(Almost) Snowbird, UT 4/29/2017

Admin

Administrator
Staff member
I tried to ski today, I really did. With 55" of new snow this week and a deeper base depth (150") than we've had all winter, why not pay the $42 Snowbird upgrade to my Alta pass and partake?

I arrived at 8:30 a.m. only to secure one of the last parking spaces on the Bypass Road up near the heli-pad. I skied down to meet the others at Peruvian, and arrived just as I realized that my Alta pass was in my truck a half a mile away and a few hundred vertical feet above me. #-o

By this point the Tram line was already full maze, around the building and onto the Tram Plaza (BobMc messaged me from line to tell me to forget it, but we were heading for Peruvian anyway). I walked into the season ticket office, explained my predicament and asked if they could look me up. Nope -- even though the two ski areas share a lift ticket they miraculously have no way to look up my season pass. :roll: So I loaded Chickadee (the two lifties let me on, even though each had the personality of a stiff, dead trout) and started hitchhiking back to my truck. Thanks to the friendly Public Safety employee who gave me a lift, the only bright spot in my otherwise dismal morning.

I got back to my truck, reached into the center console and...no pass. It was then that I realized for the first time that it was in my other jacket as I wore my soft shell on Alta's closing day two weeks ago. ](*,) My Epic Pass was sitting there, however, so I called the ticket office to see if they were offering a spring discount to pass holders from other resorts -- nope, I'd have to pay the full-freight walk-up price of $106. :shock:

At that point I said f*** it and went home, for there was no way that I was paying Snowbird a $64 "stupid tax." :evil: AmyZ asked if I was coming back up, but judging by the flow of cars coming up the canyon I'd have to park somewhere in Park City by the time I got back. Screw it, I'd rather do something like scoop dog s*** and mow the lawn.
 
admin":o4mdvwtd said:
even though the two ski areas share a lift ticket they miraculously have no way to look up my season pass
This part doesn't surprise me given how behind the curve Snowbird's IT department has been with Mountain Collective. I think this is the first season MCP holders have been able to initiate at Snowbird and tie a credit card to be direct-to-lift after their free days. I am still unable to buy my half price tickets as a Mammoth passholder at the Iron Blosam and thus must go to the tram plaza to a buy a ticket every day of my timeshare week.

As for admin's predicament, was there no one in Snowbird's marketing department present today? Surely they know he has an Alta pass and would have been able to facilitate the $42 ticket.
 
Tony Crocker":33iosk1x said:
As for admin's predicament, was there no one in Snowbird's marketing department present today? Surely they know he has an Alta pass and would have been able to facilitate the $42 ticket.
Saturday? Maybe, maybe not. But that other assertion? How would they know? How would they "surely" know?
 
Skiing was good....and we avoided most of the lines by riding lifts all day. But sometimes the karma is just not with you....
 
Marc_C":yvix3r5j said:
Saturday? Maybe, maybe not. But that other assertion? How would they know? How would they "surely" know?
The marketing people would likely know admin has an Alta pass. But yes it may have been hard to find on on a Saturday.
 
Tony Crocker":1q6p77bt said:
Marc_C":1q6p77bt said:
Saturday? Maybe, maybe not. But that other assertion? How would they know? How would they "surely" know?
The marketing people would likely know admin has an Alta pass. But yes it may have been hard to find on on a Saturday.

Actually, they wouldn't know. My interaction with Snowbird's communications department these days is very, very limited by their choice. In fact, I can't recall any this winter at all.
 
mrgskier":lr24qej7 said:
Skiing was good....and we avoided most of the lines by riding lifts all day. But sometimes the karma is just not with you....
From today's report:
Due to unforeseen mechanical issues, Peruvian Express will be not open today, Sunday April 30.
 
An area that cares about its customers would open Gadzoom to make up for Peruvian's problem. It's not as if they would need to hire more lifties.
 
peruvianbooboo.JPG
How was the skiing at Alta yesterday? ;) Quite frankly Admin isn't and wasn't a customer yesterday. He could've bought a pass for $80, they'd advertised it all over. I had an offer in to my son to buy him a pass but he couldn't get out of bed.

