WOOT WOOT! Nukin' in Missoula

[stuckathuntermtn]

I'm sure Pat knows what he's doing re lift maintenance, but not much else.

[yeahman]

My source at the Bowl says this. Who is Joe?

Lol....��a strong maybe...or maybe not. They hired on Joe to run the project sort of....knows his stuff...but in the big picture the usual.

[Rasputin]

I'm sure Pat knows what he's doing re lift maintenance, but not much else.

Tell me Stuck, have you actually ever talked to Pat? Have you ever seen any of the actual work of the mountain done, aside from lifties bumping chairs, and drinks getting poured?

You are king lord of the morons around here, so I wonder, when you say stupidly ignorant things like this, how is it that you esteem yourself qualified to comment, on this or any subject whatsoever? What is the thought process? Is there one? Or do the words spawn from some great reservoir of stupid, that exits from your mouth without any involvement from your brain, assuming you have one, I mean really, how does it work?

[stuckathuntermtn]

Snowbowl doesn't give a fuck. They are cheap fucks but they charge too much. At least they finally repaired the porch last year. They are the only mountain in the fucking world who seems to care about snowboard leashes because (I heard) they pay bonuses to lifties for catching/selling them. Those crusty old coots can only stay in business because they're 20 minutes away. There's plenty of people in town who'd rather make the drive every weekend to Losttrail or Disco rather than deal with the Ronnie/Pat asshole fest. People fucking hate them. How much experience did their ski patrol does lose in the last few years? Looks like a lot. Not that they'd ever staff it enough to get the main part of the mountain open on time after a big dump. The only people who like them seem to be crusty old coots themselves.
But yeah, guess I'm just a moron.

[406]

Good, hopefully it never changes. I don't need Ronnie to smile at me.

My guess is they are motivated to do the expansion to help up the sale price. They own a couple of big chunks of land off snowbowl road and on tv mtn, so it will be interesting if one of the big players gets interested or will stay mom and pop.

[stuckathuntermtn]

You can have a mom and pop shop that worries/spends on things that matter instead of things that don't.

[S_jenks]

Man, I only deal with Ronnie once a year, and that's when I pick up my pass. She a bitch, but she been no trouble to me at all, so I'm fine with it. when the lift goes it'll be a different game for tv mtn, but it's really the only expansion option they have at this point. personally I look forward to probing every part of that ridge this winter, and if we got a base it'll be tits

[Rasputin]

Snowbowl doesn't give a fuck. They are cheap fucks but they charge too much. At least they finally repaired the porch last year. They are the only mountain in the fucking world who seems to care about snowboard leashes because (I heard) they pay bonuses to lifties for catching/selling them. Those crusty old coots can only stay in business because they're 20 minutes away. There's plenty of people in town who'd rather make the drive every weekend to Losttrail or Disco rather than deal with the Ronnie/Pat asshole fest. People fucking hate them. How much experience did their ski patrol does lose in the last few years? Looks like a lot. Not that they'd ever staff it enough to get the main part of the mountain open on time after a big dump. The only people who like them seem to be crusty old coots themselves.
But yeah, guess I'm just a moron.

Yes you are a moron, one that makes me happy every time he posts that he's looking for a ride to Lost Trail.

[Rasputin]

Good, hopefully it never changes. I don't need Ronnie to smile at me.

My guess is they are motivated to do the expansion to help up the sale price. They own a couple of big chunks of land off snowbowl road and on tv mtn, so it will be interesting if one of the big players gets interested or will stay mom and pop.

Ronnie smiles at me every time I talk to her, all sweetness and light, and this is since that time she had Pat and three maintenance guys confront me, and threaten to pull my pass if anyone else complained about my driving on the road. ( Why is it bad drivers hate to be passed when they are driving too slow?) I have seen Ronnie blow a gasket on more than one occasion, she helps keep numbers down, it's gotten too damn popular as it is. The more guys like Stuck who go elsewhere, the better.

The prospect of Snowbowl being sold is chilling for anyone who loves the place. I'm sure if they sold it to a major ski corporation, we'd see prices skyrocket on everything from lift tickets to pizza. I hope that Andy Morris decides he wants to run the place, and has sway with Brad to let him. Brad seems to still have interest in the place besides money, he works on all sorts of things up there, that people wouldn't expect him to do. Heck, a couple years ago he got certified as a ski instructor.

[jskunsa]

Woot!

[stuckathuntermtn]

They're very concerned about our driving, but not the shitting grooming that just makes it worse, or the unmarked holes in trails or the old, scary lifts that swing like wild.
I think I finally made enough noise one time that they eventually repaired the porch/bench.
Why make any real improvements when you can put in another piece of shit lift in an area that doesn't need it and put guardrails in the wrong spots on the road (ok, that was probably someone else, but fuck).
Anyway, I don't like doing things other people's way just because that's how they've always done it. If there's a better way, it should be done that way. To not do so is small minded fuckery.
Guess that makes me look like a moron to old stubborn assholes. See you up there.


Ps, my impression is there isn't enough development potential up there to make it attractive to a big company. Of course, VR's pass price would probably be cheaper. I heard the guy who owns the Trailhead was looking at buying Snowbowl, but not at the price they were selling.

[toast2266]

To Pat and Ronnie's credit, it takes a unique talent to have a ski hill do that poorly in the 2nd largest city in Montana.

