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***Ski Season 2024-25***

87,416 Views | 1111 Replies | Last: 1 day ago by tamc93
Bayou City
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https://www.parkrecord.com/2025/01/03/park-city-mountain-opens-friday-at-23-heres-what-customers-think/
"I've lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which have actually happened."

Mark Twain
RangerRick9211
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GFS or Euro models: https://www.pivotalweather.com/model.php?p=sfct-imp
Yesterday
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Bayou City said:

https://www.parkrecord.com/2025/01/03/park-city-mountain-opens-friday-at-23-heres-what-customers-think/


First day on Canyons side for us today. Initial base line was about 15 minutes but that was roughly the same as last year. The big difference was the mid mountain lifts. They were all roughly 15 minutes when at most we waited 5 last year.

Snow was good. Lots of coverage and they opened some black terrain. All of the blue runs we wanted were open and good to go. Green family area was swamped.

So for a family that cruises blues it was not ideal but wasn't terrible either. Actually a lot better than what I was preparing my family for.

I did overhear a few groups complaining and talking about how they're going to Canada next year. My personal opinion which isn't worth much, Vail resorts is not hurting enough to cave to the ski patrol demands. But again I don't know *****

Kids had a great time.
rather be fishing
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72 year old snowboarder died in a tree well at Schweitzer earlier this week.

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2025/jan/03/coroner-identifies-72-year-old-snowboarder-who-die/
aggiesed8r
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Been skiing and driving to colorado for 30 years. Ice,snow, wind, rain, hail. Never used chains. Ever. We have 4wd, but that doesnt keep you from slipping.
ChoppinDs40
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Main thing about ice is to think about yourself walking on ice. You want your inertia and COG directly over your feet.

Similar for tires and contact with the ice. Faster you're going, the more out over your skates you are. Don't find yourself in position to NEED to brake. And always be thinking about your exit plan if SHTF.

Also, throttle steer and learn how to steer in a fishtail.

I've been in absolute blizzards on I25 north of Raton and 9 south of Breck. Scary stuff.

The worst is where it's windy and very likely to just have sheets of ice since snow has blown off. IE, panhandle and i25 wind corridor near the Wahatoyas
BigNastyNate
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We left Winter Park yesterday January 2nd at about 3:30 am. Snow had been falling heavy for hours and was coming down thick and it was windy. Talk about white knuckling it!

Finally cleared up after the tunnel just past Idaho Springs. Crept down the pass at about 20 mph in a 4wd XL Denali with new tires.
ChoppinDs40
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BigNastyNate said:

We left Winter Park yesterday January 2nd at about 3:30 am. Snow had been falling heavy for hours and was coming down thick and it was windy. Talk about white knuckling it!

Finally cleared up after the tunnel just past Idaho Springs. Crept down the pass at about 20 mph in a 4wd XL Denali with new tires.


Sounds like us

That trip up and over Berthoud can be gnarly.
Furlock Bones
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Vail Resorts putting on a masterclass in what not to do.
KaneIsAble
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Furlock Bones said:

Vail Resorts putting on a masterclass in what not to do.


That happened? Got back from Breck a couple of days ago and it was awesome even with the crazy snow we got.
Bayou City
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Actually as someone that was ski patrol for Vail for Years, they're actually holding out FAR better than expected. They knew this was in the mix so they had personal on call to cover the bare mnimum needed to operate. I know Vail & BC like the back of my hand as a 39 year local and I'll be the first to admit that Vail has knocked it out of the park this far. Not sure if you were seriously calling them out for mismanegment or if you have little to no work experience in Mountain Ops/SP, but to imply they haven't been above board about the entire situation and remedied most of the Client facing activities to the point the average Guest wouldn't know what was up without already knowing it shows little working knowledge or history in the industry. Losing SP and mountain OPS the week of Christmas through New Years during the busiest part of the season for their 3rd largest Revenue Stream by mountain OPS hill speaks volumes about how well they have handled it this far. Not only that but they had somewhere like 65-35 are putting the blame on the ski patrol unin and not MTN shows how well they implemented their chinese box strategy.
"I've lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which have actually happened."

Mark Twain
Yesterday
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KaneIsAble said:

Furlock Bones said:

Vail Resorts putting on a masterclass in what not to do.


That happened? Got back from Breck a couple of days ago and it was awesome even with the crazy snow we got.


Ski Patrol at Park City (vail resort) went on strike claiming lack of pay/benefits. Vail has held out by bringing in ski patrol from other resorts around the country.

The lack of ski patrol has delayed a lot of Park City from opening new terrain which has funneled everyone into the open terrain which inevitably makes the lines longer and the open hills busier.

I don't have a dog in the fight. Just an amateur skier trying to get some runs in with the kiddos.
Furlock Bones
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lol.everyone is blaming vail. They lied to the customers for 3 days before owning up to it.
Bayou City
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How so??? You must know more than anyone I know on the hill and I know every one of the SP captains for PCCR.

