PeppermillRenoFor sure. I was a kid back before the internet made everyone their own travel agent and super passes happened but I am pretty sure lift tickets were for all purposes comped when a flight/hotel/car was booked out of an ad in a magazine to these places. You had to call someone and pay for everything or at least reserve everything at once to get a decent deal.
Super passes cut people a little bit of a break (and you probably have to either be super wealthy or live in proximity to the hills to really benefit from these things) and everyone flips out and blames them for ruining their mountain community. No covid did that and all the boomers retiring and tons of jobs going remote. I spent 2 weeks with a friend in Stowe VT Jan 2020 it was the most perfect place and little community ever absolute heaven and at the dive bar at 1am when it filled up all the locals talked about how they made 3-500 serving that night. This is 3 years into Vials ownership. 2 years later it takes 2 hours to drive what used to take 20 minutes from the village.
True yeah, it depends on the spot and everything is relative.
Idk. I remember my local growing up being way busier and then dying off. But most places have gotten more crowded I guess or you notice it more or both.
Personally I like spring days. Nobody fucking wants to ski, the sun is out, the beer is cold, the coverage is great, the park is firing. I'm about it. I love a good pow day, and sometimes I'll ride when it's slammed, but ive skipped some good pow days because of crowds and regretted nothing. Just sat at home and played the geetar.
When we had spring vibes in Jan there qas a period I rode like 13 days in a row. Sometimes jist a couple top to bottoms but still. A lot for me. Nobody around and good vibes. Not dealing with some douche stressed and jacked up on coffee and in a bad mood from traffic and not enough sleep. Idk I get it, but the frantic douche bag frenzy of pow days is a big turn off.
Social media def had a big impact in my opinion. People only want to ride on the pow days. Even people eho suck at skiing pow. Idk. Spring is the vibe, powder is sweet but whatever, If I had to chose I'd take a nice empty spring day for sure.
