Vail Resorts Red Flags in 2021-22
- Thread starter ChrisC
- Start date
EMSC
Well-known member
Hey at least the lift is running. You could be trying to ski Steven's Pass...
Vail flailing in the NW...
Vail flailing in the NW...
These problems seem to be systemic among many of Vail's resorts.
Are there signs among the flagship resorts in Colorado? Maybe. Normally it would be no surprise that none of Crested Butte's North Face is open at New Year's. But CB has been lucky with December's storms: 110 inches for the month and an 85 inch base.
As for the I-70 resorts, Copper is 63% open vs. 62% Vail, 57% Breck and 27% Keystone.
Average holiday week percents open since 1988: Copper 64%, Vail 82%, Breck 70%, Keystone 70%.
At least part of the above is due to snowfall vs. normal: Copper 105%, Vail 79%, Breck 87%, Keystone 75%
Are there signs among the flagship resorts in Colorado? Maybe. Normally it would be no surprise that none of Crested Butte's North Face is open at New Year's. But CB has been lucky with December's storms: 110 inches for the month and an 85 inch base.
As for the I-70 resorts, Copper is 63% open vs. 62% Vail, 57% Breck and 27% Keystone.
Average holiday week percents open since 1988: Copper 64%, Vail 82%, Breck 70%, Keystone 70%.
At least part of the above is due to snowfall vs. normal: Copper 105%, Vail 79%, Breck 87%, Keystone 75%
EMSC
Well-known member
If any I70 Vail Inc resorts in Colo are wildly bad on staffing it would have to be Keystone as a guess. A tiny amount of terrain open despite the past 8 or 9 days of snowfall...
Even my tiny Eldora has opened terrain at least as fast, if not faster than them. It is true that staffing is an issue this year across the industry. I know Eldora had a shockingly easy time of hiring last season during peak virus freak-out time, but this year they would love to hire more staff. Though for them the jobs on/near snow are pretty well staffed is my understanding (eg patrol, liftops well staffed; kitchen, parking etc.. not quite so much).
CB really ought to be close to fully open by now with all of the snow bounty they have gotten. But good luck finding a place to crash in that town on a lifty wage. To a large degree the town can only thank itself. Some of the most staunch anti-development for the sake of anti-development locals you'll ever find, then they bitterly complain when housing prices and rents skyrocket for example.
Even my tiny Eldora has opened terrain at least as fast, if not faster than them. It is true that staffing is an issue this year across the industry. I know Eldora had a shockingly easy time of hiring last season during peak virus freak-out time, but this year they would love to hire more staff. Though for them the jobs on/near snow are pretty well staffed is my understanding (eg patrol, liftops well staffed; kitchen, parking etc.. not quite so much).
CB really ought to be close to fully open by now with all of the snow bounty they have gotten. But good luck finding a place to crash in that town on a lifty wage. To a large degree the town can only thank itself. Some of the most staunch anti-development for the sake of anti-development locals you'll ever find, then they bitterly complain when housing prices and rents skyrocket for example.
ChrisC
Well-known member
It's
The Stevens Pass situation is really sad. It's almost one hour in either direction from the day hill (great ski hill) so housing and parking are struggles...but.I loved it when I lived in Seattle.
I assume it is so bad that Crystal Mountain now has to enforce its attendance rules....since it's sending so much traffic south.
The Stevens Pass situation is really sad. It's almost one hour in either direction from the day hill (great ski hill) so housing and parking are struggles...but.I loved it when I lived in Seattle.
I assume it is so bad that Crystal Mountain now has to enforce its attendance rules....since it's sending so much traffic south.
I've been skiing the Vail area almost every new years for the last 25 years and I am sure they could have had much more open with staffing. Grooming was another sign staffing was down with about 40% less groomed runs and those that were groomed were often only groomed 20% of the width of the run. My sample size is small but several lifts closed for mechanical issues and lifts that always open at xmas like Pride never opened, resulting in longer lines. Many Vail areas in the midwest and east are reducing to 3 day a week schedules. Vail seems to have major issues.
Today Breck is at 64% open and Vail at 71%. It sure looks like a systemic problem with Vail's resorts. And it surprising to hear of these issues with the flagship. POWDR Corp maintained their Park City flagship fairly well while they were cutting corners at Mt. Bachelor and Killington.
jamesdeluxe
Administrator
For the past year, there's been an active anti-VR thread on the New York Ski Forum, concerned for the most part with how poorly they're running their recently-acquired ski areas in the northeast.
