Gore Mountain New Year’s Day 2010

We did the exact same drill as yesterday. Left the cabin at same time, parked in the same spot. I ran into Matty in the parking lot. He’d read my TR from last night. He showed me his rocks skis. He looked ready to do battle.*

There was an attempt to put some fan guns in positions at the base in the morning which I thought was a nice touch. But the questions about snowmaking remain.

After getting our daughters lesson going, I hung out to watch and CB rode the triple to get some lower mountain runs. I figured I had time for one Gondi ride, if I came back down Foxlair to Sunway. Both were in pretty decent shape at this early hour.

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Gore Mountain, NY: 12/31/09

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.

Gore-Free-Parking

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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Passholder Mountain

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.