New England Wachusett Mountain - Abruptly ends season pass sales.

[bbbradley]

Offer to buy the business from the family, you can then run it any way you want!

 

[Mark1975]

Crotched isn't a bad mountain, glad he got passes. "Never crowded" is a bit of a stretch though, particularly last year.

There's just something about someone coming on a forum with a thread title and post attacking a company so strongly that will always get the same kind of reaction that you got from us. At least you didn't just sign up and have that be your first post here ha ha. We've seen that happen all too often.

"Never crowded" is a relative term. Compared to Mount Snow or Sunapee, Crotched is never crowded. On a normal weekend day, you can ski right up to the lift. On a "busy" holiday, you might have to wait 3 minutes. If that is too long to wait for the high speed quad, just skate over to the triple over by the race club. There is never a line over there, even on a holiday.

 

[Philpug]

Personally with only 925' vert and 3 top to bottom runs I would be bored and ready to quit after 3.5 hours and ready to start the après-ski.

For those of us that the only option was to ski on sub 1,000ft hills, you make do with the terrain.

 

[Nancy Hummel]

Again, I just can get over the session prices, and the fact you can't buy a multiday ticket there. Personally, I think if you are going to limit sales, especially there where the season doesn't even start to after Thanksgiving, maybe not until December if a warm fall, stopping pass sales in August, without a firm date seems or an warning that passes are really getting low in stock seems silly. I really don't think many people would think passes would be "sold out" in mid-August (or earlier as you stated). People would understand that you will lose some early buy discount, but not being sold out. Again, just my opinion, and I am glad I don't have to deal with that situation.

If it is so important for your friend to ski there, why didn’t he just buy the pass earlier? Not trying to be a jerk but curious?

 

[Steve]

"Never crowded" is a relative term. Compared to Mount Snow or Sunapee, Crotched is never crowded. On a normal weekend day, you can ski right up to the lift. On a "busy" holiday, you might have to wait 3 minutes. If that is too long to wait for the high speed quad, just skate over to the triple over by the race club. There is never a line over there, even on a holiday.

Only been once and that was the case. However family members have gone on the weekend (last season) and said they had long lines, over ½ hour at times. COVID changed everything.

Wachusett weekday mornings for years has been ski on to the lift until at least 11 or 11:30. This past season there was a long line for the first chair and by 9:20 I had to often wait over ½ hour. Weekdays.

 

[Philpug]

Personally, I think passes shoud be offered for purchase at any point in the season. But that is obviously not the case.

 

[Uncle-A]

A friend of mine lives in RI and would ski there from time to time, he said a mid-week senior pass is $309.00..

 

[Tricia]

How many years in the past (excluding the Covid restrictive last year) did they "sell out" of passes in August? I will bet the answer is "none".

Edit: My friend just emailed me that they didn't shut down pass sales last year until mid-October. And that was at the height of the Covid pandemic.

I can't help but wonder if people were holding off on buying passes last year because everyone was waiting to see what was going to happen with the ski season and Covid.
Perhaps that is why the passes weren't sold out as early as this year.
Now that we have a full season of skiing with Covid and a better understanding of how it can happen, people jumped on the passes.
Heck, maybe people who did miss out this year jumped on them earlier so they wouldn't lose out this year.
Maybe its because people who didn't ski last year with all the uncertainty are itching to get back on snow, so they bought passes earlier.
There are a ton of reasons that the passes sold out earlier this year.

 

[Mark1975]

Offer to buy the business from the family, you can then run it any way you want!

I have a friend that coaches there. He told me the season prior to Covid there was rumors flying all over the place among employees that the place was for sale and several of the "big players" were looking at it. Apparently the owner's wanted too to high of a sale price for buildings and lifts. The slopes are owned by the state and are leased. I have no idea if any of this is factual, but heard the same thing from some instructors too. Hey, if Vail isn't willing to pay for it, I can't LOL.

