Vail buys Kirkwood

H

HeathR

Active member
Vail has just bought Kirkwood. Kirkwood passes are now good at Heavenly and Northstar, and vice versa. They say they are going to try to keep some of the good stuff about Kirkwood but we will see what happens. If you live in South Lake its a damn good pass deal now.
 
soooo lame!!! so disappointed in kwood :( ... theory: vail has never had the olympics and heavenly and squaw are the only two in tahoe that have a long enough run for the downhill.. but oh wait... heavenly is not steep at all.. so they need something else for the other events... lame!!! all other tahoe resorts need to ban together to fight this!
 
what? they bought it cause they want to have their pass be dominate like it is in colorado. if tahoe got the olympics again they would probably split events throughout the resorts similar to how salt lake and vancouver did.
 
pretty excited to be able to ride kirkwood but even more excited and heavenly's gm of mountain operations is gonna be leaving to run kirkwood
 
Nah... Vail wont bump up the price on the epic pass. The price is still the main difference between other passes so they will keep it the same.
Now we need mammoth and then we rule the world.
 
Haha this is how it is at every ski resort, not just vail resorts.

It will be very interesting to see how it plays out... I just started working at Kirkwood this season and their have definitely been signs of change, so I'm really not that surprised. I think it will be good and bad for the wood... their parks will definitely get sicker and they will hopefully have a reliable energy source to run their daily operations from, but vail will probably change the cowboy/backwoods feel that kirkwood is known for.
 
Fuck Vail. Honestly. They've already wrecked enough of Tahoe. The Heavenly, Nstar, Sierra pass was the best deal out there and they banished that for the dumbest pass options possible. Why the fuck do I have to pay for shit I don't want. Don't even really go to Kwood that often anymore, but its still sad. I don't know why the resorts are all caving in to this besides lack of money. Fuck Vail.
 
eh maybe kirkwood was going down and vail bought it for a great price to save it..... business is business.
 
So many dumb posts in this thread. How many of you actually ski Kirkwood?

The current management is fucked. It couldn't be any worse.
 
I'm stoked to see what they do with it. From my viewpoint Kirkwood is managed pretty poorly. I've had more powder days at KWOOD hampered by the lifts not spinning/generators going out than I'd like to admit. Its called getting kirkarood for a reason. Sure some stuff will be worse off, but its still off the beaten path in Tahoe and will keep some of that vibe. Someone needs to give the squalpine pass a run for its money.
 
this is nothing but a bad thing for kirkwood and its skiers, ya there management has been fucked but the solution is not vail, i have only skied heavenly out of all of there resorts but i don't want there policies coming to the wood. what are they going to rope off the hole mountain, i couldn't imagine 10 running right now if vail was operating the resort. the mountain was fine the way it was and is currently.
 
I don't think any of the terrain that's currently accessible is going to be in jeopardy. I do think the FWT is fucked though, which makes me really really sad.
 
Even though the Vail Resorts corporation takes a horrible approach to skiing and makes it more about them than the sport, it's nice to ski all over for cheap. Every ski area in the world should coop $500 season passes unrestricted... I promise to buy a condo.
 
how has vail wrecked tahoe? They are caving in because they are broke. Would you rather see kirkwood just shut down or have somebody with deep pockets like vail put the necessary money into to fix there many problems.
 
Ski nice for cheap?? You a damnfool if u think vail makes things cheaper.. Think about the people who don't buy season passes and have to deal will the $100 bullshit for lift tickets.. Vail is jacking up the prices everywhere they go and I see it first hand at northstar... So big ol bs if u ask me and vail can go to hell
 
if you buy a 100 dollar lift ticket you are a damn fool.

season passes are so much cheaper.

one thing i have to admit is that vail resorts does have reasonable prices on season passes.
 
