Lift Discussion

[Killington Resort]

Here are some thoughts related to some recent posts I have seen here:

Last weekend, we experienced electrical issues at Bear Mountain Quad and Snowshed Express Quad. In the case of Snowshed, a mouse chewed through wiring, causing a short in the electrical system. Meanwhile, at Bear Mountain, a buried power line failed Friday night, interrupting the power supply to the Bear Mountain Quad. Green Mountain Power responded quickly, but the repair was not completed until Saturday evening. In addition to these two key lifts going down for much of the day, we had a slight mechanical problem on the K-1 Express Gondola and had to clear the line for a part replacement. Although we completed the repair quickly, the lift was down for about 20 minutes, which certainly did not help our lift lines.

In recent years, we’ve invested heavily to improve the overall flow of skiing and riding including tunnels at key intersections, new gondola cabins and haul rope, the return of lift service to South Ridge, and upgrades to old lifts – going from a quad to a six-pack and a triple to a quad. These changes have greatly improved how guests move around the mountain and reduced wait times on even the busiest of days. However, the easy flow of skiers across our large resort is dependent on each lift carrying its share of the load. When one or more lifts are down for a substantial period, it puts more pressure on adjacent lifts, and wait times increase. We do our best to keep lifts running so you can have the best on-mountain experience possible.

While I am the first to admit that we can always improve, I do feel the need to push back on some of the common misconceptions that I hear in the community. One misconception “is that we don’t run lifts because we want to save money”. On weekends and holidays, we typically run all our lifts – assuming the amount of open terrain warrants it – and midweek when demand is lower, we limit lift operations to key lifts in order to be financially responsible, while servicing all open terrain. Our business is to operate lifts, and we are committed to operating as many lifts as it takes to handle our skier volume.

Another false assumption is that our lack of investment in maintenance is causing downtime of our lifts. Even our brand new lifts, The North Ridge Quad and Snowdon Six Express, and the Skye Peak Express Quad which is less than 10 years old experience downtime. We are incredibly fortunate to receive a large sum of maintenance capital each season from Powdr to continually upgrade the infrastructure that keeps our lifts turning. The reality is that ski lifts are complex machines operating in extreme conditions and downtime for maintenance is a reality. We are constantly working to optimize our equipment because we truly want to provide you – our guests – with the best possible experience playing in the outdoors.

The final misconception I want to address is that Ikon Pass is responsible for longer lift lines. This is simply not true. Ikon Pass visits are an important part of our business, but they are not contributing significantly to longer lift lines. As the season pass landscape has shifted due to multi-resort passes like Ikon, the products that people purchase to access our resort is changing, but the overall number of visitors remains relatively stable.

Over the last 5 years, we’ve made huge strides in bridging the communication gap between the resort and community and we want to continue nurturing this relationship. The honest, constructive feedback we receive from you has lead us to where we are today. We listen and do our best to exceed expectations.

As we move forward this season, we’re thinking of new ways to communicate with you in a timely and efficient way. Please don’t hesitate to send me your ideas!


Mike

Michael Solimano
President & General Manager

[DrJeff]

[jimmywilson69]

well said.

I'm not a regular but this kind of transparency is great! I'm sure there will be naysayers, this KZone after all, but you have received info from the top. Kudos Mike and team for willing to be honest.

There is zero chance I'd get something like this from the GM of my little, Vail owned hill in Central PA. As a matter of fact the main lift is down today and all that has been said is that they are working as fast as possible to restore the lift to service. Oh and the lifts stop all of the time here too. Many times its poor loading and unloading, other times its longer mechanical issues. This isn't an issue isolated to Killington.

[RustyK]

"Our business is to operate lifts, and we are committed to operating as many lifts as it takes to handle our skier volume".

Great quote Mike!

Keeping customers happy is complicated.

[throbster]

[da Pimp]

Always a good thing to hear from the top man. Yes, lifts are complicated and subject to a lot of variables. So are the lifts at the competition which run well.

A lot on this board has been pointing out the continued issues with new lifts at Killington, and why they continually do not perform as designed or expected. So I would love to hear what are those issues that cause the 6 pack to stop so often on calm sunny warm days when customers are behaving top and bottom. How about all the recent constant stoppages on the new North Ridge quad? What was the cause and is it actually fixed (action taken) or band-aided?

Love to hear why a liftie was pushing chairs around at the bottom of Superstar this weekend. Great response to a problem, but will that problem be fixed or do more band-aids get applied?

Lets pick on the blue bubble at Okemo. They don't need special signage, painted stripes on the ground, nice weather in order to run reliably. The Killington 6 pack should not, either. But it does, why is that? Certainly Killington does not want negative information about their lifts to become public, so we hear about strategy, well wishes, and one specific weekend.