Great troll bait but no dice. You clearly know next to nothing about the dynamics of how Mountain Ops / SP function but that's cool. Everyones entitled to their opinin regardless of how uninformed it may be. God Bless America.
Furlock Bones
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Ok buddy.
JFABNRGR
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Furlock Bones said:

Vail Resorts putting on a masterclass in what not to do.


This couldn't be worse than covid. Severely limiting pass sales, mask police everywhere up in the ski area, loading every third chair and wait for it……you could ski right down to an indoor restaurant, sit down together with a dozen people and you guessed it WITHOUT your mask.
LRHF
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Lots of noise on the is thread lately…. I trust Bayou City over all!
Aggie_Boomin 21
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You can't possibly think that 2/3 of people are on Vail's side. There were already such a hated corporation. I'm not really sure this even matters as people likely aren't changing their behavior en masse over it, but I don't believe it for a second.

Not saying they're otherwise handling it bad operations wise, I'm ignorant on that, and I'm sure they laugh all the way to the bank with the hate they get, but the public that is aware of their strike is not on their side.

I don't even fall into the "**** vail" category, have had an epic pass for 4 years in a row and this strike won't change my actions or feelings toward them really at all, but what would lead you to believe people are on the side of Vail Resorts?
HUEY04
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I'm headed to Park City on Tuesday and am way more annoyed with the ski patrollers striking than Vail. I'd much rather deal with one trip with terrain not opened than skyrocketing prices across the board for years to come. There are thousands of
able ski bums out there willing to work as patrol for the going wage, I don't expect Vail to cave and overpay just because of one strike.
Aggie_Boomin 21
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The prices without a season pass are skyrocketing regardless of this. Do you know what the ski patrol demands are?

If they're able to find ski patrol that is willing to work for the current wages it sounds like they should just hire them.
Yesterday
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Aggie_Boomin 21 said:

The prices without a season pass are skyrocketing regardless of this. Do you know what the ski patrol demands are?

If they're able to find ski patrol that is willing to work for the current wages it sounds like they should just hire them.


That's not how labor laws work unfortunately. Vail could hire replacements but would then have to fire them to reinstate the striking workers. There are quirks and grey areas to every strike but that's the gist of it.

I think I read Vail will have to spend an extra 1 million per year just on ski patrol to meet the demand. They're also worried about other resorts following suit if they cave. Also read they turn down 90% of ski patrol applicants every year. So other than making it a big pain to do business during the busiest time of the hear, the ski patrol doesn't have a lot of leverage.

Aggie_Boomin 21
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Yesterday said:

Aggie_Boomin 21 said:

The prices without a season pass are skyrocketing regardless of this. Do you know what the ski patrol demands are?

If they're able to find ski patrol that is willing to work for the current wages it sounds like they should just hire them.


That's not how labor laws work unfortunately. Vail could hire replacements but would then have to fire them to reinstate the striking workers. There are quirks and grey areas to every strike but that's the gist of it.

I think I read Vail will have to spend an extra 1 million per year just on ski patrol to meet the demand. They're also worried about other resorts following suit if they cave. Also read they turn down 90% of ski patrol applicants every year. So other than making it a big pain to do business during the busiest time of the hear, the ski patrol doesn't have a lot of leverage.



Interesting didn't know that first part. They're requesting a starting pay raise of 9.5%, total dollar amount I saw for year was $900,000 (not trying to be pedantic but that is a significant difference to $1 mil when looking at raise % ask). There's at least a few other resorts in Utah that already pay more and don't have more expensive lift tickets.
Again, I have no skin in this, don't ultimately care what they do, just challenging the idea that the public is on Vail Resort's side since they pretty much weren't before this.
ChoppinDs40
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Aggie_Boomin 21 said:

The prices without a season pass are skyrocketing regardless of this. Do you know what the ski patrol demands are?

If they're able to find ski patrol that is willing to work for the current wages it sounds like they should just hire them.


I agree with this.

These are people with an elite skill set that save lives. Now, I'm against unions overall as I think they're archaic and unnecessary in today's economy but Vail knows what they're doing being PE owned.

This strike will have to last the ENTIRE season and then some.

The only way Vail feels it is the pocket book. And right now, they know every single metric imaginable. Epic pass renewals, food and bev sales, ticket scans, parking, etc.

Their analyst modelers have had this scenario built for for weeks. X price increase for eternity to ski patrol or a one-season (hopefully) drop in volume.

Truth is, most super nice mountains in North America make their money off one-time a year folks.

Go to Vail, BC, etc and English is the 3rd language spoken. Wealthy South Americans and euros flock to the MEGA mountains of Vail resorts and drop $30k plus on a week for their entire ******* clan. This is the money they make.

