$10 Parking at Gore?

There is a rumor out there that Gore is considering charging $10 a car this year to park. I’m not in favor of the idea.

I’m betting that Gore didn’t see this coming at the first pass deadline. Nobody’s trying to fool anybody. I think what’s happening is that every government out there is short on cash. Have you SEEN the number of speeding tickets being issued? It’s the same thing. Bring in the revenue or we’re looking at layoffs. At the company I work for we’re seeing our existing, satisfied customers staying with us, but spending less. We are doing everything we can to make their budgets work. We’re not having a rate increase for sure. If we did push rates up…they’d probably consider our competitors.

When we came up with the $1800 for three passes in June, we knew we’d be facing a tough economy. We figured at least we can ski, which for us is a part of life. Understand that we have very little discretionary budget. None, if you consider skiing essential..and we do. If the new parking tax happens this will cost us around $400 for the season. For families this is an increase in our pass price. I mean you really can’t ski at Gore if you can’t park. If true, it just isn’t fair.

To me the SEASONS PASS, has always represented a classic risk/reward scenario. I believe that the unwritten understanding has always been…If you are a 10x /season skier:

• The REWARD is a potentially cheaper ticket price
• The RISK is the WEATHER – not a price increase.

For the mountain:

• RISK: Less total money if it is a good season
• REWARD: Money is guaranteed regardless of the weather, and you get it UPFRONT.

This season the parking fee messes with the whole risk/reward ratio. And it’s a 20% increase after you already bought the product. And this is on top a rate increase already from 07/08. Another downer for me personally… this means when I’m the tenth car in the parking lot as I always am, I can save 10 bucks if, I drop the family off. Leave all the gear in a pile and go park the car in the outer limits. And walk back through an empty lot. If true, the whole thing feels may feel like a slap in the face to a passholder.

I do think the forums influenced the final decision to kill the gondi to nowhere. Let’s be heard now, too.

Mike Pratt is the Mountain Manager. His phone number is (518) 251-2411 and his e-mail is mike@goremountain.com Ted Blazer is the President/CEO of ORDA. His e-mail is blazer@orda.org.