We'll never know the facts, simply because its none of our business to know the private details of any company operations. That is OK, I can understand and live with that. But when constant poor operations affects all of their customers negatively it creates an atmosphere of questions, mistrust, speculation. Hence everyone on this board and in every restaurant and bar want to know wazzup. In my own little world in the flatlands these are the two things I always hear about Killington: Are they building a new lodge? Why are there so many problems with the lifts?

Definitely happy about the overdue investments at the Peak Lodge, new chairs, new K1 lodge. These do make a big difference. But if Killington customers worked for companies who operated like Killington, a lot of us would be out of work because this type of performance would close doors. Its about execution. Because they have the product and we want it, the current level of performance is likely to not change.

[SnoBrdr]

How many individual Ikon passes were scanned?

Giving a number to that would easily out to rest the notion that Ikon pass holder is causing longer lift lines.

It should be easy to give that number unless one doesn't want to.

[Highway Star]

BUILD THE INTERCONNECT, NO MORE EXCUSES!!!!

[Stormchaser]

Mike,

Move Mousetrap to Snowshed. Problem solved.

Move Powerline to Bear. Ditto.

-Stormy

[ANGUS]

Mike,
Thanks for that. I hope you have a great season!

[tt431]

Mike for president!

[hillbangin]

Mike,

Move Mousetrap to Snowshed. Problem solved.

Move Powerline to Bear. Ditto.

-Stormy

LMAO.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[hillbangin]

If the blue bubble stops for less than 5 minutes everytime I get on it - it is 10000000000 times better than the Moosecolator. Sorry Moose.

More bubbles please.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[Ovation]

Hi Mike. Yes, running a ski resort involves maintaining complex equipment and dealing with weather conditions that will impact operations. The same is true of running an airline. But when the service quality is not reliable, and the communications are not consistent/timely, the regular customers leave, and the business is less valuable. Regulars make a business profitable.

Love K. The Stairs? Awesome. Long run on GE? Enjoyable for all levels. Early morning speed run down Needles? Perfect. Pipe Dream with new natural snow. Sweet. Royal Flush in the spring? Perfect fall line and soft bumps in the sun.

I have been a season pass holder and owner of a house at Killington between homestretch and GE for 15 years. One could argue that I have a sample size big enough for a (somewhat) unbiased view of operating reliability. IMO, even with the new lift and retro-fitting of old lifts, the lift operations have deteriorated, regardless of the amount of funds provided for maintenance. This is also the feedback I received from my guests last season and up until Christmas this season. Why up until this Christmas? Hard to believe but I have stopped inviting people to stay. I simply don’t know if the lifts will work or start in the morning, if people will get stuck on a lift, at the bottom…. It is just a lot of unforced stress.

Let’s use Stage I for example, an important lift to all who live down this way. It seems past useful life…stopping/starting, opening late, running ½ speed… and my sense is breakdowns are more frequent than in the past. It runs like the mid-station building looks. Perhaps statistics are kept and I am wrong, but that’s how we feel. Why lift problems? GMP, a cable, a detachable whatever, wheel, pully, sheathing??, motor…. the fact that I hear all these reasons should tell you something. My F150 has come in useful for hauling, people, 3 times this season I have gone to Rout 4 to pick people to throw their stuff in the back and transport them to another lift. I took an apoplectic parent (stranger) back to Snowshed so they could pick up their kids from ski school, not coming back.

Getting me up the hill is the product I purchased, in advance, allowing you to hedge your expenses against bad weather. That’s the relationship we have, I pay to get uphill in advance and I take the weather risk. You can’t control weather, as Nyberg once said to me on the old south ridge chair, I am just a snow farmer. But you can control the reliability and operation of your lift system, and relative (to other resorts) the underinvestment is obvious to my guests and now unfortunately to me.

K has the super terrain, some of the best skiers who ski all conditions, and I do appreciate the creative innovations and improvements. But I am telling you as a customer, I need lift reliability and investment to improve to keep my business.

Thanks.

(One other ask for next season, there has been no snowmaking on lower Homestretch for a decade, we all ski it anyway once Stage I opens...ski through the tunnels filled with rocks, jump over water bar ditches or bridge them with plywood, but would be nice to get a few days of snowmaking there and a little trail love.)

[Highway Star]

(One other ask for next season, there has been no snowmaking on lower Homestretch for a decade, we all ski it anyway once Stage I opens...ski through the tunnels filled with rocks, jump over water bar ditches or bridge them with plywood, but would be nice to get a few days of snowmaking there and a little trail love.)

Wow that's ghetto.