contesstant
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
It is my understanding that Snowbasin gives lifties a cash incentive to catch pass cheaters. I have heard them ask for birthdates when scanning so there must be some truth to this. Good!
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Ikon/Epic and the effect on skiing article
- Thread starter Jenny
- Start date
KayOss
Certified Ski Diva
And @MissySki : I ski out West: Mammoth, Solitude, Snowbird and AZ Snowbowl. While I’ve seen a few people with their pass visible, but most (including myself) have them in a “pass pocket” where the photo is not seen. I love to ski and it’s a big deal and a privilege to me when I’m on the snow - I hate seeing it become a chaotic zoo from the parking, ridiculous lift lines and $$$$$ food prices.
marzNC
Angel Diva
What has been noted is that the photo appears on the tablet used by a liftie, along with basic info such as birthdate. That's why sometimes a person might be asked for a birthdate in addition to a name. I've seen people asked to raise their goggles and pull down whatever covering they are using to keep their face warm.
When I was at Beaver Creek last month, people were using the Bluetooth My Epic App for their pass. A few times a liftie would ask to confirm that the name that showed up on their hand scanner was correct. Not sure if they also see a photo since the screen on the hand scanners are not that big.
MissySki
Angel Diva
I believe they show up on the hand scanners too, at least some of them. Last week one of our lifts was still using hand scanners after the storms we had last month.. and I saw my face pop up on the screen.
I bought a 4 day Epic pass in the spring for the first time and took advantage of paying $49 down with the $326 balance due in September. I thought that the Epic pass was a great deal based on what I'd paid the last time we skied. Then shortly before my trip last week my college aged daughters decided to join me and my brother because flights from Houston to Denver were surprisingly cheap (RT $215) and we had room in the condo. Initially they said they didn't want to ski then the week before the trip they both said they'd like to try it again. I checked online for 2 day lift tickets at Breckenridge and it said they were limited per day so I had to enter the date of arrival. I couldn't believe the price: a 2-day ticket for $530! More than $250 for one day for one person just to get on the mountain! The girls quickly said they didn't need to ski and thankfully didn't seem too disappointed. The next day I read that article and understood many of the points it made.
Based on the high price and the statement on the website that single day tickets were "limited," I anticipated that we were arriving on a day the resort thought would be very crowded. It was not at all. Our entire 4 day trip we rarely waited for a lift. We usually skied right up to the front of the line and sometimes we were the only 2 on a 6 person lift with empty chairs in between us and other groups. Selling lift tickets to last minute buyers at a lower wouldn't have caused overcrowding on those days but without a reservation system and with so many pass holders the resort didn't know that. I guess they have to assume a lot of pass holders will show up on any given day. I don't know if the resorts are using high prices for daily tickets to keep crowds low or to take advantage of last minute buyers desperate to ski. If it's the former then it seems like a reservation system could address several of the complaints associated with the Epic pass.
Based on the high price and the statement on the website that single day tickets were "limited," I anticipated that we were arriving on a day the resort thought would be very crowded. It was not at all. Our entire 4 day trip we rarely waited for a lift. We usually skied right up to the front of the line and sometimes we were the only 2 on a 6 person lift with empty chairs in between us and other groups. Selling lift tickets to last minute buyers at a lower wouldn't have caused overcrowding on those days but without a reservation system and with so many pass holders the resort didn't know that. I guess they have to assume a lot of pass holders will show up on any given day. I don't know if the resorts are using high prices for daily tickets to keep crowds low or to take advantage of last minute buyers desperate to ski. If it's the former then it seems like a reservation system could address several of the complaints associated with the Epic pass.
floatingyardsale
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
High prices for daily tickets make paying for a pass look like a better deal, which smooths out their income stream. It's not a bad model, from a business standpoint.
contesstant
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Truth. They get their money up-front so aren't reliant on the fickle weather.
snoWYmonkey
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Just heard from an industry insider that there were 1 million ikon passes sold this season. Plus the likely 2.5 plus epic passes.
kkclimb
Certified Ski Diva
I was asked my birth date two out of three days skiing Alta this past December. They may be stepping up this practice because I'd not been asked before and this is my fifth year on an Ikon pass.
contesstant
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
On that note, there were two young men with women's passes on their helmets in line yesterday. While Alice can be a guy's name (rare) the picture was NOT of a guy named Alice. So, failure by Snowbasin there!
MissySki
Angel Diva
I’m not sure this is the right thread for it.. but it related to crowding and bad behavior on snow, which is a common theme in this discussion so I figured I’d try here.
Does anyone else get randomly sucked into Reels on Facebook and Instagram? They do a good job of having endless content for activities you are interested in, like skiing. Or maybe “good” isn’t the right word as it can turn into a total time suck. There tends to be trends you see within genres too, where people are posting similar sorts of things for a while before it moves to something new. I have found yesterday and today, a disturbing number of videos of collisions being posted with the caption being something like “who was at fault?” and then an even more disturbing discussion ensues in the comment section showing the very many skiers/snowboarders who have no understanding of the skier code and actively argue at times for the person who was blatantly responsible for the incident.
My question is, if you have seen them.. do you think people are just randomly capturing their collisions on video and deciding to post them? Or do you think that they could be purposely causing them to have the specific content to post? Some have been outrageous to me, where I literally cannot understand how it could happen unless they were purposely looking to do so. Anyway, hopefully that is just me being cynical.. but the amount popping up suddenly has left me very bewildered about it and really hoping it's not actually some stupid social media trend. Most I’ve seen so far have been posted by young male snowboarders with a selfie stick, and usually the hit to the skier or snowboarder is directly from behind. Though some are kind of from the side and actually look more accidental where people were both trying to turn in the same place at the same time and were oblivious to the other.
Does anyone else get randomly sucked into Reels on Facebook and Instagram? They do a good job of having endless content for activities you are interested in, like skiing. Or maybe “good” isn’t the right word as it can turn into a total time suck. There tends to be trends you see within genres too, where people are posting similar sorts of things for a while before it moves to something new. I have found yesterday and today, a disturbing number of videos of collisions being posted with the caption being something like “who was at fault?” and then an even more disturbing discussion ensues in the comment section showing the very many skiers/snowboarders who have no understanding of the skier code and actively argue at times for the person who was blatantly responsible for the incident.
My question is, if you have seen them.. do you think people are just randomly capturing their collisions on video and deciding to post them? Or do you think that they could be purposely causing them to have the specific content to post? Some have been outrageous to me, where I literally cannot understand how it could happen unless they were purposely looking to do so. Anyway, hopefully that is just me being cynical.. but the amount popping up suddenly has left me very bewildered about it and really hoping it's not actually some stupid social media trend. Most I’ve seen so far have been posted by young male snowboarders with a selfie stick, and usually the hit to the skier or snowboarder is directly from behind. Though some are kind of from the side and actually look more accidental where people were both trying to turn in the same place at the same time and were oblivious to the other.
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