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Going to be EPIC lift lines at Epic pass resorts this year....

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
Vail has season pass sales increased 42% over the previous year, up 17% in actual sales dollars. This isn't really a surprise, given the low price of the Epic pass. Will this translate into more people and longer lines? Without a doubt.
 
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Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
Maybe not at Whistler. Covid health measures are different here in Canada and BC is not in good shape.
 

santacruz skier

Angel Diva
And no reservations.. yikes..
Tahoe resorts were just as crowded as ever even with reservations. I avoid weekends and holidays but with so many people WFH, the resorts were no different than usual. Maybe even more crowded.
 

newboots

Angel Diva
Yes, we had weekday crowding here in the East. Whole families, since the kids weren’t physically in school. I’m losing the perks of retirement!
 

Après Skier

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Yes, we had weekday crowding here in the East. Whole families, since the kids weren’t physically in school. I’m losing the perks of retirement!
Oh dear! The only place I’ve experienced mid-week crowding was at the premier “local” Los Angeles ski areas in Big Bear Lake, CA. Even before the pandemic started I often wondered, “Why aren’t these children in school?”

Skiing mid-week was always my secret weapons… crowded slopes make me nervous.
 

newboots

Angel Diva
Skiing mid-week was always my secret weapons… crowded slopes make me nervous.
You, me, and a whole lot of people who are either retired or have arranged their lives to accommodate weekday skiing.

The weekday early premium still works fairly well. Usually the hills I ski don’t get crowded until 10:30 or 11. It is also incentive to get better; not many amateurs on the more difficult trails!
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
Tahoe resorts were just as crowded as ever even with reservations. I avoid weekends and holidays but with so many people WFH, the resorts were no different than usual. Maybe even more crowded.

Was this due to capacity restrictions on lifts, or just sheer number of visitors? At Sunday Rivers the lines looked huge often last season, but it was definitely due to the capacity restrictions on said lifts. Not that it helps overall in your ski experience. However, if those capacity restrictions on lifts are gone this season it would hopefully make a difference for that part at least.

I’m not really concerned with weekdays. Though I might choose to stay at the condo on occasion and take advantage of some lunchtime runs. While Sunday River was more crowded on weekdays then usual last season, it wasn’t close to like a weekend or anything. While it’s certainly a perk to have quiet weekdays, it’s certainly never guaranteed (plenty of destination resorts are quite busy on weekdays, again not like weekends but not dead) and I think more people spending money at resorts can only be a good thing with everything that’s happened. Lots of things have and will continue to evolve in how people live and work post pandemic.. when we ever actually get to a post pandemic stage that is.

This is certainly a first world problem haha
 
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SallyCat

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I was going to buy a midweek Epic this year, but I held off because it was so crowded midweek last season. Right now I don't have a pass. I think I'm going to keep it that way, and just earn my turns at my local community hill. I need the exercise anyway, and big crowds just make skiing so unpleasant it's not worth it to me.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
For me it depends on the mountain, some space people out really well with their layouts, and some just don't. I feel lucky at Sunday River that we are spread out across 8 peaks. It's not often that you can't find a quiet spot to lap a lift when others are swarmed even on weekends (actually it's probably better on weekends in that regard because not every lift runs on weekdays), at least for part of the day. Last season I would do some laps at opening on essentially empty trails, then head to my seasonal program at 9:30 where we get to skip lines every Saturday and Sunday morning, get out at 12:30pm when everywhere had a little lunchtime lull, and then head to the quiet lifts for the afternoon where I would ski right on the lift for a couple of hours, even on a couple of powder days where it kept snowing for free refills until closing! It's a mountain you can work like that in your favor though, as long as you aren't set on always skiing the more popular lifts. Tree and bump trails are usually quite empty in general, so it's just a matter of handling the lift strategy to get to them.
 

RachelV

Administrator
Staff member
I ended up having dinner with some friends of friends a few months ago, one of whom was some kind of VP at Vail Resorts. I was initially very excited to actually talk to her about the ski industry, but it was pretty disappointing. She basically just parroted talking points from press releases, but also said that if you're a weekend skier at a VR owned resort this year, expect a complete sh*tshow. She must have already known that sales were up this much.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
I ended up having dinner with some friends of friends a few months ago, one of whom was some kind of VP at Vail Resorts. I was initially very excited to actually talk to her about the ski industry, but it was pretty disappointing. She basically just parroted talking points from press releases, but also said that if you're a weekend skier at a VR owned resort this year, expect a complete sh*tshow. She must have already known that sales were up this much.

