13740453:50Kal said:
So by your logic any "locals" who bring food/beer/supplies there to the mountains are okay but if your from out of state/front range and live in your van your dick cause your not spending your savings on a fucking $20 burger and $10 beer right?
Sounds like OP was trying to make a thread to rip on Weekend Warriors cause the I-70 resort corridor is always packed and it backfired.
Get over it. If you wanna ski somewhere without lines leave and go to the wilderness area and earn turns the hard way.
This.
Also, from what I understand, and lots of this comes from an article in Powder several years ago, the Summit/Vail resorts are really helped by the cheap passes that are sold. They sell tons of epic passes and if they did not have the weekend warriors buying them, they have to sell them in volume to make the profit margin acceptable, it might not be worth it. You have to sell lots of them to make it work it and the locals probably would not buy enough of them to incentivize the resorts to make that decision. You would probably be paying a lot more for your pass, or you would have to work for the resort which is not great unless you can do it part-time and work nights to make real money. Without the weekend warriors you probably would not get that pass. My guess is that big resorts without weekend warriors, places like Jackson and Sun Valley, have higher season passes than the Summit/Tahoe/Mammoth type places where there are regular weekend types. I don't know this for a fact and I'm not going to study it, but I would guess that is how things end up. Weekend warriors allow resorts to sell passes in bulk which makes it worth it to sell them for cheap.
If you can afford a higher pass price than I don't blame you as much for feeling this way. When I was a Squaw local the full season pass was 1200 if you bought it early and 1600 if you bought it later. Many Squaw locals who make good money (for a ski town) wish it would go back to that as that would decrease crowds.
Of course if you are a local wouldn't you rather avoid weekends anyway? I worked nights and instructed part-time, only the occasional weekend and holidays, and I did not worry too much if the weekends were crowded. If you live in Denver and ski weekends and are mad because the I70 commute sucks than you really are not any different than the other weekenders.
My second year as a Tahoe local I hated the tourists too. Then I grew up and realized that I probably would not have a job in a restaurant and a part-time instructing job which got me cheap gear and a pass without the tourists. Even the weekend warriors who come up a lot still patronize restaurants and they helped make sure that I had a job.
I occasionally get that vibe at Mammoth. I go up 2-3 weekends a month and sometimes I meet locals who don't like me. I was talking on a gondi ride once with a local. We were talking about our favorite lines and great Mammoth windbuff. It was a Friday so the mountain was not crowded. He asked me where I lived and I said socal. He did not say a word to me the rest of the ride and when we got off and then yelled "go back to LA" as he skated away. That night he ended up waiting on me at the restaurant I went to. I could have stiffed him on the tip but it was not worth it to be a dick. It was funny to be someone who helped subsidize his life yet someone he also despised so much.
There are places with less crowded mountains where the warriors won't be a big deal. You should look for one of those. I doubt Jackson has many weekend warriors but have fun with an insanely expensive pass and a ridiculous housing market there. If the weekend warrior types who come up 2-3 weekends a month bother you than Colorado might not be a good place for you to live.