Four years old:
Vail is leading the charge to a more corporate ski industry- and they're doing so by making lift tickets affordable. What does this mean for the future of skiing?
www.newschoolers.com
Nope.
First of all, as you pointed out, this is four years old, which, I'm pretty sure is pre Peaks purchase and the crude, blundering entry into the northeast after Stowe. Then, well, Covid, which is neither here or there, for now. Everybody got Covid. But, the Peaks purchase just proves that Vail isn't as calculating or well managed as the writer assumed, living in his nice little bubble in, ahem, Vail, and thinking that only young people can use Kayak on their phones when dreaming of that Whistler or Bali trip. Wtf? Such a hard life. But, anyway, he assumes that the Epic pass holder will be almost held captive when traveling to a Vail resort, just because they bought the pass. Maybe Vail. I've always said that's the reason so many tourists like that place, and locals, (not living in Vail village) hate it. It's sort of all inclusive and easy, airport landing to airport departure. Beaver, too, which is the same place, essentially. I sort of did it once way back, and it was nice. But, where else are they selling this service? Whistler, probably, but Breck is easy to do on your own, without buying everything from Vail. What have they done in the northeast? They dont even own anything outside of ski operations at Stowe. They were so desperate just to own a premier ski hill in Vermont just to pad this corporate ponzi they just bought the hard stuff to make money from, not the luxury items. Furgetabout a place like Hunter. Is Mt. Snow any different? Nope.
No, these people arent very imaginative at all, and I propose that, unless they come up with some serious plans, it will end in tears for them. They're a bunch of marketing and finance drones that are living off of really cheap money, like all of corporate America, and paying themselves well in the process. That's not to say I'm anti corporate ski companies and anti multi mountain pass. I've owned the passes for about twenty years (way back in 2002-3 I was skiing a very early incarnation of Epic in Summit, along with a Copper/WP combo pass. 600 bucks for a ton of skiing). I just think that Alterra has smarter and more engaged people running the show right now, and they seem to have a plan for what the future will be in 2030. Listen to Stuart Winchester's podcast interview of Rob Perlman, president of Steamboat and COO of one of their region's in the Rockies, and then listen to Stuart's interview of Tim Baker, the eastern region VP of Vail resorts. The difference is obvious. Perlman has a detailed five year plan for Steamboat, which, not my cup of tea, but, if you know the place, makes total sense for what is their primary customer. Baker really has nothing, not that I blame him, but, if you plop all of these small hills in somebody's lap, as disparate as Hunter to Mt. Snow to Wildcat, yeah, that's going to be hard to integrate, especially if you haven't even skied most of them, like he admitted. But, probably a good gig and pays well, if he keeps his head down.
www.huntermtn.com
