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Interesting NY Times Article

newboots

Angel Diva
Looks like the author tracked down a few divas and snagged interviews!
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
I've actually been a diva for a few years :wink:
Was good to meet you at Big Sky! You are definitely adventurous to drive solo from JH to Big Sky.

I'm not likely to get as many days on Ikon this season since I won't be skiing in the northeast. But should still get about 20 days. Decided on another approach for the days at Alta. Will be using the Indy Pass for exploring in the southeast (NC, VA) since now my daughter is in college in the NC mountains.
 

SnowHot

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
@teppaz did a great job on the article. We've been talking about the pass products for a while and how they impact groups like ours when we plan our annual gatherings.
It was quite the logistical process to get the NYT photographer (Lynn Donaldson) lined up just right to take the picture of us on the lift.
Man we had great snow that week. Elisabeth didn't want to leave all that snow.
75602749_10162295592250018_526631216045096960_n.jpg
 

teppaz

Angel Diva
@teppaz did a great job on the article. We've been talking about the pass products for a while and how they impact groups like ours when we plan our annual gatherings.
It was quite the logistical process to get the NYT photographer (Lynn Donaldson) lined up just right to take the picture of us on the lift.
Man we had great snow that week. Elisabeth didn't want to leave all that snow.
75602749_10162295592250018_526631216045096960_n.jpg
The logistics of that shot were pretty funny. We didn't plan the outfits' colors but they look great together, and Lynn did an awesome job.
 

SnowHot

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
The logistics of that shot were pretty funny. We didn't plan the outfits' colors but they look great together, and Lynn did an awesome job.
Maybe YOU didn't plan the colors but we did. :smile:
We do enough photo shoots for ski testing that we tend to strategize for visibility
 

SnowHot

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
The logistics of that shot were pretty funny. We didn't plan the outfits' colors but they look great together, and Lynn did an awesome job.
Maybe YOU didn't plan the colors but we did. :smile:
We do enough photo shoots for ski testing that we tend to strategize for visibility
Just thinking about this again, I remember thinking that the guys wearing black needed to frame the color, so we put them on the ends.
And yes, Lynn did a great job of getting the shot.
 

dloveski

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Good article. After 50 years of skiing, I sprung for an Ikon pass, mainly as I'm planning to be at JH. It's controversial around here with some local Utahns, as BCC and LCC canyons are experiencing crowds beyond their capacity to manage them and what used to be a 15 minute drive up the canyon to Brighton can take 2 hours when some yoyo slides off.

I do worry that I will miss my Brighton-centric focus: my locker, seeing so many/friends/family whenever I ski. (sort of like "Cheers" where everone knows your name).

That said, I will use the pass at JH, Big Sky, and other local resorts.
 

SnowHot

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Good article. After 50 years of skiing, I sprung for an Ikon pass, mainly as I'm planning to be at JH. It's controversial around here with some local Utahns, as BCC and LCC canyons are experiencing crowds beyond their capacity to manage them and what used to be a 15 minute drive up the canyon to Brighton can take 2 hours when some yoyo slides off.

I do worry that I will miss my Brighton-centric focus: my locker, seeing so many/friends/family whenever I ski. (sort of like "Cheers" where everone knows your name).

That said, I will use the pass at JH, Big Sky, and other local resorts.
I really think that Alterra is doing a much better job at creating a multi resort pass product that doesn't overwhelm than the Epic product, but only time will tell.

One thought came to mind with @ski diva... Since you're home mountain is Okemo and you're on the Epic pass, will you be visiting other Epic resorts more?
 

teppaz

Angel Diva
Good article. After 50 years of skiing, I sprung for an Ikon pass, mainly as I'm planning to be at JH. It's controversial around here with some local Utahns, as BCC and LCC canyons are experiencing crowds beyond their capacity to manage them and what used to be a 15 minute drive up the canyon to Brighton can take 2 hours when some yoyo slides off.

I do worry that I will miss my Brighton-centric focus: my locker, seeing so many/friends/family whenever I ski. (sort of like "Cheers" where everone knows your name).

That said, I will use the pass at JH, Big Sky, and other local resorts.
I agree the traffic on BCC and LCC roads was hideous last season, and overall there's been a lot of grumbling from locals that passholders were creating crowd issues. But I've talked to quite a few resorts about this and they all say that they'd seen increased visits from locals (who often have, let's not forget, either season or multi-resort passes). The real issue was a banner year for snow, compounded by the increased popularity of apps like OpenSnow, which encourage powder frenzy. I'd bet that locals check OpenSnow and rush up the mountain in greater numbers when there's a chance for powder — but I don't see anybody putting up stickers complaining about OpenSnow! (I use it too, by the way.)
 

