Report from Sugarbush

[since1961]

Win posted over at skimrv.com that a kmart skier named Chris won the free pass from the raflle at the end of the day.

[sLoPeS]

I say this as objectively as possible, but Powdr really could learn a thing or two about customer service from Sugarbush. At least on this day, the obvious passion for skiing/riding up there spilled over to produce ear to ear smiles on everyone.

Safe to say the difference between running a business with fiscal responsibility AND passion vs. just fiscal responsibility??

There's a line there somewhere...

wamp, wamp..........i'll be that guy and say they should have spun superstar today. that trail is buried and the bumps were starting to get sweet. whatever, its over. i skied the K today and it was gooood.

[sLoPeS]

Win posted over at skimrv.com that a kmart skier named Chris won the free pass from the raflle at the end of the day.

last name............nyberg? haha, now THAT would be funny!

[skiadikt]

I say this as objectively as possible, but Powdr really could learn a thing or two about customer service from Sugarbush. At least on this day, the obvious passion for skiing/riding up there spilled over to produce ear to ear smiles on everyone.

Safe to say the difference between running a business with fiscal responsibility AND passion vs. just fiscal responsibility??

There's a line there somewhere...

wamp, wamp..........i'll be that guy and say they should have spun superstar today. that trail is buried and the bumps were starting to get sweet. whatever, its over. i skied the K today and it was gooood.

it looked like supe was in much better shape than stein's. shoulda been open.

[Geoff]

I say this as objectively as possible, but Powdr really could learn a thing or two about customer service from Sugarbush. At least on this day, the obvious passion for skiing/riding up there spilled over to produce ear to ear smiles on everyone.

Safe to say the difference between running a business with fiscal responsibility AND passion vs. just fiscal responsibility??

Not really.

Sugarbush season pass sales are up. Killington season pass sales are down. You think Preston Smith ran Killington from Halloween to June 1 to sell day tickets? Not freakin' likely. He understood very well that his season pass base was what drew the day ticket people. Killington isn't a fly-to destination resort where you make all your money from the ski-weekers.

And you're never going to have good customer service when the employees hate management. When your opening move is to slaughter your full time employees and then offer them seasonal work at lower wages and no benefits, you've created a recipe for total crap service. When you constantly send people home shorting their hours whenever the mountain isn't slammed with people, you're creating a recipe for total crap service. They've already lost a big slice of the competent people with the institutional knowledge of how to operate the resort. The place falls over whenever it gets stressed by big holiday crowds or a bad weather event. I really scratch my head over how they operate the place. Chasing away your customers has never been a success metric of any business plan I've ever seen. I don't see how they're going to reclaim any of their lost market share the way they're going. I can deal with it since I'm a season pass holder and kind of like Killington being relatively empty. ...but it's a helluva way to run a business and it runs the risk of losing critical mass after a couple of lean snow years. You need the volume to be able to afford to blow all the snow and sping all the lifts at a big-sprawling place like Killington. If somebody is paying $82.00 for their lift ticket, they're not going to ever come back if they show up and see limited terrain and services.

[Win]

Thank you for turning out yesterday and helping us celebrate the final day of the season. At 5pm we were the last lift spinning in the Northeast. My teammates loved being the last and we had a lot of fun yesterday as well.

Come visit this summer. Golf begins May 8th and our other summer activities ( lift rides, the mountain disc course and lift accessed mountain biking) begin Friday, June 26th. We also have some really fun kids camps this year as well.

Think snow!

[SkiDork]

Iceman ended up doing a few runs with Radio Ron toward the end of the day. he said they kept saying "Do it up one time" to each other. Ice also said he did a few obligatory "dip dip dips" while skiing with him. Really nice guy.

[Mtn Man]

Good to see everyone had a good closing. My last official lift day was Sunday too. Alpental is closing the lifts on Cinco de Mayo, but I'll be working. There was so much snow up there, it's a shame that they'll be closing. We were setting off wet sloughs everywhere in the sidecountry yesterday. Pretty cool to see a slow moving lava(snow) flow for a couple hundred yards.

Time to start touring!

B)

[tyrolean_skier]

Thank you for turning out yesterday and helping us celebrate the final day of the season. At 5pm we were the last lift spinning in the Northeast. My teammates loved being the last and we had a lot of fun yesterday as well.

Come visit this summer. Golf begins May 8th and our other summer activities ( lift rides, the mountain disc course and lift accessed mountain biking) begin Friday, June 26th. We also have some really fun kids camps this year as well.

Think snow!

Thanks Win for staying open yesterday and for letting us K diehards enjoy a few more runs on Stein. Navigating that thin spot was tough but luckily my skis seem to have survived. Honorable mention to the little shower that you provided at the base to clean our skis and boots. Also, your employees are all very gracious and welcoming. BTW, there were many K regulars that were skiing there that were not wearing Killington Refugee t-shirts. My knees are aching today but I had a good last lift-served day. We will see if there is any snow to hike and ski on Memorial Day weekend. In the meantime, activities here in the flatlands await us.