23-24 Ski and Snowboard thread

My regular riding partner is headed for Blue this morning. A different guy from town went there on Sunday. He said the lot wasn't plowed at all, they were short on attendants and very long lines with one of the lifts down. A complete $h!+ show, or what do you expect on a NE weekend. When my riding buddy gets back tonight, I will get a full report.


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UPDATE: My riding partner had a great time at Blue today (and he heard from more than one person on the lift about the $h!+ show Sunday. The guy who went there Sunday paid for his season pass and got in TWO runs. He said he is at $340/run if he doesn't go again this year.
 
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jdog said:
Basically, the icon pass has made weekends/ holidays dangerously busy.
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I cant imagine how pissed all of the camelback season ticket holders were yesterday....they paid as much for their pass as an ikon pass and they got the same shitty parking and no lift line controls. There was separate line for camelback season ticket holders, lol, nobody paid a bit of attention to it...people just in this huge mass...such a mess. The ski patrollers I rode the lift with were telling me that they were being asked to do lift line control...I mean I have never seen that in all my years of skiing. Obviously with all the people on mountain, they didnt have time for that shit. Really makes you appreciate a good lift line guy keeping people in order. they had TWO people working this new 6 person lift....one guy stand by the entrance gate for all the people whose passes didnt work....one standing at the loading area to stop the lift.....problem is with a 6 person lift...the left side person isnt counting all the way to the right side person...and rather they 6....7 people move up, try to get on, the cause the lift to stop....Like COMICAL shit show....im guessing cost cutting measures.

I want to take my family to utah this year and ski alta, snowbird, brighton, solitude, and deer valley......so im kinda fucked with buying the ikon pass....im not a fan of this system and what it has done to skiing in general.
 
Ikon/Epic has ruined it for the mom & dad that want to take their kids skiing 1-2 weekends per year. They're locked in, and they show up to what you saw yesterday.

The last time we did Camelback, this was years before it was an Ikon mountain, it was about as Utah describes above. One lift was 45 minutes, and there was absolutely 0 line control. It was so frustrating that we said we would never go back. We haven't been there since. Now that it's Ikon we might go. But we're not foolish enough to go on a weekend morning. Maybe 3:00 and ski until close.

Stratton is always filled with a slew of NY plates. I am sure yesterday was a joy. On the best of days Stratton is ok.

You'll note that all the people on Strava that you know who went to Sugarbush & Killington yesterday had very positive titles in their activity titles. The further you get from NYC the better it is.
 
Oh and also another fun side note yesterday was the young security people walking thru the parking lot making sure people paid to park....this was a real laugh....the mountain is a shit show of disorder....they had NOBODY parking cars, so there were cars strewn all over.....then they are paying people to walk thru the lot and put warnings on peoples cars....They were threatening people with tickets, but what does that mean at a private ski hill? They take you to camelback court? lol. I told my wife when we parked...dont even THINK about paying, let them take me to camelback jail lol. Like it was a microcosm of everything wrong with the ski industry on display yesterday.

I wasnt even angry about it...it was just impressive to see what a fucking mess it was.
 
Kind of glad I caught the flu, kind of.

Sugarbush this weekend, we’ve been doing MLK for the past 10 years and never found it overly crowded other than one or two chair rides in the morning.
 
UtahJoe said:
Oh and also another fun side note yesterday was the young security people walking thru the parking lot making sure people paid to park....this was a real laugh....the mountain is a shit show of disorder....they had NOBODY parking cars, so there were cars strewn all over.....then they are paying people to walk thru the lot and put warnings on peoples cars....They were threatening people with tickets, but what does that mean at a private ski hill? They take you to camelback court? lol. I told my wife when we parked...dont even THINK about paying, let them take me to camelback jail lol.
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They charge to park?!? How is that enforced? I knew they did it at Stowe and they left “parking tickets” which were essentially a threat of we will look up your car registration and prevent you from buying a pass. My buddy who lives up there just takes his plate off when he rides Stowe.

Prior to the kiosk system in Colorado, we used to show up with a bag of change to pay. The attendant used to look at us and just let us park for free.
 
Id_rather_be_skiing said:
They charge to park?!? How is that enforced? I knew they did it at Stowe and they left “parking tickets” which were essentially a threat of we will look up your car registration and prevent you from buying a pass. My buddy who lives up there just takes his plate off when he rides Stowe.

Prior to the kiosk system in Colorado, we used to show up with a bag of change to pay. The attendant used to look at us and just let us park for free.
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So i have been to camelback twice now this year....on NYD...we pulled in and there is like a couple of signs way at the other end of the lot...to me, if I look at my space and you don't tell me to pay? go fuck yourself. So I didnt pay....when I got back to the lot there was a teenager walking around with a list and putting notices on peoples cars.....To which people were saying..."where does it say anything about paying to park? there are no signs...." there are, like off in the corner of the lot....anyway...She went to my car which has no front plate and I was standing there loading up so she just moved on. Looks like to me they are just trying to scare people into paying....like i said...are they going to send me to camelback court??? lol. GREAT tip about the taking the plate off, ill remember that for next time if I ever go there again. I mean ski resorts in general have some BALLS charging people to park now....but camelback, wow...especially after what I saw yesterday.
 
