From what I have read in these posts and my own eastern resort experiences , lead me to believe that Vail resorts and their inability to open lifts, make snow,etc is purvasive and not limited to Stevens Pass. Vail is using the classic excuse of the pandemic and lack of employees for not opening up lifts and terrain. To quote Rahm Emanuel " Never let a serious crisis go to waste" You have the opportunity to do things, you think you could never do before"
A previous mountain manager from one these small eastern areas retired , and told me that without food , beverage, and special events they had taken in more revenue than in previous years because they could ask full ticket prices during the 2020 -2021 season.
He did not say it directly, but implied the reservation system was slanted toward selling non -epic pass lift tickets, by limiting pass holder reservations. Ski area capacity was never enforced that I could tell, and this small eastern resort very rarely scanned passes all day if only for an hour . During my western Vail resort visits, they did scan and enforce reservations.
The month I spend out west is the reason I continue to buy an epic pass, but now considering an a -basin pass or IKON. VR model of one size fits all does not work. MGMT of big time destination resort is way different than day trippers from big cities - can you say Steven Pass and PCMR ( partially local, partially destination)with seven Springs to follow shortly.
As an ancedotal observation;
Skiing early season this year at one of these smaller eastern resorts, I noticed that snow was made on several trails, and could have been opened for several days prior, but currently closed. I asked the ski patrol why the trails were closed, they said they had not been given the ok by the newly installed VR mnt manager to open the slopes, even though they were probably safe to ski. Because only 2 intermediate slopes were currently open ,one of which contained snowboard terrain features which required skiers of various ability levels to share the narrow slope with those jumping and riding on terrain features. . Given more choices for trail selection, I and others would have avoided this terrain feature trail.
I write this because, I have a point of reference under similiar situations between this year and last year with respect to time period, snow making, lift operations and ski area management style before VR full mgmt takeover.. By far, despite the reservation system, last year was superior as far as less wait time in the lift line and more terrain variety.
Earlier this month, there were ample periods of cold weather to make snow, which were not exploited. During the Christmas holidays, even though they only had 4 intermediate slopes open, these 4 slopes could not adequately accommodate 5000 skiers on short length hill with 500 ft vertical. Even during rain throughout the entire Holiday. I
In otherwords, either Vail resorts mismanaged its resorts in terms of lift operations or Vail resorts limited lift operations by corporate design. Vail resorts is in the snow business, they certainly know how to manage resorts when mother nature does not co -operate, but now they are immune to weather because of the epic pass sales. As someone noted in a previous post they already have your money, so why improve services?
And by the way, if VR's management team can not adequately provide the necessary workforce at its resorts, they should be replaced with a management team that can. The VR reputation is at stake here. Because of this limited resource fiasco, their season pass sales next year will surely decline. False incentives for season pass buys will not be sustainable if the lifts aren't running.
I just hope and pray Vail never buys the place.
