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and i'm dumb and forgot to post it...
To whom it may concern,
Hi, my name is Patrick Monteith and I am 16 years old and have been skiing at Big White ski resort for 14 years of my life. I am writing this letter to outline a few complaints, and to suggest a few idea’s to further help with these issues. Please do not disregard my comments and suggestion’s due to my age, as I have spoken to a number of adults and youth my age about these topics and none of them have disagreed about them.
First off I would like to touch on the quite early closing date that Big White and its associates had set for the 2007/2008 season. Before any snow was being seen, or any pass holder’s were beginning to make there way up to the mountain, the closing date, of April the 6th, 2008 had already been set. Now you can go on rough estimates of what snow conditions were like in previous years to determine your closing date, but that’s just not reliable. As most people know the weather and conditions can change very rapidly and surprise people, and this years snow season I’m sure has surprised you. As of May 11th there is still fresh snow on big white, and not even the parking lots completely melted out.
Now as I’m sure you know, there are many pass holder’s that are quite angry that they cannot ski, with all this snow still available to be ridden on. The reason as stated by a Big White official for such an early closure was stated due to the slim number of pass holders that attended on a regular basis past the closing date. One major flaw I see in this statement, is that how you will know how many people will attend, both pass holders and people who buy lift tickets, if you have not stayed open past say , the 15th of April, in the last 5 or more years. Sure you can go on rough estimates from how many people attend on the last weekend of the mountain being open, but that is sorely inaccurate.
What that theory doesn’t take into account, is that how many people will travel to Big White to ski, while their home mountains may be closed. Newly opened Revelstoke Mountain Resort managed to stay open until April 27th this year, a full 21 days longer than Big White. I realise they also opened later than Big White. But the difference in the two opening dates still makes it so Revelstoke was open 10 days longer. Myself and several others from Big White travelled to Revelstoke in the dates following the closing of Big White multiple times in order to get some extra skiing in. I do not believe we were the only ones to do this. I have talked to multiple skiers who made there way to Revelstoke proceeding the closing of Big White and other mountains in the Interior and Kootenays. Now all these people said they would be more than happy to pay to ride at Big White at that time in the season, and many would travel quite a distance due to how far Whistler and Sunshine are from the Interior and Kootenays.
Since you still probably do not believe that it would be worth keeping the whole mountain open, why don’t you just keep parts of it open? I’m positive people would be more than happy if just the Black Forest and Telus Park chairs were left running until later on in the season. This would cut the cost of having the whole mountain running, yet still bring in revenue by having people to buy tickets for just those two chairs. If you are still not happy with that, how about a spring pass system? For a much smaller price than a season’s pass, say 100$, people could purchase spring passes that will allow them to ride the two or three chairs you keep open. This will allow skiers and boarders to keep on riding, and it will help with the added cost of keeping the chairs running, and the groomers going. Most mountains in the eastern U.S. keep there mountains running much longer than us out here, and they get less than half the amount of snow we do, and stay open with as little as 65cm’s. That is dedication to the skiers.
Whaleback Mountain in New Hampshire even does something to keep the terrain park skiers having fun in the summer. The first Saturday of every month starting in June, Whaleback set’s up a few rails for the terrain park kids to hit for 8 dollars each. They use carpet and a liquid called Snow Gel to keep the skiers happy, and wanting to come back to that mountain because of there dedication to get people having fun, even when there is no snow in sight. This is the dedication that Big White needs to improve on, instead of building more condo developments.
I see the proposed opening and closing dates are already listed on the Big White website, and I see that it is going to stay open a week longer than this year. I urge you to remove the closing date on the website. Let it be decided further on in the year, when the resort is actually open and the snow conditions can be somewhat estimated. If it turns out that there is in fact, not enough snow for Big White to remain open longer, then so be it, but there is also a very likely chance there will be more than enough. Remove the date, and just wait.
Please review this letter, and let it be seen to someone who actually has a deciding factor about this. Consider my ideas and suggestions, and think about the skiers and riders of the mountain, not the condo consumers of the mountain.
Thank you for your time,
Patrick Monteith