I understand they help.. But is helping making food like a burger and fries 20 bucks?? Or the fact that I go broke just trying to buy a lift ticket?($100) ... They jack the price up on anything because they are all greety the negatives out way the positives
 
And when Tahoe is having a year like this and north star is the only place with decent snow it's my only option ad I would rather buy a season pass to somewhere else with better terrain than north star and heavenly
 
N* doesn't have decent snow, nobody does. If you're referring to their park then yes, it's one of the best in tahoe. I think this is actually great considering Kirkwood has some if not the best terrain and snow in tahoe (not this year, snow wise) and N* has the best park.
 
exactly they had no money left to do anything at least now people working there will have some job security. Working for vail isn't all that bad and its nice knowing they have deep pockets and your job is always safe.

and to the person talking about jacking up prices who cares if there season pass is still dirt cheap. This helps out the locals and makes only the rich tourists pay the crazy day ticket prices.
 
if you ski more than five days it is cheaper to buy a pass fool.

why are you commenting on vail resorts buying this if it has zero affect on you.

stay in georgia, stupid inbred.
 
No it doesn't. Passholders get screwed too. For instance last year my pass was good at Heavenly, Nstar, and Sierra, with no blackouts at Sierra. And it cost me around $265 or something, forget exact price. For this current season after the Vail acquisition the equivalent pass was around $370 and all saturdays were blackouts. And it only worked for heavenly and nstar, and most "locals" don't go to Heavenly in the first place. To get saturdays on your pass, the price gets jacked up even further, and you are still paying for shit you don't want when it comes to other resorts.

I hate how they advertise one pass access to all these mountains, when really most people don't ride a bunch of mountains, and usually stay at one. I will agree looking at the pass options, Vail has done wonders for the Colorado resorts and having the Epic pass. But the options for Tahoe were just ass backwards and made for higher prices without any benefit really. They just made the resorts more tourist friendly, which is BAD for locals. All these so called improvements are mostly eating places and crap like that that most genuine skiers don't care about. I take a damn PB&J and ski instead of sitting in the lodge.

Sure for resorts like Kirkwood going under maybe it is NECESSARY, but that doesn't make it a GOOD thing. Important clarification. For Tahoe, Vail is bad and they just interfere in a bad way.
 
Fuck them all I say. Go get some AT bindings and some avy training. Be safe out there and create your own skiing experience.

Or just ski smaller resorts like silverton, wolf creek, plattekill, magic, kicking horse, ect.
 
this years sierra pass was 379. Which is about the same as the tahoe pass which does not have saturdays blacked out at heavenly like you said. If most locals dont ride Heavenly then this shouldnt matter anyways and they can all stay at sierra. I hate how people who live in south lake irrationally hate heavenly without ever spending much time there.
 
Reasonable Question: What was Kirkwood's financial status before the acquisition? It seemed as if they were getting along okay...but perhaps something was going on behind the scenes? And doesn't the continued consolidation of ski resorts cause antitrust issues? I know that the Department of Justice required Vail to divest some of their Colorado property back during the Vail Associates days. But what are the implications of this for the wider ski industry? There are some reasonable questions to be asked here. What happens to the smaller resorts, like Sierra? At what point can they not compete with Vail's Epic Pass?

Another Thing: Vail Resorts and the other partnering Colorado and Tahoe resorts should offer some sort of "a la carte" season pass option. Some people only want to ski at one resort. Or two. Make it so that you pay a set price for access to a resort, and you can limit your access in that way. The more resorts you add, the less it costs.

Example:

Angela wants to ski at Kirkwood and Northstar, but not the rest of the Epic Pass resorts. While a single-resort unlimited pass would cost $299 for each resort, because she wants access to two and two alone, she can combine the pass and pay $499 (a $100 savings) for unlimited access to both, but none of the others.
 
Yes, but that price increase there was a direct result of the Vail breaking up the other pass. So even there you see a backlash of the acquisition IMO.
 
i feel like Kwood is too remote for any kind of substantial housing development to be put in for atleast 20-30 years. permitting, and zoning would take for ever, as well as environmental.

i dont know how to feel about this. This offers up some ridiculously awesome pass options, but a large part of why tahoe was so damn good was the two hidden treasures had cheap day prices so you could afford a couple days at either(alpine, kwood) but now i fear everything is going to be $100/day.
 
