I’m itching for spring skiing, and we keep inching our way toward that. We’ll get there soon enough. But this week has been a week for continued little bursts of snow, high winds and flat light. Today’s skiing? It was great, until that cloud deck built in around noon.
There were some nice cold wintery groomed runs off of Summit this morning. That led to another morning of high speed arcs and hot laps. We noticed that half of the Face was groomed again, and some people seemed ready to set their personal bests for speed records, while others struggled to maintain an edge at all. We saw several long slides, hopefully without major injuries.
Some areas of the mountain got a little bit warm yesterday, and that led to things being a bit crisp in off piste areas. That said, some areas were skiing great this morning. While I enjoyed turns in Pygmy Forest and Lower Palisades, the snow had been sculpted by the wind. Lower down, taking the traverse over to High Yellow, led to us finding some perfectly rounded medium sized bumps to play on, and no wind. I could have stayed there all day, except that someone turn off the light switch midday.
Mother Nature continues to kick the can down the road for a true spring day. We should be done with clouds and snow by tomorrow, but we will still be dealing with an east wind. That should keep temperatures in the upper 30’s. By Saturday, we see warmer temperatures in the picture, possibly reaching 50.
Should You Expect An Ikon Pass Price Drop?
Vail Resorts dropped a little bit of a bombshell this week, dropping the pricing on its Epic Pass by 20% for the 21-22 ski season. It’s a bold move. Listening to some quick analysis, it seems that they are hoping to hook more people into locking into one pass versus buying individual day tickets. Maybe it will work for them. I’m glad I am not a Epic Pass skier.
I spent the afternoon listening to the latest episode of the Storm Skiing Podcast by Stuart Winchester. Episode #42 is an interview with Rusty Gregory, CEO of Alterra. It seems like Alterra is going to focus on offering a quality product and not focus on being the cheapest product. While I don’t agree with everything that Alterra does (Stupid gondola!), I totally appreciate the different approach from Vail Resorts.
While the entire podcast is interesting, here’s a handy listening guide:
- 39:30 – The Ikon Pass discussion begins, “one company of many unique brands”
- 45:45 – Natural carrying capacity and “the quality of the experience”
- 55:45 – Vail 20% pass reduction reaction, “focused on our game plan”, “the market will tell us”, “guaranteed new partners for 21/22”
Listen to the Storm Skiing Podcast
What are your thoughts on Ikon Pass pricing versus Epic Pass pricing for next season? We would love to hear your thoughts.
I’m an Epic guy but still keep my Sierra pass b/c Heavenly and N. Star are so corp’d and Kirkwood can be a hike from So. Shore on a storm day. I wasn’t going to renew the Epic this season, but they gave about 75% off b/c of covid so it was hard to turn down. I was again contemplating ditching it again, but now they drop a couple hundred off the pass, so here I am debating myself. I really only like Milky Way bowl and Motts so when they aren’t open or prime, it’s just lines and cruising.
What to do, what to do?
Vail is going for the volume play. Since debuting the Ikon Pass, Alterra has closely followed Vail with their pass rollout. This year Vail waited until after the Alterra release, and then dropped the price 20%. Doubtful Alterra will drop the Ikon price as a reaction, but stranger things have happened, and they seem to align most of their pricing with the Vail strategy.
On another note, Rusty sounds like the right guy to be leading Alterra. I just wish they would come out and confirm they are building the worthless gondola, but it sounds like we’ll have to wait on the name change announcement. How many million dollars are they going to spend on something that does nothing for the ski experience at either mountain?
Construction of the useless gondola is scheduled to begin May 1. It will sell condos. That is the purpose.
I am convinced that the gondola will eventually sell condos at both ends. If Alterra isn’t negotiating with the Forest Service for a land swap involving the AM base area, they are much less competent than I give them credit for.