Most people, when they go skiing, naturally feel that they are on vacation, which they are, and then they do what they would normally do on vacation.
This includes sleeping late.
The vacationer tends to sleep in, get a lazy start, have a nice breakfast, and then get themselves ready to go out onto the slopes around 9:30 to 10:00 am. This causes the lift lines to become heavily overcrowded, especially on those few “feeder” lifts at the bottom of the mountain that all skiers have to take in order to gain access to the rest of the mountain.
While there are a total of 32 ski lifts to access the 193 trails over 5,289 acres, there are only five “feeder” lifts, and one of those is dedicated to the Cascade Village enclave and therefore has limited use. So with only four main lifts to move people up the mountain to start their journey to other lifts and runs, when the day skiers and the resort skiers converge at the same time, even with the rather remarkable speed of these “feeder” lifts, there are going to be long lines and long waits. Also, once you get off the “feeder” lifts, there are only a limited number of choices for where to go next, and those quickly fill up causing even more waiting.
It seemed immediately clear to Mike and me that the answer was to get on the mountain before the rush of skiers caused long lines and long waits.
More to come …
Continued stories of Vail and the skiing business:
Most people, when they go skiing, naturally feel that they are on vacation, which they are, and then they do what they would normally do on vacation.
This includes sleeping late.
The vacationer tends to sleep in, get a lazy start, have a nice breakfast, and then get themselves ready to go out onto the slopes around 9:30 to 10:00 am. This causes the lift lines to become heavily overcrowded, especially on those few “feeder” lifts at the bottom of the mountain that all skiers have to take in order to gain access to the rest of the mountain.
While there are a total of 32 ski lifts to access the 193 trails over 5,289 acres, there are only five “feeder” lifts, and one of those is dedicated to the Cascade Village enclave and therefore has limited use. So with only four main lifts to move people up the mountain to start their journey to other lifts and runs, when the day skiers and the resort skiers converge at the same time, even with the rather remarkable speed of these “feeder” lifts, there are going to be long lines and long waits. Also, once you get off the “feeder” lifts, there are only a limited number of choices for where to go next, and those quickly fill up causing even more waiting.
It seemed immediately clear to Mike and me that the answer was to get on the mountain before the rush of skiers caused long lines and long waits.
More to come …
(Much more about the interviewee on the Ira Riklis LinkedIn page.)
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on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 12:30 am and is filed under Ira D. Riklis.
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