

So...now Vail has decided to delete any posts on Facebook that have negativity in them. Both the main page & the season passholders page has been wiped clean of anything negative. Guess the true hurts too much!

Spruce

yardsale... thanks for your updates and photos. Anytime you can get Hop in December is a win in my book.

yardsale

Thanks Spruce. I'll be able to ski again on Jan 2nd. Till then - Happy New Year Mt. Snow peeps.

yardsale

01/02/2021 - just 3 inches of wet snow which turned to icy rain/mist early morning. That resulted in lift delays and de-icing of the express lifts.

I picked the wrong ski day to start my 2021. Iced lifts and the 1st day of seasonal groups. The orange coats were lucky - they had their own coral to lap the only open lifts this AM which were Heavy Metal and Tumbleweed. I timed my wait at Heavy Metal at 9:15am - 26 minutes. When I got close enough, I timed an orange coat with his 2 skiers at 6 minutes.

I guess the orange coats get only 2 skiers each. But since they are from 2 different households, they must ride single and the orange coat must ride single as well....

Vail cancelled AM express last night because Vail knew the weather would cause problems. I'd suggest, the 1st day of groups should have been postponed as well. I was frustrated watching the hoards of orange coats ski up to their dedicated coral. My positive attitude vaccine wore off this morning. I went in after 1 run.

And, I realized Vail was not scanning passes at Heavy Metal - so I was technically a no show subject to a Vail demerit.

With lifts coming on line thru the morning, I decided to go back out and try and get scanned. At Carinthia, Nitro was online but packed. Heavy Metal was a quick wait but I was not scanned. Skied over to the main base where one could not delineate between blue bird and canyon coral. Canyon singles line moved nicely however, once I found the end of that line- got thru in 10 minutes but not scanned - only one guy was running the Canyon coral - he was doing a great job moving people thru - I thanked him.

Onto Northface - only Outpost lift. Mistake. Very crowded, although the orange coats must have been told by Vail to stay off Northface - so the corals were full of skiers all in the same boat.

I skied Long John to Ridge, opting not ski a run on Northface due to the wait on Outpost. I was heading in - but then remembered I had not been scanned yet. Skied down to Tumbleweed - It was ski-on and I got scanned!

The snow was awesome today - nice and soft and fun to carve. The other stuff - not so fun.

The orange coat express lane:

DrJeff

Race team and Devo get to use the service entrance skiing with a coach this season. Strict orders that on doubles and triples, only 1 athlete or coach per chair and 2 per quad or 6 pack. It is what it is this year with respect to that policy.

Started out traversing from the main base via the Discovery triple (got scanned there) traverse to Tumbleweed (also scanned there) then over to Heavy Metal. The line at Heavy Metal was basically over to the out extent of the Nitro queue lanes. Kept hearing from my kids and friends that lines at Tumbleweed were as long, so stayed on Heavy Metal and enjoyed 3 laps on Inferno. Funny moment probably about 10 in the Heavy Metal line when someone yelled out "Nitro is about to open!" (They hadn't even started the initial spinning of it to help with the de-icing process, so it wasn't going to load anytime soon) and with the mad dash over to Nitro, suddenly the line for Heavy Metal got about 100 ft shorter for a moment! :# They started scanning 1 of the 2 non service entrance lines for Heavy Metal about 10:30

Grabbed an 11 o'clock reservation in the Carinthia Lodge with 2 of my friends - very empty and socially distanced in there as we dried off a bit at having been out in the damp (be it rain or sleet or wet snow flakes) precipitation since just after 8.

When we headed back out at 11:30, Nitro had started spinning, and while the queue lanes were full, the wait for myself and my 2 friends as a triple was 5-7 minutes for the 4 rides we took on Nitro. Some wet powder/chopped crust on the whales on Fool's Gold was fun, but Mineshaft to Inferno was very good. Got scanned every time on Nitro

Kept hearing friends and my kids saying how crazy the main base lines were now that Bluebird and Canyon had opened, and we had to head back over to the main base area about 1:30 so my friends could meet up with one of their kids as race team had finished for his group for the day. We thought about maybe grabbing 1 run up the Bluebird if the line wasn't too bad, then we saw that the Bluebird and Canyon lines met, and we decided that it was time to take our gear off and go grab a beverage from Canned. Got a big picnic table to ourselves, and a quick trip into the main base lodge for a grab and go pizza from Tony's.

Had fun. Not the day I expected. Stayed out longer than I initially thought. Had a bunch of fun

yardsale

someone in management needs their head examined if they think letting these groups get priority lift access on a day like today is a good idea. I waited 26 very long, wet minutes while they essentially skied on. It's a terrible look.

