Boycott Vail Resorts 2024

CistGampHow am I supposed to lap Whitetail ski 20 times a season? Epic Pass prices are higher but way cheaper than buying day passes.

SkiBum.Not to kill your vibe but “vision” does not have much to do with terrain parks. Vision is people on snow, passes sold, burgers in mouths, uphill capacity, hotel bed count, Capitol investments.

TOAST.You're not wrong, but being someone on NS I'd think you would try to help parks keep funding and produce a good product for all abilities. Maybe you do at whatever resort your at as I'm pretty sure you are upper management somewhere.
Park skiing is the only reason there are die hard skier kids in the mid Atlantic and those people grow up to be skiers and get their families into it. Sure big parks don't get used nearly as much as beginner/intermediate parks, but if you want to keep a decent builder that can build safe features for the beginners/intermediate they will probably want to build big stuff to or they'll move away.
I do agree that Peak was shit tho.
not sure why I typed out this whole rant.

drewjungbluthI feel like any attempt with Vail is probably insanely hopeless

vorpal-snowi don't get why they keep buying spots out east tho.

TOAST.a large portion of the U.S. population is on the east coast. buy a resort outside of every major city and you will have thousands buying passes just to take trips to their flagship resorts as well as a few local days through the season.

TOAST.a large portion of the U.S. population is on the east coast. buy a resort outside of every major city and you will have thousands buying passes just to take trips to their flagship resorts as well as a few local days through the season.

BradFiAusNzCoCaYup and they bought peak resorts which was trading on NASDAQ for sub $10 at the time. They’re very much trying to put people in a position where they don’t have a choice and then they capitalize on those on-hill purchases. The season pass is the loss leader, in some ways.

Goretex_VidalThey’re also trying to influence local politics in favor of their monopoly through lobbying and getting politicians who are pro-privatization on the boards making decisions about publicly owned ski areas like Gunstock in NH last year.

I know up thread there’s posts arguing against a boycott as a viable tactic to change the takeover of the megapass but it’s easier to look at the boycott as a tactic to preserve your ethics and support the locally owned ski areas. Walmart is always going to be out by the interstate sucking up all the revenue but that doesn’t mean you gotta stop supporting locals and just give in to the convenience.

**This post was edited on Jan 26th 2023 at 8:34:09am

Goretex_VidalThey’re also trying to influence local politics in favor of their monopoly through lobbying and getting politicians who are pro-privatization on the boards making decisions about publicly owned ski areas like Gunstock in NH last year.

**This post was edited on Jan 26th 2023 at 8:34:09am

eheathIdk man, I think you're grossly overestimating the amount of park skiers, I.E. people who go to the mountain to only ski park. Sure the random jerry here and there will cruise thru the park, but they spend 90% of their day not skiing the park.

I bet < 10% of the people who buy a pass to ski at mount snow are "park skiers".

Farmville420Maybe things have changed, but when I rode carinthia I remember sitting in massive lift lines at nitro and only several groups of people didn’t have twin tips. I know non park skiers use twin tips but the influence used to be heavy, the parks drew so many people to carinthia that they spent a couple million rebuilding the lodge. they didn’t even touch the main base lodge and haven’t in probably 30 years? Just to put into perspective how popular carinthia was. Even if not everyone there rides the park, it’s still a big selling point I think

eheathto be fair, this is what every large corporation does and is seen as "acceptable".

eheathYou're basing your guesstimate off the lift line at one lift that accesses the park?