Vs what would have happened? No, I would rather have kirkwood owned by vail than no kirkwood.

Did A basin change for the worse? You seem to think that every resort is going to turn into VAIL just because it's owned by them. A bay is a perfect example of what will happen to kirkwood: They'll get a new lift, maybe some lodge upgrades and parking lot upgrade.

FWT is a totally different story.
 
Northstar-at-Tahoe 2010-2011 Season Passes



[*]Double Whammy Unlimited-Adult: The Double Whammy Unlimited Pass

offers unlimited, unrestricted skiing and riding at

Northstar-at-Tahoe and Sierra-at-Tahoe resorts at $799 for adults.

Existing pass holders will be able to exchange their Double Whammy

Unlimited Pass for the Epic Season Pass ($629) and receive a refund

for the difference in the price (over $100 in most cases). Moving

forward, we will promote the purchase of the Adult Epic Season Pass,

providing unlimited and unrestricted skiing and riding at eight resorts

at a much lower price than the Adult Double Whammy Unlimited.

[*]Double Whammy Unlimited-Teen/Child: Offering

unlimited, unrestricted skiing and riding at Northstar and Sierra,

the price of the teen ($449) and child ($119) pass will remain

unchanged. Teens will have the option to upgrade to an adult Epic

Season Pass. Children will have the option to upgrade to a Child Epic

Season Pass or a Child Heavenly Pass.

[*]Double Whammy Limited: The Double Whammy Limited

offers skiing and riding at Northstar all season long with 10

restricted dates and unlimited, unrestricted skiing at Sierra at $519

for adults and $299 for teens. Adult pass holders will now receive

skiing and riding at Heavenly, with the same restricted dates as

Northstar. Teens will have the option to upgrade to a Teen Heavenly

Pass at $309.

[*]Double Whammy Value: The Double Whammy Value

offers skiing and riding at Northstar and Sierra with some restricted

dates and no access to Northstar on Saturdays between Dec. 18, 2010

and March 26, 2011. Pass holders will now also have access to Heavenly

with the same restricted dates. The pass price is $419 for adults.

[*]Northstar Only Pass: The Northstar Only Pass offers skiing and riding at Northstar on weekdays only at $319 for adults; not valid at Heavenly.

[*]Sierra Only Pass: Will remain valid at Sierra; not valid at Heavenly, Northstar or other resorts.

[/list]
 
vail understands that part of the appeal of kirkwood is that it is not fancy resort. they had a meeting yesterday at heavenly and talking how they want to keep kirkwood the same.
 
I understand the anti-corporation sentiment flying around in this thread, I really do. As freeskiers we pretty much go against everything "corporate america" stands for. However, in this instance I really think you guys are over reacting. This is my first season working for Vail Resorts, so no I don't have a ton of experience with them, but it has definitely given me some insight into the company. Sure, there are some things I don't love about working for such a large corporation, but there are a lot of things I do love about it. The company as a whole is doing incredibly well, which is more than the majority of the ski resorts in this country can say right now. Management knows how to run a business and make their separate entities successful. I know my job is safe, I have affordable quality housing, I get great discounts all over the place, I now have 8 mountains to ride throughout CO and CA...

This isn't going to be like "Out Cold", Vail isn't going to come in and ruin Kirkwood. From the sounds of it, things weren't being run properly and the mountain was struggling financially. Yeah I admit, the food costs across Vail Resorts are pretty outrageous, but there's a simple solution to that, bring your own food! The Epic Pass is easily the best value in CO, now with three mountains in Tahoe and likely another in the future, I'm sure it will become the best deal in CA as well. All I'm saying is before you freak out and call Vail the devil, just wait and see what happens. If your skiing experience has been completely ruined after Vail's takeover then sure, complain away, until then just keep riding and enjoy the mountains...

 
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