Vail is gonna build a bunch of new lifts at Whistler Blackcomb this summer costing $66million

joelski

joelski

Active member
they are doing a couple things i like, replacing cat skinner with a high speed quad, and turning emerald chair into a 6. But they are also replacing wizard and solar with a 10 person gondi its a 47% capacity increase ang will move 4000 people per hour. They also said they "deferring consideration" of the water park but they do wanna keep up with the rest whistler renaissance including the bike park improvements and new trails. What does this all mean to the skier? stuff will get tracked out faster? does this mean whistler park is going to become much mellower ad become the more intermediate/novice mountain as there have been roomers in the past? does this mean Blackcomb will become busier?

heres a link to the press release: http://news.whistlerblackcomb.vailresorts.com/corporate/whistlerblackcombcapital.htm

and whistler removed the website details about the renaissance so here is a cbc article:http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/whistler-blackcomb-renaissance-plan-1.3522817
 
I worked for PCMR right after vail bought them and remember all the supes and managers and shit realllly taking notice of stats like number of skiers per hour and stuff like that so its no surprise, like they take notice of amount of traffic in certain areas or the mountain as a hole in relation to ticket sales and stuff. More lifts means more terrain which means more people up the mountain and probably a lot of dollars in ticket sales.
 
and they also went ahead and built new lifts, connect both PCMR and the canyons with a gondola, Built new parks/lodges, etc., and that's definitely helped them become a billion-dollar company along with buying up resorts left and right. Hate it all you want but that epic pass is a great deal.
 
One of the only good things about Vail owning your home resort is that they fix a bunch of old busted shit. Embrace it, other stuff is gonna piss you off.
 
It's already a mega resort, if it can get me out of the line faster and up at the top quicker i'm all for it.
 
I never get the "Lifts are faster so things will get tracked out really fast". I get that that's true, but wouldn't it be at a similar rate as if it was slower and you were waiting in a longer line, and longer chairlift line? You aren't teleporting to the top.

Or maybe if you hit it the day after it's already way more tracked out than it would have been?
 
13864968:DeebieSkeebies said:
I worked for PCMR right after vail bought them and remember all the supes and managers and shit realllly taking notice of stats like number of skiers per hour and stuff like that so its no surprise, like they take notice of amount of traffic in certain areas or the mountain as a hole in relation to ticket sales and stuff. More lifts means more terrain which means more people up the mountain and probably a lot of dollars in ticket sales.
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13864971:DeebieSkeebies said:
and they also went ahead and built new lifts, connect both PCMR and the canyons with a gondola, Built new parks/lodges, etc., and that's definitely helped them become a billion-dollar company along with buying up resorts left and right. Hate it all you want but that epic pass is a great deal.
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Sounds like it help pcmr a ton, unfortunately theirs no new terrain added by these lifts, they just increase traffic on existing terrain. unfortunately i dont think vail is really benefiting whistler because whistler as a whole is much larger then the rest of the resorts owened by vail. Whistler was years ahead in computational power, and had more employees in higher places then vail now has running all their mountains. On opening day many passes didn't work for no apparent reason, the vail app is crap compared to what whistlers was, whatever small little shit. Im bumed they arent building the water park, it was gonna have a bunch of really fun shit like climbing walls and artificial surf waves. the new lifts will be nice tho, im not so sure about the gondi if it will be better then the 2 chairs its replacing. they do plan to open a whole new side of the mountain eventually, but thats been in whistlers master plan for like 10 years now \ and vail hasnt said any date just that they want to so who knows when it ll happen.

13864974:eheath said:
One of the only good things about Vail owning your home resort is that they fix a bunch of old busted shit. Embrace it, other stuff is gonna piss you off.
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not really, this was already something whistler planned to do before it was bought, but just not all at once.

13865014:theabortionator said:
Or maybe if you hit it the day after it's already way more tracked out than it would have been?
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this, gets tracked on the weekend and theres less to ride Monday.
 
13865482:sdrvper said:
RIP!

First Blue Mountain's OG double park chair to racing, now cat skinner to Vail. I guess I'll see cat skinner for the last time at Christmas.
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RIP
 
Good luck finding employees to run your million dollar lifts and flip your $25 burgers.

Invest in employee housing and wages
 
13865773:TheDoughAbides said:
They'll probably just automate all of the lifts
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Due to current US laws and regulations you can't do this. It will happen at some point. I've thought about how, but have not come to a good way to do so.
 
Peak 2 peak is all run by a computer. The Maintenance guys just monitor the computer and if you are an unfortunate lifty you get stuck sweeping snow all day like a fucking maid.
 
13865872:GRaboneSnow said:
Peak 2 peak is all run by a computer. The Maintenance guys just monitor the computer and if you are an unfortunate lifty you get stuck sweeping snow all day like a fucking maid.
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Yeah, hence why I said US. Canada people don't sue when they load the chair wrong...
 
13865742:SkiBum. said:
Good luck finding employees to run your million dollar lifts and flip your $25 burgers.