[stuckathuntermtn]

To Pat and Ronnie's credit, it takes a unique talent to have a ski hill do that poorly in the 2nd largest city in Montana.

Hahahaha

[wordbird]

I personally like the shitshow management strategy of Snowbowl. It definitely keeps the crowds away, but they could raise the lift ticket prices and lower pass prices to make it even better for the pass holders(worse for everyone else, and their bottom line too). North facing terrain would make the place nearly perfect too btw.

[RootSkier]

I am with Rasputin. Snowbowl is what it is and it does not have the base area, parking, nor non-Wilderness/Tribe-owned surrounding terrain to expand in the ways that lots of people think would make it better.

It also doesn't need more overall uphill lift capacity, as there are only lift lines on Griz on really fucking good days and on Lavelle on Saturday. The latter will probably go away completely when the new lift is in.

High speed lifts would not make it a better ski area. More extensive base facilities would not make it a better ski area. Different ownership would probably not make it a better ski area.

The three impossible things that would make it a better ski area are a higher base, more northern exposure, and less surrounding Wilderness/Tribal land.

The two realistic things that would make it a better ski area are lifts that don't break and an earlier opening time.

Finally, I actually love Ronnie, and if you don't fuck with her or drive like a moron*, she is cool as hell. If you ever have a season-ending injury, call her to talk about your pass. She will be a fuckton cooler than any major ski area, I can tell you that. On the other hand, come to Snowbowl for three years, be a douchebag all around, and you wonder why she doesn't like you? Otherwise, she's chill, unless you are senior_researcher.


* Like the time stuck passed the school bus and then tried to kick the lifty in the shin with ski boots on when they pulled him out of the line to have a chat. You fucking dingbat.

[senior researcher]

Joe Dillon,FTW.

[Leshphilling77]

snowbowls little issues are also part of its beauty as it helps it stay totally understated or unknown. those times when its good its good

[toast2266]

Snowbowl is never going to be a mega resort. But the fact that Lookout and Disco both get more skier visits than Snowbowl (and Lost Trail isn't far behind) is a pretty clear indicator that Snowbowl is a terribly run business. But of course, less skier visits is a good thing. Except when it means that the hill is so fucking broke that it takes them 3 years to actually get a chair installed, and every other piece of infrastructure is one stiff breeze away from catastrophic failure. And that's despite the fact that a Snowbowl season pass costs almost 3x as much as one at Lookout.

Sorry, but the "this place is so shitty, we have it all to ourselves" logic just seems delusional.

[RootSkier]

Where are you getting skier visit numbers from?

[toast2266]

Where are you getting skier visit numbers from?

http://www.tourismresearchmt.org/ind...nds&Itemid=113

[RootSkier]

Ah, I had found that but missed the drop-down menu.

I have always wondered if Snowbowl accurately tracks and reports season pass usage rates (and thus a significant number of skier days), because it would require someone doing a significant amount of data entry from the infamous board where they highlight your season pass number.

And you make a valid point, but Snowbowl is just never going to get the same number of families/gapers as Disco and Lookout because it sucks for that category of skier.

[stuckathuntermtn]

I'm not asking for high speed lifts and a chic lodge. I love Last Run Inn. It's the only part of Snowbowl that doesn't look like it'll fall over. Well, unless you count the patio. I'm asking for shit that isn't rundown, broken, and dangerous.
Better make sure to police people's driving on a road they don't own while while the drivers aren't doing anything illegal. That'll make up for it!

[S_jenks]

Yeah, comparing Snowbowl to Lookout Pass is much more difficult when you take into account that Lookout is close to the Couer d'Alene-Spokane region. They have to compete, and have done a very good job at bringing in skier visits (low operating costs help as well for a smaller-scale ski hill). The $99 season pass for students was a deal last year, and a number of UM students alone took that deal.

Disco and LT are a better comparison here. I wouldn't be surprised if Snowbowl wasn't accurate on skier visitation data.

[toast2266]

Ah, I had found that but missed the drop-down menu.

I have always wondered if Snowbowl accurately tracks and reports season pass usage rates (and thus a significant number of skier days), because it would require someone doing a significant amount of data entry from the infamous board where they highlight your season pass number.

And you make a valid point, but Snowbowl is just never going to get the same number of families/gapers as Disco and Lookout because it sucks for that category of skier.

Yeah, no idea if those numbers are super accurate. But I wouldn't be surprised if there were similar inaccuracies at a lot of the small hills.

And I don't think it'd be that hard to bring in more families and gapers, and that demographic is a money maker. There's plenty of places around the bowl where they could cut some runs in friendly-ish terrain that wouldn't detract (much) from the skiing that's actually worthwhile. And while there isn't much room to expand for "good" terrain, there's decent expansion opportunities for mellow terrain (TV mountain being a step in that direction). Of course, they'd have to actually spend a little money and lay down some grooming that was worth a damn.

But I may well be completely wrong. I just think it's interesting that a ski that's 15 minutes from 100,000 people is getting beat out by small hills that are (relatively) in the middle of nowhere.

[RootSkier]

Even with that, the lifts are still terrible for kids. I have a four year old who was fine on the lifts at Disco last year but he still ain't riding Griz or Lavelle this year.