Beast Patroller
Well once again Vail fails to provide the experience. Before Vail took over Mount Snow the Oktoberfest was a 2-day event. Plenty of things to do both at the base & at the summit. Then, Vail scaled it back to a 1-day event, doubled the price to get in and the beer selections got worse. Recently in the last couple of years though they went to a two weekend schedule though only on Saturdays and still very expensive. Now for Oktoberfest 2025 there will be no scenic chair lift rides as the chair lifts are shutdown until ski season. They claim it's for pre-season maintenance of the chair lifts. Well there was never an issue getting the lifts ready in the past while running the lifts through Columbus Day Weekend. So now with paying outrageous prices to get in, a poor selection of beers and high bar prices on refills, you don't have the opportunity to view the fall foliage & hang out on the summit. Way to go Vail! How else are you going to enhance my experience?
justkeepmovingne
I can appreciate that Vail and Ikon provide a (relatively) cheap price get to some of the biggest ski areas out there (even though that cheap season price requires you to not only have a lot of money up front and also have the luxury of making a commitment 6-12 months out, which many people don't have). But I gave up on them a few years ago, though.
It's just a battle of capitalism and how to extract the most money out of a smaller group of people. It's the antithesis to historic skiing culture, it sucks, and we all know it. So yeah - it's not surprising that a Vail resort's value-add has decreased significantly over the last few years.
I'd be (and actively do) give my money anywhere else. I know Magic does scenic lift rides, live music and drinks every Saturday through mid-October. I bet Bromley does too. Certainly would feel more authentic than whatever Mt Snow may be doing these days.
rickbolger
yeah well they suck but I still gotta buy a day at Okemo. Last year I bought a 2-day and I said I would definitely use the 2nd day at Wildcat but I never did. So this year I'm not fooling myself and just buying one day, $96. Whatever. Anybody know when they jack up prices?
Beast Patroller
rickbolger;c-70216 wroteyeah well they suck but I still gotta buy a day at Okemo. Last year I bought a 2-day and I said I would definitely use the 2nd day at Wildcat but I never did. So this year I'm not fooling myself and just buying one day, $96. Whatever. Anybody know when they jack up prices?
Totally understand! In the recent past (post Covid) My wife & I bought 3-day passes thinking we were going to use them. Well I got 1 day in and she got 0 days. We might buy 1 day passes this season just to check Mount Snow out midweek. With our second home being 10 mins. away we wouldn't mind getting passes again but need to see how the traffic is during the midweek AND see how Vail starts treating their employees & guest after last years mess out west.
skelley19
Scenic chairlift rides wrapped up for the season in mid-September?! Is there even much foliage in VT yet? Almost nothing has turned yet in central Mass. With 2 redundant lifts out of the base to summit, why would they not at least keep one running on weekends while they do "pre-season maintenance" on the other?
@rickbolger I think you have another month or so before prices go up. If you have an "Epic" friend, they have upgraded buddy passes to be 50% rack rate this year so you might want to compare prices.
lotsoskiing
colors far ahead of schedule in VT; many places brown already. Drought is affecting color and not in a good way
obienick
There's no way anyone can spin this even with the current drought conditions. No area that offers summer lift rides closes them now for routine annual maintenance as the fall weekends bring more riders than a summer day.
This is either incompetence on the new GM or there is something drastic wrong with the lift and they would rather obfuscate the issue vs admit it and shift to the Grand Summit Express.
Vail Fail indeed.
DrJeff
Have no clue whats going on. I suspect though that 1 of 2 things, both of which take a while to fix is in play. One is that the Bluebird, which is getting ready to start it's 14th season, and definitetly was having some reliability issues (often electrical related as I understand) during the later part of last season and even a few times during this Summer Ops season, is getting a major electrical and communications system overhaul, the likes of which potentially were going to take longer than the time window from post Columbus Day weekend to that weekend before Thanksgiving which is traditionally targeted now as their "weather permitting" opening date, and they want to have it ready for the ski season or #2 (no pun intended here ;) ) towards the end of last season, there were multiple issues with the sewer line from the Summit lodge as it headed down along the side of Little John towards the top of the Sundance Express, that both caused the closure of the Summit Lodge for a day or 2 every now and then as well as gave off a distinct odor in that area if the wind wasn't blowing at a good clip, and they may be addressing that, which would require Summit Lodge closure. Again, I have zero knowledge of the actual reason behind this change this year, just speculation based on what I have seen (and smelled) myself at the mountain this year.
Why then not pivoting to having the Grand Summit running as a scenic ride option? That has me leaning towards they might be doing some of that significant sewer line work affect the availability of water usage in the Summit Lodge, but again I am just guessing.
