Vail Fail 2025/2026

lotsoskiing

Beast Patroller;c-70837 wrote
rickbolger;c-70825 wrote
Respectfully disagree! Pete Seibert was born in Sharon MA -- which according to wikipedia is part of "Greater Boston" (aka Beantown)

I don't understand what Pete Seibert or Sharon MA has to do with Vail??

[/quote]

Founded Vail

Beast Patroller

Thanks, now I understand! We certainly can't blame Pete for the current state of affairs with Vail though.

rickbolger

Vail Resorts Inc. (NYSE: MTN) went public in 1997 after it was taken over by Apollo Global Management, then under the direction of Leon Black and Tony Ressler. Black obtained his MBA from Harvard University; surely Cambridge is regarded as part of Greater Boston. Ressler is married to actress Jamie Gertz, who had a recurring role in the television show Ally McBeal, which I'm told was set in a fictional Boston law firm.

;)

powderstud

rickbolger;c-70849 wroteVail Resorts Inc. (NYSE: MTN) went public in 1997 after it was taken over by Apollo Global Management, then under the direction of Leon Black and Tony Ressler. Black obtained his MBA from Harvard University...

Leon Black is also the billionaire financier who was a good friend of Jeffrey Epstein, who paid Epstein $170+ million for "tax and estate advice" <cough> <cough> over a 5-year period. After being pushed out of Apollo by his fellow snake co-founders, he's been in and out of courtrooms fighting against former paramours, a teenager who claimed she was raped by him, etc. He also paid $62.5 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands government to settle an investigation into his dealings with Epstein. And he also paid....

lotsoskiing

powderstud;c-70850 wrote
rickbolger;c-70849 wroteVail Resorts Inc. (NYSE: MTN) went public in 1997 after it was taken over by Apollo Global Management, then under the direction of Leon Black and Tony Ressler. Black obtained his MBA from Harvard University...
Leon Black is also the billionaire financier who was a good friend of Jeffrey Epstein, who paid Epstein $170+ million for "tax and estate advice" <cough> <cough> over a 5-year period. After being pushed out of Apollo by his fellow snake co-founders, he's been in and out of courtrooms fighting against former paramours, a teenager who claimed she was raped by him, etc. He also paid $62.5 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands government to settle an investigation into his dealings with Epstein. And he also paid....

Wonderful. To be rich and a scumbag...makes me dislike Vail even more

ski_it

lotsoskiing;c-70851 wrote Wonderful. To be rich and a scumbag...makes me dislike Vail even more

and that’s surprising how?

lotsoskiing

ski_it;c-70858 wrote
lotsoskiing;c-70851 wrote Wonderful. To be rich and a scumbag...makes me dislike Vail even more
and that’s surprising how?

Am not surprised.

powderstud

There's a great article waiting to be written about how the private equity industry has greatly damaged the ski industry and the ski experience (along with virtually every other industry they've touched).

But hey, at the end of the day that's what PE firms like Apollo, Blackstone, KKR, etc. all do - they load up the target companies with debt (Apollo got control of Vail by acquiring the company's debt for pennies on the dollar, and then ultimately took control of the company and pushed out the previous leadership), squeeze the companies dry once they have control by taking out enormous amounts of cash that most businesses can't support indefinitely (and the companies resultingly jack up prices for customers, squeeze employees, trade creditors, etc.), hack off pieces of the company and sell them off to further line their own pockets, and then often leave the companies' corpses in bankruptcy.

The fact is, the overall cost of skiing for us has gone way up during PE's activities.

NewEnglandSkier13

How is snowmaking coming along at Crotched? I don't see any opening day announcements or snowmaking photos/progress updates.

joshua_segal

Crotched is scheduled to open on Friday the-12th. Details about snow making are beyond my pay grade, but they have the.capability to open 3-t2b’s in 36 hours.

tedede

Guns are running now.

Where are you skiing this weekend Sam?

NewEnglandSkier13

tedede;c-70884 wroteGuns are running now.

Where are you skiing this weekend Sam?

I'll probably Nordic ski tomorrow and Friday in Kingfield and Wilton. However, I get the feeling that you don't actually care.

Quietman

With a planned opening on 12/12 as Joshua stated, and with the low refresh rate for the pond from the drought and recent cold weather, makes a lot more sense to wait for optimal temps to make the most of the available H2O. Sounds like good judgement to me. If you can't wait to ski in the area, Sunapee will be open this Friday.

NELSBEER

Crotched's guns started up at about 7 pm on Wednesday Night & have been running continuously since then. A new 2400gpm supply pump is keeping the snowmaking pond reasonably full. Expect the guns to run while the cold continues or until water runs low.

The early season trails will be the usual....
Moonwalk to Galaxy to lower Meteor.
Satellite Summit to Meteor.
At least part of Magnitude, lower Blast off & Big Dipper
Magic Carpet slope.
Maybe more? there's time, water is the limiting factor.

They have been running the Rocket for snowmakers round the clock & the new lights have been on at night. From the road CM looks open, but sorry, it isn't!

NO UPHILL TRAFFIC signs are posted. Reasonable considering no grooming has been done and the 9-10" of natural cover from Tuesday night isn't adequate to cover rough trails.

First day is scheduled for Friday the 12th... but the schedule shows early season hours of 9am to 4pm until December 16th

ski_it

NELSBEER;c-70922 wroteCrotched's guns started up at about 7 pm on Wednesday Night & have been running continuously since

IMHO wrong thread. But seriously, that sounds great and I hope you enjoy another great season!

tedede

ski_it;c-70935 wroteBut seriously, that sounds great and I hope you enjoy another great season!

LOL, wrong thread :)

Seriously, thank you. We may be owned by Vail, but it's still the same ragtag set of misfits that reopened my favorite ski area that make it special.

obienick

If 2400 gpm is keeping the pond full, that doesn’t sound like they’re cranking a lot of snow. Can’t they pump 6000 gpm?

joshua_segal

obienick;c-70949 wroteIf 2400 gpm is keeping the pond full, that doesn’t sound like they’re cranking a lot of snow. Can’t they pump 6000 gpm?

It’s not keeping the pond full. As of a couple of days ago, the pond was a couple of feet below the batter boards.

NELSBEER

The way it works is... Starting with 2 full ponds you can run 4 or 5 snowmaking pumps continuously while refilling from the lower pond with the new pump. By the third day both ponds are sucked equally low.

Crotched has 6 snowmaking pumps but virtually never uses them all at the same time due to electricity supply & cost concerns.

3 or 4 pumps are used at a time more commonly. During the season electricity supply is finite, snow comes after running lifts. There are staff limitations as well much of the time.

Beast Patroller

Looks like once again Wildcat has the typical issue with the lack of snowmaking. Vail claims “upgrades” there but none of them actual improves the skiing or riding experience. Vail is guilty of the same thing at Mount Snow too! Peaks Resort invested millions into the West Lake project and created one of if not the biggest & most powerful snowmaking systems in the north east and Vail hasn’t utilized its potential once since they bought out Peaks. Take a look at Carinthia and the Nitro lift in particular. It took them weeks to open that lift because instead of blowing & opening Upper & Lower Fools Gold or Mine Shaft to Inferno first they focused on their monstrous features on Nitro. Another trail that rarely opens is Rip Cord! Understandably it a hard trail to hold snow on but in years past it would always get opened at some point.

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