SnowHot

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I agree the traffic on BCC and LCC roads was hideous last season, and overall there's been a lot of grumbling from locals that passholders were creating crowd issues. But I've talked to quite a few resorts about this and they all say that they'd seen increased visits from locals (who often have, let's not forget, either season or multi-resort passes). The real issue was a banner year for snow, compounded by the increased popularity of apps like OpenSnow, which encourage powder frenzy. I'd bet that locals check OpenSnow and rush up the mountain in greater numbers when there's a chance for powder — but I don't see anybody putting up stickers complaining about OpenSnow! (I use it too, by the way.)
Agree with this.
As I stated on PS a few weeks ago, many are touting the 2018-19 high traffic and resort crowding as a new trend, but one year of having three major multi-resort passes (Epic, IKON, and Mountain Collective) doesn't show the results of a trend.

After being on the road for 5 weeks, covering IKON and Epic locations in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, I was told by many of the Tahoe locals how much amazing snow I missed.
The reality is, I didn't miss the amazing snow because it was everywhere I skied. No matter the region we skied, the snow was amazing, the traffic was horrible and the crowds were out in mass.

The other indicator I have been noticing is how many days on snow many of our friends and associates skied last year in comparison to other years.
Did the multi resort passes make it easier to get more days for less $? Possibly
Did the banner snow year get people excited to get out and ski more? Absolutely. Many of whom skied into the summer months.
 

Christy

Angel Diva
Don't forget the massive growth of western cities, plus the booming travel industry. SLC/Utah has been one of the fastest growing places in the US, yes? And people are traveling like crazy--so many places are over capacity. Combine that with a great snow year and passes that make skiing less expensive and encourage travel, and you are going to have crowded slopes.

As I ski Crystal this year, it will be hard to sort out if any increased crowds are due to IKON, or the bazillion new people that have moved here. It might be easier to blame Epic if I find Sun Valley more crowded in early January than usual as that is not a very populous or rapidly growing area.

It would be interesting to see visitor numbers/percent increase for resorts on multi passes, and those that aren't.
 

SnowHot

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Don't forget the massive growth of western cities, plus the booming travel industry. SLC/Utah has been one of the fastest growing places in the US, yes? And people are traveling like crazy--so many places are over capacity. Combine that with a great snow year and passes that make skiing less expensive and encourage travel, and you are going to have crowded slopes.

As I ski Crystal this year, it will be hard to sort out if any increased crowds are due to IKON, or the bazillion new people that have moved here. It might be easier to blame Epic if I find Sun Valley more crowded in early January than usual as that is not a very populous or rapidly growing area.

It would be interesting to see visitor numbers/percent increase for resorts on multi passes, and those that aren't.
Several new developments have been built or are being built right now around Reno because its growing so incredibly fast, being 7 miles from the California border and 30 minutes from places like Squaw, Northstar, MT Rose...
Add the incentives for people from California to move to Nevada for economic reasons and the Tahoe region is booming, much like other western regions, as you noted.

A few years ago I recall a big move from SF to Portland if you were working in the tech industry. I wonder how that has impacted the PNW?
 

Christy

Angel Diva
@SnowHot I'm not exactly sure what SF>Portland move you are talking about, but while Portland is growing it isn't growing all that fast compared to other cities, and doesn't have that big a share of the tech jobs (maybe you saw this recent article https://www.wsj.com/articles/five-c...f-growth-in-tech-jobs-study-finds-11575867660 that shows nearly all the tech jobs are going to Seattle, SF, San Jose, San Diego and Boston). Still, they are gaining new people so I'm sure that does affect their ski areas.
 

SnowHot

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
@SnowHot I'm not exactly sure what SF>Portland move you are talking about, but while Portland is growing it isn't growing all that fast compared to other cities, and doesn't have that big a share of the tech jobs (maybe you saw this recent article https://www.wsj.com/articles/five-c...f-growth-in-tech-jobs-study-finds-11575867660 that shows nearly all the tech jobs are going to Seattle, SF, San Jose, San Diego and Boston). Still, they are gaining new people so I'm sure that does affect their ski areas.
Hmmmm, that's great information.
I know of three people who moved from SF to Portland for tech jobs. But then I know far more who've been moving to Seattle.
(this is an interesting thread drift)
 

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