DrJeff

yardsale;c-45892 wrotesomeone in management needs their head examined if they think letting these groups get priority lift access on a day like today is a good idea. I waited 26 very long, wet minutes while they essentially skied on. It's a terrible look.

Even with a refund of $400 due to starting 4 weeks late, each one of those kids is making the mountain a bunch of money, I know for a fact that each kid on the race team had a fee of $1650 paid for them, and the Devo kids, while I am not sure of what their final prorated number was, its over $1000 on top of their Epic passes. And there's about 300 kids signed up for both programs.

As frustrating as it can seem, especially in this year of slow lift openings and some limited lift offerings, that's a good chunk of $$ those programs bring to the mountain, and while management likely won't think twice about the decision.

The race kids are scheduled to be training on Inferno tomorrow... Hit it early if you want to, since it may be rope up for training only from once they set a course until probably early afternoon. Let's hope the winds starting to gust right now don't affect lift operations tomorrow

yardsale

do kids in these groups need reservations?

yardsale

I value the seasonal programs. I had all 3 of my kids participate at Sugarloaf in Bubble Cuffers and then Jr pros for 10 years. They never got priority lift access. They also were asked to do community service on Mt. when/if they could. Priority lift access was always limited to the one off group lessons - which I totally get. Those lessons were an hour or so and they needed to get them up the hill. NOW, because of COVID, seasonal kids get to cut the line?

I don't want the seasonal kids "off my lawn" I do want people to use common sense. If it was common sense to cancel AM express today, then it would have been common sense to postpone (or at least delay) the groups this morning. The situation I watched today at Heavy Metal was crappy. 20 Orange Coats with their own line is just not a good look and you won't convince me it is even considering how much they pay to cut the line.

DrJeff

yardsale;c-45894 wrotedo kids in these groups need reservations?

Reservations are automatically made for them on the days that the programs are scheduled to meet

And for reference, in the now 9yrs one or both of my kids have been in a program run out of the Mount Snow Training Center (different than the blue coat ski school or the Mount Snow Academy program) this is the first year that they have been allowed to use the service entrance on anything other than select race days when South Bowl is the race trail.

lotsoskiing

True, does not look good, but I am also jealous of the people in first class on flights who board before I do and actually have legroom, and who I have to walk by on the way back to my less-expensive and less-enjoyable seat location.

So it goes.

yardsale

DrJeff;c-45896 wrote
yardsale;c-45894 wrotedo kids in these groups need reservations?
Reservations are automatically made for them on the days that the programs are scheduled to meet

so thats a no. They (or their parents) don't need to go thru the reservation process either.

yardsale

how about this... when lifts are as scheduled, no wind or icing delays, groups get priority access. If there are wind, icing or mechanical delays, the kids wait in the character building lines like the rest of us.

slatham

DrJeff;c-45896 wrote
yardsale;c-45894 wrotedo kids in these groups need reservations?
Reservations are automatically made for them on the days that the programs are scheduled to meet

And for reference, in the now 9yrs one or both of my kids have been in a program run out of the Mount Snow Training Center (different than the blue coat ski school or the Mount Snow Academy program) this is the first year that they have been allowed to use the service entrance on anything other than select race days when South Bowl is the race trail.

So these groups will have priority access everyday?

DrJeff

yardsale;c-45898 wrote
DrJeff;c-45896 wrote
yardsale;c-45894 wrotedo kids in these groups need reservations?
Reservations are automatically made for them on the days that the programs are scheduled to meet
so thats a no. They (or their parents) don't need to go thru the reservation process either.

Well, given that most of their parents and/or siblings who ski/ride, and do so on the days that their kids are in the program, the only difference for example in my family, is when I make my reservations for a day when my daughter has race team, I just check the box for me, my wife and my son, so unless it's a situation where just the program participant is the only skier/rider in the family, then the family is going through the same reservation process as everyone else.

For my family, for my daughter that's every Saturday and Sunday between now and the end of March as well as the Mondays of MLK and President's weekends are made already for her. The rest of my family only currently has our 7 select priority days as well as a couple of week of reservations.

Additionally each participant in the race team and Devo programs HAS to fill out and submit an online health screening form every morning of every day of the program.

I get it, you don't like the optics of this, especially today with the limited lift situation especially prior to noon today. That's fine and dandy. We can agree to disagree on this and hope for no more de icing or even major wind hold mornings this season when not all lifts scheduled to spin at the opening bell are able to

DrJeff

slatham;c-45900 wrote
DrJeff;c-45896 wrote
yardsale;c-45894 wrotedo kids in these groups need reservations?
Reservations are automatically made for them on the days that the programs are scheduled to meet

And for reference, in the now 9yrs one or both of my kids have been in a program run out of the Mount Snow Training Center (different than the blue coat ski school or the Mount Snow Academy program) this is the first year that they have been allowed to use the service entrance on anything other than select race days when South Bowl is the race trail.
So these groups will have priority access everyday?

