Vail sucks

DefJef · 01-15-2007, 11:25 AM

On Sat. both the Tea Cup chair and the 17 chair were breaking down all afternoon, for half an hour at a time, causing massive jams at that poorly planned pinchpoint between the two lift mazes. There were hundreds of people down there trapped with nowhere to go - lift lines going all the way back up across the bridge there and the catwalk. Some people turned back and hiked back to Orient Express lift, a mile away.
How can a fucking resort charge their guests so much for lift tickets and then have problems like that with their lifts on one of the most crowded, popular weekends? Why don't they put in money towards lift upgraded instead of adding more and more development at the base. This was a complete clusterfuck...plus, no refunds, nothing. Hundreds of people lost out on their entire afternoon of skiing the deep pow b/c TWO lifts were broken...that is unexceptable.

I big FU to Vail

**Alek** · 01-15-2007, 11:33 AM

Seconded! Fuck them. 82$ ticket and a BILLION (with a B) on real estate development and they cannot fucking build a detachable quad at the bottom of Sun Down bowl? Please...

How was the snow though? I went yesterday and EVERY SINGLE snowflake had already been trampled by someone. It looked like Saturday must have been their busiest day ever.

Did anyone drive back to Denver Saturday? How long did it take? Last week was 4 hours for me, yesterday super-easy 1 1/2.

**strawjack** · 01-15-2007, 11:34 AM

is that shirt still around?? vail sucks

**iskibc** · 01-15-2007, 11:37 AM

Imagine that, a piece of machinery breaking down! How dare they let that happen! Things like lifts, snowmobiles, cars, trucks, snowcats, dishwashers, etc. should never break down. What are we paying those damn engineers all this money for! Anarchy!!! Pure Anarchy!!!

**smmokan** · 01-15-2007, 11:37 AM

Seriously! I mean, they did plan for the lifts to break, right? Its totally their fault!

**skiHOG** · 01-15-2007, 11:39 AM

yea, shit happens, and if/when it happens at such a big place people will get screwed. either way, i like vail. had some great powder days this year so far. me likey mongolia bowl and blue sky.

**Below Zero** · 01-15-2007, 11:40 AM

You're the best DefJef! Absolutely the best!

Keep up the stoke! I hope I can ski with you someday!

**smitchell333** · 01-15-2007, 11:40 AM

You're surprised?

**The AD** · 01-15-2007, 11:42 AM

Am I missing something here? If the Tea Cup lift breaks down can't you go up the chair into Blue Sky? If chair 17 breaks down can't you ski down to the High Noon chair?

Are you confusing chair 17 (Sun Up) with chair 37 (the one that goes to Blue Sky)?

**shera** · 01-15-2007, 11:43 AM

Originally Posted by Alek

Seconded! Fuck them. 82$ ticket and a BILLION (with a B) on real estate development and they cannot fucking build a detachable quad at the bottom of Sun Down bowl? Please...

How was the snow though? I went yesterday and EVERY SINGLE snowflake had already been trampled by someone. It looked like Saturday must have been their busiest day ever.

Interesting - some of the guys I went with yesterday had to stay inbounds and I watched them ski untracked down from the platter and they told me later that they lapped some untracked off orient express, then back to Lover's leap, wrapped hard left and skied those woods that come back to the chair. I've done that in the past and had a lot of fun too.

You gotta get an eye for the place, I guess.

Bummer about the chair and glad I didn't get caught. I did ride teacup once in the morning - had a cut up powder run down to it. Fun. And agreed that it could be made into a quad...they were loading only every other chair.

**pde20** · 01-15-2007, 11:46 AM

Originally Posted by Alek

Seconded! Fuck them. 82$ ticket and a BILLION (with a B) on real estate development and they cannot fucking build a detachable quad at the bottom of Sun Down bowl? Please...

I go back and forth on this. Chairs 5 & 17 get pretty damned crowded, but at the same time, people know to avoid it and it encourages people to move on to other parts of the mountain rather than keep pillaging sun up & sun down all day when it is good. I don't think a quad down there is going to make it any less crowded, it is just going to get hit extra extra hard. However, given the fact that you have no fewer than 4 high speed quads that dump people out on the ridgeline above sun up, there is an obvious inbalance between chair 5 and 17 and the frontside quads in terms of skier capacity.

Originally Posted by iskibc

Imagine that, a piece of machinery breaking down! How dare they let that happen! Things like lifts, snowmobiles, cars, trucks, snowcats, dishwashers, etc. should never break down. What are we paying those damn engineers all this money for! Anarchy!!! Pure Anarchy!!!

Thirded...shit happens, and according to murphy, will always happen on a crowded weekend, not a random tuesday in April. One of the many hazards of weekend warrioring.

**Alek** · 01-15-2007, 11:49 AM

Originally Posted by SheRa

Interesting - some of the guys I went with yesterday had to stay inbounds and I watched them ski untracked down from the platter and they told me later that they lapped some untracked off orient express, then back to Lover's leap, wrapped hard left and skied those woods that come back to the chair. I've done that in the past and had a lot of fun too.

You gotta get an eye for the place, I guess.

That must be my problem: I never ski Siberia and Mongolia

But usually I find stuff in the trees to the right of the Skyline lift, but not yesterday. It was still good, just all tracked up.

