are you KIDDING me?????- BC Mark, please read

[ltd_chick78]

I knew Pres. Day weekend would be mobbed, but I didn't think I'd actually be TOLD TO LEAVE by park staff, like I was two hours ago.

Normally I'd avoid this weekend altogether, but with a crazy work week behind me and ahead of me I didn't get as much riding during the week done as I'd normally like. The weather was decent, I get really itchy if i don't ride at least once a week, so I was willing to deal with long lift lines and all the annoyances that come with big crowd weekends just to get out.

So I was more than livid when I drove out there Sunday around 1 and was told that the parking lot was full and to go home.

 

I'm not a person who gets angry easily, and am usually very rational and understanding about weird circumstances. But basically, here's what went down:

 

I drive up the road to the entrance and there's a sign that says LOT FULL TO CAPACITY. there's a few people in BC coats standing in the road around another sign that says "parking" with an arrow pointing across the street, away from BC, which to me seems to indicate there might be another lot I never knew about somewhere else. I start to slow down and a dude in a yellow coat starts shaking his head at me and pointing down the road. I roll down my window and ask if there's backup parking elsewhere, since to me, that's what the sign seemed to indicate.

ME: Is there backup parking somewhere else?

YELLOW COAT GUY: No. you can't come in.

ME: (kind of confused that this is actually happening) so I can't ride today?

YCG: (yells at me) NO! THERE'S NOWHERE FOR YOU TO GO! YOU HAVE TO LEAVE, GO HOME!!!!

 

now i'm furious, and floor it out of there.

 

I'm mad cause I was willing to deal with the crowds and didn't even get the chance. I'm mostly angry because this guy was a complete jackass, there was no need for him to yell at me. I'm sure he'd been getting a lot of crap from a lot of people up to that point but why take it out on me for asking a simple question? and I know he doesn't know this, but home is Philly and at this point I've now completely wasted 3 hours of my day, half a tank of gas, and a nice afternoon.

 

What's even more frustrating is that BC is apparently not adequately prepared to deal with the crowds they try so hard to attract. Am I going to get all indignant and huff about how i'm never going back there again? no, mostly because i already have a pass so i'm riding there for the rest of the season at least. and in four years this is the only truly bad experience i've ever had there. But as i'm heading home, i keep passing cars with boards and skis on the top and i'm wondering how many of them are going there for the first, and last, time. And I know that one guy isn't representative of Bear Creek as a whole, but if you're going to send someone out to deal with a lot of people in a situation that's going to make many of them angry, maybe it shouldn't be someone with the shortest fuse in the world who freaks on people for asking simple questions.

 

Bear, I'm really disappointed in you.

[nick]

you shoulda just floored it past hima nd went down into the lower lot, theres always spots, you just gotta look for them.... But it was pretty crazy today

[photog]

That is crazy!!! Was it dude with the cowboy hat? (He actually seems pretty cool and waves every time I pass him) Since you have a season pass I would have demanded to speak to somebody in charge and raised all kinds of shit about spending a good amount of money on a pass and having them turn you away at the door. Maybe even have them call BC-Mark. I was their yesterday at open until about 1:30 and did not have to wait more the 5 min in a lift line. Now today at blue was a different story I arrived their at 8 and it was starting to get crowded by 9 but the lines where moving.

 

Sorry to hear about your bad day Hopefully next weekend will be better.

Edited February 18, 2007 by photog

[AgentRider21]

i came at about the same time you just had to look for parking it was there

[Glenn]

So just to clear up, it was the parking lot staff not the park crew that told you to leave.

[Ski]

i came at about the same time you just had to look for parking it was there

 

Ha, that'll make him feel better.

 

My 2 cents: no passholder should EVER be turned away. Ever. A special shuttle should be in place...some twice a year deal with some farmer with a field five miles away, at the very least.

 

Impossible? Not feasible? Well, at our small community owned ski hill, our lot is filled by 11am on most busy days. So we have a shuttle run people from our beach lodge parking lot. Problem solved and we are only marginally rocket scientists.

Edited February 18, 2007 by ski

[meggles]

er..i was kinda gonna go tomorrow..but now maybe not..

[K2rider]

i'm headin up to bear soon. i might wait a little while and let the crowds die down abit.

[Boyer]

holy shit! the crazy thing was i skied right onto the lift all morning, no waits. not even a drop line in the park.

