Uh oh. Fast Tracks at Powdr resorts is coming

[KingGrump]

This means that 97 percent of what you worry over is not much more than a fearful mind punishing you with exaggerations and misperceptions.

Yeah, the missing 3% will kill you dead.

 

[KingGrump]

They replaced the cabins a few years ago and you can actually sit on a normal bench.

Unless you are the guy sitting by the door. The door hinge will amputate you leg just above the ankle.
Don't get me started on the design deficiencies of the new gondola cabin.

 

[Tricia]

Except any pow day in Utah is absolutely rammed regardless of day. That philosophy might work at My Rose, but that is not the case in Utah.

Pow days is when I expect things to especially get contentious when people are zipping by on the fast line. They at least don't include the Tram in the Fast Pass. If Snowbird sticks with their announcement, I can only hope other resorts in Utah don't follow. That way people have a choice. I have no problem avoiding Snowbird and skiing other places. The problem is if every resort starts doing this. Given how consolidated the ski industry has become with Alterra and Vail, all it takes is those two to follow and the whole industry basically turns into Disney on snow.

While a majority of my skiing is at Mt Rose, I also ski a fair bit at other Tahoe resorts and travel a lot, including a good amount in Utah. Yeah, I've been in the conga line of cars going up LCC, and I've stood in line at Gad on a powder day. I'm not unfamiliar with the woes of Utah powder day skiing. I just don't think the 2% of overall skiers getting a fast track pass is going to change the overall ski day experience that much, powder day or not.

And FWIW, Utah is no different than any other state when it comes to powder day ski traffic. For reference check out the threads about I-70 on the front range in Colorado or 89 between Donner Pass and Squaw on a powder day. Every region has their woes whether its road traffic or lift lines.

Its like the old saying....No one goes there anymore because its too busy.

 

[Tricia]

Yeah, the missing 3% will kill you dead.

The missing 3% don't worry if the glass is half full or half empty. They just want to know who took half of their stuff.

 

[James]

Unless you are the guy sitting by the door. The door hinge will amputate you leg just above the ankle.
Don't get me started on the design deficiencies of the new gondola cabin.

Ehhh, you worry too much.

 

[Wasatchman]

I just don't think the 2% of overall skiers getting a fast track pass is going to change the overall ski day experience that much, powder day or not.

Powdr management said "generally less than 2%"

Note that they did not say they are capping at 2 percent. Their statement was based on historical trends at different resorts and different execution.

And is the 2 percent an average of all the ski days throughout the season where holiday/pow days fast track usage is dramatically higher than other days so the average is 2 percent? People are taking this 2 percent like it's gospel when they did not explicitly say they are capping at 2 percent.

And I'm not convinced the stereotypes bandied about in this thread as far as who will use the product necessarily will hold on pow days. You bet your ass there will be a sizeable amount of avid skiers who buy that fast pass on a pow day who don't fit the stereotypes bandied about in this thread.

 

[Tricia]

Powdr management said "generally less than 2%"

Note that they did not say they are capping at 2 percent. Their statement was based on historical trends at different resorts and different execution.

And is the 2 percent an average of all the ski days throughout the season where holiday/pow days fast track usage is dramatically higher than other days so the average is 2 percent? People are taking this 2 percent like it's gospel when they did not explicitly say they are capping at 2 percent.

And I'm not convinced the stereotypes bandied about in this thread as far as who will use the product necessarily will hold on pow days. You bet your ass there will be a sizeable amount of avid skiers who buy that fast pass on a pow day who don't fit the stereotypes bandied about in this thread.

One thing I thought was interesting is that different resorts implementing this seem to have slightly different plans on how to make these FT passes available.

I thought I read that they had to be purchased ahead of time on line or on an app, but I could be wrong.
If that is the case, then making a game day decision to purchase one is not likely to be a possibility.
We will see how it rolls out. Maybe it will work. Maybe it won't.

@Wasatchman did you decide if you're taking Snowbird up on their offer for a refund?
Just curious how many people will do that.

 

[KingGrump]

Ehhh, you worry too much.

 

[Nancy Hummel]

You prove what you believe.

 

[slowrider]

With Fast Tracks superiore status line privileges comes a free sticker.

 

[Wasatchman]

@Wasatchman did you decide if you're taking Snowbird up on their offer for a refund?
Just curious how many people will do that.

Snowbird is not my home mountain. But I have skiing there about half a dozen times a year which I won't be doing this season.

