2014/2015 Whistler Blackcomb - South Coast - Duffey Lake Thread

[shirk]

Ah fuck I started thinking about snow again.

So new RFID scanning on lift this year. How's that going to affect things?

New gondi cabins for you Whistler village uploaders.

[eldereldo]

Guessing it will be a cluster fuck for the first few days at least, and probably a month. Really depends on where in the line they put them. Right at the end, not much of an issue as then people will be able to sort them selfs back out after forgetting to put their pass on the correct side, not making it thru the gate before it swings round, or just not working. If it is right before the lift, then I predict plenty of empty chairs....

[shirk]

I predict people will get yanked out of the way or trampled on a pow day.

[LeeLau]

FU Shirk - not yet!

[shirk]

I know Lee. But here I was sitting in the office and my mind wondered into ski thoughts. Fuck still plenty of riding left to do.

[LeeLau]

I know Lee. But here I was sitting in the office and my mind wondered into ski thoughts. Fuck still plenty of riding left to do.

i know - just giving you a hard time.

From 2350m elev

[The AD]

Is anyone planning to go to the beer festival next weekend?

[shafty85]

No.

We don't drink beer up here.

[shirk]

They have the new RFID gates running in the bike park. Rode yesterday on a day ticket.

If the day ticket tourist has to scan the bar code like we did yesterday it's going to be a shit show this winter. Hope they have RFID on the day tickets.

[eldereldo]

Can't see why day tickets wouldn't be RFID as well, they always have been at any other area I have been to that use the gates. That doesnt mean that people don't screw it up though.....

[JimLad]

WB a gongshow, surely not? At least no RFID on alpine lifts so no more madness there.

[The AD]

Can't see why day tickets wouldn't be RFID as well, they always have been at any other area I have been to that use the gates. That doesnt mean that people don't screw it up though.....

I was just up hiking last week and for some reason they were scanning the barcodes on all the tickets. No idea why this is necessary if it's RFID. I suspect the day tickets aren't RFID--at least not yet. Hopefully they will be for ski season.

[djbooter]

Anyone know when we get our pass?

[whistlerline]

WB a gongshow, surely not? At least no RFID on alpine lifts so no more madness there.

Actually all alpine lifts except JC (not 100% on the JC) have RFID installed. The winter day tickets will have a chip embedded so that should eliminate the scanning that is going on with the sightseeing tickets at the moment.

[JimLad]

Oh Lordy. Going to make it way slower to get on the lift

[rob stokes]

Oh Lordy. Going to make it way slower to get on the lift

Don't be ridiculous. Pretty much every big resort in europe has had this for 15+ years, it's not exactly untested.....you just walk past and it opens up. Easy and less hassle than gloves off, unzip jkt, pass out bullshit.

[JimLad]

But you never had to remove your pass before apart from at the bottom. And I'm well aware of how it works in Europe

[shirk]

Just pointing out that they were using the old style day tickets with bar code at the scanners and it wasn't working well.

If they are still using the old tickets the system is going to suck. I suspect maybe they are just running out the stock of old tickets before making the switch.

[Maximus Farcisimus]

Anyone know when we get our pass?

Got mine today in the mail, barely make out the small picture, surprised there is no barcode left.


Gondies still for sale? I know a friend who picked one up w a $300 donation.

[gramboh]

Are the RFID gates right near the front of the alpine lifts? I guess they have to be to allow grooming of the lift maze area. It's been a bit of a shit show in the bike park (RFID will not always activate if you have keys, gum etc. in the same pocket). I'm sure there will be folks getting held up on powder days too which is going to suck. Maybe on pow openings the lifties can vet the front of line-up manually before it pops?

[rob stokes]

I haven't seen them on the alpine lifts but they should be quite a long way forward, when you are already organized into your 4s

[teamdirt]

Anyone know when we get our pass?

Got mine too.

[djbooter]

Yeah my pass just came as well.

[skieast]

I got two, one from Guest Services, then another arrived by mail a day later. They both will work, just have to remember to leave one in the car as a spare. I've used rfid at Alta, seemed fine. I wonder if they will have verifiers at all lifts. If so more staff needed. Or maybe they bought the optional height sensor and camera model

[Snowdemon]

I second the shit show comment about the RFID bike gates - chaotic and slow. Can only assume (hope?) they're using this as an opportunity to figure out what they need to do to get it working smoothly for ski season. Not having a random mix of scanned day tickets, scanned passes and RFID passes would help. There also seemed to be a lot of RFID passes that weren't scanning as expected.