You going to visit?Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeedashbo
Good news.
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You going to visit?Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeedashbo
Good news.
What doesn't balance in his statement, though, are other strategic alliances that are possible. Schweitzer, which I hope doesn't sell into the consolidation but likely will at some point, is part of the Powder Alliance and has been for a number of years. You don't necessarily have to sell out in order to create greater value for customers.Quote:
Originally Posted by PNWbrit
He just beat cancer a few years ago.. only just.Quote:
Originally Posted by Norseman
I know he loves the place and he still shovels the patio, picks up garbage ,bumps chairs and slings pizza..
There might just come a time where running a business that every customer thinks they could do better, or bad mouths his wife gets too much.
Maybe ease off on the personal stuff norse.
....And I doubt Mr & Mrs Alterra will ever stop at the bottom of the Blvd and pick up 410 hitchhikers. Let alone know, care or be interested where you got good turns.
I for one will miss that part of his ownership.
Trying to run a profitable ski area these days is a lot harder than most people think
Edited my post... had a drink last night and got mean. Apologies
I got no beefs against JK himself. I, too, appreciate seeing him on the slopes and in the Elk and generally seeming stoked to be there. Never had a negative interaction with him directly. Others in his entourage have left sour tastes but whatever.
Please don't take my naive questions about the sale of the place as know-better rhetoricals.
That being said... with all these for-profit resorts surfing the crazy corporate wave, bouncing around the reefs and cliffs, I increasingly appreciate the Bridger Bowl model of Community Non-profit.
Carry on
It's interesting to me that even the prospect of competing with Stevens post-acquisition was daunting enough to lead them to cash out.
FIFY......Quote:
Originally Posted by Norseman
I know it can't be easy to replicate but that model really does work, took me about 28 years to realize it.
ditto. Maybe there's some nuance to the marketing regarding local versus nonlocal, e.g. the Crustal tack was to target vacationers? Stevens has been untenable for years for us due to US2 fustercluck, parking, etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by PNWbrit
On the other hand, there have been a number of customer service fumbles @ Crustal, including the changes in under 11 passes and a variety of other individual situations that could have been handled with more aplomb.
Announced in June, closed August 15, 2018.Quote:
When did Steven's get bought by Vail? Would it have showed up in previous years sales too?
http://news.vailresorts.com/corporat...spassclose.htm
How they handle the pass price discrepancy will be telling. It won't be hard to improve on customer relations.Quote:
I'm sure plenty of people will love the whole Ikon deal and it's vacation benefits... it's not very attractive to me right now. And how it's been communicated is shameful... and I still think borderline illegal if they don't make more than right for those who've now overpaid.
I hope that the new boss understands the value of diversity. My hopes are not high, but let's see what they do.Quote:
I'm sure there will be some humps in the road with new management... maybe some existing humps will be smoothed out - a functional management structure would be a start. Also curious who will take over as head of patrol.
.. and... Hopefully our new corporate overlords won't put the squeeze on the Alpine Inn/Elk ownership group. I don't want that place run by a ski mega corp and have it Disneyfied.
For some reason I thought the Vail/Stevens deal was earlier than that.
Difficult to see there could be any sign in the numbers yet then.
Marketing Crystal to vacationers seems like it'd be only small $ benefit at best. Given the lack of accommodation and non skiing activities. Boom town Puget Sound is their market and an easy one, I'd have thought. Better customer care, consistency would go a long way and is easy, cheap... they've definitely not helped themselves recently with that.. for instance the on and off again spring skiing really pissed off a lot of people.
It may have been, but June is the earliest announcement I could find. Yahwah knows how long it's been in the works.Quote:
Originally Posted by PNWbrit
But yeah, I'm not following the rationale presented and by this time, I feel a little justified in being a little skeptical of brand rationalizations.
fwiw, I have had first hand very poor customer relations where my request was met with literally having a customer comment sheet thrown at me. I am not alone in this type of experience.
There was a noticable amount of penny pinching going on this year too.. I had wondered if there was a hint of regret, nervousness about the purchase from Boyne behind that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Buster Highmen
We will see what happens now..
Runout grooming was bad. I blame the umbrella.Quote:
Originally Posted by PNWbrit
Maybe they'll have better moguls now.
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So I just heard from a credible source that the whole announcement was put up on the web prematurely by alterra's web "guru"... hence the lack of information.
Hmmmmm.
Would explain quite a bit.
Daniels latest job?Quote:
Originally Posted by PNWbrit
Box fan and door ajar level guru.Quote:
Originally Posted by Buster Highmen
I always do. Usually early season east peak or southback before the lifts open. Can't remember the last time I was motivated to buy a lift ticket. If spring operations start again I'd have no problem giving them my moneyQuote:
Originally Posted by PNWbrit
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Best news is hearing that bitch is out of job. And crystal can only do better customer service. It can’t get any worse.
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Lifts running often before 9:00 was great.