**pechelman** · 01-15-2007, 11:50 AM

Originally Posted by Lostinthetrees

wha.....?
get some skins and trekkers and leave the lift-lines for the real b/c, chipper.

otherwise, take your rant over to the Vail's Customer Comments website...
www.customers_eat_shit@vail.com

fyi
his b/c was "because" and not "back country"

**JTrue** · 01-15-2007, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by DefJef

that is unexceptable.

I big FU to Vail

What is unexceptable? Maybe what you mean is unacceptable? And A big FU to Vail?

**Fuzz** · 01-15-2007, 12:03 PM

Yup, Vail definitely sucked on Saturday.

**smmokan** · 01-15-2007, 12:05 PM

Come on guys... lay off DefJef. He contributes SO much to this board, he's just looking for some sympathy.

DefJef · 01-15-2007, 12:16 PM

I did actually have one of my best ski days ever on Sat.
The snow at Vail was unbelievable. Those are the days that make me love skiing. But my rant is about the infrastructure at Vail - how can TWO lifts go down all afternoon like that. For the amount of money we pay (or the flatlanders pay) Vail should be able to keep it's lifts running almost flawlessly.

In response to the confusion, the lifts that were down were the Tea Cup and Blue Sky lifts that are right next to each other. I might have gotten the numbers mixed up.

Another observation: there are waaaaaay too many Easterners ransacking the slopes here. Holy s, go elsewhere!

**mr_gyptian** · 01-15-2007, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by DefJef

On Sat. both the Tea Cup chair and the 17 chair were breaking down all afternoon, for half an hour at a time, causing massive jams at that poorly planned pinchpoint between the two lift mazes. There were hundreds of people down there trapped with nowhere to go - lift lines going all the way back up across the bridge there and the catwalk. Some people turned back and hiked back to Orient Express lift, a mile away.
How can a fucking resort charge their guests so much for lift tickets and then have problems like that with their lifts on one of the most crowded, popular weekends? Why don't they put in money towards lift upgraded instead of adding more and more development at the base. This was a complete clusterfuck...plus, no refunds, nothing. Hundreds of people lost out on their entire afternoon of skiing the deep pow b/c TWO lifts were broken...that is unexceptable.

I big FU to Vail

They're so much worse than the Squaw VAlley closing the top half of its mountain because of high (read 45 mph) winds. Charging full price, nonetheless.

that, my friend, is bullshit.

grow up.

**skiHOG** · 01-15-2007, 12:20 PM

Originally Posted by DefJef

I did actually have one of my best ski days ever on Sat.
The snow at Vail was unbelievable. Those are the days that make me love skiing. But my rant is about the infrastructure at Vail - how can TWO lifts go down all afternoon like that. For the amount of money we pay (or the flatlanders pay) Vail should be able to keep it's lifts running almost flawlessly.

In response to the confusion, the lifts that were down were the Tea Cup and Blue Sky lifts that are right next to each other. I might have gotten the numbers mixed up.

Another observation: there are waaaaaay too many Easterners ransacking the slopes here. Holy s, go elsewhere!

yea, it's called MLK weekend. should be less crowds for the next 4 weeks until President's Day.

**Below Zero** · 01-15-2007, 12:21 PM

Originally Posted by DefJef

Holy s, go elsewhere!

Pretty much the same feeling we have about you on this board.

**ECbum** · 01-15-2007, 12:23 PM

Two lifts out of how many?

Seems like decent odds to me that shit will happen. I skied there for the first time last Wednesday, and although it lacked freshies...it is certainly monsterous enough to accomodate a broken lift or....ten.

Edit: just saw your last post. Ha! You want absolute working order AND no weekend warrior "Easterners"...I don't know much about Vail, but I'm afraid you might have to ski another resort, AND NOT THE BIGGEST, MOST TOURISTY AREA IN AMERICA!

**Ireallyliketoski2** · 01-15-2007, 12:25 PM

Vail doesn't give a shit about you.

**Rontele** · 01-15-2007, 12:34 PM

Originally Posted by DefJef

I did actually have one of my best ski days ever on Sat.
The snow at Vail was unbelievable. Those are the days that make me love skiing. But my rant is about the infrastructure at Vail - how can TWO lifts go down all afternoon like that. For the amount of money we pay (or the flatlanders pay) Vail should be able to keep it's lifts running almost flawlessly.

In response to the confusion, the lifts that were down were the Tea Cup and Blue Sky lifts that are right next to each other. I might have gotten the numbers mixed up.

Another observation: there are waaaaaay too many Easterners ransacking the slopes here. Holy s, go elsewhere!

Just make sure you don't get hit by the wahmbulance when it comes to pick you up, pussy.

**Brock Landers** · 01-15-2007, 12:34 PM

Originally Posted by DefJef

there are waaaaaay too many Easterners ransacking the slopes here. Holy s, go elsewhere!

Pipe down nerd

**Lone Star** · 01-15-2007, 12:35 PM

it's reasonable to expect some minimum amount of service when you pay 82 bucks for a lift ticket. sure, with a season pass, I wouldn't be too miffed about being stuck for an afternoon, but losing an afternoon in a once-a-year five day ski trip is a pretty big deal. problems with machinery happen, no doubt: that's when good customer service is supposed to come in.

hopefully customer service wont be douchebags and tell a bunch of out of towntourists to buy trekkers and skins (and a beacon, a pack, sounding more and more realistic every minute...) elitist pricks, they would be.