Ikon Pass

[Joey Joe Joe Junior Shabadoo]

Hiked out of Temerity today because the lift line was past Mushroom.

Quite the contrast to the lack of crowds on Friday at Ajax.

Jesus! They opened Hanging Valley at 10:30ish and I’ve never seen a line so long to hike in there. You’d have thought it was the Bowl on a powder day.


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[TahoeJ]

I get it, but I don’t think you do. My point is anyone who thinks we come off as whiners is an idiot who doesn’t understand the situation. No one from Aspen is invading anywhere, we don’t get to use our passes anywhere else. It is all these other people that SkiCo( not Aspen locals) has invited to invade Aspen.


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Sure, look, I’m a Squaw guy so I’m including myself in that. However I didn’t realize you Aspen-ites can’t use an Ikon pass as your main pass... which seems fucked up. Is that really the case?!! Given Aspen is the principle of the whole deal you guys should be super pissed at them specifically. Not even Squaw / Alpine / Mammoth fucked us over like that.

[Name Redacted]

Are you two stupid? Yeah Skico and the Crowns let all us locals vote on this shit, right?

Season Pass holders here get NOTHING from the ikon passes except more crowds, our season pass has no reciprocity with any ikon resorts. Of course Epic people don’t bitch because they get a full season pass at Vail plus the other resort days.


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Yeah, call us stupid. I get the situation. But you are still whiney assed, first world problem having, country club bitches. Do you ski in a cashmere sweater? Bogner?

No one give a fuck about Aspen being 10% more crowded than it was last year so shut the fuck up.

[Foggy_Goggles]

However I didn’t realize you Aspen-ites can’t use an Ikon pass as your main pass... which seems fucked up. Is that really the case?!! Given Aspen is the principle of the whole deal you guys should be super pissed at them specifically. Not even Squaw / Alpine / Mammoth fucked us over like that.

I thought I remember that was a big selling point back when Alterra was created, "We are gonna make a super pass but don't worry Aspen...we are special. It won't be unlimited use here".

I just got back from Winter Park. It was honestly the busiest day I can remember. Before the lifts opened, the lines were way out the corrals at the Super Gay and the C Chair. I saw it coming.

It is a huge powder day in the premium part of the ski season, on a weekend with snow in Denver. Did ya'll just notice this year that skiing has been getting busier? What made you think it wasn't coming to your area?

I miss the old days too but if you live in a ski town and at no point in the last two decades you didn't say to yourself, "huh, I've kinda got all my eggs in one basket, what happens if this ski area gets so busy I don't like going there anymore?", then that's on you.

If you have staked so much of your life on how a privately owned business decides to operate who is supposed to feel sorry for who? Point the figure at whomever you want but the ski areas have figured out how that they want to operate at a lower price point on their demand curve. If you want, throw on the golf shirt and khakis, print up some business cards as a consultant, wedge your way into the board room and tell them that they are doing it wrong.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Yeah, call us stupid. I get the situation. But you are still whiney assed, first world problem having, country club bitches. Do you ski in a cashmere sweater? Bogner?

No one give a fuck about Aspen being 10% more crowded than it was last year so shut the fuck up.

I was just gonna hike the bowl with my lanyard but you took it next level, which I appreciate. I think Aspen and Jackson should have a shared pass, $1 million unless you have purchased 10 consecutive season passes. Then you get "long time local" status and the ski corp gives you a free parking and ski pass. In return for shedding the unwashed masses you waive your right to ever go on vacation anywhere.

[Bunion 2020]

Point the finger at whomever you want but the ski areas have figured out how that they want to operate at a lower price point on their demand curve.

That remains to be seen.

Other than that, it is such a 1st world complaint as to be ridiculous.

[peterbmoorman]

I'm sure this emergency declaration will get overturned by the 5th circuit, but it's a start...

[Joey Joe Joe Junior Shabadoo]

What made you think it wasn't coming to your area? .

Funny, I see you bitch about subsidized affordable housing in Winter Park and I think the same thing.

My beef isn’t really the crowds, anyone who lives here in CO knows the state is getting more crowded. My beef is that locals here are getting nothing in return, and after 13 years here I can say with confidence that the jump in crowds here from last year is too big to be just normal growth and crowding. I don’t really want to ski anywhere else that badly but I might feel like being a tourist sometimes if SkiCo is gonna invite them all here.


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[Foggy_Goggles]

Correct me where I'm wrong: You have a transactional relationship with what I thing you guys call SkiCo. You by a ski pass, they let you ski there. If you don't like it, don't buy it and/or lobby for change. In your town it just might work. It probably takes fuck you money to make anything happen and for better or worse, you live in just the right spot.

That is entire different than you as a tax payer. If you think you are subsidizing infrastructure for tourists and that your employee housing program is corporate welfare for business owners that don't pay a living wage, I'll be on your side.

[Djongo Unchained]

I think Aspen and Jackson should have a shared pass, $1 million unless you have purchased 10 consecutive season passes. Then you get "long time local" status and the ski corp gives you a free parking and ski pass. In return for shedding the unwashed masses you waive your right to ever go on vacation anywhere.

Deal. Can I get 2 please?

If I find some more ,can I get early trams?

[Toadman]

I took a leisure hike up Highlands Bowl last Wednesday. There was a sticker posted at the top that said, " Stop the Ikonization of Aspen". I over heard some dude talking to a 'troller about how the Ikon pass has made it possible for the average person to afford a ski trip, etc. I really didn't pay too much attention to the conversation but the 'troller took the sticker off. Mentioned that skier visits were up about 15% at Highlands.