Communications wise, if it is indeed 1 or both things I mentioned, a simple thing like "We really hate that we won't be able to offer scenic rides to the Summit this year during foliage season, we love looking at the colors across the Green Mountains as much as you do, however, we had to make that tough choice right now, so that we can have things ready to go, weather permitting, for our tentative opening by Thanksgiving this year, and have our day to day operations as smooth as possible for this coming season...." That likely would of been received and understood better than that post on their social feeds yesterday
Whatever the actual reason(s) is/are, when I told my wife about no scenic rides this year, her answer was definitely in the "WTF?!?!" category, and and Inn Keeper up there that I am good friends with isn't happy as this was just dropped on them as well and he's now expecting that his booking levels will decrease a bit this leaf season as a result
slatham
Well at least there are nearby options at Stratton, Bromley and starting next weekend, Magic (to Sunshine Corner). Foliage is ahead of schedule but nowhere near peak. That said I’d not wait until Columbus/Indigenous day.
Beast Patroller
slatham;c-70234 wroteWell at least there are nearby options at Stratton, Bromley and starting next weekend, Magic (to Sunshine Corner). Foliage is ahead of schedule but nowhere near peak. That said I’d not wait until Columbus/Indigenous day.
You also have Berkshire East. They're running scenic chair lift rides every Fri. - Sun. until Oct. 26th and then weekends through Nov. 9th. Best part is they're only $10. not the $35. Mount Snow charges. They also have mountain biking thru Nov. 9th along with zip lining Fri. thru Mon. until Nov. 1st, and mountain coaster rides weekends thru Oct. 26th. There's also white water rafting and an aerial adventure park too.
ski_it
lotsoskiing
rickbolger
at the very end
Katz discussed in the earnings report. “… we are also aiming to elevate the individual brands of our resorts by tapping into the emotional connection guests have with our unique destinations,” he said. “We believe this is an important differentiator in a competitive landscape.”
Personally speaking, when equidistant Sunday River has 108 trails open and Wildcat has 3, 15 years of emotion beats 60 years.
NELSBEER
I noticed that Killington is shutting down the K-1 gondola about now as well. Maybe as they age they just need some TLC before the cold weather?
SUMMER & FALL FOLIAGE K-1 SCENIC GONDOLA RIDES
Scenic Gondola Rides have concluded for summer 2025.
lotsoskiing
NELSBEER;c-70425 wroteI noticed that Killington is shutting down the K-1 gondola about now as well. Maybe as they age they just need some TLC before the cold weather?
SUMMER & FALL FOLIAGE K-1 SCENIC GONDOLA RIDES
Scenic Gondola Rides have concluded for summer 2025.
Colors gone. Likely no market once leaves fall and MTB finished.
DrJeff
NELSBEER;c-70425 wroteI noticed that Killington is shutting down the K-1 gondola about now as well. Maybe as they age they just need some TLC before the cold weather?
SUMMER & FALL FOLIAGE K-1 SCENIC GONDOLA RIDES
Scenic Gondola Rides have concluded for summer 2025.
Historically, Columbus Day has been the last day of "Summer season" Ops for just about everyone in the industry. No big surprise from Killington with this. K-1 will (weather permitting) be spinning again in a few weeks (I'd say less, but the mid to longe range forecast models seem to not want to get enough potential cold in into the region for enough hours as of now to get things open until maybe Halloween time at best. Models can change though
Beast Patroller
What I got from this article is skiers & riders are starting to talk with their wallet's. Revenue may be up slightly (due to higher prices) but the real numbers are dropping. More and more people are tired of the way Vail is operating their areas and treating their employees & guest!
Beast Patroller
Yes it is! But, given Vail's track record of providing the "experience of a life time" it doesn't surprise me.
Bondman
Beast Patroller has it wrong. I have worked as a part time "front line employee" at two different Vail resorts. One in Vt. and one in Pa. EVERYBODY that I knew were quite happy with their employer. Well paid. Raise every year. Epic passes for the family. Big retail discount. Seems great to me. Company wide the retention rate is very high. Beast Patroller has no idea what he is talking about!!
ski_it
Rick, Day pass $increases. GAI says mid October. Another says Nov. The epicbot says Pass prices are subject to periodic increases throughout the season. The specific dates and prices for any increases will not be known until they are announced on Epicpass.com. We recommend keeping an eye on the site for updates.
And “Great, knowledge is power. You can ask me another question at any time.”
Oh how I hate this new reality….or is it really reality?
IIRC they went up after the Boston show, so mid Nov.
Won’t tell when sales stop. Guessing mid Dec. Right now 1 day w/blackouts are $128/103 (Akemo)/$64 or 150/115/74 no bo
Choose your poison well
