Jackson hole 2/5-2/13...

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

4 minutes ago, CaptDave said:

Sublette was the play this afternoon.  Snowing hard and windy, so filling in nicceeeee.

webt down buffalo bowl to close out the day and it was like Sierra Cement from there down

Bird In the Hand

 

A bird in one hand is worth two in the Bush. I’m on my way to Blue now. 

[CaptDave]

Ancillary stuff waiting for bus

roof of The Mangy Moose could slide lol

 

 

[CaptDave]

Sun popped out a bit but snowing again

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

4 hours ago, CaptDave said:

Sun popped out a bit but snowing again

Sounds like you like Jackson hole...

[CaptDave]

Love it!

best trip ever

Edited March 1, 2019 by CaptDave

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

16 minutes ago, CaptDave said:

Love it!

best trip ever

That’s good I try not to recommend mountains that suck. 

[CaptDave]

Last day of my trip and what a week it’s been!

sun made an appearance Friday March 

fav run of the day Central Chute

Snow was great

first trip up tram could hear chopper in distance over towards Cody bowl ut oh    And stories if people fucking closed gates earlier in week

Dipped in Saratoga and it wasn’t so frat so didn’t go all the way through

Awesome week!

 

 

 

[toast21602]

1 minute ago, CaptDave said:

Last day of my trip and what a week it’s been!

sun made an appearance Friday March 

fav run of the day Central Chute

Snow was great

first trip up tram could hear chopper in distance over towards Cody bowl ut oh    And stories if people fucking closed gates earlier in week

Dipped in Saratoga and it wasn’t so frat so didn’t go all the way through

Awesome week!

 

 

 

Central chute was my 3rd run of the day. It was great! 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

5 minutes ago, toast21602 said:

Central chute was my 3rd run of the day. It was great! 

It’s so filled in..

[theprogram4]

1 minute ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

It’s so filled in..

That's what she said.

[CaptDave]

Didn’t get a picture but got into Workers Wiggle under the tram and that banked slalom was fun!

also this thing. I think it was Toilet Bowl.

[theprogram4]

1 minute ago, CaptDave said:

Didn’t get a picture but got into Workers Wiggle under the tram and that banked slalom was fun!

also this thing. I think it was Toilet Bowl.

Good to see ya liked Jackson!  By far my favorite place out west

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

8 minutes ago, CaptDave said:

Didn’t get a picture but got into Workers Wiggle under the tram and that banked slalom was fun!

also this thing. I think it was Toilet Bowl.

That sort of looks like paintbrush.  

[NMSKI]

That sort of looks like paintbrush.  

Yep looks like that is where paintbrush dumps into toilet bowl.

[toast21602]

2 minutes ago, NMSKI said:

Yep looks like that is where paintbrush dumps into toilet bowl.

Speaking of toilet bowl, it took us less than 24 hours to go through the tp in our room.  Luckily it’s been restocked. 

[theprogram4]

1 minute ago, toast21602 said:

Speaking of toilet bowl, it took us less than 24 hours to go through the tp in our room.  Luckily it’s been restocked. 

I owe you guys high fives for this

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

For those interested in why JH is so busy this season. It’s interesting to me. 

 

was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . . “ Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

That quote accurately describes our 2018/19 season. We have received more snowfall during the month of February than any month in our history. With our record snow comes record ski patrol efforts to open the mountain, record lift operations efforts to shovel snow, record ticket sales, record cars parked and record crowds. We are having a very successful year from a business perspective, our guest service and employee engagement numbers are at a 9.5 vs. our goal of 9.2, and the change in our NPS Bonus structure reflects this. All this represents the best of times.

The worst of times? Record snow has attracted so many people that we’re stressing our infrastructure and worse, straining our employees. We’re all familiar with the relentless flow of skier visits creating long lines, traffic issues, lack of parking, crowded restaurants . . . some days, the list of stress points seems endless and on top of that, the rumor mill is churning out all kinds of baseless and nasty rumors.

I’m writing today specifically to address the rumors about the IKON Pass that range from “IKON pass holders constitute as many as 50% of our skier visits” to ”they ski for free” and “they are ruining our resort”. I’m presenting the FACTS below as well as sharing with you some of the actions that we’re taking to address our crowding issues and support our employees.