I ran into quite a few folks on the Ikon pass while I was at Aspen-Snowmass. Lots of folks that were retired that have bought it. Would be interesting to know the demographics of the Ikon pass purchaser.

Either way, the industry is dying because skiers are getting older and leaving the sport and not being replaced by more young skiers joining the sport, or we are in the baby boom/gen x ikon/epic pass "boom" of skiing.


Just anecdotally there sure are a hell of a lot of retired people skiing at Aspen-Snowmass. At least last week while I was out there. No complaints because they generally don't ski off-piste.

[SB]

You guys should join the Benny ski mid week club.

[WasatchFlatlander]

I'm sure this emergency declaration will get overturned by the 5th circuit, but it's a start...

That's some funny shit there. Hahaha.

[hutash]

I will be curious to see the skier day numbers at the end of the season. Everybody whining about Ikon seems to think their hill is being over run by horses that wouldn't be there without the Ikon pass. So far the days I've logged at Mammoth and Jackson seemed pretty typical for pow days.

[skifishbum]

at the end of the day
im gonna git mine shares
its what the bums do

[Benny Profane]

I took a leisure hike up Highlands Bowl last Wednesday. There was a sticker posted at the top that said, " Stop the Ikonization of Aspen". I over heard some dude talking to a 'troller about how the Ikon pass has made it possible for the average person to afford a ski trip, etc. I really didn't pay too much attention to the conversation but the 'troller took the sticker off. Mentioned that skier visits were up about 15% at Highlands.

I ran into quite a few folks on the Ikon pass while I was at Aspen-Snowmass. Lots of folks that were retired that have bought it. Would be interesting to know the demographics of the Ikon pass purchaser.

Either way, the industry is dying because skiers are getting older and leaving the sport and not being replaced by more young skiers joining the sport, or we are in the baby boom/gen x ikon/epic pass "boom" of skiing.


Just anecdotally there sure are a hell of a lot of retired people skiing at Aspen-Snowmass. At least last week while I was out there. No complaints because they generally don't ski off-piste.

Aren't skier visits up 15% just because it's such a better snow year this year? Last year kinda sucked in Colorado and Utah.

[BobMc]

Rode lifts with Ikonerz today. Some was still gotten.

[dump]

Heard the funniest shit ever yesterday at Big Sky. Grabbing lunch at the Burrito Shack. Group of 4 Russians with heavy accent and Ikon passes in front of us ordering.

Russian Guy: "Do we get a discount with an Ikon pass?"

My buddy standing right next to him, "You should be charged EXTRA for having an Ikon pass!!!!'

Everyone in the place got a good laugh at that one.


Attachment 272251

Even the Dead hate the ikon?

[JaytaeMoney]

So far the days I've logged at Mammoth and Jackson seemed pretty typical for pow days.

1000% agreed. I am so sick of hearing every Aspen local including most of my friends whine and complain about the IKON pass every time they can't walk directly onto the gondola at 10:30am on a weekend pow day.

It's been a really good season after a really terrible one, skier days are up across the board. Day passes, MC, IKON and *GASP* local season passholders. The lines we are experiencing are a) infrequent b) not bad AT ALL and c) nothing we have not seen before.

[funkendrenchman]

Aren't skier visits up 15% just because it's such a better snow year this year? Last year kinda sucked in Colorado and Utah.

Exactly.

[SB]

the iconuts don’t really seem to make a dent in skier traffic at the local hills like mine. actually enjoy talking to these guys and asking em which mountain they’re heading to next. we seem to be a stop over in folks pilgrimaged ski trips that have planned a journey around their iconutness. their lucky, visiting A mountain known for having fairly *mediocre terrain* (tm Pio) and grooming, they leave better skiers and thank us.

Interesting, I have been chatting with ikon folks on chair rides and came to the conclusion that it's a pretty good deal for most and it is spurring more folks to get out to more slopes.

If the ski areas are not managing the lifts to accommodate the increased traffic then you might consider that growing pains more than anything.

[skifishbum]

Aren't skier visits up 15% just because it's such a better snow year this year? Last year kinda sucked in Colorado and Utah.

nope it totally sucked







kinda makes me wonder why i bothered at all

[I've seen black diamonds!]

nope it totally sucked

kinda makes me wonder why i bothered at all

You need to get better at complaining about skiing. This just isn't cutting it.

[TahoeJ]

My beef is that locals here are getting nothing in return

I'm with you on that. If Squaw was being invaded by Ikon passholders and then as a regular or local I had to buy a different pass that didn't work at any of those resorts in return, that would piss me off too. Granted, our lines were already much, much longer to begin with. I'm pretty shocked they would do that to the riders of one of their own mountains... I get why they do it at Jackson Hole, etc.

[Bunion 2020]

In October, Alterra invited leaders of the continent’s largest non-Vail resorts to New York City’s Gansevoort hotel. Their pitch was, “If you won’t let us buy you, honor our season pass, and we’ll split the revenue even-steven.” Under the partnership agreements, a resort would be paid for each day a skier swiped her Ikon Pass—either a negotiated fee or a “blended rate” based on how many Ikon days were tallied over the course of a winter. Stephen Kircher, president of Boyne Resorts, which owns nine properties spread from Maine to Oregon, says the offer went over well, particularly among ski areas that had been fending off Vail for years. “I emailed them within about eight seconds,” he says.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/featu...-best-ski-pass

https://www.facebook.com/groups/137775086837468/