[News & Views]
of industrialized skiing feels quaint today, as so many of the big destination resorts—I’ve dubbed them “Big Glisse”— have abandoned workaday skiers in the search for more money. What follows are some of the other boneheaded moves Big Glisse makes. But first a prologue: Before you write me off as just another whining bro, know that I have spent much of my career as a writer and editor experiencing ski areas as customers do. Think of this story as the equivalent of a secret shopper giv- ing feedback to a retailer, or a restaurant reviewer appraising chefs. Discount it at your peril. Big Glisse forgot that mountain capacity matters more than lift capacity. At Berkshire East—where my brother and I skied as kids in the 1970s—when the lift lines got long, they sent out hot dog vendors to appease folks. And when the lines got really long, they tapped a keg in the snow and said, “free beer!” No more lines. The base was as alive as the endzone seats at Foxboro. Today, when lines form in the morn- ing, customers take pictures of the queue and post them. Big Glisse, which wor- ships volume over all else, doesn’t want anyone to know they have lift lines, so it buys more lifts. Great, except the skiable terrain has barely budged. Big Glisse misreads lift-line posts on Instagram as bad press. When I see lift
lines on Instagram they are often associ- ated with big storms and fresh snow and delayed openings for avalanche control. I think, “Wow, looks like the powder day of the season. Wish I was there.” But when I see shots of runs so crowded they look like protest marches—a trail capacity problem—I think, “I would not partake of that 30-mph scrum.” SKIERS AND SNOWBOARDERS LOVE THE WORD “FREE”— FREESTYLE, FREESKIING, FREERIDE—BECAUSE THAT’S HOW SKIING AND SNOW- BOARDING MAKE YOU FEEL. Warming huts became luxury dining. It gets cold when you’re skiing and snow- boarding. It’s nice to duck inside a shack with a wood stove to warm up. But at Big Glisse, if you pop into what was once a warming hut, they will ask for reserva- tions. There’s a locker room with fuzzy slippers, a maître d’, and there are gran- ite countertops (yawn) in the shitter, but none of that is for you. Freedom has been canceled. Throughout history, skiers booted up in slopeside parking lots, walked to the lifts, and seared moose steaks on tailgate hibachi grills for lunch. Warren Miller, remember, lived in a tag-along trailer in ski area parking lots. Each spring during the ’80s, my Plymouth State College classmates and I took over the Cannon tram lot for après—because you can’t throw footballs and frisbees in the bar. When it’s warm enough, a parking lot is to skiers what a beach is to surfers. But then, inspired by Vegas and theme parks, Big Glisse said, “We too shall funnel and fleece our customers.” Now, with the slopeside lots turned into condotels, you park too far away to walk, ride an open-air shuttle like it’s Santa Land, and get deposited in some faux
WHAT OVER INDUSTRIALIZED SKIING GETS WRONG
By Marc Peruzzi Former Executive Editor, Skiing
I first realized industrialized skiing was in trouble when the ink on my business cards as a Skiing magazine “Executive Editor” was still wet. This was 2003, and I was driving one of the best ski cars ever built: a Saab 900 hatchback. I’d picked up mine with 180K on the broken odometer. The studded snows cost twice as much as the car. It was in this vehicle that I arrived at the luxurious Sonnenalp resort at Vail, and handed the keys to a valet I’m sure was about to tell me to get my beater out of there. I was in town to meet with the executive team of Vail Resorts, back when that company kept offices in the mountains where they operated. I was as out of place as my car. In the meeting, I mentioned that Skiing readers would ski through lunch and eat Pop-Tarts on the chair. Stupid editor: That class of customer was why Vail got rid of the base lodges where day skiers once stashed bootbags and salami sandwiches, instituted pay parking, and raised day-ticket pricing high enough to drive season pass sales instead. That education in the business
ICYMI: Headline News (from saminfo.com)
Mount Southington Introduces Sport and Sustainability Program May 1 U.S. Ski Areas Report 61.5M Skier Visits for 2024-25, Second-Best Season on Record May 12 A Handful of North American Resorts Target June Skiing May 28
Expansion to Double the Size of Doppelmayr Canada Headquarters June 3 Colorado Reports 13.8M Skier Visits for Third-Best Season June 5 Australia Ski Season Off to Strong Start June 9
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