 

[Mark1975]

I can't help but wonder if people were holding off on buying passes last year because everyone was waiting to see what was going to happen with the ski season and Covid.
Perhaps that is why the passes weren't sold out as early as this year.
Now that we have a full season of skiing with Covid and a better understanding of how it can happen, people jumped on the passes.
Heck, maybe people who did miss out this year jumped on them earlier so they wouldn't lose out this year.
Maybe its because people who didn't ski last year with all the uncertainty are itching to get back on snow, so they bought passes earlier.
There are a ton of reasons that the passes sold out earlier this year.

I think you are exactly right. I my friend said the Full Season Gold pass was available when he went on vacation on Aug 8th, but where gone when he checked the website later. Maybe a lot of people "panic" buying not to get left out this year.

 

[Mark1975]

A friend of mine lives in RI and would ski there from time to time, he said a mid-week senior pass is $309.00..

Looking at the website, Senior passes (65+) are the only thing left. They must have some passes in reserve for their seasonal programs too. If they don't, wow is that going to be a mess.

 

[Mark1975]

If it is so important for your friend to ski there, why didn’t he just buy the pass earlier? Not trying to be a jerk but curious?

He went on his family beach vacation on Aug 8th. He was planning to buy when he came back in two weeks. I guess he though buying them on Aug 22nd was early enough for a place that gets limited trails open after Thanksgiving or the first week of December, and doesn't get into full swing until around Christmas week.

 

[Mark1975]

Only been once and that was the case. However family members have gone on the weekend (last season) and said they had long lines, over ½ hour at times. COVID changed everything.

Wachusett weekday mornings for years has been ski on to the lift until at least 11 or 11:30. This past season there was a long line for the first chair and by 9:20 I had to often wait over ½ hour. Weekdays.

Maybe more people from Mass last year due to Wachusett cutting off pass sales after Columbus Weekend? Maybe more local Epic pass holders going to Crotched to beat the crowds at Sunapee, Mount Snow and Okemo? Vermont had some pretty stiff travel restrictions. NH had the loosest travel restriction (maybe none, I can't remember, but I skied in Northern NH all winter with no problems)

Unless there is travel restrictions this year, I wonder if those people will just go to their regular areas, and leave Crotched to the Southern NH/Northern Mass crowd?

 

[Mark1975]

Wachusett weekday mornings for years has been ski on to the lift until at least 11 or 11:30. This past season there was a long line for the first chair and by 9:20 I had to often wait over ½ hour. Weekdays.

I wonder how much of that was caused by the session tickets? If I bought the morning session ticket that expired at noon, you can be darn sure I am going to be there, ready to go for first chair. Normally when I visit a ski area that I don't have a pass for, I get a full day ticket. I don't have to be there for first chair, can take my time getting ready, buy coffee and breakfast, then get out to the lift. After all, I have until 4:30 PM to ski. I will make up time from the morning after "everyone" goes in exactly a 12 pm for lunch. Usually no lift lines then. When everyone comes back out at 1 pm, then I take lunch. After 2 pm people start leaving, so shorter lift lines until close. A full day ticket gives you that flexibility, a short session ticket does not. From what you said, you may have the same problems at Wachusett again this year with lift lines.

 

[bbbradley]

I skied Wachusett a few times last year, most of them were on the AM session ticket, I was in the lift line and ready to go by 8:50. Yes, the lines were far worse than a mid-day, podunk ski area should have, but last year was an "outlier" in data analytics terms. My 1st day last was year was on a 9-12:30 ticket time slot, by 12:30 I had my fill of the same few trails. The other 2-3 days I did the AM ticket slot, by 12:30 I felt like I had gotten enough of the area for the day. The half-day fee felt steep in comparison to the previous year where a full day, midweek was often found for $50, but part of their pricing might be to limit the lift lines, they were pretty bad as it was. I am a get out early, ski hard, then be off the hill mid-afternoon guy (unless the conditions are amazeballs), so the 12:30 limit was a bit earlier than I'd like, but not terrible.

