IKON /EPIC 22-23 - Buying or Boycotting?

[nickwm21]

I am just generally curious if the transgressions from the past few seasons are actually going to affect pass purchases next season.

It’s challenging.

Alterra is private equity, Vail is public. The only thing that provokes change in the boardroom is EBITA. Although customers have faced record traffic, lift lines and frustration, these corporations are seeing record revenue. I doubt things will be any different next season, on paper this season has been a huge success for these companies.

But it’s not easy to say “I won’t ski there next season.” Some have skied the same mountain for 30 years, some own a second home near the resort, some have kids entrenched in the race programs, some have no other options in their locale…

Me - I have a kid coming so I’m likely bumping down to an IKON 4 Pack. But if things were different, I don’t know that I’d be bumping down at all…


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[Laps]

I am right with you. My wife and I haven’t had passes in years and went Epic this year. I was afraid having a pass would eat into my touring days, but the weekends have been great for touring.

We have skied a bunch of lift serve days and my wife is skiing more than anytime since college. I am pretty sure next we’ll be epic too.


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[Fishskisurf]

Ikon and I don't foresee a renewal in my future.
Weekends are a rat race in the PNW/Wa, so looking into Indy Pass and a few regional road trips, w/ emphasis on avoiding crowds/reservations.
My appetite for skiing weekends at the Ikon/Vail bumps is nil anymore, given crowds/traffic/reservations. I'll skip the $1,000 pass and buy a handful of day tix for the few midweek days I hit.

[altasnob]

I've been an on again, off again, Crystal pass holder since 05, and skied there as a kid growing up. I don't think I am renewing next year. Plan on hiking for turns exclusively, which is what I do from the lifts anyways. Skiing Crystal on the weekends is about as enjoyable as going to Costco on Saturday. But I don't think my decision not to renew will make any difference. There are always new customers moving to the area that will take my spot.

My biggest beef is that Crystal/Alterra thinks they own the parking lot. I don't mind getting up early to find a parking spot, and plan on doing that next year, but I don't want to deal with needing a reservation. That's not why I go to the mountains. And Crystal has changed the parking rules so much this year I really don't know what to expect going forward.

[skysos]

My locals Heavenly and Kirkwood have been pretty much business as usual this year. The big storms in December caused an inevitable cluster but I'd almost say traffic is way down vs last year at this point during non-holiday days.

Holiday traffic seemed to be more crowded this year though. Maybe because the lower price for full Epic caused more people to buy that pass over the Tahoe Local which is blacked out.

My wife and I went full Epic this year but will likely downgrade to Tahoe Local next year. I have no interest in dealing with holiday crowds or skiing other Vail resorts any more. We will probably get Indy passes next year for travel resorts. The independent hills are so much more overall fun. We also have our Sierra passes on recess for next year but who knows what will happen there.

[boardtodeath]

I'll buy a snowbird pass as I always do. I might add the ikon again if it's still a 270 dollar add on for some trips to big sky and other ikon locations, but I would much much rather that altabird drop out of ikon entirely (not gonna happen).

I'm not at my limit yet, but if things keep going the way they are going then I might tap out in a few years.

[Bosco]

Buying epic. Discarding Sierra at Tahoe the closet resorts to me are Heavenly and Kirkwood. Definitely not doing icon and dealing with the traffic shit show for Squaw (still Squaw to me), and AM coming from the foothills. The only other option I would consider is Sugar Bowl, which I really like. In addition, most of my ski buddies are skiing Heavenly. Best days are when we only use the lifts to access the side country.

[schindlerpiste]

Next season=
IKON full
EPIC: Boycott after having Canyons pass since 2002 and substitute with (FVVM)
Alta/Bird or Alta mid-week

[SkiBall]

I live in an Epic valley, so I’ll suffer the crowds and work the busier days of the week. Thinking of also getting a pass for Cooper and hit a few of the other little ones attached to it to cleanse the Epic palate from time to time.

[Bunion 2020]

No to both, looking hard at Indy offerings.

[Peruvian]

Support your local independent ski mountain!

[Benny Profane]

I love my IKON choices.

I think it's a reasonably well run company, too. Certainly better than Vail.

[XavierD]

I’ll get my epic pass next year as its dirt cheap for mil/veterans and pays for itself on a single day at Whistler or Vail. I also shorted $MTN in December and made more than enough to buy another pass. Least I can do for those poor shareholders. Vail has also shown at least some effort to respond to the local complaints.

Leaning towards no ikon pass even though the best mountain around here is owned by Altera. They have shown no good faith in running Crystal or doing anything to improve the guest experience.

[One (+) Sentence]

I just buy a ski pass to my local hill. Sometimes it comes with reciprocal benefits at other ski areas, sometimes not. That doesn’t factor into my decision to buy a ski pass at my local hill.

Skiing doesn’t owe me anything.

[Huskier]

I also shorted $MTN in December and made more than enough to buy another pass. .

Right??? Schmucks I did it out of spite, it turns out spite is the only thing solidly in the green so far this year.

[Pinned]

IKON full pass this year. I'll probably renew it next year - the closest mountains to me are owned by Alterra, the ones I want to travel to are mostly IKON. All of the big name resorts are busy on the weekends, but I ski weekdays when I can and the pass is the only conceivable way to afford to ski more than a few days.

[jhyatt]

Local mountain pass.

Ikon but depends on price.

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[teamdirt]

Boycott Epic- 2nd year of many to come ....they will need to suck me off to get my money. If only they would have not f’d me over on my $200 refund they would be up over $2200 since than...terrible customer service- but hey they don’t care so my money goes elsewhere....

[m2711c]

I hope everybody renews their ikon/epic pass. I don’t need those people coming to where I ski. I’m sticking with the indypass, the ski cooper pass and employee letters to get my fix.

[SoVT Joey]

Buying an Ikon

[m2711c]

thank you.

[SoVT Joey]

Magic is very very tempting, if the quad opens.

[teletech]

I have never seen ski areas run worse than attitash and wildcat in nh. Check out this for what attitash was last weekend https://m.facebook.com/AttitashMountain/
They run about 1/2 the lifts they normally do. There can be an hour lift line and they wont open another lift. People parking in overflow but no lifts.Snowmaking has been minimal this year. Attitash is still not 100% after a bunch of storms. Then they blow snow and let the mounds sit for weeks. No intermediate terrain, all the lifts that service those areas not running this year. Which sucks if you want to bring friends and small kids that aren’t that good.
Then all the stupid fucking signs and that dumb ass vax card to go inside. At wildcat last weekend my kid had frozen toes and crying, had to wait in a line and fiddle through your phone to find that stupid pic to take off her boots and warm up while she’s crying. I left my phone in my car and had walk back to my car to sit with family. Epic sucks the fun out skiing. Fuck them. Every other ski area around is normal, fuck vail. I’ve had a pass there for close to 30 years besides living out west. Never again

[HankScorpio]

I'm with sticking to Ikon unless something drastic happens with their pricing. Skiing Sugarbush I haven't seen the crowds, lifts, staffing and snow making issues that Epic mountains have had. Also, it's long shot but if Alterra acquires Jay that will only sweeten the deal.

[Benny Profane]

You gotta think that there's a bidding war going on for Jay at the moment, now that we're spitting out the other side of the pandemic. Present bankruptcy managers probably want no part of that place anymore.