Angus Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 1 hour ago, powderfreak said: People just stopped with their flashers on because they are spinning their bald tires on the hill. The Stowe customer does NOT have bald tires! Seriously, the only appreciable lines I've experienced at Stowe are at the forerunner lift but Stowe is a mountain that given the terrain, you don't mind a rest between runs. Plus, you get 2,000' vertical from the lift. When I ski wildcat with short lines, super fast lift and 2,000' vertical, I employ a hard run followed by cruiser strategy to preserve my legs. At Stowe, I seem to just hammer away every run because of the lift line. I've stood in that MRG 45 minute line before and it's maddening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 1 hour ago, powderfreak said: I think the weekend thing is over-stated...but maybe that's just what I see here. I really don't think they are that bad at all. The holiday periods though are the real deal. Enjoy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professional Lurker Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 Sure, it's the MRG single, but 45 minutes? Screw that! Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TauntonBlizzard2013 Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 5 minutes ago, Professional Lurker said: Sure, it's the MRG single, but 45 minutes? Screw that! Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk Yeah... that's absurd. given how much it costs to ski at these places, especially the weekend, there really should be no lines. i guess if people are willing to pay though, why change? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreaves Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 6 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said: Yeah... that's absurd. given how much it costs to ski at these places, especially the weekend, there really should be no lines. i guess if people are willing to pay though, why change? Isn't that literally the law of supply and demand? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radarman Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 I can recall sunny St Patty's days, everything in play with 30-35 mins at MRG... 45 mins is pretty rough... but I am really happy for them after the last few years. Good problems to have. I've felt the worst line in VT is usually the Castlerock chair. Might as well be a single with the double spacing. Hasn't seemed to deter folks though... great stuff off both those chairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TauntonBlizzard2013 Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 1 minute ago, mreaves said: Isn't that literally the law of supply and demand? Right. As long as people show up to pay 80-90$ a ticket...there is no incentive to change. i would never pay that much, but obviously enough people do, so they can charge that amount Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 People pay $100 to go to Walt Disney World and wait 120 minutes to ride Space Mountain...which only lasts 5 minutes...and is a lot shorter vertical than even a small hill in Mew Emgland Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#NoPoles Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 7 hours ago, HoarfrostHubb said: People pay $100 to go to Walt Disney World and wait 120 minutes to ride Space Mountain...which only lasts 5 minutes...and is a lot shorter vertical than even a small hill in Mew Emgland What happened to your Ns? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 3 minutes ago, #NoPoles said: What happened to your Ns? Huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreaves Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 8 hours ago, HoarfrostHubb said: Huh? She is referring to Mew Emgland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 18 hours ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said: Yeah... that's absurd. given how much it costs to ski at these places, especially the weekend, there really should be no lines. i guess if people are willing to pay though, why change? Mreaves hit it on the hit. Supply and demand. A mountain could charge $1,000 a day and only let a few hundred people in and they'd never wait in lines. Or charge $125 and fill the parking lots to capacity only on holidays and keeps lift lines in check most of the time. Or charge $60 and have a complete and total sh*tshow every single day running out of parking daily with 20-30min lift lines. Every business finds the price point that it can sell the amounts it needs to cover costs and get people there without drastically diminishing the experience. The point is to find the price-point that gets the acceptable volume of people to purchase without causing too many negative effects to their experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 18 hours ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said: Right. As long as people show up to pay 80-90$ a ticket...there is no incentive to change. i would never pay that much, but obviously enough people do, so they can charge that amount Its not about "can charge that amount" vs. almost need to charge that amount. If you have something in high demand, there's only one way to limit it AND cover your operating costs. I think people think ski areas are printing money with these rates but the yield is incredibly low on a lift ticket. You want a price point that gets to the breaking point on holidays and some weekends (like this week) but keeps flow decent on most days so as not to be known for crowds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 18 hours ago, radarman said: I can recall sunny St Patty's days, everything in play with 30-35 mins at MRG... 45 mins is pretty rough... but I am really happy for them after the last few years. Good problems to have. I've felt the worst line in VT is usually the Castlerock chair. Might as well be a single with the double spacing. Hasn't seemed to deter folks though... great stuff off both those chairs. Yeah been a rough past year for the ski areas and everyone forgets about the lodging and restaurants in all these towns. This has been a fantastic week for business all across the state of VT...even the guy at the gas station said Friday was like D-Day at Normandy. Lines of cars at the pumps all day. And you know MOST of the people are fine with it...they get it, its a vacation week. They know its going to be busy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 2 hours ago, mreaves said: She is referring to Mew Emgland. Lol. Sam Adams ftl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skivt2 Posted January 2, 2017 Author Share Posted January 2, 2017 It was empty at Pico today and with good reason. It seems we are the only NNE ski resort left out of all the fun. With the way the big storm set up we got