Invest in employee housing and wages
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I thought the problem was always trying to get a job at a ski resort, not trying to find someone to hire
 
13865919:cool_name said:
I thought the problem was always trying to get a job at a ski resort, not trying to find someone to hire
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Not sure where you have been, but ski town employment is wide open. They will hire anyone with a pulse

This mainly goes for your big name ski resorts and ski towns (summit co CO, Jackson, Utah ski areas, Tahoe).

The issue is ski areas pay peanuts. Ski towns are not affordable to live in on $20/hr let alone $10/hr that the resorts, shops, restaurants pay.

Ski resort and town jobs are seasonal. So most get shafted on benifits. Also ski related jobs usually are pretty low end and crappy.

The easy fix to the problem is have these resorts invest in housing for employees and better wages. But that most likely won't help. Employments rates are low. All over. And I struggle hiring people at $20-$30/hr full time year round benifits, reimbursement expenses and shit, we have been thinking about offering a seasons pass if you want it (if you have a CDL or are a mechanic hit me up)
 
13865014:theabortionator said:
I never get the "Lifts are faster so things will get tracked out really fast". I get that that's true, but wouldn't it be at a similar rate as if it was slower and you were waiting in a longer line, and longer chairlift line? You aren't teleporting to the top.

Or maybe if you hit it the day after it's already way more tracked out than it would have been?
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I mainly ski at Alpental, and the top is serviced by a slow ass double chair from the 60's. And yeah shit gets skied out in 2 seconds. Even the 'BC' gets gang raped immediately. I am all for a high speed quad, at least I could be at the top faster..
 
13865937:SkiBum. said:
Not sure where you have been, but ski town employment is wide open. They will hire anyone with a pulse

This mainly goes for your big name ski resorts and ski towns (summit co CO, Jackson, Utah ski areas, Tahoe).

The issue is ski areas pay peanuts. Ski towns are not affordable to live in on $20/hr let alone $10/hr that the resorts, shops, restaurants pay.

Ski resort and town jobs are seasonal. So most get shafted on benifits. Also ski related jobs usually are pretty low end and crappy.

The easy fix to the problem is have these resorts invest in housing for employees and better wages. But that most likely won't help. Employments rates are low. All over. And I struggle hiring people at $20-$30/hr full time year round benifits, reimbursement expenses and shit, we have been thinking about offering a seasons pass if you want it (if you have a CDL or are a mechanic hit me up)
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I've been no where close to a ski town. I knew working as a liftie or something meant barely scrapping by, but didn't know they struggled to hire enough. Figured there was always enough kids with a glamorized view of ski bumming saying "fuck it" and trying to get a job as a liftie.
 
13865944:cool_name said:
I've been no where close to a ski town. I knew working as a liftie or something meant barely scrapping by, but didn't know they struggled to hire enough. Figured there was always enough kids with a glamorized view of ski bumming saying "fuck it" and trying to get a job as a liftie.
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working as a liftie means getting a second or third job around town and still barely scraping by
 
13865919:cool_name said:
I thought the problem was always trying to get a job at a ski resort, not trying to find someone to hire
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neither in whistler, its easy to find a job, hard to find a place to live though, and hard to find people with housing to work for you, but easy to find people to work if you dont require they lve in whis or if you provide housing.
 
13866563:sdrvper said:
I also feel like in Whis the turnover on jobs in high, a lot of people do 1 or 2 seasons out there and then leave. (obviously there are some people who stay forever).

I think as long as whistler has a free pass included with employment, they’ll never have any trouble finding people.
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Thats cause WB provides housing, but for all the not WB jobs like restaurant and ski shop and hotel its much harder to find employees, no one in whistler is living off of just minimum wage with no housing or benefits provided, its practically impossible to find anyone to work for that low a wage cause its practically impossible to live off that low a wage in Whis. theres deffinately a shortage of workforce there
 
RIP to the Catskinner/ Black park vibes... been bound to happen though.. It will be weird without Solar.

I wonder how low down/where they plan to put the new quad. I feel like it will run into the same amount of traffic like Emerald chair has now, without park riders funnelling partially onto Catskinner. Will be interesting to see what happens.
 
13866937:kstanz said:
RIP to the Catskinner/ Black park vibes... been bound to happen though.. It will be weird without Solar.

I wonder how low down/where they plan to put the new quad. I feel like it will run into the same amount of traffic like Emerald chair has now, without park riders funnelling partially onto Catskinner. Will be interesting to see what happens.
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the gondi might stop halfway to?
 
13866937:kstanz said:
RIP to the Catskinner/ Black park vibes... been bound to happen though.. It will be weird without Solar.

I wonder how low down/where they plan to put the new quad. I feel like it will run into the same amount of traffic like Emerald chair has now, without park riders funnelling partially onto Catskinner. Will be interesting to see what happens.
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they're taking emerald and putting it where catskinner is(hopefully keeping name)
 
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