The new Northeast Peak Pass. Your move ORDA.

snoloco wrote

Wow, a pass product comes out that is pretty much the best deal in the east and you can still find a reason to complain about it.

Learn the difference between complain and analyze. I have no upside after Hunter, so it is not the best deal in the east.

On the upside he doesn't need a dedicated thread for his whining

x10003q wrote

snoloco wrote

Wow, a pass product comes out that is pretty much the best deal in the east and you can still find a reason to complain about it.

Learn the difference between complain and analyze. I have no upside after Hunter, so it is not the best deal in the east.

exactly..not saying it's not a good deal..I just don't want to be married to Hunter..If I give Hunter 600 beans , I might not enjoy my days at Platt as much...The Big Lift Card allowed me to be more flexible...Zero desire to ski Mt Snow..

snoloco wrote

This is basically the Epic Pass of the east.  I imagine Peak's ski areas will all be insanely crowded next year.  Maybe this volume of skiers will offset their debt.  Their ski areas will likely pull a lot of business away from their competitors.

snoloco wrote

Wow, a pass product comes out that is pretty much the best deal in the east and you can still find a reason to complain about it.

Except the Epic Pass has many of the premier resorts out west. Peak's Pass have at best B,C, and D squad players which have no interest to me, except for Hunter which now loses the best frequent skier card on the market. As great as YOU think Mt. Snow is, there is no reason I'd go there over Berkshire East. I hate crowds, it's that simple.

Sno, your point of view is just that, other people have their own views and grumble about whatever they want.

As far as ORDA goes, I don't want them making the pass prices lower to compete at a competitive advantage over mountains like Plattekill. They already get way too much of a subsidy in the form of taxpayer dollars and access to water. Enough is enough, fair is far, etc.

Every time the ski industry has seen consolidation it has only hurt skiers in my view.

And no, under 30 cards are not new. Sugarbush pioneered the passes in 2009 I believe. And still, they suck, at least there where the price discrepancy is 1k. There have to be other ways to grow the sport, it's unfair to ask people between the ages of 29-64 to subsidize everyone else and it made for extremely busy Saturdays.

And in their case, I have seen no evidence that people continue to purchase passes after the price goes up, when they can get cheaper passes and a longer season at K or just go all in for a Stowe pass. It's a sham. No one likes it when the rug is pulled out from under them and they're used to paying one thing and then it costs something entirely different.

But that's just my unpopular opinion.

I wonder why they're pulling the frequent skier (Big Lift) cards?  Just about everyone sells both frequent skier cards and season passes side-by-side.  What am I missing?

snoloco wrote

It's still one of only 2 multi-resort pass options in the Northeast and is better than the ORDA SKI3 by far.

There's more than just the Peak Pass and ORDA Ski3, for example  the MaxPass (which interests me much more than Peak's product).

Not holding my breath for anything reasonable from ORDA. Peak Pass looks like a great deal if you lived in the southern area of NY.

The MaxPass only includes 5 days at mountains other than your home mountain.  The Peak Pass is unrestricted.  Plus there are no Intrawest, Powdr, or Boyne/CNL mountains that are within daytrip reach from my location.  There are 4 Peak Resorts are are within daytrip reach for me (Jack Frost, Big Boulder, Hunter, Mount Snow).  I'd primarily use it as a Hunter pass, but take the opportunity to check out the other mountains.

Vail's Epic Pass might be a good deal at first, but they're going to nickel and dime you in every way possible to make up for it.  That's something Peak's ski areas don't do.  It's also comparing apples to oranges to compare Peak to Vail.  Peak Resorts is completely Eastern and Midwest based.  Vail has zero eastern mountains.

If you want a frequent skier card in the Catskills, Windham still has their Gravity Card  Vote with your feet and ski there instead.  If you get a non-holiday or midweek pass, it's $500 and $300 respectively.  $600 is only for the unrestricted pass and during the blackout dates, you'd probably want to be at Plattekill anyway.

in the other thread where we looked at Peak's financial situation which is pretty grim with lots of debt.  This I'm sure is a response to get a bunch of money in now so they can keep current with that debt load they took on to buy Hunter.

I'm not sure these guys are even on Orda's radar.  it could affect Bellarye but I don't see any impact from this on Gore / WF.

snoloco wrote

If you want a frequent skier card in the Catskills

I'm a Dacks/Vermont snob, so I don't ski the Catskills.

snoloco wrote

The MaxPass only includes 5 days at mountains other than your home mountain.  The Peak Pass is unrestricted.  Plus there are no Intrawest, Powdr, or Boyne/CNL mountains that are within daytrip reach from my location.  There are 4 Peak Resorts are are within daytrip reach for me (Jack Frost, Big Boulder, Hunter, Mount Snow).  I'd primarily use it as a Hunter pass, but take the opportunity to check out the other mountains.

Granted, the world revolves around you, but for those of us living north of Albany, Pico, K-ton and Stratton are all easy daytrips.  Add in a long weekend or two at Tremblant and a week out west at Big Sky or Steamboat.  In my world, that kicks ass over unlimited Hunter / Mount Snow / JFBB.

