So what's next for Killington Resort?

[Geoff]

... it's a social sport and if you lose that element it's not as fun

Interesting observation from the "why people don't ski Killington" thread, leading me to the next question: have the changes in pricing, whether season pass or kids programs or _____, pushed your friends to ski elsewhere and to what extent does that impact where you ski? We already know that season passholders bring friends and family along, many of whom buy day tickets, and that season pass sales dropping probably means fewer day ticket and F&B sales from that market segment. But, looking at the reverse, if your friends have moved on to other places (for whatever reason) how does that affect your skiing Killington?

Yes, most of the friends I have that I ski with are people with young families. Basically none of them go to Killington anymore (or at least don't go nearly as much) because of the Kids program pricing.

There's another way to look at this.... Killington is a complete crap family mountain. It sprawls and kids can easily get lost. The novice terrain is stuffed full of yahoos on weekends and holidays. Housing is horribly expensive. The social scene is bar-oriented, not family oriented. Unless you are an advanced skier and willing to do 1-on-1 with your kid instead of forking them over to some program, Killington probably ain't your place. If you have your kid doing pizza and french fries on Great Northern on a Saturday at 11:00, you should be reported for child abuse.

[AtomicWoody]

Before the all for one we only came up a few days, 3-6 a year. The season pass really got us excited and kept us coming back for more. We used to say we were skiing for free after the break even point, but of course all the Killington business benefited because we were in town spending money and bringing people with us. If they only raised it like $50 or $100 we probably would have just dealt with it.


We went to Colorado in Feb 2008 and never paid full price anywhere. A Basin was $35, Vail was two for one at $92 I think, Copper was $10-15 off, Keystone we managed to get a discount as well. Killington can not try to charge out west prices IMHO.

[sLoPeS]

Before the all for one we only came up a few days, 3-6 a year. The season pass really got us excited and kept us coming back for more. We used to say we were skiing for free after the break even point, but of course all the Killington business benefited because we were in town spending money and bringing people with us. If they only raised it like $50 or $100 we probably would have just dealt with it.


We went to Colorado in Feb 2008 and never paid full price anywhere. A Basin was $35, Vail was two for one at $92 I think, Copper was $10-15 off, Keystone we managed to get a discount as well. Killington can not try to charge out west prices IMHO.

i dont mind paying 750 for a black out pass if it keeps the crowds down. its killington, not some mole hill in the poconos. find me a mountain in the east that has a black out pass for 450 bucks and is comparable to killington. and u cant even start comparing east to west. yea the epic pass is a great deal, but have u ever looked to see how much a pass at jackson hole, snowbird, whistler, telluride, etc costs?...apparently not......do u sk in jeans? i hear thats "hot" down south...

[boston_e]

... it's a social sport and if you lose that element it's not as fun

Interesting observation from the "why people don't ski Killington" thread, leading me to the next question: have the changes in pricing, whether season pass or kids programs or _____, pushed your friends to ski elsewhere and to what extent does that impact where you ski? We already know that season passholders bring friends and family along, many of whom buy day tickets, and that season pass sales dropping probably means fewer day ticket and F&B sales from that market segment. But, looking at the reverse, if your friends have moved on to other places (for whatever reason) how does that affect your skiing Killington?

Yes, most of the friends I have that I ski with are people with young families. Basically none of them go to Killington anymore (or at least don't go nearly as much) because of the Kids program pricing.

There's another way to look at this.... Killington is a complete crap family mountain. It sprawls and kids can easily get lost. The novice terrain is stuffed full of yahoos on weekends and holidays. Housing is horribly expensive. The social scene is bar-oriented, not family oriented. Unless you are an advanced skier and willing to do 1-on-1 with your kid instead of forking them over to some program, Killington probably ain't your place. If you have your kid doing pizza and french fries on Great Northern on a Saturday at 11:00, you should be reported for child abuse.

