Does anyone else find it ironic?

skiminnesota

skiminnesota

Active member
Hey NS, I was thinking today. With the season amping up for alot of the country, and ski hills all over getting set to open with a white ribbon of death.

Why not just postpone like 3 weeks (early december) and instead stay open later into the year? I get the market forces of everyone wants to ski NOW etc.

But i personally find it ironic that hills will open a death strip (not that im complaining) yet come mid april it shuts down with god knows how much snow.

so NS would you rather your hill open in december with the understanding they would stay open until conditions required they closed. or the status quo of open with a handful of trails early and close early with shit loads of snow on the ground?
 
It's not about people wanting to ski now, it's about the amount of people that are going to travel in April

Once April hit, usually the only people coming to the mountains are the pass holders, and the mountain has already made the money from them.

I'll use Kicking Horse as an example, since I know it the best, and know some insight.

We open in December, after all the Albertan hills have opened with their early season conditions. Those hills are essentially a teaser for the rest of the season/area.

Nobody is thinking of ski vacations until Christmas time, and with a resort (as opposed to hill) like Kicking Horse, bookings aren't going to pick up until Christmas season.

Once the season hits spring skiing time, the hill can milk it for awhile, but soon, you end up noticing that it's just the locals that are out the hitting secret spots, and jibbing the mountain. The resort has lost its appeal to the travellers.

As much as we all know that hills can stay open past their closing days, the hill can't make money out of it. Therefore, they end the season.
 
another reason is that resorts that are on federal land are required to close on a certain date. Either for contract reasons or because of animal migrations that occur in that area during the spring. Like Alta for example, they had over 700 inches of snow, and it also dumped 20+ in. on closing weekend, but had to close for those reasons above, where as Snowbird right next door stays open for as long as they can since they are on non-federal land
 
i skimmed the first post which seemed right.
my two cents....
you said it yourself. people want to ski now (late november + begining december) when the thought and excitement of winter is here. In april the majority of people still going have season passes and the people they would be making money off of are busy vacationing somewhere warm for spring break and are completely focused on spring and summer weather coming.
 
i live in utah now.

and yeah guys i know about the FS stuff and i know some places: Hyland Hills, their insurance runs out at X date.

I was talking about the broad generality of it. People take ski vacations in Nov over thanksgiving break when conditions are less than ideal, yet no one wants to ski past the first week or so of April?

Its funny, Brighton (and i bet a number of places in the Wasatch) were freaking packed on Sunday, yet last may my car was one of 3 in the parking lot after it got done legitimately nuking and there was a 200in base under all the new stuff.

dont get me wrong I was out on Sunday with everyone else, but I will also be out in May.

maybe it comes down to people want what they cant have? therefore they want marginal skiing in NOV and biking etc in may?
 
People get tired of the seasons. You can't do much but wait for winter during fall. Along with the skiing/temp in April/spring being warm and not most ideal in most peoples eyes.

I am sometimes like this, and as much as I live spring skiing, biking or something like that would be awesome, but if there is still snow, it's just a pain. Given now that I live in a city, as opposed to living in Thr ski town of Golden, this isn't a problem.

Hills can pull of early season, because people want to ski. They want winter. But after 6 months of winter, people are just going to want summer again.

Lake Louise offered free skiing back in May for their closing week, it was available to any pass holder in NA. They just had a good season, it was mostly locals, and I don't really know how they made money. Maybe Charlie Locke is just a really good guy. (which he is)
 
Another element to keep in mind that resorts use early season to help drive holiday bookings.

A strong early season presence gets people in the mindset of skiing for the upcoming season. If the hill did not open until December, the general, uneducated skiing public (whom are the market) will worry about conditions being good for their holiday trip that they are dropping thousands of dollars on.
 
Saddleback Maine opens on the december 17th with almost all their trails open, it doesnt make sense to open with one trail and shitty skiing when you can open with quality skiing
 
Personnaly i cant complain about this...I live in the east, skied a death strip the last two weekends and enjoyed it as i do every fall....as for the spring its always dead around here again i cant complain about that....when they stop running the lifts we hike the park and jib until may usually....oct-may for the east common who's complaining? If i needed more i would move to hood
 
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