Welcome to the Killington Zone Message Board
https://www.killingtonzone.com/forums/
Hey I split atoms for a living. Just like Homer Simpson working in section 7G. Nuc Power is low on the climate harming list. All I need in retirement is my favorite steep lines filled with snow. Really not asking for much.E O Eleven wrote: ↑Jan 9th, '22, 12:10 I blame the boomers too. Stupid boomers, they ruined the climate.
I think I love this rant . . .asher2789 wrote: ↑Jan 9th, '22, 11:51yeah, the FrEe MaRkEt is at work right now, cant you see? cascade? closed. highline? closed. downdraft? closed. ovation? closed. dreammaker? closed. and that's just the steep trails with snowmaking off the top of my head, there's many more trails im not thinking of. timberline (where the "peace park" goes)? closed, and IMO probably wont even be built at the rate we are going. same with the dreammaker park. and the stash.Nikoli wrote: ↑Jan 9th, '22, 01:01Stop freaking out. The market place will find what the price of this type of work is worth. Nothing moreasher2789 wrote: ↑Jan 8th, '22, 23:31the $300 extra benefit on top of maybe... $250-300 in normal benefits ended on september 4th in VT. wow, these "irresponsible" people are amazing at saving. other states ended their benefits months prior, and no change in the unemployment rate. funny how that works. what's the average rent in vermont? $1000 a month? so these unemployed people are choosing to make so little money that half of it goes to rent? sounds like thats totally the problem! those damn entitled children wanting a fair wage how dare they! lazy millennials! participation trophies!!
f*** boomers.
unlike 2015/2016, despite having awful snow conditions and thaws we have had plenty of freezing conditions to make snow. it takes ~36 hours of continuous blowing to create a deep enough base for grooming to allow most trails to open. instead of opening new trails, they're running a skeleton crew who are only capable of resurfacing trails that are already open.
its not a lack of water, air compressors, or temperatures. its a lack of labor, caused by a WAGE SHORTAGE. why the f*** would anyone want to work for $15 an hour, overnight in the wet freezing cold doing strenuous hard physical labor walking up and down frozen icy slopes with snowmaking equipment, when down the road you can make coffee and donuts for $14 an hour in a nice warm space? its not like labor lives in wealthy killington - no - they live in rutland and other cheaper commuter towns where there's plenty of jobs much closer that pay roughly the same or even better for way better work. if they don't ski or snowboard they have absolutely no reason to want to work for killington, which pays the lowest possible wages the market will allow (actually lower, which is why there's no workers!), there's no benefits, and often there's no set schedule. the only thing that makes killington an attractive place to work for most of the seasonal labor is the expensive, out of reach for the working class season pass and 50% off F&B and 20-30% off retail and industry discounts. even so, a season pass doesnt pay the bills. and the discounts dont matter if you need to save every penny to pay the bills. and the season pass doesnt matter if you have no free time / energy to use it.
so entitled whiny skiers will continue to whine about lack of expert terrain yet also whine when labor wants its fair share. or worse, call us workers who make their lives of luxury possible entitled and lazy. f*** sick of the gaslighting. you want open trails? pay for them! or better yet - apply to be a snowmaker - killington is hiring, $15 an hour!
I think I agree with most of this, except time. You aren't giving the marketplace enough time to recognize change and adapt. That plus COVID uncertainty. And a bad winter so far. Not the best mix lately.