Well that may be true (Although I don't really agree.. I think snowshed and rams head are great novice areas), but the question was if certain pricing structures have driven people elsewhere... and the answer in my case is yes. Most people I know who used to use the kids programs at Killington don't anymore because of the pricing.

Sucks to be me since I own property there, and now I'm stuck with a house I don't want to use because I don't want to spend $720 per weekend on kids programs.

[Bubba]

...Sucks to be me since I own property there, and now I'm stuck with a house I don't want to use because I don't want to spend $720 per weekend on kids programs.

Keep the faith. Rumors of change are in the air.

[RENO]

...Sucks to be me since I own property there, and now I'm stuck with a house I don't want to use because I don't want to spend $720 per weekend on kids programs.

Keep the faith. Rumors of change are in the air.

Is it that WORD guy on the Street that's talking again?

[realreddy]

Well that may be true (Although I don't really agree.. I think snowshed and rams head are great novice areas), but the question was if certain pricing structures have driven people elsewhere... and the answer in my case is yes. Most people I know who used to use the kids programs at Killington don't anymore because of the pricing.

Sucks to be me since I own property there, and now I'm stuck with a house I don't want to use because I don't want to spend $720 per weekend on kids programs.

I have owned a place in K for 6 years and have skiied there for 40. I have many friends with kids who will not come to K simply due to the cost of the kids programs. I have 2 kids age 6 and 5 who have grown up in the friendly penguin/ministars program. We have also reduced the # of days we put them in the programs due to the cost and the lack of a half day option on Sundays when we hike back to Jersey.

Great that change may be in the air but I think they have done significant harm to their reputation with families.
They have basically said go somewhere else, we don't want to cater to families with kids.

[Bubba]

...Sucks to be me since I own property there, and now I'm stuck with a house I don't want to use because I don't want to spend $720 per weekend on kids programs.

Keep the faith. Rumors of change are in the air.

Is it that WORD guy on the Street that's talking again?

No, it's weird guys on the street that are talking this time.

[irab82]

Seems like everyone has been focused on the ski school and family stuff. As this was my first day up this year, just some thoughts about this year's improvements. Liked the new configuration at the top of Superstar and skied right thru the Stash. Fun stuff, not for me but it looks sweet. New SPE is so nice, top is fine as long as you ski off to the left but they need to do something about the traffic jam if you ski off to the right. At one point it looked like there were 20 people standing there just waiting. And I don't get the whole new Great Eastern thing...what is that all about? No snowshed cross works great. Don't know what's next but they need to fix some of the trail configuration in the SPE/Needle's Eye corridor.

[skiingsnow]

Seems like everyone has been focused on the ski school and family stuff. As this was my first day up this year, just some thoughts about this year's improvements. Liked the new configuration at the top of Superstar and skied right thru the Stash. Fun stuff, not for me but it looks sweet. New SPE is so nice, top is fine as long as you ski off to the left but they need to do something about the traffic jam if you ski off to the right. At one point it looked like there were 20 people standing there just waiting. And I don't get the whole new Great Eastern thing...what is that all about? No snowshed cross works great. Don't know what's next but they need to fix some of the trail configuration in the SPE/Needle's Eye corridor.

Great Eastern at the top of the Needles Eye Express is going to be flattened out, and Skyelark is going to be widened.

[irab82]

Yesterday the line at the K1 was out of the maze, while a few feet away there was no line at the Snowdon triple or the quad. Couldn't decide if it was just the cold and wind (which really sucked) or the fact that folks have just gotten intolerant of the slower chairs. Those 2 plus the Glade triple are probably the 3 oldest chairs on the mountain (not including the snowshed doubles) without a high speed alternative on their peak. Would be nice if that situation were addressed.

[Dr. NO]

Yesterday the line at the K1 was out of the maze, while a few feet away there was no line at the Snowdon triple or the quad. Couldn't decide if it was just the cold and wind (which really sucked) or the fact that folks have just gotten intolerant of the slower chairs. Those 2 plus the Glade triple are probably the 3 oldest chairs on the mountain (not including the snowshed doubles) without a high speed alternative on their peak. Would be nice if that situation were addressed.

