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January, 2025

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Paying for the Park Pass

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Crankset
Posts: 1176 - Karma: 497
I've noticed that over the years, more and more mountains are requiring you to pay for a park pass before you enter their main park.

A few years ago it seemed common to get a park pass, which was free, by merely signing a waiver and agreeing to wear a helmet (or something of the sort).

Now it seems like a bunch of mountains are making you pay for a park pass. I mean, I understand that building a park is an expensive thing to do. But there are mountains (such as Mont Saint-Anne for example), that make you pay $15-$20 for a park pass , and then roll out the shittiest park! It's not my home mountain, so I refused to pay for it, but if I was a season pass holder I would be fucking pissed off.

Is this just an east coast phenomenon? Thoughts?
Jan 16 2011 12:47PM
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Chubz.
Posts: 13918 - Karma: 25,670
why the fuck would they get rid of parks?
Jan 17 2011 8:09PM
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zahava
Posts: 7791 - Karma: 12,039
T-blants is worth it for sure, the other parks this year have sucked so far. Mont cascades park is also worth the ten bucks, its really nice this year.
Jan 17 2011 8:14PM
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hoodratz47
Posts: 12026 - Karma: 9,554

not now.. at least.. i remember like 12 years ago.   at  medows. it was snowboard only. but i snuck in on snowblades.. and got yelled at.

pay for park is not my thing.... but i can se where a resort would do that to make things safer, and to help out with  insurence.

maybe a class and a sticker for your pass... 

Jan 17 2011 8:22PM
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Juice.Doctor
Posts: 2791 - Karma: 293
i would prefer if we did have to pay... we have far to many gapers in the parks at my home mountain
Jan 17 2011 8:26PM
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broto
Posts: 9040 - Karma: 25,667
should be -

free with season pass
or
one day pass fee
or
multi day combo deals and stuff.



prices depending on resort/parks.
Jan 17 2011 8:30PM
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dylansiggers
Posts: 1667 - Karma: 6,096
This happend in Canada to a few resorts due to liability
Jan 17 2011 9:55PM
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A.Eberhard
Posts: 4426 - Karma: 415
I love park passes... keeps all the gapers out from ruining all the stuff and from endangering your own riding by standing on landings among other gaper like things.

You get what you pay for, plus if you are doing a 1 or 2 day trip what is an extra $5-10 a day to you? Keeps the mountains building parks without the fear of losing all their money in a lawsuit. Long live park passes.
Jan 17 2011 10:03PM
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jblaski
Posts: 5566 - Karma: 1,079
Sorry, but the patroller at Copper doesn't know what he was talking about. Beaver Creek is scaling back their parks, to save money. But Vail has no intention of goin smaller. In fact, they're talking about expanding some features.
Jan 17 2011 10:23PM
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oil.
Posts: 2255 - Karma: 1,254
free at stratton but you need to watch a video annd take a quiz
Jan 17 2011 10:31PM
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Blake.P
Posts: 9894 - Karma: 3,585
summit at snoqualmie. some guy bombed a closed run to get speed for a jump. that doubled the length of the normal inrun, he overshot the 50(ish) footer to flat, died (or got paralyzed, both happened at some point), and his family sued the mountain. with the waiver, you release all liability and acknowledge/accept all risks coming from the features. so now it is a lot harder to sue mountains (if it is clearly a maintenance/set-up problem, you still can try, but anything caused by stupidity is out of the question)
Jan 17 2011 10:39PM
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alexg1687
Posts: 1505 - Karma: 1,582
its not possible to release all liability. its complicated but in essence you can't sign away a "right". the waivers for parks just establish that you understand that the features are more dangerous than normal ski runs and that you have the skills to use them safely.

you can always sue the mountain if they were negligent in providing a service. eg. if you signed a waiver stating that you understand the risks associated with the big park but then they neglected to fill in a rut on a landing that was clearly dangerous then they would be at fault. if they groomed the jump and it was all normal then they wouldnt be at fault.
Jan 17 2011 11:12PM
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*simba*
Posts: 9125 - Karma: 511
Absolutely!
I work park crew at the mountain that Jimmy and I ski, and alot of the times there are bigger ruts on the sides of the features then at the bottom, from people jumping off the sides of lips.



