Oftpiste's beating-a-dead-horse thread....

I would have to give thumbs up to Boyne for re-opening Hyak after they closed on March 24. After a week closed and good crowds at Central they re-opened last weekend and now I hear they may keep it open through this next weekend as well. Booth Creek never ran the lifts at Hyak into April!

Maybe they should allow current season pass holders a discount beyond April 13 with maybe a $20 day pass or free for 08/09 earlybird purchases?

I think Big S passholders are fine through the end of the (actual, not corporate) season at Alpy.
www.summit-at-snoqualmie.com/info/winter...p#liftedrestrictions
I don't see anything about April 13th being the end of the season, and there is no mention anywhere else.

The only sticking point on the Crystal deal may be the stipulation that both resorts have to be in "full operations" whatever that means. Have you EVER seen all lifts spinning at either ski area? I haven't.

A can tell you with certainty that there will be blood on the snow if the Alpental passholders are denied skiing past April 13th. I don't have my pass agreement on me, but I read it and would not have signed it had there been a stipulation like this.

There has to be an economic reason why ski resorts close when they do in good snow years or one heck of a conspiracy. A number of the big resorts in B.C. have already shut down and the remainder will do so this weekend, including my local hill (Cypress) which has its best conditions of the season right now. The only exception is Whistler , which stops at the end of the month and Blackcomb, which is scheduled to stay open until early June.

F Y I In the record snow year of 98/99, Cypress closed in April and then reopened for June and part of July (yes,July!). They did not honour their season tickets.

I think it's getting to be that time of year where a lot of casual skiers are turning their thoughts to spring. Without those folks coming to the hill in droves, the resorts won't be making their money (though you could argue that they'd earn more loyalty from season pass holders by staying open).

I totally get why they do this and understand the business aspect though I don't think the casual skiers will come in droves for the May opening either. I still think a season should be a WHOLE season - say, October through September.

I mean really, how much will a weekend in May really mean to them in fiscal terms, win or lose? The object of the game is obviously to sell next year's season passes NOW and stick a few shekels in the bank of Boyne. This is NOT about 'pleasing the customer'. If it were, they would honor this year's pass. If it were they would throw us a bone for being good, money dropping patrons of their business.

So it appears that the target for the May weekend opening is indeed primarily US! They're looking for current pass holders who are core enough to buy next year's pass this year so they can finish out THIS season even though they've already paid.

A very good local skier on another board wrote, metaphorically and quite astutely, on this same subject, "When you're the most beautiful woman in town you can afford to be a bitch." To which I replied, "Yeah, but the very most beautiful of the beautiful are never bitches and we all like them best." Wouldn't it be cool if she was a sweetheart?

Indeed, c'est la guerre.

No matter how hot she is, somewhere, someone is sick of her sh!t.

FWIW, until the American Skiing Company ran it into the ground, Killington VT would routinely stay open, uninterrupted, until June. I think in one season they made it to July 4, all on manmade snow that they paid millions of dollars to produce. By closing time, the trees would have leaves and the golf courses at the base of the ski area would be in full operation. They were consistent, and people came. But those were east coast skiers, a skiing populous that tends to be more dedicated to the sport than the lift serve softies of the west. Present company excluded, of course.