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.

I actually like work. But during the relatively short winter, I can’t focus on anything but skiing.

It’s no secret that I was really disappointed in my season last year. On my birthday (Jan 8th) I realized I was probably done for the season. I did actually get to the mountains one more time – for a 4-day weekend in late February. That weekend was like a religious experience for me. I skied primarily alone. I cherished every single turn. I read over the TRs from that weekend a hundred times over the summer.

I learned something. Don’t take anything for granted. On December 20, I had one of the great ski days of my life. At around 1:30, we’d had so many first tracks and we were beat that we called it a day. I knew more snow was coming the next day, so I went into town to pick up some supplies, relax and do a blog entry. I will NEVER do that again. Conditions like that – I’m going BELL-TO-BELL.

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