Mammoth acquired by new Aspen&KSL group

[berkshireskier]

Liz used to do those bus trips. The bus to Hunter on Wednesdays was her favorite. The farthest she ever went on a day bus was Mt. Snow, and she thinks that's too far for a day bus. Even including the Berkshires, Liz believes Hunter has the best quality of day skiing from NYC and thinks its market share is in the 30% range. I do know that in big natural snow years in SoCal, Mt. High can have 500K visits. Even then Baldy only gets about 50K, Snow Valley maybe 100K, leaving Big Bear still at 50+% of the market. Big Bear has had at least 75% of the SoCal daytrip market for the past 6 seasons.

Back on topic, Mammoth Times' take...
http://mammothtimes.com/content/mammoth-mountain-sold
By:
Wendilyn Grasseschi
Times Reporter
wendilyn@mammothtimes.com
Thursday, April 13, 2017
MAMMOTH LAKES, CA

Yea, no doubt that Hunter is the best skiing within a reasonable day trip from NYC (or the immediate NYC suburbs) and Windham (just north of Hunter in the Catskills) is maybe number two. Southern VT (Stratton, Mt. Snow, Okemo, or, farther north, Killington) are a much longer trip - 4 or more hours each way - for a day skiing trip from the NYC area. The ski areas in the Berkshires - Ski Butternut, Catamount, and Jiminy Peak - are definitely a step down from Hunter or Windham in terms of vertical and terrain. My local mountain in the southern Berkshires does draw a lot of skiers from the NYC area, Westchester County, and Fairfield County in CT with cheap season passes for adults and kids and extensive race and lesson programs for kids (allowing the parents to ski on their own) and family friendly atmosphere with decent terrain (1000 ft of vertical, 15 to 20 trails and 5 chairlifts) within a two-hour or so driving distance. Southern Vermont skiing is a lot more expensive and another 1 to 2 hour driving distance and, for a lot of people, not worth the extra cost and time travel.

[Marc_C]

Southern VT (Stratton, Mt. Snow, Okemo, or, farther north, Killington) are a much longer trip - 4 or more hours each way - for a day skiing trip from the NYC area.

Hence the popularity of the club bus trips. I know someone who lives in Manhattan and does a one-day Killington bus trip at least a dozen times a season.

[Tony Crocker]

Liz' view in term of distance travel from NYC is that the big step up in quality as you go north is between Okemo and Killington. Thus she tended most often to go to Killington for weekends and Hunter for day trips. I suspect this is a plurality view among NYC skiers. She thinks Plattekill is better than Windham.

[EMSC]

The deals are decent sized, but the Denver Post seems to be spending more resources digging into these deals than I would normally expect. The latest article provides some rather good stuff contained in the detailed SEC filings though.

Inside look at the $1.7 billion deal that weds Aspen, Steamboat, Winter Park and Canadian Mountain heliskiing operation
http://www.denverpost.com/2017/05/09/aspen-steamboat-ski-area-merger/