Month: December 2009

Gore Mountain, NY: 12/31/09

Posted on by Harvey

I should probably call today Ski Day 1. Some big firsts, for our family. Our daughter Neve had her first real day on skis. Zelda had her first Day on alpine gear and her first day of the season. For us it was pretty exciting.

I really don’t want this entry to be about paid parking, but I do have a few things to say. Essentially what paid parking has done to our day is move it up by about 45 minutes. We really wanted to have our gear and car close at hand, so we left for the mountain at 7:00 am.

To make this possible, we decided to have breakfast at the mountain instead of at home. It was amazing how much I relaxed once we parked around 7:15. In the end it paid to be “upfront.” I counted 5 different trips to the car.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Gore Mountain1 Comment

Passholder Mountain

Posted on by Harvey

I have some questions.

  • What percentage of a mountain’s revenue comes from passholders vs other sources?
  • What kinds of mountains get a high percentage of revenue from passholders? What kinds of mountains get a smaller percentage?
  •  If one mountain gets 50% of revenue or skier visits from passholders how will management differ from a mountain that gets 90% of revenue from single ticket purchases?
  • Does it affect midweek lift operation?  Season length?  What else?

I’d love to see a list of North American mountains ranked by percentage of passholder revenue.

I can’t totally imagine the implications – and would like to hear what you think.

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Skiing and Balance

Posted on by Harvey

I actually like work. But during the relatively short winter, I can’t focus on anything but skiing.

It’s no secret that I was really disappointed in my season last year. On my birthday (Jan 8th) I realized I was probably done for the season. I did actually get to the mountains one more time – for a 4-day weekend in late February. That weekend was like a religious experience for me. I skied primarily alone. I cherished every single turn. I read over the TRs from that weekend a hundred times over the summer.

I learned something. Don’t take anything for granted. On December 20, I had one of the great ski days of my life. At around 1:30, we’d had so many first tracks and we were beat that we called it a day. I knew more snow was coming the next day, so I went into town to pick up some supplies, relax and do a blog entry. I will NEVER do that again. Conditions like that – I’m going BELL-TO-BELL.

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Tagged: Ski Life1 Comment