Mt. High closes half the resort, midweek to save money

[snowave]

As fellow skiers/riders.. or just someone that has ever felt like that paid for a service/product and feels they didn't get quite what they paid for... I ask for your support.

Yep, true.. after having one of their best holiday sales periods ever... selling out the better part of the last month on all weekends and around 15 straight days during the holidays, they close the entire East resort (more than half their acreage) midweek as a "business decision" to save money. I was up there all last week, and the coverage is excellent. I was told directly today that is why they are closing.

What does Big Bear/Summit do midweek? They offer $5 - $10 vouchers to come up and ride midweek to get business. They don't shut down. :roll:

Look, I understand it's a business. It's not crowded at East, and they have to watch their spending like everyone else right now... but when you pay for a service/product, and a large percentage of that service (within their control) is not provided, I think there is a problem. Nice way to treat your paying customers who are suffering just as much, if not likely much more than you! Not to mention, it's a real stretch to say this is included in their "disclaimer" to season pass holders. The entire East resort is accessible by one lift, fyi.

I'm sure some of you won't agree with my opinion, and that's fine.. but if you support the idea of getting a product you pay for, I'd appreciate a moment of your time to send off comment in support of keeping East open.

http://www.mthigh.com/pages/feedback.html

A few pictures from opening day about a month ago!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5 ... =578665431

Thanks,
Sno

 

[Aukai]

Just... LOL.

I was actually thinking of heading up there one of these weekdays and riding some East. Guess my money will continue to better spent at Baldy, even if it's just for Bonanza laps, or on gas to get to Summit (where I ride free).

What a joke.

 

[snowave]

it's a shame, because East has been incredible almost since it opened about month ago.. just last week, it had perfect carvy snow...excellent bomber runs all the way down.

 

[ski-the-face]

any body have an idea at what baldy might be like this weekend? tony? or if the forecasted storm will bring rain or snow?

 

[SoCal Rider]

any body have an idea at what baldy might be like this weekend? tony? or if the forecasted storm will bring rain or snow?

Not to threadjack, but I'd like to know if it would really kill Baldy to let us know exactly which runs have acceptable coverage. It's SOP for pretty much every other ski area, I imagine. I know, I know, it's part of their charm. :roll:

I'm another MH snowboarder who now refuses to ride Mountain High West on a weekend, heck almost any time before, say, March 10. I guess there aren't enough of us. It appears - obviously - that the mtn is trying to maximize margins at the expense of a few die-hards. I guess it's a shrewd biz move if they only alienate a few of us. It's kinda funny, because the mountain seemed to switch gears a few seasons ago by opening open a run or two at East with significant snowmaking fairly early in order to justify all those endless ticket sales. I think I can live with a balance of Baldy and Summit now if MH is going to pull this stuff in January.

 

[Tony Crocker]

I last skied Mt. High in 2001. I will not go there unless East is open even though I spend some time on each side. The issue for me relates to SoCal's feast-or-famine snow conditions. When it's feast I'm always at Baldy, since terrain quality is so far beyond everyone else. When it's famine but I really want to get a day in, I'll trust the huge snowmaking capacity at Big Bear every time. Mt. High's terrain when 100% open is better than Big Bear's IMHO, but Mt. High has to "triage" its terrain during sustained dry spells as they don't have enough snowmaking to maintain everything. When I did my last Progress Report a week ago, both East and West were down to 2/3 open, so I would already have been skeptical of conditions. My impression is that as dry weather continues Mt. High lets East go and devotes all of its resources to keeping the core area of West including its terrain park afloat.

Not sure about weekends only. No skier traffic midweek might let them squeeze out an extra weekend. We had a similar hypothetical discussion in one of the Killington late season threads. But in the past when East shut down midweek, that usually meant only one or two weekends before it was closed completely, pending new natural snow.

I guess it's a shrewd biz move if they only alienate a few of us.

There's little question in my mind that the bulk of Mt. High's business is the park rats at West. If I haven't been there in 7 years, what grounds do I have to complain about their policies?

Not to threadjack, but I'd like to know if it would really kill Baldy to let us know exactly which runs have acceptable coverage.

It's always caveat emptor at Baldy, even on the big powder days. Thunder was down for 2 1/2 hours midday on my most recent one Dec. 18. That's why I rely on Garry Klassen or other eyewitness reports, and why I pass on his impressions here.

 

[snowave]

........When I did my last Progress Report a week ago, both East and West were down to 2/3 open, so I would already have been skeptical of conditions......

The rest of your post was pretty much right on, however, last week.. regarding conditions... East was phenomenal, with very good to excellent coverage. (see my reports on Mammoth's forum under socal conditions) "Canyon" was the only trail closed due to coverage, and I even rode down that.. it was very doable, but was not groomed and was in turn, icy. Discovery at top was fine, but they choose not to operate that during the week, and also apparently, they have a "lift part" on order for an issue. All other runs were open and there were very few noticable thin spots.

Now, another week or so of warm temps... and higher humidity, and after the predicted 2" of rain tonight, that might be a different story.