They don't care about your epic pass that you bought in April for 50% off. That's just money to keep the lights on and they KNOW ain't nobody (locals in particular) gonna cancel that pass next year for a strike.

So, what's the risk? Wealthy family that drops $10k plus a year on a trip doesn't come back? HAHA LOL got you suckahz. We own all of these resorts. And now you know why anti-trust should somewhat come into play (IMO).

Edit to add. There's plenty of you on this board that remember when s top notch resort lift ticket was barely above $125. Sheit, I remember walk ups at Beaver Creek in 2018 were $149 and I was AMAZED. Paying over $100 was asinine at the time.

Now? Walk ups to those places are $275. Winter Park is $230 now. We skied that for $60 when I was a kid and I'm not that old.

The change? Private equity and recurring revenue. Lock you in, get your cash, measure and track traffic from pass holders, jack up prices to everyone else that has ~3 weeks a year to travel with family and PROFIT.
Aggie_Boomin 21
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Walk up for on a weekend at the most expensive Vail Resort owned properties (including Park City) is well over $300 for the day now for adult ticket.

Curious at this point to see the cost they'll find to be the apex.
ChoppinDs40
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Reinforces my point. I thought I saw Vail was over $300 last year.

I've got some "ski light" friends in texas and when I ask "hey, planning a ski trip for 2025" in august, they think I'm nuts but it's the only way you can do it for less than $500/per day/ person.


I'm convinced Vail ownership wants their mountains to be only accessible by 3 groups of folks; 1) locals that buy passes and won't show up on weekends because of crowds, 2) top 2% of American income earners that can throw down thousands a day for an athletic, cold, bet on the weather, sport. And 3) wealthy foreigners that don't give a **** because they've got money to burn and want to film every second of their American vacation on their obnoxious iPhone.

Point 3 is more obvious to me as I just spent the last 3 days at Disney. At times, I was completely surrounded by non-English speaking families, throwing down bookoos of cash on stupid ***** Same people you see yelling in Spanish as they tear ass down a green wearing their gear they purchased at the mountain base apparel shop.
Charismatic Megafauna
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ChoppinDs40 said:

Vail knows what they're doing being PE owned.


Vail is a public company $MTN
Bayou City
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$500 dollars a day? I'm sorry but that's INSANE. Demo rentals from our shop are $82. At $329 non-discounted walk up rate and rentals you're at $411. Maybe you're adding parking and lunch? I'm just being real that $500 a day means you're Over paying BIG TIME.
Bayou City
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When I was on SP, we saw BY FAR the most speed and control violations by Texan based passes. Texan skiers were almost equal to the rest of the states probably combined. So yeah for every out of control Spanish speaking king dick, you got about 5-6 Texans doing the same thing.

I'd take a Spanish speaking skier in matching Spyder ANYDAY over ANYONE riding in a DOPE jacket. Thats a hella red flag for "I Watch **** on YouTube FB and Instagram and as such now I'm an expert" level skier.
evan_aggie
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Appreciate you my dude. Still planning March SB skiing for PCCR. I hope they've got both snow and the staff needed. I can still pivot to Alta, SB, Brighton etc.
Bayou City
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Vail hasn't been PE owned since apollo sold their class A shares that allowed them to elect 2/3 of the Board even though they only controlled 17-18% of the common. They converted and distributed those class A shares in late 2004.
Yesterday
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evan_aggie said:

Appreciate you my dude. Still planning March SB skiing for PCCR. I hope they've got both snow and the staff needed. I can still pivot to Alta, SB, Brighton etc.


They haven't gotten quite a bit of snow the past 10 days. I don't see a world where most if not all of PC isn't open by spring break.
Bayou City
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I love when the solution to a ski problem includes Alta Solutide and Snowbasin. What an excellent array of potencial pivots.
ChoppinDs40
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Bayou City said:

$500 dollars a day? I'm sorry but that's INSANE. Demo rentals from our shop are $82. At $329 non-discounted walk up rate and rentals you're at $411. Maybe you're adding parking and lunch? I'm just being real that $500 a day means you're Over paying BIG TIME.


I'm talking lodging, food, all in.

We're doing 6 nights and skiing 4 days at spring break. 2 days lessons for my 5 year old.

I've got free rentals for her and we have our own gear.

Just lodging and lift tickets alone is right at $4k but that's splitting a nice little townhouse with my folks 50/50.
ChoppinDs40
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Charismatic Megafauna said:

ChoppinDs40 said:

Vail knows what they're doing being PE owned.


Vail is a public company $MTN


You're right. No longer is but Apollo owned it so it's being ran like a real company now.

Add IKON to the mix also.
Jock 07
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Didn't PC ski patrol just strike a couple years ago as well, or am I losing my mind?
 
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