Emma_Watsonmilitant anti-vail ecoterrorism now

Farmville420And the money they spent rebuilding the lodge, which they haven’t done to literally any other lodge at the mountain. I don’t think it was a coincidence that they literally dumped millions of dollars into carinthia for no reason. Plus the magic carpet at grommet, idk, they seem to definitely be more interested in throwing money towards carinthia than other parts of the mountain

Farmville420And the money they spent rebuilding the lodge, which they haven’t done to literally any other lodge at the mountain. I don’t think it was a coincidence that they literally dumped millions of dollars into carinthia for no reason. Plus the magic carpet at grommet, idk, they seem to definitely be more interested in throwing money towards carinthia than other parts of the mountain

SkiBum.The lodge wasn’t for park skiers…

Every resort has a master plan and Capitol improvement plan. What lodge or lift or project to get replaced or built. Mt Snow under Peak had that lodge as the first kinda part of development of that base area. Peak had more planned over there, in conjunction with that west lake snowmaking project. There was a new pump house and some employee housing or homes sites/condos road and parking. Etc. lots of that is now changed I’m sure under Vail.

long story short - that lodge was not built for park skiers

eheathyeah i didnt even bother acknowledging that, not sure why you'd ever think anything was build for park skiers outside of the park, vail already hates how much they spend on terrain parks.

Farmville420Not sure if you ever sat in the old lodge but it was pretty exclusively park skiers and snowboarders in there, I think they are well aware of who was using that part of the mountain. Also if they were trying to cut the park budget, I think the elephant in the room is the fact that they did a few years back, and now this year the park is one of the most expansive setups they’ve had in a decade. They have literally invested more this year than years past. So if they are trying to kill the parks they’re kind of doing a horrible job

Farmville420Not sure if you ever sat in the old lodge but it was pretty exclusively park skiers and snowboarders in there, I think they are well aware of who was using that part of the mountain. Also if they were trying to cut the park budget, I think the elephant in the room is the fact that they did a few years back, and now this year the park is one of the most expansive setups they’ve had in a decade. They have literally invested more this year than years past. So if they are trying to kill the parks they’re kind of doing a horrible job

eheathpark skiers are a small minority at huge ski resorts, im not exactly sure why you think otherwise.

SkiBum.Okay, you got me. The new $6m lodge and $15 paid parking at Carinthia is for park skiers only.

Farmville420I’m literally just saying it’s a selling point. People like to look at the parks and watch people do tricks. That’s not a foreign concept, there’s a reason every resort puts their halfpipe right in front of a lodge… And there is definitely a heavy park presence there, they decided to invest more in the park this year than the first few years vail took charge, I doubt it’s a coincidence.

You also gotta remember their clientele is mostly families, doubt any bachelors and their buds are traveling to dover Vermont for a boys trip, and having a park is real good for people with kids, gives everyone something to enjoy. I think it’s definitely a big factor in their decision making moving forward, that’s why they keep spending a shit ton of money to groom all 7 parks and build new features every offseason.

eheathyou value park far more than anyone else does, the majority of people could give two shits about the park dude, your opinion is suffering from extreme bias

Farmville420I’m literally just saying it’s a selling point. People like to look at the parks and watch people do tricks. That’s not a foreign concept, there’s a reason every resort puts their halfpipe right in front of a lodge… And there is definitely a heavy park presence there, they decided to invest more in the park this year than the first few years vail took charge, I doubt it’s a coincidence.

You also gotta remember their clientele is mostly families, doubt any bachelors and their buds are traveling to dover Vermont for a boys trip, and having a park is real good for people with kids, gives everyone something to enjoy. I think it’s definitely a big factor in their decision making moving forward, that’s why they keep spending a shit ton of money to groom all 7 parks and build new features every offseason.

BradFiAusNzCoCaParks are built in strategic positions for viewing for general public and lifts so he’s not wrong there. Think mammoth, copper, Northstar, countless others. All have the pipe there. Look at Cardrona even.

*wait I think cardrona is mostly lift view. It’s been like 3 1/2 years since I was there. I can’t remember


**This post was edited on Jan 26th 2023 at 4:21:55pm

r00kieThey are also put there because it's easier to pull your broken carcus off the hill and into the patrol room from the base area.

CoolChillGuy420I love the salt from 18-21 year old college kids mad that their "local" i.e Stowe, Mt Snow, etc., which have already been established ski areas in the industry, are being "ruined" because there aren't enough tubes to hit.