As for talking about pass sales and showing a counter on the website, I have no idea of they deem the number of passes they sell each year proprietary business information, but that may be why they chose not to use a counter. I am not into ski area management, so that may be off base, but it's a possibility.

Below is my track from the 1st day out, limited terrain, and I skied almost all of it. At ~900 vertical (? or whatever it is?) it's not going to wow you, but you can get some turns in and enjoy the day. When I was a little kid Wachusett was the "big hill" after skiing at Nashoba, the home of 8 lifts up and 8 trails down, or so it seems.



This article is a few years old, but highlights until you get to ~2+ hours from Boston area, skiing is small mountain:
Little ski hills

 

[Truberski]

I know Mad River Glen and Magic in Vermont stated early that they would be limiting season pass sales and no one knows if/when they will sellout. Clearly they are trying to manage for the unknown and seemed reasonable to put it out there early so potential buyer beware. Kind of refreshing when a business puts profits aside with goal of safety and season preservation.

I feel for those that call this hill in MA home and are now stuck If it is true that this was not pre-announced or a stated policy of limiting sales.

 

[weatherman]

As for talking about pass sales and showing a counter on the website, I have no idea of they deem the number of passes they sell each year proprietary business information, but that may be why they chose not to use a counter. I am not into ski area management, so that may be off base, but it's a possibility.

This. I've worked for <insert massive ski company here> as a corporate employee. These sort of numbers are a tightly guarded secret. As soon as you know capacity and sales numbers, you can easily back out revenue numbers.

 

[scott43]

One of my wife's previous jobs was sneaking into competitor grocery stores and estimating over the belt purchases in dollars. Same deal, closely guarded revenue information.

 

[bbbradley]

One of my wife's previous jobs was sneaking into competitor grocery stores and estimating over the belt purchases in dollars. Same deal, closely guarded revenue information.

I had a job where I went to competitive mfg plants, watched trucks in/out over a fixed time, and took photos of the raw material silos to estimate mfg capacity as a proxy to get mfg costs and eventually price.

 

[Mark1975]

As for talking about pass sales and showing a counter on the website, I have no idea of they deem the number of passes they sell each year proprietary business information, but that may be why they chose not to use a counter. I am not into ski area management, so that may be off base, but it's a possibility.

In past years, they sold as many passes as possible. No cutoff date, no maximum number. They would even sell you a pass the last week of the season if you wanted to buy one. I think any passes sold after some date in March were actually for the next season, but you could use them until they closed. Generally the last week of March or the first week of April. That was more than fair.

I spoke again with the WMRT coach friend I know, and he had something interesting to add. He is hearing that this is the new "norm" regardless of Covid. He said the mountain made a huge profit off of limiting pass sales and instituting the $68 session ticket. This is really not a half day ticket, but a quarter day ticket because the Gold pass includes all day and all evening skiing. Plus there is the additional $18 charge if you need to switch pre-paid sessions. He told me they are also limiting all seasonal programs outside the race team to a 3.5 hr session, but the seasonal cost will be the same as the previous full day seasonal programs.

Well, if they can pull this off after Covid is gone or reduced to just a bad cold, more power to them. You can count me out from any ski area that tries this operating model. Plenty of other ski areas in New England. I don't see how this helps the season pass holders. The people who buy the session tickets are going to jam the lift lines because they know they must get in as many runs in as possible in 3 hours to justify the cost of the session ticket. Season pass holders might have a little reprieve as one session leaves and the next arrives, but the next session is going to have the same mindset: Get as many runs in as possible in 3 hours. It will never end. Buying your season pass earlier will not help either if they have a "top secret" limited number of passes to sell. They will just sell out faster, then those who "missed" will be forced to buy the session tickets, then jam up the lift lines for the "lucky" ones who bought the season passes.