certainly some valid points, but it's not only here at K, it's industry-wide. the vail owned areas are in terrible shape and in addition to poor conditions and lack of terrain are suffering from massive overcrowding.asher2789 wrote: ↑Jan 9th, '22, 11:51yeah, the FrEe MaRkEt is at work right now, cant you see? cascade? closed. highline? closed. downdraft? closed. ovation? closed. dreammaker? closed. and that's just the steep trails with snowmaking off the top of my head, there's many more trails im not thinking of. timberline (where the "peace park" goes)? closed, and IMO probably wont even be built at the rate we are going. same with the dreammaker park. and the stash.Nikoli wrote: ↑Jan 9th, '22, 01:01Stop freaking out. The market place will find what the price of this type of work is worth. Nothing moreasher2789 wrote: ↑Jan 8th, '22, 23:31the $300 extra benefit on top of maybe... $250-300 in normal benefits ended on september 4th in VT. wow, these "irresponsible" people are amazing at saving. other states ended their benefits months prior, and no change in the unemployment rate. funny how that works. what's the average rent in vermont? $1000 a month? so these unemployed people are choosing to make so little money that half of it goes to rent? sounds like thats totally the problem! those damn entitled children wanting a fair wage how dare they! lazy millennials! participation trophies!!
f*** boomers.
unlike 2015/2016, despite having awful snow conditions and thaws we have had plenty of freezing conditions to make snow. it takes ~36 hours of continuous blowing to create a deep enough base for grooming to allow most trails to open. instead of opening new trails, they're running a skeleton crew who are only capable of resurfacing trails that are already open.
its not a lack of water, air compressors, or temperatures. its a lack of labor, caused by a WAGE SHORTAGE. why the f*** would anyone want to work for $15 an hour, overnight in the wet freezing cold doing strenuous hard physical labor walking up and down frozen icy slopes with snowmaking equipment, when down the road you can make coffee and donuts for $14 an hour in a nice warm space? its not like labor lives in wealthy killington - no - they live in rutland and other cheaper commuter towns where there's plenty of jobs much closer that pay roughly the same or even better for way better work. if they don't ski or snowboard they have absolutely no reason to want to work for killington, which pays the lowest possible wages the market will allow (actually lower, which is why there's no workers!), there's no benefits, and often there's no set schedule. the only thing that makes killington an attractive place to work for most of the seasonal labor is the expensive, out of reach for the working class season pass and 50% off F&B and 20-30% off retail and industry discounts. even so, a season pass doesnt pay the bills. and the discounts dont matter if you need to save every penny to pay the bills. and the season pass doesnt matter if you have no free time / energy to use it.
so entitled whiny skiers will continue to whine about lack of expert terrain yet also whine when labor wants its fair share. or worse, call us workers who make their lives of luxury possible entitled and lazy. f*** sick of the gaslighting. you want open trails? pay for them! or better yet - apply to be a snowmaker - killington is hiring, $15 an hour!
I can’t wait for robot snow makers.Mister Moose wrote: ↑Jan 9th, '22, 15:13I think I agree with most of this, except time. You aren't giving the marketplace enough time to recognize change and adapt. That plus COVID uncertainty. And a bad winter so far. Not the best mix lately.
Little did we know 2018 was the good old days.
It wouldn't surprise me if more areas now invest in computerized snowmaking syatems for the major areas of terrain, and eliminate the need for as many employees. Some smaller areas already have it.Nikoli wrote: ↑Jan 9th, '22, 21:30I can’t wait for robot snow makers.Mister Moose wrote: ↑Jan 9th, '22, 15:13I think I agree with most of this, except time. You aren't giving the marketplace enough time to recognize change and adapt. That plus COVID uncertainty. And a bad winter so far. Not the best mix lately.
Little did we know 2018 was the good old days.
I would be curious to know whether Killington's snowmaking crew has changed in size over the last decade. Do they make more snow now with less people than they did 10 years ago? I would bet they do.
I guess then that until this year paying people to lug around guns was cheaper than investing in automation. Hopefully one positive from Covid is that they invest more into automation. I would love to see them put up more of those fixed low-e guns.newpylong1 wrote: ↑Jan 10th, '22, 07:10 Their number requirements have not changed substantially in the past decade. There has been no investment in automation and very little on fixed gear. Even where there is fixed gear they continue using land guns sometimes. Old habits die hard.
Moving to fixed gear on the runs that lack them now would really change those staffing levels. Lugging tripods and hoses around across the resort is time consuming and labor intensive.