Background: Big Picture
- For the past 17 years, total revenues in the ski industry have been virtually stagnant. Generally revenues have fluctuated slightly from year-to-year in as skier visits have risen in correlation to increases or decreases in snowfall. One of the factors driving down participation in our sports is the increase in the high price of lift tickets that is turning skiing/riding into sports that can only be afforded by an elite class.

- Virtually every major resort in the U.S. participates in either the Epic (Vail-owned) or IKON (Alterra-owned) pass. Roughly 60% of Americans who will take a destination trip purchased, one or both, of the two passes this year. These passes make skiing/riding affordable and skiers who plan a destination trip will travel to a resort where their lift ticket is already paid for. If Jackson Hole had chosen NOT to participating in one of the 2 pass products, only 40% of Americans skiers would likely consider a destination trip to Jackson and our skier visits would likely decrease to levels where we would not be able to sustain our business. In short, we’re in a pickle.

- While the Kemmerer family is committed to Jackson Hole retaining its independent ownership, JHMR recognized that we could not stand alone as a destination resort and thus should participate in one of the two pass products. In October, 2017, Jerry Blann signed the multi-year agreement committing Jackson Hole’s participation in IKON. A couple of the reasons why JHMR opted to participate in IKON vs Epic 1) the estimates of IKON pass sales was 75% fewer than the Epic pass, and 2) IKON celebrates that all resorts are unique allowing member resorts to maintain their independence.

- For the 2018/19 season, the price for a full pass for each of Epic and IKON was $899. Epic’s full-price pass holders have unlimited access at 61 resorts in U.S., Japan and Europe whereas the IKON pass is good at 26 destinations in the U.S. and Canada. The IKON Base pass at $599 provided unlimited skiing at Winter Park, Copper, Eldora, Squaw/Alpine, Meadows, Tremblant and more PLUS 5 days at Aspen Snowmass, Alta, Snowbird, Steamboat, Deer Valley, Jackson Hole, Big Sky, Stratton, Killington, Revelstoke and Sugarbush. Hence, the perception of so many IKON pass holders that they are skiing for free when they come here, but the fact is that Alterra pay us a rate for every pass used here that we then use to support our infrastructure and salaries.

- Across the U.S., the 2018/19 season’s snowfall is the best it’s been in more than 40 years. Each region is seeing record snow and when the snow is good, the skiers come out. Many resorts across the country is reporting long lift lines, heavy traffic and parking problems due to the combination of record snowfall and affordable access to our sports. While low pass prices are contributing to the increase in skier visits, the snow is also a significant contributor, particularly with record snow in February.

JHMR’s 2018/19 Season
- Our overall skier visits have increased 10% vs last year, and last we started to feel crowded.
- Snowfall is 25% higher than last year. When conditions are good, skiers come out.
- Locals represent 33% of our skier visits: they are skiing 7% more, likely due to our great snow conditions, and so are contributing to the increase in skier visits.
- Our “Comp tickets” have increased 4%. Included in this group of people whose passes are complimentary (free), are our employees and the employees of other merchants in town, ski club, barter tickets and charitable donations and other sources.
- IKON pass holders represent approx 14% of skier visits but not all incremental. Roughly 50% of IKON pass holders “migrated” from a different product in previous years, e.g., they may have bought a lift ticket at the window, owned a Mountain Collective pass, visited on a package deal, etc so we attribute IKON pass holders as adding 7% of our incremental traffic (note: the same impact as our locals skiing more).
- IKON encompasses all of our mature markets and has a strong penetration into Colorado, Utah and California, with higher concentrations of advanced skiers. As a result we have more people visiting Jackson Hole for this first year than previous years . . . almost double vs the last year.

IKON pass holders are giving JHMR and our employees extremely high marks. Their comments consistently compliment the resort and the caliber of our employees and guest service.
- Teton Village Association are ploughing roads more than ever. We have so much snow that plowing our parking lots has been extremely
challenging. . . there is no place to where we can move the snow and so snow piles are taking up parking spaces (we’ve lost roughly 180 spaces in the Village, depending on the day).

- START bus resources are stretched. We’re encouraging visitors to take the bus but our busses are overflowing: some of our employees report that they wait at the bus stop as up to 4 busses pass by without stopping because they cannot fit another person on the bus.
-
WYDOT has closed the pass for safety concerns multiple days & nights these past few weeks and so many of our employees cannot get to work or must drive for hours to get to work . . . sometimes arriving at 10:30 a.m. or later. This is contributing to delayed openings and the crowds that resemble a rock concert in the base area.

