Judging a Ski Season

[Wanakenatransplant]

If we boiled down a single metric for how good a ski season was, I offer the following;

- Number days open of Oz Run

Two, three, four years running: zero?

I don't think you can judge the ski season based on that metric. Beech has been very conservative (cheap) on their snow making the past several years. They have talked about all of the new additions they have made with new snow guns, pumps, etc but I don't see a major difference in them getting slopes open faster. It took them until January 31 to get any blacks open (and Southern Star only stayed open less than 2 weeks so far this year). Until Beech decides to stop being cheap on snowmaking, I don't see them opening Oz Run unless they get a big snowstorm.

[donohuetom]

I agree- using Oz would call virtually every season a "zero?- A better metric would be something that is open during good stretches like Tom Terrific or Gunther's.... so you could actually compare the last few years instead of ending up with 0 vs 0.

[WVULINK]

I'm not real familiar with Beech Mtn (I've only skied there twice), but I was up there yesterday and it doesn't look like there are any plans to ever open Oz Run again, regardless of natural snowfall. I probably don't know the whole story but as of yesterday, there are large boulders placed in front on the bridge that crosses the road.

[swamphox]

Did the meadows open at all

[Wanakenatransplant]

This is the whole point, was the ski season good or bad? Did Oz Run or Whoop Dee Do open for at least a month? No, then it was not a good season. There may have been some good 3 day stretches, but there was a ton of rain and warm stretches.

Whoopdedoo is a good judge of a ski season, but not Oz. Gunther is aggressive with snow making and would open it if he could. Beech is not aggressive and is cheap and I would be surprised if they open it on a good season.

[Wanakenatransplant]

Beech obviously has infrastructure and water resource issues, but don't expext this website to actually address real issues, instead less nitpick the best ski resort in NC (Sugar) over 1/2 inch if snow reporting. Let's interview another ski resort and put words in the owners mouth during the actual interview.

You are absolutely correct on all of these points. It is too bad Sugar doesn't get more credit on this site.

[theKENDOG]

nitpick the best ski resort in NC (Sugar) over 1/2 inch if snow reporting

I tend to agree but this year it's pretty egregious. Ray has 48.2" for Sugar (he gets it from Sugar) and 31.4" for Beech. That's a pretty large discrepancy.

Whoopdedoo is a good judge of a ski season, but not Oz.

I agree with this. If Whoop opens then you know things have been good.

[theKENDOG]

Eh, a few thoughts...

we have obscene tourist traps where the tourists dont come back and we replace them with new unsuspecting first time skiers.

Industry wide, only 19% of the participants continue long term (http://www.nsaa.org/growing-the-sport/model-for-growth/). That situation is not unique to this area.

Last time I was at Beech I had two different sets of people tell me they'd never be back. Why? Crowds, safety, and lack of terrain.

You can say that about any ski area around here. They're all small and crowded on the weekends. Funny enough, Northridge to Switchback is my worst experience in terms of crowded slopes. I've actually had to take a friend to the Boone hospital after he got run off into the woods on a holiday weekend.

I like what Beech has done off the slopes, but it hasnt done anything to improve the skiing experience... it has actually gotten WORSE.

The two new quads are definitely slow, but they are better than what was there in terms of alleviating lift lines. I wouldn't say it's monumentally better, but it's definitely not worse.

What we need is truth, productive criticism, and investment. We need more terrain per skiier, we need more snow power.

Most of the ski areas around here do yearly snowmaking upgrades. Some bigger than others. They kind of have to with the crap winters we've had recently. As for expanding terrain, I'd imagine that's a huge cost that's not feasible for most.

Mike isnt helping anything by using his super enhanced rose colored reality distortion glasses to run the site like a profit center. We need journalism, not this "let's get as many new people to come to ski in NC" and never come back.

While the site used to be a little more off the cuff and...we'll say blunt, it's main objective now is to promote the ski areas in the region. Love it or hate it, that's the goal. Promotion. I don't think you'll go to Ski Utah or Open Snow and see them trashing any of the resorts. That's not how partnerships work.

This site is bullshit. It's only critical if it is the only non paying ski resort customer.

Personally, I wouldn't jab into Sugar as much as has been done, but there are lots of people who like to see them called out for their snow reporting stuff.

It takes money and free room and board from the ski resorts and advertisers and promotes endless rainbows and wet kittens.

I can tell you first hand that Mike spent a sh*t ton of money at Christmas staying at Snowshoe and he's doing the same this weekend for myself and others.

The NC ski industry is mostly a horrible customer experience... unless you go one of the 3 Wednesdays where the snow isnt slop or boiler plate.

It's all relative man. NC skiing consists of small mountains, limited terrain, variable snow/weather, and big crowds on the weekends. It is what it is. It's better than nothing though.

[theKENDOG]

You successfully put me in my place and were very pragmatic and I appreciate the thoughful responses. I am not asking for anyone to trash the resorts. But the crowds and safety issues are getting out of hand and it needs to be called out and it needs to be fixed by the resorts. The economy is banging and the word is out... there are ski resorts in NC.. who knew. Whether it is more terrain, higher prices, and or capacity caps... things need to change. 10 years ago I stopped going on the weekends, it is much worse now. The weekend after MLk was nuts. You guys are in the best position to champion the change, like or not. I regret my comments about money, you guys deserve the kickbacks. Yeah, I'm super jaded I can't take my son skiing to the resorts I live 2 hours from because it isnt safe on the weekends. Apologize for my previous rant, but the site is much better when it isn't one giant fluffy advertisement, ask the operators some REAL questions about crowds and safety and terrain aspirations.

All good dude. I'm a weekend warrior and it's pretty frustrating because weekends are so crowded. It's a deterrent for sure so I feel ya. I get about a third to half as many days a season now as I used to.

I'm not sure what the solution is to the safety aspect. As much as we'd like to see it, putting caps on skiers allowed on the mountain just isn't realistic. I don't think any of the ski areas are going to turn down money. The season is so short and the weather can be so fickle that they have to maximize revenue as much as possible.

At least we don't have lift lines like what Vail saw a few weeks ago. That was gnar.