The hiking deal has always been a tough one. I'd like to think that I can hike anywhere I want and ride down, and that's true. We just don't want people sessioning the park. If we catch you hiking up we will probably approach you and ask you to leave. If you have a poor attitude about it that is when it can get expensive for you.
It's also important to remember that lift tickets are our main revenue maker here, so even though you may not be using the lift that much it's the only way we can pay park crew, ski patrol, cat drivers, cat leases, diesel fuel, salt expenses... and the list goes on. All the things that you have to have to build and maintain a park.
We are defineately aware that 52 bucks does not work for the majority of people that want to just ride park. We are looking at ways to midigate this for next summer. Maybe a public only park pass or Mile only pass. So hopefully that will be a good solution for all you guys.
To help us price that appropriately we need to know how many skier visits the average customer wants. So let me know how many times you would come ride during a summer. Be realistic. 10 days of riding during 2 summer months is actually quite a bit of time up here.
And remember no one likes kicking hikers out. I hate telling someone they can't enjoy our snow, but the business has gotten so tight lately that basically if you can not prove that your department is making the company a certain amount of money than you will be removed. Which means no more parks for anyone. Sad but true its' all about the money.
L