As an ex Vail Resorts employee I will say that there are great people working for the company and I loved the relationships I had with my managers and co workers during my time at Breck. The problem is the corporate "suits" if you will have no clue about the lifestyle that makes the ski industry something we all love.

Today I was planning with a friend that works for Breck to ski this weekend for opening weekend. We were both stoked to ride this weekend and even more so excited that Breck will open with their infamous triple line of JUMPS at the top of park lane.

Then he tells me that Vail employee passes are BLACKED OUT for Friday and Saturdays until more of the mountain is open. I think that is complete bullshit. The reason you sacrifice higher pay doing skilled work so you can live in a place like Summit County is so that you can ride everyday. Vail resorts thinks that their employee benefits are awesome because they give you a free pass and a discount on food. But the catch is they pay less than every other shop in town and all of the benefits come with limitations.

When you buy a summit pass you know what blackout dates you are signing up for. With an employee pass they can black you out whenever they please. They don't even have a good system to let you know when your pass is blackedout. They also take away the food discounts while the cafeterias a busy but you can still eat there if you pay full price.

One day I was at work stoked to take my ride break. I got on all my gear rode the gondola over to peak 8 only to get turned away from the lift because my pass was blackedout. If you are lucky enough to live and work some where that allows you to ski every day you should be able to ski EVERYDAY!

I still ride Breck and buy an Epic Local pass because their parks are the best and all of my crew rides there, but if there was another option I would never support a company that was run like Vail Resorts.

This issue needs to be more public thats why I am writing this now, so please give this a upvote and spread the word!

I would also love to hear more stories about other NSers experience with Vail Resorts both negative and positive.