Oldest chairs on the mountain are probably:
Poma
Snowshed doubles
Glade (Northridge)
Snowdon Triple
Southridge Triple
Bear OL Chair
Sunrise
Canyon Quad and Snowdon Quadraplegic (installed in same year)
The come the high speed quads, 2 of which were already rebuilt from YAN to POMA.

[Mister Moose]

Yesterday the line at the K1 was out of the maze, while a few feet away there was no line at the Snowdon triple or the quad. Couldn't decide if it was just the cold and wind (which really sucked) or the fact that folks have just gotten intolerant of the slower chairs. Those 2 plus the Glade triple are probably the 3 oldest chairs on the mountain (not including the snowshed doubles) without a high speed alternative on their peak. Would be nice if that situation were addressed.

So let's see....

You want POWDR to spend boatloads of money on replacing old lifts that work fine (OK, so some overdue maintenance and upgrades would be in order on the Snowdon triple, maybe even refurbished chairs) and the payoff is so you can spend 5 less minutes on the ride up. Then we can look forward to even fewer lifts that run on windy days, longer de-ice times, and a degradation of the skiing surface from the increased traffic. Let's get rid of the poma too, which is cheap to operate and serves a favorite race training trail. And don't forget the redundancy of the 2 snowdon lifts, if one is down you have a back-up. As a pilot, I love back-ups.

Hmmmm. Save 5 minutes, or better skiing.... 5 less minutes, or better skiing. I'm thinking - better skiing.

POWDR, save your money for better things. Put cushy seat pads on the Snowdon Triple, fix the footrests, serve free hot cider at the maze, place a trash can at the top, train the lifties to load small children and novices better, (Maybe a big sign that says ask the attendant to slow the lift for you if you are inexperienced) and you have a cheap winner.

[MrsG]

Yesterday the line at the K1 was out of the maze, while a few feet away there was no line at the Snowdon triple or the quad. Couldn't decide if it was just the cold and wind (which really sucked) or the fact that folks have just gotten intolerant of the slower chairs. Those 2 plus the Glade triple are probably the 3 oldest chairs on the mountain (not including the snowshed doubles) without a high speed alternative on their peak. Would be nice if that situation were addressed.

To add to Moose's response . . . I'd rather wait on a chair, than to have to take off my skis, schlep them through the maze for 15 minutes, get in a cabin with a bunch of angry people who do not want to load a full eight, get out of the cabin at the top, schlep my skis down the stairs, up a hill, find a place to lay them down with 200 of my closest friends, get them back on, work my way through all the newbies and snowboarders stretched out all over the place and make it around the hairpin turn without getting killed . . . give me the slowdon triple any time

[Geoff]

Let's put some dates on the lifts:
Poma 1958
Glades (Northridge) 1972
Snowdon Triple 1973
Southridge Triple 1977
Bear OL Chair 1979/1984 upgraded to a quad
Sunrise 1982
Snowshed doubles 1987 (Original towers from 1961 and 1963, Yan complete replacement of everything else)

Canyon Quad 1992 and Snowdon Quadraplegic 1992 (installed in same year)
Both lifts have other recycled bits. The C4 was partly a used Yan triple from Vail.
The Snowdon quad recycled towers from the Snowdon double. They were recycled from Snowshed originally.

The Skyeship 1994

Rams Head 1997
Needles Eye 1997
K1 1998

Superstar quad 1987/complete rebuild under ASC in 1997/new chairs 2004
Snowshed quad 1987/complete rebuild 1998
All the high speed lifts are ASC vintage or were complete rebuilds of Yan lifts

The dates come from a Yan spreadsheet on Colorado ski history
http://www.coloradoskihistory.com/chair ... aninstalls

and chairlift.org
http://www.chairlift.org/whatwhere.html
http://www.chairlift.org/killington.html