21-22 Vail/Stevens Pass Monitoring reports

Thanks Frank.   Not more than a few years ago age wise I could ski for free at Timberline and Whitefish but the new managements have crap canned that and if one looks around the west anymore skiing with an affordable lift ticket is a joke even for military and old timers.   There are still a few cool places to visit but I could only say in a pm. 

I have been waiting for Tye and Kehrs to open before heading up to Stevens for the season. Well it looks like I might have a long wait. A couple of my ski buddies went up today and found out the reason they are not running any more lifts is because they don't have enough employees. Now this is something that they ran into last year also, so they should've been prepared for this. Some other ski forums that I frequent and mentioned that in other parts of the vail empire the same problem exists. A lack of employees to run the lifts which result in the crowds on the ones that are running. Some of the comments are downright nasty. I did email Stevens Pass guest services a couple of days ago asking them what's up and of course I have heard nothing. Things are not looking good at Stevens.

12/21/21 Quickfoot, that is correct, ski patrol was staffing 7th Heaven lift again today.  They said they have Tye ready to go, just no bodies to spin the lift. Lines weren't too bad.  Took a tour up Kehrs around 10:30 when lines picked up a bit, then hit the lifts again during lunch. No real obstacles on Kehrs to being open, other than staffing. Surprised that they haven't even run a cat up there to pack it down though.  Wondering if they plan on opening it at all this season. 

They won't post any info on operations, so I expect a riot when the first real Saturday crowd shows up. Not going to be pretty, and I feel sorry for the staff that will take the abuse. Pretty unbelievable.

Hmm.  is the wage so low that it is offensive or sadly has the era of the ski bum vanished.

the dark side of the airbnb era that no one likes to talk about. I feel for the lost boys of the next generations. I dont know what the answer is to getting lifties to work when they cant afford to live remotely close to the mountain. Id man a lift a couple days a week if the mountain was community owned!! Its sad to see the changes at stevens, but the snow will continue to fall (hopefully) and I am grateful for any time i get to spend on my skis. 

If you are old enough you can still ski free at Crystal Mountain, Mammoth Mountain and White Pass.