UtahJoe said:
So i have been to camelback twice now this year....on NYD...we pulled in and there is like a couple of signs way at the other end of the lot...to me, if I look at my space and you don't tell me to pay? go fuck yourself. So I didnt pay....when I got back to the lot there was a teenager walking around with a list and putting notices on peoples cars.....To which people were saying..."where does it say anything about paying to park? there are no signs...." there are, like off in the corner of the lot....anyway...She went to my car which has no front plate and I was standing there loading up so she just moved on. Looks like to me they are just trying to scare people into paying....like i said...are they going to send me to camelback court??? lol. GREAT tip about the taking the plate off, ill remember that for next time if I ever go there again. I mean ski resorts in general have some BALLS charging people to park now....but camelback, wow...especially after what I saw yesterday.
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i may have a california plate to stick on there while parked.
 
yiiikes, I don’t even care for myself to snowboard anymore. I was just as happy driving the kid to grind the bunny hill for 2 hrs.

I bought a helmet for her from someone this morning. As seller was leaving, flagged me down and gave me a camelbak season parking pass lol ironic
 
Anyone been to the indoor ski place at the American dream mall in east rutherford ? In theory it sounds like the perfect place to teach the kids cost wise got 6 two hour passes for 99 bucks. The reality is their attention span will be about 2 hours anyway and there's no point paying 100+ bucks or more for a day pass at blue or camelback to stay in the school yard. Obviously the proximity to NYC will make things interesting but besides that I'm hopeful for a good experience.
 
UtahJoe said:
I want to take my family to utah this year and ski alta, snowbird, brighton, solitude, and deer valley......so im kinda fucked with buying the ikon pass....im not a fan of this system and what it has done to skiing in general.
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Norm said:
Ikon/Epic has ruined it for the mom & dad that want to take their kids skiing 1-2 weekends per year. They're locked in, and they show up to what you saw yesterday.

Stratton is always filled with a slew of NY plates. I am sure yesterday was a joy. On the best of days Stratton is ok.

You'll note that all the people on Strava that you know who went to Sugarbush & Killington yesterday had very positive titles in their activity titles. The further you get from NYC the better it is.
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I have been so ho-hum about snowboarding this season. Between the wacky weather, the pay to park (at Stowe), the massive lines and honestly the overall vibe I've felt I haven't gone yet this year. Although going up next Tuesday to Stowe and will see how that goes.

I feel like Ikon/Epic has ruined it for the college kids as well. My daughter has some friends up in Stowe and they only went one day. She has an Epic 7 day pass that I bought in the summer (so the price isn't horrible). However her friends with no pass had to pay over $200 a head mid week to ski one day. When I was a broke as hell college kid and there always seemed a way to make it happen for a few days of skiing when we did a spring break in CO in the early 90's. The kids ended up hiking and snowshoeing.

And with her friends out, that 7 day pass might not get fully used so we are potentially loosing money there.

I feel like the Epic/Ikon model has turned these mtns into Disney Land. Long lines, tracked trails (including the woods), expensive food and parking and just an overall amusement park level of entertainment. Which is probably fine for most people but not the magic it once was.
 
don said:
I have been so ho-hum about snowboarding this season. Between the wacky weather, the pay to park (at Stowe), the massive lines and honestly the overall vibe I've felt I haven't gone yet this year. Although going up next Tuesday to Stowe and will see how that goes.

I feel like Ikon/Epic has ruined it for the college kids as well. My daughter has some friends up in Stowe and they only went one day. She has an Epic 7 day pass that I bought in the summer (so the price isn't horrible). However her friends with no pass had to pay over $200 a head mid week to ski one day. When I was a broke as hell college kid and there always seemed a way to make it happen for a few days of skiing when we did a spring break in CO in the early 90's. The kids ended up hiking and snowshoeing.

And with her friends out, that 7 day pass might not get fully used so we are potentially loosing money there.

I feel like the Epic/Ikon model has turned these mtns into Disney Land. Long lines, tracked trails (including the woods), expensive food and parking and just an overall amusement park level of entertainment. Which is probably fine for most people but not the magic it once was.
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I have the same ho-hum feelings. I purchased an Ikon 4 day pass in Dec '22 for a CO trip in Feb '23. Used it at Winter Park, Copper, Steamboat, and Winter Park. No intentions on buying 1 this year without any trips planned and not about to deal with the Poconos on a weekend. Might have some mid-week drives to Elk if the knee starts feeling better.
 
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don said:
I feel like the Epic/Ikon model has turned these mtns into Disney Land. Long lines, tracked trails (including the woods), expensive food and parking and just an overall amusement park level of entertainment. Which is probably fine for most people but not the magic it once was.
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I hear ya, but i'm going to ski over 10 days this year(hopefully, that's what's planned, haven't been out yet!) and my lift tickets will be $75-$80/day with epic local pass. it could have been $65/ a day for 10 days if I could have committed earlier. Lift tickets out at the big name mountains we all know have been over $100 on a weekend for a long time and the food has always been ridiculous. I tend to ski mid-week/non-holiday, and have been doing that for 25 years because of the weekend lift lines. I had the epic going back to 2006 and then did the ikon for a bunch of years.

You're absolutely right, there are definitely more people out there, maybe skiing is just easier than it used to be? The skis make everything so much better, and the fat skis make everybody decent on 3-5" of new snow. That amount used to crush people into quitting earlier. I was thinking of going to powder mountain for a day when i go to park city for a week in Feb. I looked at the tickets, $229! I won't be going. They can't be getting any day people over there, place must be empty. I haven't been to stowe since 2018, but I will definitely head up there in late march early April, if they have coverage.

If it stays snow up there, i think Tuesday will great at stowe. Let us know about the lift lines, i'm guessing not much on a tuesday after MLK weekend.
 
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