I hope the new owners get their ski patrol and avie control act together, that's easy to underestimate if one is coming in fresh.
If you guys want some free hot chocolate coupons, let me know. I've got some peeps on the inside. Look on the bright side, I have how added Ski-attle to my farewatcher. Buster talks about some kind of SnotPuckerZappaSnatcherGigglePuke storm skiing which is apparently legendary.
In all seriousness, my ski area employee friends (mostly patrol and ops but some management) have nothing but good things to say about Alterra's focus on skiing and willingness to spend money on skiing. I think the Aspen crowd says the same thing.
Of course, to be determined. Generally when it snows, all it good. When it doesn't, skier start looking for scapegoats.
The fall balers, howler graupel blasts that are among the best storm skiing ever.
Make one, you owe it to yourself, both Crustal and Alpy.
This year is supposedly an El Nino which is normally bad for us.
On the other hand, SEA<->ZRH just dropped below $500.
New Google Flights blows so I haven't been doing my normal recon. My travel budget and prior commitments preclude Euro skiing this year but hey...there are always lottery tickets.Quote:
On the other hand, SEA<->ZRH just dropped below $500
Kayak works gud fer me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Foggy_Goggles
With the El Nino forcast, I may lurk more down SWCO way; will ping when.Quote:
My travel budget and prior commitments preclude Euro skiing this year but hey...there are always lottery tickets.
I think he is on to something with the pass issue. I live in N seattle, it is a wash time wise crystal vs stevens, though coming home from stevens can really suck. Parking isn't an issue if you get either place early. Summit and crystal on a joined pass sounds interesting, but so does stevens and whistler.
I get it...
I can imagine that cutting ties with family holdings also meant losing a safety net of sorts.
It's one thing if you are a ski area who has a bad season that is owned by a conglomerate, it's another if you are a freestanding entity.
I heard rumors of Vail shopping Stevens (or maybe it was Stevens shopping Vail) back in fall of 2014. I can't believe that JK didn't know about it until a few months ago. Maybe Alterra made him an offer that was way too good to refuse? I think the Vail bought Stevens was a convenient excuse.
I sincerely hope that these mega ski corps do some major upgrades and expansions at these PNW resort in the next decade. We need it badly. It's long overdue.
Even little things like more off-season brush removal, more thinning/glading, improvements of catch trails for inbounds "side country" will make a huge difference in spreading people out and maximizing the skiable acreage inside a resorts permit area. Harbor resorts never did that stuff when they owned Stevens.
The new owners (CNL/Mountain High) did a little bit of thinning each summer and it dramatically has improved the experience at Stevens, especially low tide/early season. Hopefully Vail does a LOT more of that next summer. (My insiders said this was a really lame year for any summer projects since the current owners didn't want to do anything before Vail closed on the deal, and at this point Vail doesn't have a lot of time before the snow flies.)
This is a life lesson folks. Get it while and when you can.Quote:
Originally Posted by Foggy_Goggles
We're talking about skiing here, yes?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mofro261
It's about a lift from b lot.
I think overall capacity needs to be increased. (I've said this hundreds of times.)
More parking, more inbounds acreage, more thinning/glading, more lifts to more places.
I'm often baffled by whiny commentators on social media being dismayed that they couldn't find parking Christmas week at Stevens Pass at 10am. If the lots are full, is the rest of the experience going to be any good? My guess would be "no".
so... for various reasons I missed buying a pass at spring prices. should I buy an Ikon now? Will Ikon pricing change once the deal's closed?
I don't think there's any pricing change. There's an awful lot of added language in the publicity about subject or contingent to finalization of transaction though.Quote:
Originally Posted by oftpiste
You clearly don't know them very well.Quote:
Originally Posted by californiagrown
I suspect more investment towards building hotels and parking lot than trail maintenance... but it may not be such a bad thing for this area to have a destination resort. Even if it doesn’t draw visitors from out of state, if Seattle people do a week during holidays as a staycation because driving is far and sucks, then they made their money back.
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That obvious?Quote:
Originally Posted by oftpiste
Disagree.Quote:
Originally Posted by tmokes
Agreed, Stevens would be awesome.Quote:
Originally Posted by tmokes
But really, the weather here is way too shitty to support the kind of blue skies and diaphanous powder the uppah crust seeks.
The thing is, in my 34 years of ski area, ski patrol and avi experience it is extremely rare for an ownership change to have much effect on the ski patrol and avi programs the 1st year or even 2 unless there was a death involved.Quote:
I hope the new owners get their ski patrol and avie control act together, that's easy to underestimate if one is coming in fresh.
I am far away in Montana so I don't know the inner workings. Is JK leaving? Or just going to be a non-owner/manager? Is Kim stepping down?
I am curious because there are rumblings here in Big Sky country as well.
I believe the term used was "stepping down". Hence my query.Quote:
Originally Posted by Not bunion
Yes and yes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Not bunion
Stepping completely away is my understanding.
As is Andrew K.