Oooof that's horribly discouraging to hear. It's one thing for us to speculate on that very thing, but to hear it from someone that high up is pretty infuriating. They legitimately know they are going to wreak havoc on their weekend skiers, and isn't that the vast majority of skiers usually?? Eek. Even for that skier who only goes a few times per year, you are going to leave them with such a bad taste in their mouths and think it's like that everywhere. Are they going to buy a pass again after that? It seems so very short sighted to do business this way imo. Short term gains that may just push your customers away in the long term. How sad.. I guess you really do get what you pay for, and I sure hope they never acquire the mountains I ski!
 

RachelV

Administrator
Staff member
It was honestly such a disappointing interaction. I really do think that in an increasingly chaotic climate, the mega corps that can spread out geographic risk and supplement the skiing with lots of other assets / income streams are probably a huge part of keeping skiing viable for the rest of my lifetime. And there are upsides to cheap multi-mountain passes! But there are OBVIOUSLY also downsides, which was she was completely unwilling to engage at all. It was like talking to a VR marketing robot, when it would have been SO INTERESTING to talk to her about this stuff for real.

I almost wonder if VR has super strict policies around talking about any of this outside of work, because there is no way the level of discourse she was giving me is indicative of the level of sophistication they use to run their business.
 
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santacruz skier

Angel Diva
Was this due to capacity restrictions on lifts, or just sheer number of visitors
Good question. I actually think it might have been the sheer number of visitors from the Bay Area. Not necessarily travelers. Capacity restrictions on lifts definitely slowed things down, but usually at large Tahoe resorts the crowds spread out once up on the mountain, and I didn't notice that happening.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
It was honestly such a disappointing interaction. I really do think that in an increasingly chaotic climate, the mega corps that can spread out geographic risk and supplement the skiing with lots of other assets / income streams are probably a huge part of keeping skiing viable for the rest of my lifetime. But there are OBVIOUSLY also downsides, which was she was completely unwilling to engage at all. It was like talking to a VR marketing robot, when it would have been SO INTERESTING to talk to her about this stuff for real.

I almost wonder if VR has super strict policies around talking about any of this outside of work, because there is no way the level of discourse she was giving me is indicative of the level of analytical sophistication they use to run their business.

There is probably a lot she just can't discuss, especially at a VP level. I know that's the case where I work as a publicly traded company. Anything we aren't going to say in a press release, usually isn't supposed to be discussed outside.
 

Christy

Angel Diva
I almost wonder if VR has super strict policies around talking about any of this outside of work, because there is no way the level of discourse she was giving me is indicative of the level of analytical sophistication they use to run their business.

And maybe she has had unpleasant conversations with people when she tells them she works at VR, and wants to avoid that. :smile: I can imagine she might have been a target of people's complaints at social events.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
How does everyone feel about the no vaccination requirement for gondolas? It's freaking me out!

Mask, or vaccination? I can see being freaked out about masking in that regard, but I'm not sure anyone expects vaccination to be a requirement of riding a ski lift this winter.

I don't need to ride in a gondola at my home mountain though, so it doesn't affect me either way.
 

Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
How does everyone feel about the no vaccination requirement for gondolas? It's freaking me out!
I pretty sure you're still going to see mask mandates in BC, Ontario and Quebec. Right now, Alberta has gone back to masks. So that might stay for the winter too.

I know that no vaccine certificate in Ontario and Quebec will leave you sitting outside of any gathering place. Not sure what that means about washroom in some lodges.
 

Abbi

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
It was honestly such a disappointing interaction. I really do think that in an increasingly chaotic climate, the mega corps that can spread out geographic risk and supplement the skiing with lots of other assets / income streams are probably a huge part of keeping skiing viable for the rest of my lifetime. And there are upsides to cheap multi-mountain passes! But there are OBVIOUSLY also downsides, which was she was completely unwilling to engage at all. It was like talking to a VR marketing robot, when it would have been SO INTERESTING to talk to her about this stuff for real.

I almost wonder if VR has super strict policies around talking about any of this outside of work, because there is no way the level of discourse she was giving me is indicative of the level of sophistication they use to run their business.

Either corporate directive or a desire not to have to defend what she may or may not believe in! I’m sure she has felt trapped more than a few times with a laundry list of “what about ….” questions.
 

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