Windham Mountain Going Private?

[Low Angle Life]

Belle not being a megapass mountain will probably help fend off some crowds. I am not particularly concerned with spillover from pass holders, it's the day pass crowd, on peak weekends specifically that might get a bit nutty this season. If there were ever a justification for a Highmount expansion the time is now.

 

[Harvey]

@Harvey Your new tag line is from King Crimson, I LOVE it!!

Now if you can figure out why I'm using it!

 

[Benny Profane]

If I was rich rich I'd definitely shop for a place at Yellowstone. Mainly because its attached to Big Sky. Greg Lemond has an awesome Adirondack camp like setup there I saw on some sort of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous show. Nice. That was a weird bankruptcy that only rich people gathered into a club can pull off. Moonlight went under because it was essentially a Lehman owned venture, and we all know what happened to Lehman.

 

[Milo Maltbie]

The protest email mentions a drop from 3,000+ daily visits to 600.

I don't think anyone knows that. Windham has had high season passes and crazy high day passes for a while now. I think some if the race program has already moved to NYSEF at Belleayre. I think that almost everyone who skis Windham has either a season pass or an Ikon.

What surprised me is that they are hitting up existing members of the third floor club for another $175K. I don't know how that can work. Club members have already bought in at (IIRC) $25K starting 15 years ago. That club was really nice ten years ago, and I can't imagine what they would add to make it worth another $175K. A lot of those members are also in the Wintergreen Club, and they might just decide as a group that putting that money in the Wintergreen is a way better value. Rich people are not idiots, even if most of their children are.

The whole roll of this thing has been incompetent. IT's all arrogant messaging and blank web pages, guaranteed to generate destructive rumors. The new club fee is inexplicable. Ditching the rental shop is another unusual move.

Still, my guess is that the public won't notice. The bus-holes and dirt bag skiers day skiers have already been banned.

mm

 

[tirolski]

Now if you can figure out why I'm using it!

I talk to the wind when I ski. My words are all carried away.

 

[Milo Maltbie]

Belle not being a megapass mountain will probably help fend off some crowds. I am not particularly concerned with spillover from pass holders, it's the day pass crowd, on peak weekends specifically that might get a bit nutty this season. If there were ever a justification for a Highmount expansion the time is now.

There's two opposite effects here. Mega passes are diverting skiers from Belle, and pricey day passes at Ikon/Epic are making the independents the only place for day skiers. I'm thinking crowds have been lower at Gore, and probably Belle and
Platty, for the last couple of years, and that's not gonna change.

mm

 

[Benny Profane]

Let's not forget Catamount.

 

[gregmarx]

Belle not being a megapass mountain will probably help fend off some crowds. I am not particularly concerned with spillover from pass holders, it's the day pass crowd, on peak weekends specifically that might get a bit nutty this season. If there were ever a justification for a Highmount expansion the time is now.

Pretty sure Belle had limits on day-pass sales last year, which they hit on at least some peak weekends (sometimes in advance iirc). I was there on a day when they either hit the limit or came very close, it was crowded enough to be kind of annoying but they kept the lines moving

 

[tirolski]

Every mountain is looking for ways to insulate their business from the vagaries of weather based business.

The “club" says sales for Lift Ticket(s): “Two-day minimums on peak days during 23/24."
Have they said yet what the price a single day lift ticket is gonna be?

 

[MarzNC]

By keeping the option for reservations post-pandemic, the Ikon Partners have made it clear that they want to avoid lift lines getting to the ridiculous point on busy days during holidays and weekends. I would guess that people using Ikon at Windham on weekends don't bother to go more than once. More likely to be going midweek once or twice just because they bought Ikon for other reasons and Windham is within reasonable driving distance. They would probably be fine with weekend day tickets being relatively expensive.

My sense of the people having lunch at Windham midweek was that they knew the place well. There were a few people a bit lost inside the lodge but not many.

The reasons I've read about Windham include the fact that there is a very good demo shop. It's right at the base of the lifts so very convenient to swap out. The brands available included Volkl and Stöckli as I remember. Windham is the home mountain for Mermer Blakeslee. Her PowerLearn Workshop has been very successful. It's a multi-week program with a price tag around $7000. Her Fear clinic has also always been fully booked. Presumably because of her book, Conversation with Fear, that was the retitled version of her 2002 book, the Yikes! Zone.