Jan 17 2011 11:18PM
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Mr.Gaga
Posts: 2021 - Karma: 542

Yeah, thats my situation, 20$ at bromont, 15$ or so at avila (not sure, will get mid-season pass in march, 15$ at st-anne (went once and will go back during march break)..... Still fucking 50$ for park pass and so many fucking card on me its getting annoying to carry... But remember those days when gaper were having a great time doing their slalom in our landing, prbly worth 50$ but yeah its getting expensive. Bromont and Avila are worth it they did a great park, St-Anne park is realy not that great, many speed issues, no jumps (stupid rules or w-e), meh hopefully it will be better in march

Jan 17 2011 11:24PM
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EvanMeyer
Posts: 3826 - Karma: 3,509
forreal its ridiculous i see kids actually having high side jumping contests
Jan 17 2011 11:57PM
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WillStart
Posts: 3955 - Karma: 3,192
had to buy one at schweitzer mountain when i went back over break. was kind of a hassle to go through the process of getting one, but i guess it will help keep gapers out of the park. then again, they don't even check the passes most days. plus it might deter kids who are on the fence about park from even checking it out.

in my opinion, mountains should have a completely banger park to institute a park pass, otherwise i'm not sure where my money is going. schweitzer has done a good job though on getting a lot of stuff set up early; much more effort being put into the park than in years past.
Jan 18 2011 12:54AM
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iLLbiLLy
Posts: 2865 - Karma: 2,631
ours is only 5 dollars and i think it should be more. As a digger yea it sucks having to sit up and check passes in the freezing cold but at least when i do get to ride the park isn't full of gapers like it used to be. It really helps at a mountain like mine where 99% of the people coming are gapers from Florida and Texas. And our injuries have been reduced by more than 500%(rough guess).
Jan 18 2011 1:09AM
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123ski
Posts: 7374 - Karma: 1,415
park passes make a lot of sense
Jan 18 2011 1:11AM
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Crankset
Posts: 1176 - Karma: 497
nice input bro
Jan 18 2011 1:24PM
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Yorio
Posts: 127 - Karma: 39
thats why i got mine so like 6 year old kids dont cut u off when the go off the jump up to a rail
Jan 18 2011 2:47PM
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undercover_skier
Posts: 1079 - Karma: 160
bro's parks don't grow by themselves, after all it does cost some bucks for them and the up keep, stop complaining and pay the resorts for the work they do so you can enjoy the ride !!!
Jan 18 2011 3:04PM
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PON3
Posts: 3817 - Karma: 783
i dont ride park much but thats shitty when i dont wanna buy a park pass and just wanna hit a booter or two at the end of the day after riding the back country

but for all who go....no gapers so its not too bad
Jan 18 2011 5:09PM
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Bryan*
Posts: 1818 - Karma: 115
At my home mtn (Mount Southington in CT) we have park passes...they are 10 dollars and you have to go to the office sign some forms and your good... up till this year even if you had season pass you had to pay for the park pass and that was no big deal because it would keep the racers and little kids out of the park. but this year Mount southington decided to add park passes into the season pass. the racers and gapers are having a field day... they go off the jump to the features and basically do this to get back at us...park crew has talked to there race coaches and they say that they have no right to deny them from going off the side of the jump so basically we are stuck and the park pass is really not working.

spark notes.... my home mtn racers are pricks.
Jan 18 2011 5:20PM
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PON3
Posts: 3817 - Karma: 783
well i will have to make sure and try to avoid it lol
Jan 18 2011 5:25PM
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Gknow
Posts: 627 - Karma: 358
What about an EC mountain like Mount Snow where they cater to mostly park rats and then all the new york gapers...would they lose money if they required park passes and asked people to pay $5-$20 for a pass? Probably not seeing as they have some of the best parks on the EC and everyone I know would pay that one time fee. I don't know if it'd work logistically though, they have soo many people who shred Carinthia all day
Jan 18 2011 5:31PM
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TWoods
Posts: 10014 - Karma: 8,388
I would pay 20 for a park pass, and if every mountain I went to had the same rules, then it would be fine by me. I would just factor that into the cost of the trip.

