Well, aside from parks, when Vail Associates was bought out in the 90s and shifted to Vail Resorts(which includes rock resorts), the culture at towns which inhibit a vail resort, changed. Vail itself was always marketed towards rich people, but the festivities became more corporate and large scale, than tradition based when the whole company scene changed. Vail also moved their headquarters from Eagle to Brookfield as the company went public. As the company went corporate, it became harder to delineate one mountain from another in terms of culture. Even during covid, vail had the same mask and distancing signs at each resort and each store they owned(epic gear & breeze rentals). It might just be the business models, but at alterra resorts, things still seem fairly different from one another. Even before alterra, Intrawest was contributing quite a bit to more crowded resorts like Winter Park and partnering with powdr Corp owned copper for a Colorado pass which also included steamboat and CB for a few seasons. CB since being aquired by vail and it wouldn’t surprise me if Vail also bought telluride in the near future after partnering with the epic pass for a week of skiing a year. In terms of park, vail in recent years has really cut back on such. Whether it’s insurance or costs, I’d say it’s more so impacted on costs. Vail in terms of acquisitions the past few years has been unheard of which means spending power is quite shortsighted at vail. Imo, vail has ruined community culture, while alterra has attracted more people, but kept culture/traditions in tact. This is even what the company CEO has said. Vail is more focused on acquisition and budget cuts while alterra is more so in the business of partnering and offering multiple pass options like resort specific or an affordable sample of resorts. Vail is all under one pass. For vail, I can’t go and buy a resort specific pass. I have to get the epic pass which can lead to crowds at destination resorts. With alterra, I can get a ikon pass with select places and then a full pass for a specific resort at a premium, but this applies to destination resorts. Vails pass is high access, high profit, but drawback of crowded hills is hike alterra maintains the environment at destination resorts and uses main resorts for everyday use. Unlike alterra, I’m more so under the impression that vail isn’t in the business of skiing but destination resort/lodging that offers world class skiing, but the emphasis on the average customer/ not avid skier. Alterra and others like powdr focus on the skiing and I realize conglomerate passes leads to more congestion especially if one resort gets one more inch than the other on pow days. Just the way the market is going. Wish I was alive when Vail Associates was still a thing and were hip about skiing.
**This post was edited on Feb 16th 2022 at 3:01:33pm