maybe 4" on top of a very thin natural base that had been rained on twice. Prior to the storm we had too many bare patches on the natural trails to ski them. The woods are not realistically skiable here. With the wind it really did not do much to help with the boilerplate on snowmaking trails. We only have 4 of those and the rest of the mountain is completely natural. Last night we got maybe an inch. The cover is so thin it is dangerous. Now it's going to rain half an inch. We are so done. The weekend storm also will leave us out based on the current model run. It feels like 2011-12 here. We need snow desperately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angus Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 First day out on the skinny skis, three hour session at Windblown which sits just south of Mount Monadnock in New Ipswich. They have about 10" of snow on the ground, enough to have 75% or so of their terrain open. I brought both my classic and skate skis and was done after three hours of skiing the hilly terrain. This area of NH has a sneaky high elevation of 1,000' plus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 Just now, Angus said: First day out on the skinny skis, three hour session at Windblown which sits just south of Mount Monadnock in New Ipswich. They have about 10" of snow on the ground, enough to have 75% or so of their terrain open. I brought both my classic and skate skis and was done after three hours of skiing the hilly terrain. This area of NH has a sneaky high elevation of 1,000' plus. I love that place. Skied WaWa the last two evenings. Snow has been ok, but they are really dropping the ball with lift line management. Not enough attendants with a decent crowd. Turns into a free for all and many people are ****heads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongBeachSurfFreak Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 17 hours ago, Skivt2 said: It was empty at Pico today and with good reason. It seems we are the only NNE ski resort left out of all the fun. With the way the big storm set up we got maybe 4" on top of a very thin natural base that had been rained on twice. Prior to the storm we had too many bare patches on the natural trails to ski them. The woods are not realistically skiable here. With the wind it really did not do much to help with the boilerplate on snowmaking trails. We only have 4 of those and the rest of the mountain is completely natural. Last night we got maybe an inch. The cover is so thin it is dangerous. Now it's going to rain half an inch. We are so done. The weekend storm also will leave us out based on the current model run. It feels like 2011-12 here. We need snow desperately. Stratton has been great the last few days, even did some woods. 10" last Thursday followed by another 4". Must be a real screw zone in central Vermont Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Today was probably the best weather day of the year. Temps upper 20s to low 30s at all elevations with sunshine and absolutely no wind. Not even a puff of breeze. Best backcountry/sidecountry skiing in the East in my biased opinion. Hard to beat the Mansfield/Smugglers Notch area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ono Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 1 hour ago, powderfreak said: Today was probably the best weather day of the year. Temps upper 20s to low 30s at all elevations with sunshine and absolutely no wind. Not even a puff of breeze. Best backcountry/sidecountry skiing in the East in my biased opinion. Hard to beat the Mansfield/Smugglers Notch area. Nice shot. PF- what's your take on the ice storm they're talking about? 0.2-0.4" of ice, changing to snow and then winds 20-30mph, they mentioned icing mostly between 1500 and 2500ft- the trees will take a hit, but this is nothing too bad, correct? Once you get up above 2500' or so, the trees already start to get a fair bit of icing/rime ice regularly, anyway, so it's the stress is not unusual- lower elevations, however? would have to agree with ya there as far as best sidecountry/backcountry for a resort in the east. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redmorninglight Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 We booked a 5 night trip to Killington again this February starting on the 15th. Looking at the weeklies, it appears a significant thaw is in the cards maybe mid January. I am hopeful that winter reloads or back loads in a big way early to mid February. Last year was rough with only half the mountain open. My wife and I are taking our 17 year old daughter and 5 of her friends. Should be a hoot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongBeachSurfFreak Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 57 minutes ago, ono said: Nice shot. PF- what's your take on the ice storm they're talking about? 0.2-0.4" of ice, changing to snow and then winds 20-30mph, they mentioned icing mostly between 1500 and 2500ft- the trees will take a hit, but this is nothing too bad, correct? Once you get up above 2500' or so, the trees already start to get a fair bit of icing/rime ice regularly, anyway, so it's the stress is not unusual- lower elevations, however? would have to agree with ya there as far as best sidecountry/backcountry for a resort in the east. That's not even close for causing tree damage. Especially on a mountain that's prone to very strong winds and as you said up to feet of rime. Even off a mountian tree damage generally doesn't start till after .5 and really after an inch. That crazy ice storm in 98 that did cause incredible tree damage up there was several inches. No doubt Mansfield does great with upsloap that we don't get down here. Luckly there has been a decent amount of synoptic snow so far this season in southern Vermont Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ono Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 On 12/31/2016 at 3:20 PM, TauntonBlizzard2013 said: Yeah... that's absurd. given how much it costs to ski at these places, especially the weekend, there really should be no lines. i guess if people are willing to pay though, why change? while I don't disagree with the financial argument- high speed lifts can be pretty terrible when the terrain can't meet the demand. If there's not enough snow, and the crowds don't get spread out- not sure an icy ribbon filled with twice as many people moving downhill in a sorta half-chaos is a better bang-for-your-buck. How much worse an experience is standing in a liftline for a while, if the alternative is a downhill experience of less skiing, and more crowd avoidance? Big fan of the fixed gripped doubles and triples in New England. The on-slope crowds can be crazy during holidays (even if you know how to avoid). Quality over quantity, any day. Heck, there's a reason people backcountry ski- they love the downhill experience foremost, and quality is the only thing that matters. They may get 2-4 runs in per day, 1500-3000' vert total? and a LOT of work goes into that. There's a reason for the work put in- the quality of the experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professional Lurker Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Yup. Skied for 4 hours straight today, averaged 12 minute laps of approximately 1k vertical each. Do the math. Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amarshall Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Saturday, day-tripped Bretton woods. They left most of the mountain ungroomed. It was super heavy and skied off from the monster crowds on Friday. My 7 yr old didn't have a good time with it. It sure beats ice though. We did get lucky at the end of the day and they dropped some ropes on some trails that still had powder on it. Crowds saturday were the worst I've ever seen them at Bretton Woods. Still only a 30 minute wait at the worst rush around 10am. It baffles me people don't get there for first lift. Why comes strolling in at 11am? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreaves Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 8 hours ago, Professional Lurker said: Yup. Skied for 4 hours straight today, averaged 12 minute laps of approximately 1k vertical each. Do the math. Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk Serious question, for you is it all about the number of laps? I know that everyone likes different aspects of whatever activity they participate in. For example, I know snowmobilers who chase mileage. They will ride 250 miles a day and anything less is not a great day, whereas others enjoy taking their time stopping and sightseeing, taking different routes etc. There isn't anything wrong with either approach but I would imagine it is somewhat the same with skiers, some would put up with a of a bit longer lift line if it meant the trail and terrain choice was better for them while others want to get in as many runs as possible, regardless of the area they are at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hitman Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Getting back to the lift line and on mountain experience issue above. My take after 10 years of regularly being at sugarbush is that when the off piste is open there is no problem with lift lines assuming there aren't wind holds. And that is because not only does it take people off the trails, but when you do a run through the woods it takes time. Whereas a groomer run can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes, even the most aggressive experienced skiers take much longer to get through the woods, even if not venturing into side country. For example, it would take me a minute to rip down organ grinder or ripcord, but the woods adjacent to them take me probably 10-15 minutes. And if I go into slidebrook it takes 30-45 minutes. That's a lot of trips up a lift. Consequently, when the woods are skiable, the demand for lift trips is a lot lower even with the same number of skiers on the mountain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adk Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 On 1/1/2017 at 9:33 AM, powderfreak said: Mreaves hit it on the hit. Supply and demand. A mountain could charge $1,000 a day and only let a few hundred people in and they'd never wait in lines. Or charge $125 and fill the parking lots to capacity only on holidays and keeps lift lines in check most of the time. Or charge $60 and have a complete and total sh*tshow every single day running out of parking daily with 20-30min lift lines. Every business finds the price point that it can sell the amounts it needs to cover costs and get people there without drastically diminishing the experience. The point is to find the price-point that gets the acceptable volume of people to purchase without causing too many negative effects to their experience. I think this whole conversation is silly. It gets crowed at places during the holidays. If you don't want any lines or other tourists, go somewhere different. I was in Rome over Xmas and there wasn't a tourist to be found. If you wanna go skiing on 12/31 after some well advertised snow storms, you are going to wait in a line. That's just the rule. Also I'll say that these lines aren't there from 7:30 to 9 and 2:30 to 4. So.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professional Lurker Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Serious question, for you is it all about the number of laps? I know that everyone likes different aspects of whatever activity they participate in. For example, I know snowmobilers who chase mileage. They will ride 250 miles a day and anything less is not a great day, whereas others enjoy taking their time stopping and sightseeing, taking different routes etc. There isn't anything wrong with either approach but I would imagine it is somewhat the same with skiers, some would put up with a of a bit longer lift line if it meant the trail and terrain choice was better for them while others want to get in as many runs as possible, regardless of the area they are at.Good question...No, it's not about laps for me. I primarilly stick to laying down train tracks on groomers, but will venture off-trail if the conditions warrant it. I'm not huge into bumps or natural trails, but I'm sure that would change if my home mountain was farther north and recieved refreshers more often. I only own one pair of carvers and if I had more in my quiver, I'd probably venture farther off-piste.I'm also not a snob who will only go out if conditions are perfect. I'm somebody who is always trying to improve and I feel strongly that skiing all conditions only makes one a much better skier.I'm not a fan of trying to thread the needle through crowded trails at speed (although I admit it can sometimes be fun, it's definitely not my first choice from a safety or enjoyment factor). I guess I can compare skiing with my non-winter passion, golf. Sure, it's kinda nice to say you've played Augusta or Pebble Beach. But, if it costs a fortune and you have to wait on every single shot, and you're only an above average player, is it really worth it? My arguement has always been that the smaller, less crowded, cheaper places are always the better bet if they offer enough challenges to allow you to continue to improve your game.Skiing for me is about enjoying the experience, not to brag that I can bomb down Outer Limits or that I've skied Aspen, Vail, or Stowe. I don't ski at any particular mountain for bragging rights or "status." There's plenty who do, and I avoid the people and places as much as possible. Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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