Vail Town Council Raises Parking Pass Prices

[scott43]

I assume there are other considerations the town has versus just ski ops.

 

[HardDaysNight]

I assume there are other considerations the town has versus just ski ops.

Vail exists entirely on, by and for ski ops. There’s nothing else there.

 

[scott43]

Vail exists entirely on, by and for ski ops. There’s nothing else there.

Well then I stand corrected and it's a straight up cash grab. Not surprised really though..

 

[scott43]

You are right. I could spend an extra hour on a bus. Boy, that sounds like fun.
Meanwhile parking previously reserved for employees will be occupied by the public.
How does that reduce demand?
It simply increases the supply of public pay parking, while eliminating parking reserved for employee.
Genius.

I believe you are correct.

 

[Blue Streak]

This was a Town of Vail action, not VR, proving that the town is just as greedy as the company, which should come as no surprise.

 

[Blue Streak]

Vail exists entirely on, by and for ski ops. There’s nothing else there.

You obviously haven’t spent much time here in the summer, because it’s almost as crowded. In fact, it is getting harder and harder to see a shoulder season at all.

 

[doc]

My brother's inlaws own 3 condos in center Vail and, several years ago, were offered $386,000 to sell one of their underground parking spaces under the condo building.
They declined to sell. Wonder what market value is now.

 

[Bozzenhagen]

Multi-million dollar real estate next to a highway for plebs.

I still love the atmosphere in the main village; inspires me to be a money hungry career-driven person while getting less days on snow. Probably not going to happen.

 

[raisingarizona]

It's typically a parking strategy to encourage alternative transportation methods.

Or a cash grab disguised as some eco-friendly effort.

 

[Andy Mink]

We were at Vail at the beginning of September for a wedding. Parking was free in the garage. The village was hopping; they are definitely doing something right. Lots of bikes going up the gondy to access trails. It's a pretty good hoof from parking to lift, at least in the village. The bus system seems pretty dialed though I don't know what it would be like in winter.

 

[SBrown]

Ah, Vail.

1. Yes, it’s worth it to ski there at least once. The Back Bowls are inimitable. And, it’s Vail.
2. Parking is why I don’t ski there anymore. Even when you pay $20 (the last time I went, at least), you still have to walk a mile to get to the lift.
3. Cash grab, whatever. If you want wages raised, it has to come from somewhere.
4. “Somewhere” shouldn’t be the instructors’ perks, however; this sucks.
5. Off season is always the best season.

 

[Wendy]

It's typically a parking strategy to encourage alternative transportation methods.

In theory I get that, but it’s punitive. I’d be more for providing fast, efficient and affordable public transportation.

 

[ski otter 2]

Ah, life on the endless deck convolutions of the ultimate Dark Empire Battle Cruiser, Vail - just one complex condo/maze shape after another, as one drives past - like the opening scene of Star Wars.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

In theory I get that, but it’s punitive. I’d be more for providing fast, efficient and affordable public transportation.

What would that be? 1000 busses coming from Denver?

 

[Wendy]

What would that be? 1000 busses coming from Denver?

Well, yeah, with the given infrastructure, that’s not optimal either.

 

[fatbob]

The premium tag attached to everything in Vail has always surprised me given how much of a ballache it is. There's not really ski in/out accomodation, bus service is not the slickest (and still leaves you with a walk to the lifts) and parking at weekends has always been a calamity. All this for a resort deliberately built right on the interstate.

 

[ADKmel]

I went to Vail 4yrs ago. We attempted to use public transportation- it was across the highway with no parking except along the highway so we'd have to walk to get to the bus or wait for a parking place and then wait for a bus for ?? long.
So we went to a parking garage- by the clock tower- it was 50$ to park- we still had to walk 1/2 a mile to the ticket window, then walk more to the lift.

Yes the back bowls were a blast- the rest of the mt was not as I remembered it from the early 80's- it was crowded, midweek, people on black trails that should not have been there. No I won't go back.. So many other places to ski that aren't all about the $$$

 

[Jack skis]

The premium tag attached to everything in Vail has always surprised me given how much of a ballache it is. There's not really ski in/out accomodation, bus service is not the slickest (and still leaves you with a walk to the lifts) and parking at weekends has always been a calamity. All this for a resort deliberately built right on the interstate.

My memory may be incorrect, but I think Vail started operations before the Interstate arrived there. As I remember when the area/resort first opened the free parking (was there any other?) was on the highway side of the creek and required a relatively long walk to the gondola base and ticket window. PM me for more half truths regarding the first days at Vail.

 

[Bill Miles]

My memory may be incorrect, but I think Vail started operations before the Interstate arrived there. As I remember when the area/resort first opened the free parking (was there any other?) was on the highway side of the creek and required a relatively long walk to the gondola base and ticket window. PM me for more half truths regarding the first days at Vail.

I seem to remember that on the free parking also. I first skied Vail in 1970.

 

[ski otter 2]

The main road was a highway, but not a wide freeway. It was widened later, but it was still a main interstate route, from the edge of the Eisenhower years. Just much narrower, and winding/dangerous on the pass back then.

I first skied Vail when it opened, 1962 or so.
(We went up to hang out with Pete Seibert in the summer before it opened, actually. (He and my Dad had the war in common, though they served in and near Italy at different times, Seibert's10th much later.)
A nice man, to a kid/teenager. Very easy going. My imperfect memories of him are mostly in the summers. A big man.)

The parking was just across the creek from the village and lifts. A bit of a walk, but winter cosy - on a pedestrian walk, not a road - downhill, then uphill to village center and the lift.

Riva Ridge was the main, and best, ski run, back then, other than the Bowls. Named for the high ridge held by the Nazis across a part of Italy, whose slopes some of those men had to fight up. Back then, I thought it was named after a woman, like Ruthie's Run in Aspen. These days, most of the skiers at Vail don't know that run exists - it just blends in with so many other runs on what has become such a large ski area.

Pepi's was almost the only restaurant. We went up there that first year with Willi Schaefer, the head ski coach of the DU ski team, a friend of my Dad's, and of Pepi. Through Willi, we also visited with Pepi, but then, everybody knew/visited with Pepi in those days, holding court at his table, or pulling up a chair at yours: it was like a very small Alpine village back then, not many people, a small circle partly bonded by an horrific war, partly by pioneer skiing; and Pepi's restaurant/hotel made that place, back then. Pepi Gramshammer. Amazingly nice person also. (He too was kind to kids.) Vail had good beginnings, in spite of being sort of like a highway truck stop, carved out of a high valley ranch to make a new, improbable ski area - narrow down below, wide horizons way up high.