 

i walked through past the tune shop to leave and the rental line was all the way out to the ski check, and as i left cars were backed up all the way up the access roads and both ways on state road. how were you supposed to get by if you were just driving past?

crazy ass shit! i just laughed and yelled "suckerz!" out my window to all the people sittin there. next time use your better judgement that holidays are when all the wacko-s come out and take up all the parking spots. be there 745 am or just wait until during the week...

[ltd_chick78]

i was more than willing to LOOK for parking, or walk from the upper lot, or even park somewhere down the road and walk up to the entrance and over the hill... the guy moved in front of my car as i had my blinker on to make the turn in. short of plowing him down, there wasn't really anything i could do.

 

no cowboy hat. and i don't know what he was, if he was parking lot staff or what he was. there were a few people out there. but at the time that i went, they were not allowing anyone to turn into the lot. despite the fact that people were leaving like crazy.

[Tyler]

....thats why i get there at 8:15 am. But yeah thats f*cking rediculous, you spend $300 on an unlimited pass (i take it thats what you have), only to get sent away. I would of drove around the block and then came back. blew by the guy and looked for parking.

 

btw, i had no liftlines this morning until 11:30 when i left.

[andTO86]

"I'm mad cause I was willing to deal with the crowds and didn't even get the chance. "

 

 

It's not about that! There were maybe 2 parking spaces open from about 11 am on. If they let people in, they're going to say f-this and start double parking people or blocking roads. Then you're not going to be happy when some jerk has you parked in for 3 hours. Granted, the person who turned you away could have handled the situation differently, but everyone has their limits, and the other people who were turned away before you probably weren't real friendly. I've heard of parking attendants being spit on, yelled at, and literally PUSHED OUT OF THE WAY by vehicles because someone really didn't want to hear that it was full. It's really hard to be nice to someone who's spitting on you, and it's kinda hard to let that go when it's probably been happening all day.

-YCG

 

(no not really)

 

 

 

 

I knew Pres. Day weekend would be mobbed, but I didn't think I'd actually be TOLD TO LEAVE by park staff, like I was two hours ago.

Normally I'd avoid this weekend altogether, but with a crazy work week behind me and ahead of me I didn't get as much riding during the week done as I'd normally like. The weather was decent, I get really itchy if i don't ride at least once a week, so I was willing to deal with long lift lines and all the annoyances that come with big crowd weekends just to get out.

So I was more than livid when I drove out there Sunday around 1 and was told that the parking lot was full and to go home.

 

I'm not a person who gets angry easily, and am usually very rational and understanding about weird circumstances. But basically, here's what went down:

 

I drive up the road to the entrance and there's a sign that says LOT FULL TO CAPACITY. there's a few people in BC coats standing in the road around another sign that says "parking" with an arrow pointing across the street, away from BC, which to me seems to indicate there might be another lot I never knew about somewhere else. I start to slow down and a dude in a yellow coat starts shaking his head at me and pointing down the road. I roll down my window and ask if there's backup parking elsewhere, since to me, that's what the sign seemed to indicate.

ME: Is there backup parking somewhere else?

YELLOW COAT GUY: No. you can't come in.

ME: (kind of confused that this is actually happening) so I can't ride today?

YCG: (yells at me) NO! THERE'S NOWHERE FOR YOU TO GO! YOU HAVE TO LEAVE, GO HOME!!!!

 

now i'm furious, and floor it out of there.

 

I'm mad cause I was willing to deal with the crowds and didn't even get the chance. I'm mostly angry because this guy was a complete jackass, there was no need for him to yell at me. I'm sure he'd been getting a lot of crap from a lot of people up to that point but why take it out on me for asking a simple question? and I know he doesn't know this, but home is Philly and at this point I've now completely wasted 3 hours of my day, half a tank of gas, and a nice afternoon.

 

What's even more frustrating is that BC is apparently not adequately prepared to deal with the crowds they try so hard to attract. Am I going to get all indignant and huff about how i'm never going back there again? no, mostly because i already have a pass so i'm riding there for the rest of the season at least. and in four years this is the only truly bad experience i've ever had there. But as i'm heading home, i keep passing cars with boards and skis on the top and i'm wondering how many of them are going there for the first, and last, time. And I know that one guy isn't representative of Bear Creek as a whole, but if you're going to send someone out to deal with a lot of people in a situation that's going to make many of them angry, maybe it shouldn't be someone with the shortest fuse in the world who freaks on people for asking simple questions.

 

Bear, I'm really disappointed in you.

[ltd_chick78]

it happened around 1.30.... i know not the optimal time, but i've had a lot of stuff to work around lately... stuff i can't adjust.