So much anger. Also a lot of whining. A boomer built this ski area, so lighten up sweetheartasher2789 wrote: ↑Jan 9th, '22, 11:51yeah, the FrEe MaRkEt is at work right now, cant you see? cascade? closed. highline? closed. downdraft? closed. ovation? closed. dreammaker? closed. and that's just the steep trails with snowmaking off the top of my head, there's many more trails im not thinking of. timberline (where the "peace park" goes)? closed, and IMO probably wont even be built at the rate we are going. same with the dreammaker park. and the stash.Nikoli wrote: ↑Jan 9th, '22, 01:01Stop freaking out. The market place will find what the price of this type of work is worth. Nothing moreasher2789 wrote: ↑Jan 8th, '22, 23:31the $300 extra benefit on top of maybe... $250-300 in normal benefits ended on september 4th in VT. wow, these "irresponsible" people are amazing at saving. other states ended their benefits months prior, and no change in the unemployment rate. funny how that works. what's the average rent in vermont? $1000 a month? so these unemployed people are choosing to make so little money that half of it goes to rent? sounds like thats totally the problem! those damn entitled children wanting a fair wage how dare they! lazy millennials! participation trophies!!
f*** boomers.
unlike 2015/2016, despite having awful snow conditions and thaws we have had plenty of freezing conditions to make snow. it takes ~36 hours of continuous blowing to create a deep enough base for grooming to allow most trails to open. instead of opening new trails, they're running a skeleton crew who are only capable of resurfacing trails that are already open.
its not a lack of water, air compressors, or temperatures. its a lack of labor, caused by a WAGE SHORTAGE. why the f*** would anyone want to work for $15 an hour, overnight in the wet freezing cold doing strenuous hard physical labor walking up and down frozen icy slopes with snowmaking equipment, when down the road you can make coffee and donuts for $14 an hour in a nice warm space? its not like labor lives in wealthy killington - no - they live in rutland and other cheaper commuter towns where there's plenty of jobs much closer that pay roughly the same or even better for way better work. if they don't ski or snowboard they have absolutely no reason to want to work for killington, which pays the lowest possible wages the market will allow (actually lower, which is why there's no workers!), there's no benefits, and often there's no set schedule. the only thing that makes killington an attractive place to work for most of the seasonal labor is the expensive, out of reach for the working class season pass and 50% off F&B and 20-30% off retail and industry discounts. even so, a season pass doesnt pay the bills. and the discounts dont matter if you need to save every penny to pay the bills. and the season pass doesnt matter if you have no free time / energy to use it.
so entitled whiny skiers will continue to whine about lack of expert terrain yet also whine when labor wants its fair share. or worse, call us workers who make their lives of luxury possible entitled and lazy. f*** sick of the gaslighting. you want open trails? pay for them! or better yet - apply to be a snowmaker - killington is hiring, $15 an hour!
Automation on the trails that are resurfaced the most may make sense, and Superstar. For the rest, just getting fixed gear in and USING it would be leaps and bounds ahead. I cringe every time I see one of their utility cats moving around 20 guns and hoses at a time from one end of the mountain to the other. Doesn't get any less efficient than that. One of the contributing factors is when the posts were put in on some trails they were put in in the wrong locations and can't reach onto the trail. Wildfire, Skyeburst (what was lower Bear Claw) are good current examples. They need to use ground guns to reach further out. So they really need to take inventory everywhere and relocate the posts to where they will be useful prior to spending money on new gear.easyrider16 wrote: ↑Jan 10th, '22, 07:37I guess then that until this year paying people to lug around guns was cheaper than investing in automation. Hopefully one positive from Covid is that they invest more into automation. I would love to see them put up more of those fixed low-e guns.newpylong1 wrote: ↑Jan 10th, '22, 07:10 Their number requirements have not changed substantially in the past decade. There has been no investment in automation and very little on fixed gear. Even where there is fixed gear they continue using land guns sometimes. Old habits die hard.
Moving to fixed gear on the runs that lack them now would really change those staffing levels. Lugging tripods and hoses around across the resort is time consuming and labor intensive.