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Vail Resorts to acquire Crested Butte and other ski areas

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
I see that the large ski business Vail Resorts are acquiring a number of new US resorts, including Crested Butte (CB). Whilst this means that CB and the other newly acquired resorts will now be included on the Vail Resorts' Epic Pass I do wonder what it will mean for the walk -up day lift ticket prices at Crested Butte? (I'm aware that you can get discounts on longer multi day tickets by buying in advance, but sometimes if you are travelling and just fancy a day or two at a ski area in the US you have to pay the walk-up prices). As an example CB charged $111 for an adult day ticket this season whereas at Vail they charged an eye-watering $189!! Shocked https://www.gunnisontimes.com/content/vail-resorts-purchase-crested-butte-mountain-resort https://www.onthesnow.com/colorado/crested-butte-mountain-resort/lift-tickets.html
https://www.onthesnow.com/colorado/vail/lift-tickets.html


Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Tue 5-06-18 17:39; edited 2 times in total
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Quote:

As an example CB charged $111 for an adult day ticket this season whereas at Vail they charged an eye-watering $189!!

Christmas? Or just regular mid-season?

I don't remember paying for day tickets over $100. But then, I search for the "usual" venue of deals and typically end up with sub-$100 tickets.

Granted, I don't often ski Vail resorts. I only ski there if I have friends who insist on it. And they typically back their insistence with a buddy pass.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Yes window and day tix will go through the roof. But kinda irrelevant for intl visitors provided they snag a season pass before the Nov cutoff.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
Dave of the Marmottes wrote:
But kinda irrelevant for intl visitors provided they snag a season pass before the Nov cutoff.

Or they snag an all-inclusive package.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
abc wrote:
Quote:

As an example CB charged $111 for an adult day ticket this season whereas at Vail they charged an eye-watering $189!!

Christmas? Or just regular mid-season?

I don't remember paying for day tickets over $100. But then, I search for the "usual" venue of deals and typically end up with sub-$100 tickets.

Granted, I don't often ski Vail resorts. I only ski there if I have friends who insist on it. And they typically back their insistence with a buddy pass.


How does the buddy ticket thing work anyway? Can I buy a pass for myself knowing that I may want to take my kids for a 5 ski day break - and all my buddy tickets go to the one person?
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 You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
No, you're better off buying your kid a pass too.

Buddy pass works only when you OCCASIONALLY want to take a visitor there. You don't pay extra for it anyway. It offers a discount for your buddy, from the window rate. Hence the name.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
The USA ski resort business is rapidly heading towards a duopoly, if it is not already there. Whether or not that is good for the consumer depends on how vigorously they compete, or whether they tacitly decide to not cut each other’s lunches.

The outcomes might also be different for those who live close to their small, favourite hill, versus destination resort skiers.

From what I can see where I live, where there is a duopoly of sorts, there have been few visible benefits for the consumer.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Those prices are unlikely to be attractive to European based skiers. The northern American ski areas are a fraction the size of the big interconnects in the Alps and the Pyrenees and I think some of them close their lifts as early as 3:30pm.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Peter S wrote:
Those prices are unlikely to be attractive to European based skiers. The northern American ski areas are a fraction the size of the big interconnects in the Alps and the Pyrenees and I think some of them close their lifts as early as 3:30pm.
The US ski mountains were never attractive to the average European based skiers anyway. The flight alone would put it behind price-wise. Not to mention average European skiers don't know how to deal with the nasty surprises of un-groomed pistes.

Only a small fraction cross the pond for specific reasons (inbound off-piste without guide, English speaking instructors). They're basically "destination skiers". They MAY benefit from the consolidation.

No big change on both counts.
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Ski the Net with snowHeads
Quote:
Those prices are unlikely to be attractive to European based skiers. The northern American ski areas are a fraction the size of the big interconnects in the Alps and the Pyrenees and I think some of them close their lifts as early as 3:30pm.

Plenty of Europeans prefer North America for a variety of reasons (less crowded, orderly queues, inbounds offpiste etc.) and many are happy to pay for this - but it's a moot point as for most Europeans these passes (epic, mountain collective, icon) are making trips cheaper and offering a lot more choice. (Also trying to compare size of Europe and n American resorts by size is apples to oranges - the in bounds Vs off-piste set ups are completely different).

Quote:
From what I can see where I live, where there is a duopoly of sorts, there have been few visible benefits for the consumer.


Apart from cheaper prices and having way more flexibility and choice?! If your a crested butte local you can now get an epic pass for less than a standard crested butte season pass, allowing you unlimited skiing at crested butte plus unlimited skiing at a bunch of other resorts which seems like a no brainer.. If your a Stevens pass local you can either get your normal Stevens pass season ticket at exactly the same cost it would have been or pay $400 extra for an epic pass - which will pay for itself in 2-4 days (depending on resort). Plenty of Washington residents drive up to whistler for weekends so for them it's a no brainer.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Was planning on dropping in on CB during next years road trip, but luckily saw this before accommodation booked.

Shame IKON didn't didn't get there first, with them now having Telluride on their ticket.
Eventually I would think the duopoly and poss. mountain collective ( bought again for next season - bargain ) will have on their tickets most of the NA resorts, but so long as the small independents, are still going its going to make trips fun.

Our trip last season with buying the mountain collective, and other stuff taken into account worked out good value really - its not for everyone, but then we don't need or want to just stay at a destination resort - but really pleased they exist wink Toofy Grin
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Quote:

If your a crested butte local you can now get an epic pass for less than a standard crested butte season pass, allowing you unlimited skiing at crested butte plus unlimited skiing at a bunch of other resorts which seems like a no brainer..

Actually, the no-brainer part came long before Vail bought them up.

For the longest time, independent Colorado mountains had band together to form some sort of loose "consortium" where pass holders have a few "bonus days" in other independent mountains. Given the distance involved from say, Crested Butte or Telluride to Vail or Breckenridge, majority of pass holders only want to go to another mountain for a weekend or so anyway.

The "unlimited access" sounds great but only useful for a minority percentage of pass holders. For the rest, they gain Vail but lose Monarch, Loveland, Wolf Creek etc. (the net loser are Monarch/Loveland/Wolf Creek)
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
"From what I can see where I live, where there is a duopoly of sorts, there have been few visible benefits for the consumer."

...and people wonder why we fly to Europe to go skiing.
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