I have some friends that got a refund. I am not sure what percentage are cancelling. But it is definitely creating huge controversy here. There was an article in yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune about it.

 

[Philpug]

A question for those who are against these upgrades. Take a resort like Snowbird (or an Aspen, Sun Valley or Deer Valley) where the the season pass is well over $1K and Ikon/Epic access is limited, how would you feel if a FastPass upgrade was included in the full pass?

 

[Jersey Skier]

"Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere"
​

Eighty-five percent of what we worry about never happens. Now, there's a study that proves it. This study looked into how many of our imagined calamities never materialize. In this study, subjects were asked to write down their worries over an extended period of time and then identify which of their imagined misfortunes did not actually happen. Lo and behold, it turns out that 85 percent of what subjects worried about never happened, and with the 15 percent that did happen, 79 percent of subjects discovered either they could handle the difficulty better than expected, or the difficulty taught them an important lesson worth learning.

This means that 97 percent of what you worry over is not much more than a fearful mind punishing you with exaggerations and misperceptions.

From LinkedIn.

My wife always has a Plan B. She worries about everything. Now I'm worried if I send her this link she'll kill me.

 

[DanoT]

With Fast Tracks superiore status line privileges comes a free sticker.
View attachment 145209

Sometimes at Sun Peaks it snows a small amount of very light dry snow overnight and as it gets skied the spray forms piles of snow that by late morning/early afternoon those piles of snow are still light and dry but are now deeper than what fell overnight. So yeah, I ski and enjoy used snow.

 

[KingGrump]

My wife always has a Plan B. She worries about everything. Now I'm worried if I send her this link she'll kill me.

If she kills you. Does that make you a three percenter.

 

[eok]

I'm a Mt Bachelor pass holder. As I've said before here, I was pissed about Bachelor announcing Fast Tracks well after I bought my pass.

Nope, we're not going for the refund because we already have plans in place with family & friends. Also: hey, I'm not looking for any additional drama in my life this winter, I just want to ski. So Bachelor will remain our home mountain this season.

There's another local resort: Hoodoo. We've been thinking of switching to that resort for a few years now. It's smaller and a slightly longer drive, but it is more family oriented and has some good terrain. Plus: it's on the route to visit our grand kids. We'll definitely visit Hoodoo more this season than we have in the past.

But will we drop Bachelor and go with Hoodoo passes in the future? I can't say. Just depends on how things go.

 

[Scruffy]

“Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning,” Winston Churchill.

“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened”​

― Winston S. Churchill

 

[Scruffy]

A question for those who are against these upgrades. Take a resort like Snowbird (or an Aspen, Sun Valley or Deer Valley) where the the season pass is well over $1K and Ikon/Epic access is limited, how would you feel if a FastPass upgrade was included in the full pass?

If it comes with a full pass and a full pass is what I need, well then I suppose I have it. Whether I use it or not is another matter. I'm just fundamentally opposed to stratification of the lift line base on $$s. Am I going to fret over it? No. Am I going to let it ruin my day if I see people in the Fast Lane? No. Am I going to shout obscenities, or pelt people in the Fast Lane? No. I'm a self secure grown up. I can handle living with things I don't like--I do it every day.

 

[fatbob]

They could fix a lot of problems by saying - will not be valid for first chair and articulating that volumes in the lane will be strictly metered i.e. a guarantee that fast passers won't blow 2 or more laps while the main line remains packed.

 

[crosscountry]

Except what I worried about the formation of Alterra played out as I feared, perhaps even worse.

My career involves worry. It is worry that helps control risk. Worry serves a great purpose in life as long as it doesn't become crippling. In my profession, those that don't worry get absolutely slaughtered and then eaten. I couldn't disagree more that worry doesn't get you anywhere. Worry helps you plan ahead and mitigate the situation when things do go wrong.

There's a difference between risk mitigation and worrying. Worrying and doing nothing (or can't do anything) is useless.

Even in risk mitigation planning, there's a point where you stop because there's nothing you can do to plan for certain risk. Or the mitigation is so expensive you'll be bankrupt if you take all of the measures. If you can't stop worrying about the mitigation measure that aren't implemented, you won't last long in that role.

We have no control of what the resort will do besides giving feedback, which I trust everyone had done so directly. Ranting about it on a ski forum may feel good, but it really fits that "rocking chair" analogy.