I found this link on Harvey's thread hilarious!
And I knew this policy would rile Liz, who loves to collect trail maps.
As for Stevens Pass, it's completely closed for a few days due to road issues after 75 inches of snow in the past week.
And I knew this policy would rile Liz, who loves to collect trail maps.
As for Stevens Pass, it's completely closed for a few days due to road issues after 75 inches of snow in the past week.
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Stevens Pass is not the only Vail resort with a local website critiquing operations/customer service.
Does tseeb know about this one?
Does tseeb know about this one?
More from one of Harvey's thread references, protest sign when Vail tried to trademark the name "Park City:"
tseeb
Well-known member
I've heard about a lot of problems at Steven Pass, but had not seen website Tony linked. I've seen a lot of social media horror stories from Northstar, where I would only consider skiing Tues/Wed until Spring and would plan to be turning off 267 by 8 AM (if not earlier). People have complained about long lines/waits for shuttles that still leave you with long walk to Village gondola where there is usually a big line. My experience at Heavenly and Kirkwood this season have been without problems although I have waited in lines with many others at base of Gunbarrel and Stagecoach before opening to get ahead of crowds for a couple of runs. The only lodge I have been in was at Boulder base where bathroom downstairs was open, but lodge upstairs was not. Ticket office there was also open with no line, with two windows staffed when I was there about noon on 1/9. We had to get my wife's pass re-printed yesterday as I'd given her wrong one, but that took less than 10 minutes from Gunbarrel chair. It was a good thing employee scanned her 25 minutes before lift opened instead of when line started moving.
My $359 Senior Tahoe Value pass is only valid at Heavenly, Kirkwood and Northstar with all 3 blacked out on holidays, and Kirkwood and Northstar blacked out all Saturdays. I can buy 1/2 price walk-up tickets on black-out days and think I also get 1/2 price walk-up tickets at any Vail-owned resorts; not that I would buy any of those after breaking even on my pass first two days at Heavenly where walk-up is $179 (down from $199 over holiday and discounted for advance purchases). I only plan to ski Mon-Thurs on this pass until Spring due to crowds Fri-Sun although Sun PMs could be OK. I also have full Ikon that I plan to use over President's weekend at Palisades on way to Aspen.
I have experienced Vail's lack of customer service getting my wife's credit from 19-20 pass carried over to her 21-22 pass after her 20-21 pass was very quickly refunded when I requested it within 30 days of my County's stay-at-home expiring last Winter (a qualifying event - she had not used pass by end of Feb). I have learned to call at 8:59 MST so I was through phone tree when they opened at 9. But I was usually connected to a call center in the Philippines where nobody could help and they would transfer me to corporate and sometimes I would get dropped. It took a lot of perseverance, but eventually I was able to get 44% credit carried over as their terms and conditions say it "may be".
That's what the L.A. Times has, and it's only open 7-11AM. I've had multiple instances of papers being delivered when I'm on vacation or not restarted on the day I request. Eventually I got the phone number of the local distributor, which has helped a lot.
jamesdeluxe
Administrator
We should break out the Vail Resorts-related posts into a separate thread as this will be an ongoing discussion. 
The western US is in a tough weather pattern for awhile. An atmospheric river is hitting Washington State with rain to 7,000+ feet. So no surprise Stevens Pass is still closed. Meanwhile most of the West is in high pressure dry mode for at least the next 10 days per OpenSnow. Breck has inched up to 70% open and Keystone to 58%. Breck's snowfall is 88% of normal and Keystone's 81%.
jamesdeluxe
Administrator
Was this the first time you broke out a topic on XenForo? Congratulations!
I'm fascinated by the ups and eventual downs of major ski corporations over the years: ASC, Powdr, Vail Resorts, Peak Resorts, Boyne, Alterra, Intrawest, Aspen, etc. This is how their holdings looked in 2016.
Strange bedfellows: I'd forgotten that the owners of Okemo ran Crested Butte for quite a few years, from 2004 to 2018. I made note of the then-changes in my 2008 TR.
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Me too. Also which resorts are on the multiarea passes.
This is possibly the third topic split. And yes I had to ask the IT guy the first time.
One of James' references reminded me that Compagnie des Alpes Ski Resorts runs most of the big French ski complexes.