They've started maintenance on the Zoom lift, but to their credit they've said if they can't get Peruvian running by next weekend they'll get Zoom up and running. The lines have sucked this weekend, but the standing around has been worth it.

The Peruvian situation is a shit happens deal, not some grand conspiracy to keep costs down.
 
Admin":36irslcp said:
5-tram wait at 1:30 today - they should've opened Zoom.

No, it wasn't. I know where you got that estimate as I stood at the pedestrian bridge with Bobby and Amy contemplating the line. It was actually 12:30 and although the line looked long I joined it (in real life, not from my computer) and it wasn't nearly as bad, the line was a single maze around the building and a 3 boat wait. Admittedly it was close to a 5 boat wait mid morning, but by 1:30 it was 2 at most.

Bobby and Amy must've left as I didn't see them in line, we headed up, dropped into Mineral and literally walked onto MBX. The tram was the only place stacked up.

Like I said earlier, they'd begun summer maintenance on Zoom, it wasn't a matter of just moving lifties and firing it up. (So I was told) If they have neither spinning next weekend and the same crowds I'll be right there complaining with you. (Of course with more skin in the game than just an axe to grind, ;))
 
Just going by what Bobby and Amy both said at dinner tonight. Bobby have up and left; Amy stayed until 4.
 
This is a recurring problem at Snowbird as noted when I was there in 2011.
BobMc":f9hpj4k5 said:
They've started maintenance on the Zoom lift
And why would they do that in April if they gave a @%& about their customers? It's not like the tram or Mammoth's gondola that needs to serve summer customers and thus requires maintenance be done in late spring.

Speaking of Mammoth, normal spring operation after Canyon/Eagle close (April 23 this year) is chairs 1,2,3,6,11 and 23 plus upper and lower gondola. This year chairs 4,5 and 10 have run every day for the past week, plus 12, 13 and 14 over the weekend.
 
Tony Crocker":3qfuorza said:
This is a recurring problem at Snowbird as noted when I was there in 2011.
BobMc":3qfuorza said:
They've started maintenance on the Zoom lift
And why would they do that in April if they gave a @%& about their customers? It's not like the tram or Mammoth's gondola that needs to serve summer customers and thus requires maintenance be done in late spring.
In the spring, Snowbird really wants you to stay up high and just work Mineral and Little Cloud. But closing Gadzoom in April does seem early. IIRC, Gadzoom usually goes until at least May and if sufficient coverage low, until the end of daily operations, typically the 2nd weekend in May.
 
The bottom line is that areas should have some flexibility with demand to accommodate the number of people that show up. Mammoth understands this while Snowbird seems not to care.

Obviously Snowbird is running Wilbere to get people from the parking lot over to the tram plaza where they can join the cluster&%#$ to get up the mountain on the tram. It's inexcusable to run Wilbere instead of Gadzoom.
 
Tony Crocker":29j13i0r said:
This is a recurring problem at Snowbird as noted when I was there in 2011.
BobMc":29j13i0r said:
They've started maintenance on the Zoom lift
And why would they do that in April if they gave a @%& about their customers? It's not like the tram or Mammoth's gondola that needs to serve summer customers and thus requires maintenance be done in late spring.

Speaking of Mammoth, normal spring operation after Canyon/Eagle close (April 23 this year) is chairs 1,2,3,6,11 and 23 plus upper and lower gondola. This year chairs 4,5 and 10 have run every day for the past week, plus 12, 13 and 14 over the weekend.

I'm sure they would relish an email from you detailing your thoughts on their maintenance operations. I'm perfectly fine with people voting with their wallets and not frequent Snowbird due to their overwhelmingly anti-customer service postures.

I don't like standing in line any more than anyone else, but I'm not going to gnash my teeth over an accident and I'll be enjoying standing in lines till hopefully July 4th.
 
BTW, Snowbird has had construction projects going on the last three years and still managed to remain open and work around the projects. :cough, cough: When did Alta close again?
 
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