I joined admin and company on a Saturday that bore some resemblance to the prior Saturday at Fernie. Both days were overcast with some wind after a big warmup. Alta was much more manageable as it was 40+F at the base as opposed to the bulletproof 25F at Fernie. Also, perhaps 30% of Alta was still winter snow, though much of that is at the end of the High T, which no one even considered testing. Late in the day I skied near the Ballroom rope line and found decent packed powder, skiing near the trees to avoid the larger moguls.
My 2019 Tesla Model S has 1/3 more range and 50% faster supercharging speed than my prior 2016 model, so I was willing to bring it to Utah. Alta’s prime parking spot closest to the lifts and ticket office is reserved for electric charging and was still available at 10AM Saturday.
The bump in charge from 30% to 70% while I was skiing Alta made it unnecessary to charge overnight at the Cliff Lodge during my timeshare week.
I met admin, Amy, BobbyD and Camille at Baldy Brews ~10:30 and we skied nearly all groomers with the conditions. That meant more grooming than usual, such as Race Course from Collins. We also heard that Alta had groomed to the top of Catherine’s for perhaps the second or third time in the past 25 years per BobbyD.
On the way to Supreme we stopped at a birdfeeder in the woods.
There was a porcupine the size of a beach ball high in a nearby tree.
From Supreme we had this view of East Castle.
Highlight of the day was the lunch at Rustler Lodge.
I’m having tomato soup and the soft shell crab BLT sandwich special.
After lunch we visited briefly with black lab patrol dogs in training.
On Friday when I arrived admin went off for a solid half an hour about the crowd impact of the Ikon Pass upon Alta. So he was delighted to see one of the locals passing out these stickers.
One of these is now affixed to the back of one of admin’s skis.
What do we know about the Ikon and Utah skier visits that we didn't know last spring and summer? The appropriate comparisons are between the very good 2018-19 season vs. the even better 2016-17 season, not the poor 2017-18 season
Last spring Alta said visits vs. 2016-17 were up 6% overall, destination visitors shifted from day/multiday tickets to Ikon but the largest increase was from locals. Snowbird said visits were similar to 2016-17. But later Ski Utah said:
FYI Mammoth skier visits in 2018-19 exceeded 2016-17 by 10%, a result I did not expect though I had heard local comments and observed a very busy Memorial Day weekend.
As for my own observations during Iron Blosam week:
1) 2019 was busy, but we had 4 feet of new snow during the week and I didn't see an obvious difference vs. other recent powder days.
2) 2020 does look different. This was at best a 10th percentile ski day in snow quality by the high standards of Alta, yet the parking lot was full, as was the lift maze at Collins past 10AM. There were also parked cars on the road outside Iron Blosam that I don't recall seeing before.
I can speculate on few other points;
It is well known that advance bookings for the next ski season are stronger coming off a good prior season vs. a bad one. So 2018-19's numbers coming off the bad 2017-18 season and exceeding 2016-17 (and in particular by a lot in Utah), the advent of the Ikon likely had a role there too.
For 2020 we have multiple factors pushing attendance up.
1) We are coming off a prior good season.
2) 2018-19 was the first year of the Ikon and word of mouth has surely increased sales further. I have heard this specifically is true for Ikon sales in SoCal.
A few areas are trying to manage the situation. A-Basin switching from unlimited Epic to 5-day Ikon is the most obvious. For 2021 base Ikon passholders will have to pay another $150 to get Aspen and Jackson.
Admin says Alta's Ikon contract is 3 years. I suspect there will some kind of adjustment after that, maybe as at Aspen/Jackson though I know many of the locals want a complete pullout. Alta has had RFID for along time. They should know exactly where their skier visits are coming from.
My 2019 Tesla Model S has 1/3 more range and 50% faster supercharging speed than my prior 2016 model, so I was willing to bring it to Utah. Alta’s prime parking spot closest to the lifts and ticket office is reserved for electric charging and was still available at 10AM Saturday.
The bump in charge from 30% to 70% while I was skiing Alta made it unnecessary to charge overnight at the Cliff Lodge during my timeshare week.
I met admin, Amy, BobbyD and Camille at Baldy Brews ~10:30 and we skied nearly all groomers with the conditions. That meant more grooming than usual, such as Race Course from Collins. We also heard that Alta had groomed to the top of Catherine’s for perhaps the second or third time in the past 25 years per BobbyD.
On the way to Supreme we stopped at a birdfeeder in the woods.
There was a porcupine the size of a beach ball high in a nearby tree.
From Supreme we had this view of East Castle.
Highlight of the day was the lunch at Rustler Lodge.
I’m having tomato soup and the soft shell crab BLT sandwich special.
After lunch we visited briefly with black lab patrol dogs in training.
On Friday when I arrived admin went off for a solid half an hour about the crowd impact of the Ikon Pass upon Alta. So he was delighted to see one of the locals passing out these stickers.
One of these is now affixed to the back of one of admin’s skis.
What do we know about the Ikon and Utah skier visits that we didn't know last spring and summer? The appropriate comparisons are between the very good 2018-19 season vs. the even better 2016-17 season, not the poor 2017-18 season
Last spring Alta said visits vs. 2016-17 were up 6% overall, destination visitors shifted from day/multiday tickets to Ikon but the largest increase was from locals. Snowbird said visits were similar to 2016-17. But later Ski Utah said:
So the big Ikon increases at Solitude and Deer Valley plus ongoing Epic Pass visits to Park City play a role here too.Utah’s 5.125 million skier days for 2018-19 were 12% higher than the state’s previous record of 4.58 million in 2016-17 and up 24% from the 2017-18 season.
FYI Mammoth skier visits in 2018-19 exceeded 2016-17 by 10%, a result I did not expect though I had heard local comments and observed a very busy Memorial Day weekend.
As for my own observations during Iron Blosam week:
1) 2019 was busy, but we had 4 feet of new snow during the week and I didn't see an obvious difference vs. other recent powder days.
2) 2020 does look different. This was at best a 10th percentile ski day in snow quality by the high standards of Alta, yet the parking lot was full, as was the lift maze at Collins past 10AM. There were also parked cars on the road outside Iron Blosam that I don't recall seeing before.
I can speculate on few other points;
While the Rockies are on a long term uptrend at the expense of other regions, Ikon/Epic surely have a role in breaking the prior record by that much.prior thread":1v4cuzjb said:Rockies skier visits were a record 24.0 million, well beyond prior highs of 22.3M in 2015-16, 21.7M in 2016-17 and 21.3M in 2007-08.
It is well known that advance bookings for the next ski season are stronger coming off a good prior season vs. a bad one. So 2018-19's numbers coming off the bad 2017-18 season and exceeding 2016-17 (and in particular by a lot in Utah), the advent of the Ikon likely had a role there too.
For 2020 we have multiple factors pushing attendance up.
1) We are coming off a prior good season.
2) 2018-19 was the first year of the Ikon and word of mouth has surely increased sales further. I have heard this specifically is true for Ikon sales in SoCal.
A few areas are trying to manage the situation. A-Basin switching from unlimited Epic to 5-day Ikon is the most obvious. For 2021 base Ikon passholders will have to pay another $150 to get Aspen and Jackson.
Admin says Alta's Ikon contract is 3 years. I suspect there will some kind of adjustment after that, maybe as at Aspen/Jackson though I know many of the locals want a complete pullout. Alta has had RFID for along time. They should know exactly where their skier visits are coming from.