Vail buys out Peak Resorts

Any concerns at the CO mountains being further overrun by northeasterners and midwesterners taking advantage of the Epic Pass?

At what point does the government step in and tell Vail that they own enough?
 
jamesdeluxe":21hisweq said:
At what point does the government step in and tell Vail that they own enough?

In general, not for a very long time. There are well over 400 ski areas in the US (regulators in the US can only look at US operations/ownership). Vail will operate something like 34 US resorts.

That said, the question will be asked regionally when it gets asked. In Colorado, Vail cannot own any more front range local ski areas. They already 20+ years ago had to sell off A-Basin at the time of buying out Ralston Purina's resorts (which were Keystone, Breck and Abasin). Dept of Justice stepped in and forced the sale of one of them to prevent owning too much of the market share in front range/day-trip Colorado. Not surprisingly, Vail Inc sold Abasin to a very friendly resort lodging builder/partner of theirs. Thus the Abasin on the Vail Inc pass partnership was born back in the mid-90's... Until of course right now where ABasin is officially independent; though in talks with other possible pass options.

jamesdeluxe":21hisweq said:
Any concerns at the CO mountains being further overrun by northeasterners and midwesterners taking advantage of the Epic Pass?

Not a lot of concern by me on more crowding in Colo. A huge % of skiers at these mostly small places were coming west if they wanted to anyway. And not necessarily to just Colo. Plus destination trip skiers tend to not be on the roads at the same time as local day-trip skiers. The day-trip experience is off the charts painful and that is the fix that really needs to be found in Colorado. A handful of more destination skiers at Epic resorts (where I don't ski personally) is not one of the big of concerns locally.
 
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