Every day that the programs are running and they're skiing with an instructor/coach.

For example if the race kids are lapping a training course, they can only use the service entrance if their coach is with them, not if they're lapping without a coach. And each coach/instructor is only allowed a maximum of 5 participants per instructor.

So when the quads and Bluebird can run, that's 3 chairs. And the plan, once some more snow is made on certain trails, the plan is to have the race team kids use "secondary lifts" during most of the day. The kids in the Devo program tend to ski all over the mountain, and are also in the 5 participants to 1 coach ratio.

True, sometimes multiple coaches and athletes end up at the same chair at the same time, especially when only 3 chairs were spinning like this morning.

It's not a perfect system, but it is the system the mountain agreed to this season and sold to the parents

yardsale

honestly, I don't plan on skiing many weekends after this one any way. I had to wait until today to get back on snow after traveling to MA over the holiday. So, yeah, I'm probably particularly salty about this. I did it right and it cost me days and the day I get back I see this. I wonder how many of these seasonal kids lied on the attestation and I wonder how many parents went along with it and I wonder if Vail knows how many lied about it.... and then you add the line cutting on top of it ! It's over the top and I called BS and I stand by my call. I get to do it again tomorrow too.

ski_it

My only take from this is the lines sound like they were almost as bad as last year during the ice storm. But with less total people there but still chaos?

I agree I never saw Race team and Devo use the service entrances on training days before, although like most kids you might see some major line following/cutting now and then. I would not be happy either to see this on a year like this. Similar to see Mt Snow Academy kids there on busy weekends when a majority could ski midweek.

yardsale

ski_it;c-45910 wroteMy only take from this is the lines sound like they were almost as bad as last year during the ice storm. But with less total people there but still chaos?

I agree I never saw Race team and Devo use the service entrances on training days before, although like most kids you might see some major line following/cutting now and then. I would not be happy either to see this on a year like this. Similar to see Mt Snow Academy kids there on busy weekends when a majority could ski midweek.

I give Mt. Snow credit on getting stuff de-iced much quicker this time around. That ice storm last year caused grid lock on the Mt. With this one, they made progress all morning. They had rising temps thru-out the morning this time - that helped. But someone mentioned else where - Stratton had the same weather and were up and running much quicker for both events.

Any way - good discussion Dr. Jeff et al. I just hope all that revenue goes towards a new lift here - not a Peak 5 expansion at Breck.

Beast Patroller

yardsale;c-45895 wroteI value the seasonal programs. I had all 3 of my kids participate at Sugarloaf in Bubble Cuffers and then Jr pros for 10 years. They never got priority lift access. They also were asked to do community service on Mt. when/if they could. Priority lift access was always limited to the one off group lessons - which I totally get. Those lessons were an hour or so and they needed to get them up the hill. NOW, because of COVID, seasonal kids get to cut the line?

I don't want the seasonal kids "off my lawn" I do want people to use common sense. If it was common sense to cancel AM express today, then it would have been common sense to postpone (or at least delay) the groups this morning. The situation I watched today at Heavy Metal was crappy. 20 Orange Coats with their own line is just not a good look and you won't convince me it is even considering how much they pay to cut the line.

I think the seasonal programs are great for the kids but to give them card blanc at the lifts is wrong (especially this season). It shouldn't matter how much they paid for the privilege to participate in these programs. The same argument could be made for season passholders, since we paid all that money then should we be allowed to access the lifts ahead of day ticket holders?

I totally understand & support the ski school being allowed to "cut" lines due to their time constraints. Back when I was on ski patrol at Berkshire East we had a "service line" that we were required to use (not the public lines). We were told though that we couldn't abuse it and to wait & ask politely if you could cut in (except if there was an accident). The seasonal programs should be required to go through the public lines during training, open skiing etc. and only use the service lines when there's a race going on.

As for your comment I wonder how many of these seasonal kids lied on the attestation and I wonder how many parents went along with it and I wonder if Vail knows how many lied about it.... and then you add the line cutting on top of it ! It's over the top and I called BS and I stand by my call., I all but guarantee you that most of them are lying. The kids may be remote learning but you can't tell any of us the the 600 parents (And there's about 300 kids signed up for both programs) are working from home. Remember, if one parent breaks quarantine then everyone in the family does too! That's the biggest reason for the large crowds when the area is supposed to be running at a reduced capacity. Naturally Vail is going to turn a blind eye to this because all they're concerned with is the profits.

I'm not going to judge anyone for what they think is right but as much as it pains me I'm glad I decided not to ski at Mount Snow this season

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