It keeps goombas out of the park. 12 year olds with camelbacks and rental skis aren't going to fork over 20 to jump off the side of the rails and ski down the landings of the booters.
Jan 18 2011 6:03PM
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d-rok
Posts: 594 - Karma: 113
i know it sucks paying for a park pass, but everybody's gotta pay for someone's shitty decision (ie, when someone filles a lawsuit for a couple million dollars because of a bad decision resulting in a broken back or shit like that) when the msa is worth around 30 million, you can't afford a lawsuit like that.
but anyway the park pass is bullshit because anyfucking retard can get it, people won't even hit the features but at least they get to go in the park.

also what i dont get is how a mountain like mammoth can open a 90footer for anyone to hit even your grandmother, i mean some people must get seriously injured on the shit, do they just pay em off or what?
Jan 18 2011 6:06PM
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Film.
Posts: 2649 - Karma: 2,296
Vail FREAKING NEED ONE same with beaver a shit ton of rich Gape Trains are litteraly Everywhere in the Golden peak terrain park.
Jan 18 2011 6:23PM
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vincentlee223
Posts: 1571 - Karma: 382
it's ten bucks at my home mountain and they make you do a quiz that makes sure you know basic park etiquette.
Jan 18 2011 7:27PM
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Tucks
Posts: 2120 - Karma: 161
I have the same thought
Jan 18 2011 8:31PM
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[J_Gasper]
Posts: 2983 - Karma: 1,594
I would be fine with paying for a park pass. There are more damn gapers in my park then there are legit riders. Last year it didnt really bother me much, but this year all kids do is ruin the lip, screw the landings and dont know how to get on a rope.
Jan 18 2011 8:43PM
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TWoods
Posts: 10014 - Karma: 8,388
Mammoth's jumps look scary, people don't fuck with them if they don't know what's going on so much. Plus, having a big park on a completely different run keeps the goombas away from it.

When people do get hurt, they are generally just not shitheads about it and don't ask for any compensation. Unless parks have been booby-trapped by park crew, it's ALWAYS the riders' fault. Most people don't try to sue when they get fucked up (surprisingly)
Jan 18 2011 8:49PM
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Keith_M
Posts: 796 - Karma: 772
I swear, at my mountain, the Terrain park crew does booby trap stuff.
Jan 18 2011 10:13PM
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adamlukowski
Posts: 3676 - Karma: 311
im gonna call a little TROLLING going down...
Jan 18 2011 10:30PM
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cc3
Posts: 36 - Karma: 25
just to reference the snoqualmie case, iirc, the lawsuit was based on park crew negligence in the construction of the jump. and i believe it was settled something like 60% resorts fault, 40% skiers fault.
Jan 19 2011 2:29AM
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rozboon
Posts: 1642 - Karma: 868

I wish our park did passes. And made them fairly pricey, like $30+

Would keep out the dicks that think the side of an XL line is a good place to teach little Johnny to french-fry. It's like... Don't worry son, if you start going too fast just turn out over that big wide empty bit. I'm sure a 180lb dude going 40mph blind won't fall out of the sky and kill you.

Jan 19 2011 3:32AM
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Ryanvdonk
Posts: 12811 - Karma: 1,971
stevens gives you a temp pass too, its not like you have to go in and pay right away, just watch the vid and have fun, then get it on the way out or the next morning
Jan 19 2011 3:51AM
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jibnut
Posts: 3038 - Karma: 304
I just want to clarify if you have the temp pass though, you have to get it day of. That's the only downside, if you don't pay for it that day you have to do it all over again.
Jan 19 2011 9:25AM
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AWALLRUS.
Posts: 5762 - Karma: 223

rofl what

also i dont think this would ever happen but what if you could get a park pass that is provincial/state wide, that'd be nice

Jan 20 2011 10:53PM
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