Insummary, while IKON passholders are contributing to our crowding problems, they are not the only factor as locals and employees are skiing more days. Record snowfall is likely the biggest driving factor.

Solutions to address crowding, parking / traffic:
Short-term: the remainder of the 2018/19 Season
- We have canceled all marketing / promotions that was scheduled for the remainder of this year EXCEPT for support of the RendezVous festival. We are hosting this event jointly with the Travel & Tourism Bureau and cannot act unilaterally
- We are working with hotels so that our employees who live over the pass can stay in Teton Village, ensuring that they can get to work on time (thank you to all who are staying overnight)
- Teton Village Association, responsible for parking and transit, working with Mountain Resort Services, is running four additional shuttles in the morning between Stilson and the Village, and we are adding an additional Teton Village employee morning shuttle from the Hampton Inn in town direct to Teton Village
- We are encouraging all visitors to use bus transportation between town and the Village
Long term Solutions. Some actions that we are planning that will potentially decrease crowds next year:
- Eliminating our “Golden Ticket” promotions that attract visitors to JHMR during off peak seasons
- Limiting use of comp tickets as barter for our services
- Raising prices of Mountain Collective
- Raising prices of IKON pass
- Adding value to purchase the BYPASS season passes that incentives our local passholders to avoid skiing over 10 holidays.
- Working with Hotels, TVA, and START to expand transit, and add transit benefits to our guests
- Increase parking spaces at Stilson
- Invest in employee housing on THIS side of the pass.

We are still exploring a number of options that we believe will help to reduce traffic and will share those initiatives with you as soon as they are confirmed. We have rejected proposals to increase prices to a level beyond what most local skiers can afford. We want our mountain to continue to be accessible to all.

We will keep you posted as we develop more tools to control the volume of skier visits. The most effective tool would be to have a bad snow year but none of us want that.
Thank you all for your extraordinary efforts during this extraordinary winter.

Mary Kate Buckley,
President, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort

 

[Shadows]

Ok

[Barb]

Interesting read. Been hearing rumblings about the same issues at Crested Butte. Wonder when they will announce Epic Pass prices. Ikon goes on sale 3/5 and I am sure people want to compare the two before they commit. I may just break down and get both passes so I can have unlimited Crested Butte next season. But I guess 8 should take this discussion to ski2 live thread of which pass should I get? 

[toast21602]

Great breakdown by the president to squash some of the rumors with actual facts. 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

This is a great video. 

 

 

[CaptDave]

Back to reality :(

it was amazing week.

one night I saw a local paper with this article about Ikon model

https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/whistler/mountain-news-have-ikoneers-ruined-the-ski-experience-of-locals/Content?oid=13293155

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

4 minutes ago, CaptDave said:

Back to reality

it was amazing week.

one night I saw a local paper with this article about Ikon model

https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/whistler/mountain-news-have-ikoneers-ruined-the-ski-experience-of-locals/Content?oid=13293155

 

Where did you stay in Jackson hole?  

[CaptDave]

SpringHill which is under Marriott brand. Use Marriott for work so was able to redeem points to get discounted nights there.

its a block away from Antler and 49er

Bus going to ski area at 8 and 9am then returning 345 and 5pm each day

I really likedmeatball parm slices and PinkyQs.

walking around was a bit of an adventure cause they don’t salt and the sidewalks were sheets of ice lol

 

 

 

 

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

5 minutes ago, CaptDave said:

SpringHill which is under Marriott brand. Use Marriott for work so was able to redeem points to get discounted nights there.

its a block away from Antler and 49er

Bus going to ski area at 8 and 9am then returning 345 and 5pm each day

I really likedmeatball parm slices and PinkyQs.

walking around was a bit of an adventure cause they don’t salt and the sidewalks were sheets of ice lol

 

 

 

 

 

PinkyQ’s is good.  I’ve was there a couple times with my Montana friend in beteeej bar hopping.  I’m going to buy over the shoe crampons of some sort for my next trip to Jackson hole like what mailmen sometimes wear.  I like walking around the town..every morning I walk a couple blocks to the bagel place and sometimes after skiing walk to the loaf and jug of Bin 22 and then walk somewhere to dinner..