Obviously  we all have different circumstances and  preferences.  In general, I think the concept of Eastern mult-resort passes is great, Peak's deal just doesn't happen to excite me.  I wish ORDA would broaden their passholder alliances similar to the MaxPass or the (western) Powder Alliance, both of which pass products feature resorts with different owners.  

snoloco wrote

Vail's Epic Pass might be a good deal at first, but they're going to nickel and dime you in every way possible to make up for it.  That's something Peak's ski areas don't do.  It's also comparing apples to oranges to compare Peak to Vail.  Peak Resorts is completely Eastern and Midwest based.  Vail has zero eastern mountains.

Oh really? I had the EPIC pass two years in a row and took two 2-3 week vacations with my little bro and didn't give Vail Resorts an extra dime on parking or lodging.


Also went back in May each year to ski Abasin. What does Peak Resorts have that's as gnarly as the East Wall or even The Land of the Giants.

Considering how good of a deal this pass is for many, I'm sure that they'll eliminate some debt through volume.

I might be tempted to buy some SKIS stock if this has a chance to eliminate their debt.  Buy low and sell high.

Considering how good of a deal this pass is for many, I'm sure that they'll eliminate some debt through volume.

I might be tempted to buy some SKIS stock if this has a chance to eliminate their debt.  Buy low and sell high.

This is a game changer for me. I live in Orange Co. and usually buy the Ski3 pass for my 14 yo and me.  This pass is $150 cheaper and the perks are not too shabby.  I'm kinda pissed that ORDA has made zero effort to ease the pain of pass holders due to the crappy Winter this season.  I know they can't control the weather, but that didn't stop them from giving day trippers a free pass to come back and ski later in the season to make up for bad conditions around the Christmas/New Year's holidays.  I love skiing Belle, Gore & WF, but with that kind of contempt from ORDA, I think I'll opt to spend the big bucks elsewhere next season.  The MaxPass looks very tempting too.

Peak Resorts had the Peak Freedom Days to ease the pain of the bad season to passholders at their mountains.  They also gave out free tickets to passholders at mountains that weren't open yet so they could ski a mountain that was open.  Hunter passholders got to ski Mount Snow for free early season.

ML:  Weren't you the one who said that you'd buy a ticket for anyone who said "x" mountain wasn't a good time?  Then why would you say that you'd never ski Mount Snow.  Yes it does get crowded, and if you want to ride the bubble chair all day then you will wait in line.  Or you can very effectively avoid crowds there as with just about anywhere else.  When the bubble chair lines up, ride the Grand Summit Express, when that lines up, ride the Canyon Express, and when that lines up, ride the Ego Alley or Sundance Triple.  That's for the main mountain.  If you go to the North Face, there's zero lines as they have 2 triple chairs that combined can handle 3,600 pph.  Same thing with Sunbrook.  Little to no lines there.  As for Carinthia, it's all terrain parks so you probably wouldn't care, but when the HSQ lines up, ride the Heavy Metal Double which never has a line.

I think it's great when guys like Mike Solimano do awesome unexpected things for their passholders.  Still the basic deal with the devil you make when you buy a pass is you commit up front.  The upside is that you have the potential to get a really cheap per day cost, the risk is that the season will suck.

Honestly I'm not sure, within ORDA, who has the authority to discount pricing or whatever. I'm sure it's not at the GM level, but whether it's Ted's call or it happens above in gov't, I don't know. In a privately held company it's likely simpler to do.

More than anything what I like about what PEAK did is they stream lined all of their mountains' pass products and have a really nice selection of different tiers even for 30+yo adults.

SKI3's option as an adult is one.

Harvey wrote

I think it's great when guys like Mike Solimano do awesome unexpected things for their passholders.  Still the basic deal with the devil you make when you buy a pass is you commit up front.  The upside is that you have the potential to get a really cheap per day cost, the risk is that the season will suck.

Honestly I'm not sure, within ORDA, who has the authority to discount pricing or whatever. I'm sure it's not at the GM level, but whether it's Ted's call or it happens above in gov't, I don't know. In a privately held company it's likely simpler to do.

All valid points Harvey, but it makes you wonder what the marketing dept. at ORDA gets paid for.  They serve up the same pass structure & pricing coming off probably the worst ski season (snow wise) in a generation.  Belle's skier visits are down by 40% this season.  They should have offered some kind of discount to pass holders who renewed for next season.  We are off to Hunter this Sunday, if we like what we see our price for the day pass will go towards a new season pass, another great perk.

I'm sure marketing at ORDA has zero to do with pricing.

It'll be interesting to see the effect of all this downward pressure on prices created by the megapasses.  

Will it actually grow the industry or just cut into margins?  

I don't think you are going to see more ski areas.

snoloco wrote

ML:  Weren't you the one who said that you'd buy a ticket for anyone who said "x" mountain wasn't a good time?

Are you offering me a ticket? I have been there. I prefer The Beast. Or if there's good snow, I'll go to Magic. Mount Snow has a purpose and people can have a good time there, but I am not their demographic.

This pass product is of zero interest to me, and I love Hunter.