Does Marketing BS Bother You?

[Face4Me]

Does it bother you when you get BS'd?

Of course this isn't something that's limited to skiing, but since this is a ski forum ...

We all know that ski resorts "embellish" snowfall totals. This is nothing new. But it seems that the BS just keeps expanding into other areas as well. For example, when I arrived at Whiteface yesterday morning, I met up with a friend who had the daily conditions report in hand. The report showed snowmaking on Lookout Below and it also showed Upper Northway and Upper Mackenzie as open. I looked at him and said, "there's no way in hell that Upper Northway is open, maybe Upper Mac, but I doubt it".

The reality was that the snowmaking on Lookout Below was limited to one gun at the very bottom, blowing snow into the "hole". I don't know, but that hardly meets my expectations of what constitutes snowmaking on a trail. As for Upper Northway and Upper Mackenzie ... roped from end to end at the top. Maybe these are "honest mistakes", but based on the pattern, I don't think so. A couple of years ago, another friend pointed out that the title on the daily conditions report was actually "Daily Anticipated Conditions Report".

The following is a screen shot from this morning's conditions report:

Read that top paragraph. The double black glades off of Approach are Cloudsplitter and Slide View ... neither of those are open. While the text doesn't ACTUALLY say that those glades are open, it certainly gives the impression that they are. 10th Mountain Division glades are "technically" off of Approach, however, you can't get directly to them from Approach. 10th Mountain is listed on the conditions report as open, though when I skied past it several times yesterday, the entrance from the bottom of Upper Northway was roped.

On Saturday, we noticed that there were several lifties at the base of the Lookout Mountain chair all morning. They were milling around, shoveling snow here and there, and otherwise just hanging around. We knew there was no way that they were going to be opening the Wilmington Trail (you just had to look up the trail from Boreen to see that), so why were these lifties there? The cynic in me came to the conclusion that they were "putting on a show", trying to generate some "buzz" on social media that the Wilmington Trail might be opening soon. Maybe ... Maybe not.

This kind of stuff just annoys me, maybe it shouldn't, but it does. I was raised to believe that "honesty is the best policy". Tell the truth and be prepared to deal with the consequences. It's kind of like the "nickel and diming" that's been discussed in other threads. Just charge what you need to charge ... don't BS with things like ... oh ... if you want to actually bring your car to the mountain, that will cost you extra, or, if you want to put your boots on in the lodge, it will cost you extra to leave your street shoes.

I guess I just have nothing better to do with my time this morning than post this ... time to go to work.

 

[Benny Profane]

Still my favorite marketing move was when Killington magically increased it's trail count by about 20% in the early nineties by just chopping up already established trails and renaming sections.

Of course, Killington snow report is right up there in the top five list of lies that include a particularly raunchy one I can't repeat here.

 

[raisingarizona]

Still my favorite marketing move was when Killington magically increased it's trail count by about 20% in the early nineties by just chopping up already established trails and renaming sections.

Of course, Killington snow report is right up there in the top five list of lies that include a particularly raunchy one I can't repeat here.

Stowe used to proudly advertise that their 45 ski run count was because they had long, beautiful fall line ski trails and that separated them from their competition. I really respected that and thought it was classy. At some point in the mid nineties their trail count went from 45 to 105 or something like that without cutting a single run.

 

[snoloco]

As for the Lookout chair, they likely had it staffed so snowmakers and ski patrol could use the lift. Based on Facebook, they made a ton of snow up there and it looks almost ready to go. I agree that reporting Upper Mac, Upper Northway, and the glades as open, and then not opening them is BS. Whiteface is very cautious about dropping ropes which I find really frustrating.

Killington's snow report has been lacking the last 2 years but is still more accurate than Whiteface's. Yes many trails were split up under ASC ownership to pad the trail count. Some of this has actually been reverted. However, different segments need to be reported separately if it's a trail where one portion might be open but another not open.

 

[Campgottagopee]

At some point in the mid nineties their trail count went from 45 to 105 or something like that without cutting a single run.

About the same time period, Greek Peak, located on Virgil Mountain, actually had the mountain grow! We went from 900 vert to 1000 vert.

 

[tirolski]

Don’t forget Vail’s head hocho and honcho-ess came from the invest banking industry and marketing Pepsi.
What could go wrong?
Marketing BS FTW.

 

[Face4Me]

As for the Lookout chair, they likely had it staffed so snowmakers and ski patrol could use the lift.

Maybe, but I never saw the lift moving at any point while I was there on Saturday (I left at 11) and every chair that you could see within view still had snow on the seats.

Yesterday morning, the lift was running at one point and there was a snowmaker on one of the chairs ... no lifties at the bottom though ... just one guy with a snowmobile.

 

[Face4Me]

Stowe used to proudly advertise that their 45 ski run count was because they had long, beautiful fall line ski trails and that separated them from their competition. I really respected that and thought it was classy. At some point in the mid nineties their trail count went from 45 to 105 or something like that without cutting a single run.

Over the years, I've heard that in some cases, splitting trails into multiple names was done as a safety measure, so that when injuries were reported, ski patrol would have a better idea of where to go, and for related things like reporting other issues on a trail. With really long trails, this kind of makes sense.

For example, if my memory is correct, "Cloudspin" at Whiteface used to be Upper Cloudspin and Lower Cloudspin. Lower Cloudspin was the section that's now Niagara and Victoria. I may not have that quite right, but it was something like that.

On the Wilmington Trail, there are different sections of the trail indicated by signs along the trail ... "Fir Wave" ... "Marble Pitch" ... "The Mudhole" ... ("The Jersey Turnpike!"

 

[D.B. Cooper]

FWIW, Lou Reed said, "believe none of what you hear and half of what you see."

 

[Warp daddy]

Detest over hyped marketing schlock in any form from any organization and yeah my profession ( higher education) is guilty as sin on this score