Analysis of Vail's Midwestern Strategy

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Here's a news article that discusses Vail's recent acquisitions in Minnesota and Michigan, along with some of the impacts of the Epic Pass.

Since I ride at a Powdr resort, I wonder why I am not offered some kind of POWDR PASS that will let me ride at Bachelor, Boreal, Park City, Las Vegas, Copper and Killington? I would very well visit those other Powdr resorts, and probably spend money there. Why not?

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

So now Powdr is giving away 3 days at all of their other resorts for anybody who buys a season pass. It isn't as good as an Epic Pass, but if I was going to be riding Powdr next season I'd certainly take advantage. It may be just a matter of time before both Powdr and Intrawest do a system-wide full season's pass to their resorts.

New next season: ski Powdr on a PCMR pass benefit provides single-day lift tickets at other resorts

by Jay Hamburger THE PARK RECORD

Posted: 05/09/2014 04:27:03 PM MDT

People who purchase a season pass at Park City Mountain Resort for the 2014-2015 ski season will receive three complimentary single-day lift tickets at five other Powdr Corp. resorts, a new benefit highlighting an increasingly competitive local ski industry.

The benefit is outlined in PCMR's marketing materials for season passes for the next ski season. It has not been widely publicized outside the marketing materials.

PCMR season-pass purchasers who are 18 years old or older will receive the complimentary lift tickets to: Killington Resort in Vermont, Boreal Mountain Resort in California, Copper Mountain Resort in Colorado, Mt. Bachelor Mountain Resort in Oregon and Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort in Nevada. Blackout dates are from Dec. 27 until Dec. 31, typically one of the busiest stretches of the year at a mountain resort.

Season-pass purchasers at PCMR who are 17 years old or younger receive an unlimited number of complimentary lift tickets at the other resorts without blackout dates. Those who are 17 years old or younger will also receive discounts at Powdr Corp.'s four Camp Woodward action sports locations.

The benefits will apply to season passes sold at the other resorts as well, meaning that someone buying at those locations will receive the complimentary lift tickets at the other resorts, including PCMR.

Andy Miller, a PCMR spokesperson, said season-pass holders who were 18 years old or older last season could purchase discounted lift tickets at the other resorts while the pass holders who were 17 or younger enjoyed a similar benefit as they will in the next ski season.

Miller said the season-pass market in the industry has changed in recent years, giving pass holders more "reciprocal" options. He said the introduction of the Vail Resorts Epic Pass to the Park City market did not influence Powdr Corp. as it considered the new benefit.

Vail Resorts is the operator of Canyons Resort. The Epic Pass, prized by skiers and snowboarders, offers holders access to Vail Resorts slopes in Colorado, the Lake Tahoe region and several international skiing destinations in addition to Canyons Resort.

"No one pass program . . . I would say, motivated us to do this," Miller said.

He also said the new benefit was spurred by "healthy, friendly competition" between the three Park City-area mountain resorts. Miller said Powdr Corp. officials began discussing the benefit in the past year or so.

PCMR and other mountain resorts in Utah, meanwhile, are negotiating to offer season-pass holders at the individual resorts next season some sort of benefit at the others, Miller said. Complimentary lift tickets to other Utah resorts would be a similar benefit to one offered for the first time during the 2013-2014 ski season. The benefit was seen as an effort to blunt the impact of the arrival of the Epic Pass in Utah.

The participating resorts in the 2013-2014 ski season offered season-pass holders three complimentary single-day lift tickets at each of the other places. The other three resorts were Deer Valley Resort, Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort and Alta Ski Area.