 

and i did absolutely nothing to provoke this dude who yelled at me. like i said, if you're standing next to a sign that says 'parking' with an arrow pointing elsewhere, in my mind, that indicates more parking in the direction of said arrow. like someone else mentioned, i thought maybe they were running a shuttle to some space they had elsewhere.

 

like i said, i'm not swearing off bear or anything. but i'm just bumming. and disappointed. i'd LOVE to just head out every weeknight and skip weekends entirely but it's getting harder to do with work and now that i live farther away. so i ride when i can.

 

unless i'm told i can't. which sucks.

[Mixilplix]

A season pass holder should never be turned away.....I would have called ahead to find out what it might be like there....It was a freakin mess there today,if I didn't work there i would have never gone......The mountain is only so big and can only handle a certain amount of people...

[Papasteeze]

Just think - there was no snow at BC a few weeks ago... I saw CB's parking lot full at 10am like I have seen before........

[AtomicSkier]

What if a parent had to come pick up a kid? Where they going to let her in?

[Ski]

What if a parent had to come pick up a kid? Where they going to let her in?

 

That's a good BS line!

[sexkitten]

I wasn't going to post but I decided to throw my $.02 in. Take it or leave it...

 

BCMark is great and his management teams seems like they are on the same page but BC's "men on the ground" leave much to be desired. I know that the poor weather lost BC a lot of their "good" employees, I know good seasonal help is hard to find, I know, I know, I know. BUT that doesn't really matter to the customer who comes to BC to spend their day (and their money) and is turned away. Attention BCMark: the face of your company is spitting on your customers. I am a forgiving person... I would like to come back to BC (I love BC a lot... I learned to ski there and always have a great time when we go) but stuff like this does not help my cause with Bob. My husband and I suspect many other BC customers do not tolerate despicable customer service. This problem must be fixed to keep your good reputation... and your customers.

 

 

OK... the end.

[supertrooper12]

when it gets crowded like that i just say im picking up a friend and they let you by, this one time i drove around the bottom lot for 30 min waiting for a spot. SEASON PASS HOLDERS NEED A SPECIAL PARKING LOT. or at least a garuntee that we always can come.

[Shadows]

do they limit ticket sales there?

[ltd_chick78]

argh. i didn't even think to say something about a friend or a kid or anything.... i was just so shocked. and i didn't get a clear answer on what exactly the deal was.... the dude who yelled at me said parking was full so i couldn't ride. i pulled over down the road and called the lodge cause i was just so frustrated and they said "the mountain" was full. i wasn't sure who was saying what... if they were limiting ticket sales or if the parking had run out. but it seems like it would be next to impossible to limit the number of people actually ON the mountain.... because how would they keep track of the number of passholders who are there on any given day/hour?

 

whatever. i'm over it now.... had a good night out and looking forward to friday afternoon, which will hopefully not be such a debacle!

 

but i'm still putting BC on my own personal orange alert.

[BC-Mark]

Let me begin by saying that I am sorry we had to turn anyone away yesterday, particularly season pass holders.

 

At 10:30AM we saw that it was a definite possibility that we would run out of parking. We began telling people on the phone that we may be at capacity by the time they arrive and we posted it on the website in several locations that we were already at capacity. At the same time we started a voluntary turn-away at the gate. We were offering people directions to other mountains and a 2 for 1 Midweek ticket voucher if they chose to turn around.

 

In addition, we reserved parking Lot 5, which holds approximately 100 cars, for pass holders. When we started mandatory turn away around noon we were only allowing pass holders in. It took about 30 to 45 minutes to fill up lot 5. Based on our scanning data it should have been more than enough to accommodate pass holders arriving between 11am and 1pm. As a side note on this issue, you would not believe the number of people claiming to have

[skifreak]

Now I'm just sitting back waiting for someone to suggest they put in a parking deck

[BC-Mark]

Skifreak, I actually suggested that during our first phase of development. They are cost prohibitive, running between $13,000 and $14,000 a space!

 

We have been tossing around the idea of a season pass parking lot off skier's right of Cascade that would be gate controlled. The main reason we haven't implemented it is security. As bad as it sounds, between 80% and 90% of our behavior issues occur with season pass holders. We are afraid a remote lot for pass holders could lead to some serious safety concerns even with increased security patrols/presence.

Edited February 19, 2007 by BC-Mark

[skifreak]

Skifreak, I actually suggested that during our first phase of development. They are cost prohibitive, running between $13,000 and $14,000 a space!

 

Geez that is outrageous. It would be a logical way to fix the problem, but not at that cost.