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Alterra CEO doesn't want Ikon to ruin resorts.

Ron

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Good interview from the Steamboat Pilot.

 
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Tricia

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Looks like they're taking an active interest in making improvements where available.
We will see what plays out.
 
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Ron

Ron

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Yes, this is still new to the industry and I think it just needs a little time to settle in. Overall, I still think this is a really good thing.
 
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Ron

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People ski when there’s good snow And will travel when their own snow sucks. Last season was pretty great Out here and other places. I know for certain a lot of EC people came out here due to just that situation.
 

Andy Mink

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do not believe the Ikon was as responsible for crowds as some locals suggested.
Last season was pretty great Out here and other places.
I totally agree with this. I think it was happenstance that IKON came out during a very good snow year from the Rockies westward. With snow that good I doubt it would have made much difference if IKON was out or not. Big years bring big crowds. I think a lot of "locals" seem to forget that and are looking for someone to blame for their longer lines. Even at smaller areas that aren't on one of the big passes the crowds were larger than normal, especially after a storm. Well, duh.
 

Ken_R

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Yes, this is still new to the industry and I think it just needs a little time to settle in. Overall, I still think this is a really good thing.


There are several things at play but I like that he is addressing this issue. It is real. I mean, the Epic Pass did ruin A-Basin. That is fact. (the experience, it did help get the money for lifts and other improvements)
 

Andy Mink

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multiple DV employees told me that Ikon was 14% of the DV traffic
I wonder how many people who had DV passes in prior years but didn't ski a lot purchased the IKON for the 7 or 5 days instead of a DV pass? Or did they sell as many or more DV passes and had IKON on top of that? Did day use passes stay at the same level or did people buy an IKON pass instead of 5 or 6 day use passes? There is so much more involved than just the percentage of one or another pass use.
 
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Ron

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yeah, thats like saying the IKON pass accounted for 80% of our sales. Anyone here with a pass bought it through IKON,
 

Andy Mink

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the Epic Pass did ruin A-Basin
I haven't been to A-Basin before or after Epic pass so I have no point of reference. How was A-Basin ruined? I've seen the same claim for JH, Big Sky, and numerous other areas that are involved with one of the multi-passes. I skied at several of the areas last season on the IKON pass and none seemed ruined. Changed maybe, but honestly none had long lines, including a pow day at DV and several fresh pow days at Big Sky during the gathering.
 

HardDaysNight

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What’s amusing about the rationalizations is the lengths that resort spokesmen will go to to deny the obvious. When Solitude gets multiples of the usual number of visitors, when cars are parked miles down the canyon road at a resort that typically doesn’t fill its normal parking lot, when lift lines extend into distances no one has ever seen before, it’s obvious something has changed. And no, it’s not just that it’s a good snow year. Solitude averages almost 600 inches of snow a year. You think we haven’t seen good snow years before? Dozens of them is the actual answer! It’s because of the Ikon pass, it really is as simple and obvious as that.

Alterra bought certain of the resorts it now operates. It’s entitled to run them how it sees fit. If that includes packing every square inch of terrain with customers that’s their prerogative. Just don’t insult our intelligence by pretending that you’re not doing so and that nothing has changed and that the mountain experience is being carefully “curated” for our benefit. Bullshit!
 

Ken_R

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I haven't been to A-Basin before or after Epic pass so I have no point of reference. How was A-Basin ruined? I've seen the same claim for JH, Big Sky, and numerous other areas that are involved with one of the multi-passes. I skied at several of the areas last season on the IKON pass and none seemed ruined. Changed maybe, but honestly none had long lines, including a pow day at DV and several fresh pow days at Big Sky during the gathering.

It got worse over the years specially when it was the ONLY resort open very early and very late season that was on the pass. Last few years it was out of control even when the other resorts were open. Just way too crowded even mid week on a normal day.

So the A Basin situation is somewhat different than the ones you mentioned. JH, Big Sky et. al. are not even close to a major metro area like Denver.

Again this is all relevant because A Basin is no longer on the pass due to the degradation of the guest experience over the years even with significant capital improvements.

DV I have no clue.
 

Ken_R

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What’s amusing about the rationalizations is the lengths that resort spokesmen will go to to deny the obvious. When Solitude gets multiples of the usual number of visitors, when cars are parked miles down the canyon road at a resort that typically doesn’t fill its normal parking lot, when lift lines extend into distances no one has ever seen before, it’s obvious something has changed. And no, it’s not just that it’s a good snow year. Solitude averages almost 600 inches of snow a year. You think we haven’t seen good snow years before? Dozens of them is the actual answer! It’s because of the Ikon pass, it really is as simple and obvious as that.

Alterra bought certain of the resorts it now operates. It’s entitled to run them how it sees fit. If that includes packing every square inch of terrain with customers that’s their prerogative. Just don’t insult our intelligence by pretending that you’re not doing so and that nothing has changed and that the mountain experience is being carefully “curated” for our benefit. Bullshit!


I think it is because of the IKON Pass AND that it was a good snow year. The pass allows droves of skiers to flock to the places that have the best snow at any particular time. Its kinda the draw of the super passes. It happened a lot last season here in Colorado. Yes, it was like a swarm of locusts feeding on powder.
 

Jerez

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Front Range resorts also had to cope with the explosion of population in the Denver area. That whole city has changed a lot.

Does anyone know if skier day numbers have significantly gone up overall, or if the passes are just redirecting the flow of skiers. If the former maybe that's good for the sport long term and maybe will lead to new areas or expansions. If the latter then skier experience will eventually change the flow.

We buy IKON because our second home hill is Winter Park. We did venture out because of it, but a lot less than we thought we would. Besides using it for Jackson Hole gathering (which we would have done anyhow) I doubt we will do much more this year than last or than we did when it was Rocky Mountain Suoer Pass.
 

Andy Mink

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It will be interesting to see if, after people get their bucket list areas done, the attendance dwindles some. Last year was a perfect storm of IKON and snow. If IKON started on a year with meh snow, would the numbers have been as big? I'm guessing no.
 

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