I have just seen a short documentary talking about Vail ruining the skiing experience. It is something I have asked myself many times. Now the industry in the US is divided in a duopoly- carried by Vail Resorts with its Epic Pass and Alterra with its IKON pass.

On one hand, if you are an avid skier, these passes are great, as it will result in cheaper rates, and you can ski a lot in lot of different areas. Compared to purchasing a season pass in one resort, this gives you variety.

On the other hand, if you are an occasional skier, the daily ski pass lift rates prices you out, unless you are wealthy. More if you take for first time your family to start skiing, where you need to rent equipment and take ski lessons for all. That is über expensive. I want to imagine that resorts have in place programmes to initiate to ski with some free lifts and an “entry rate” so you can try it and not mortgage your house for doing so!

At least in our local resort in Italy, (Pila), you have a couple of lifts that are free, and you just book a lesson and rent skis or snowboard and can have your first steps pretty cheap. And this is the norm in many other resorts in Europe I’ve been at.

I remember when Crested Butte, when I was living there, created the “Ski Free” programme for new skiers- with stations around the bunny slopes where skiers were moving up to a different station once they’ve learnt the different steps (such as the snowplough, the stem Christie turn and so on (this is going from a snowplough to turn with one leg and then bringing back your upper ski to go parallel your bottom one.) This promo was having “no strings attached”, and it was great! Lodging got full, even though there were people coming for the day, or sleeping in the parking lot, but there were people consuming in the mountain like crazy when this programme was on. The theory is that you return to the ski resorts where you’ve learnt how to ski, as you have memories there and get emotionally attached!

Those days are gone, more with the Butte being part of Vail Resorts. Which is a pity!

There is a third option, this is the Indy Pass, where you get 2 days at different small resorts around the country (now also expanding to Europe, South America and Japan), and this helps small resorts to be top of mind.

Still, this is kind of increasing the duopoly to kind of oligopoly- even though Indy pass has purchased Black Mountain to run it as a cooperative, which I think is a grand idea… I have no money to buy even one chair of a chairlift but would love to be involved in something like that! It is true that you do feel owner of the mountain you frequent, as you feel it is your place in the world!

Nowadays crossing the pond to Europe with flights and everything is so much cheaper than skiing in the US. This is a bit crazy, more as it would be much better for our environment (more if we want to still have snow in the near future), not to be flying across the world to go skiing. But the offer is tempting, as a full week in Europe with food, lodging staying at lovely villages (that have actual history, not created by Intrawest!) – offer a much-rounded experience than going skiing in America.

Now Vail Resorts started buying resorts in Europe, and is looking into purchasing more, with lots of pushback from local communities. Alterra has partnered with many resorts, and I know through people in the business, that this alliance is bringing them lots of skiers from America.

I understand that scale economies make sense for businesses, as well as locking earnings before the snow falls make them being able to have the cashflow to run a resort, as running a resort is super expensive! But this strategy does not seem to take care of resorts employees, or customer satisfaction, with the long queues that these passes attract on weekends or holidays. Plus, putting so many people on the mountain at any time is a formula to create more snow sports accidents.

Just watch this video of 20’. I think it is pretty much spot on. You can leave me your thoughts in comments below.

 

How Vail Destroyed Skiing by More Perfect Union.

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Featured Image: Is Vail Ruining the Skiing Experience? A new short documentary thinks so. Photo: Jack Affleck/Vail Resorts.