White Pass BC access change

For full day ticket I'll get more laps.... for $20, the one way rider will get less. Why should those that buy season passes or full day passes subsidize those they are competing with for untracked?

Hmm... seems you'll get less competition from those who only get the one ride, per your own comments, than you'll get from those who pay for a full day's ticket. I think you're likely right and hence it doesn't seem like super well placed mental energ to be worrying over some folks who anyhow probably want to move further away from the area to get away from those who are lapping in a way so as to make it easy to keep getting lift assists and tracking up the close sidecountry. ???

Hmm... seems you'll get less competition from those who only get the one ride, per your own comments, than you'll get from those who pay for a full day's ticket. I think you're likely right and hence it doesn't seem like super well placed mental energ to be worrying over some folks who anyhow probably want to move further away from the area to get away from those who are lapping in a way so as to make it easy to keep getting lift assists and tracking up the close sidecountry.  ???

Many of us sidecountry lovers with full passes also move further away from the alpine only skiers who usually will only bootpack or sidestep short distances. Many dedicated lift assist sidecountry technicians will carry skins and go quite far out. I'll still get more laps doing that than the one-pass skier or the skier who has skied up from the bottom.???

Why does Vail/Beaver Creek/Keystone/Breck/A-Basin offer a season pass to all five mountains for $400? Why does Crystal now only charge $500 for a season pass when it used to be over a $1000 and they didn't have Northway or a Gondola? Because it is possible for a ski area to make more money by charging less for a ticket or pass by drawing in additional customers who normally would never choose to ski there with the higher rates. Lets face it, there are very few bc skiers willing to shell out $57 to get to the top of White Pass to tour the sidecountry. The lifts get you to a high point, but you have to hike out (i.e. you are still hiking for nearly every vertical foot of powder you ski). Plus, you could skin to the same point that the lift takes you in about an hour from the base. So the customer's decision is whether to a) pay $57 to ride a lift (and wait until it opens at 9), b) skin up the ski area, or c) just go somewhere else. When presented with those options, especially on a repeated basis, most bc skiers will chose b and c and therefore, WP is loosing out on a customer base it could attract. I realize ski areas are in the business of making money and not providing cheap easy access to sidecountry, but the point is a one ride can be a profitable decision for a ski area. The key is to make it cheap enough to entice bc skiers, but expensive enough to prevent it from being exploited. Plus, I think the one-ride ticket helps with marketing the area. Why does Whistler, Whitewater, and Brighton all offer one ride tickets? Is it because they love loosing money? No, it is because management has made a calculated decision that they make more money, and derive more intangible benefits, from the one ride than without it.

Altasnob - what you write makes perfect sense. And could certainly be translated into a bit of a business proposal to present to WP management. Estimated numbers of course would help.

I'll still get more laps doing that than the one-pass skier or the skier who has skied up from the bottom.???

As will all the other full-pass-holders who use the same strategy as you. In other words, your real competition for those tracks.  ???

Altasnob - what you write makes perfect sense. And could certainly be translated into a bit of a business proposal to present to WP management. Estimated numbers of course would help.
As will all the other full-pass-holders who use the same strategy as you. In other words, your real competition for those tracks.  ???

Yes but I can't do anything about those that pay full price tickets so I have to accept that competition and by dint of slyness and subterfuge beat then by superior tactics and lying. However as Altasnob says, if the price for a one way ticket is sufficiently high so that the ski area benefits and it won't be abused by those BC skiers prone to freeloading then I'm OK with that competition as well. $10 too low for the ski area to benefit and too attractive to those that will not choose b and c above as a result.
I'm for the one-way ticket but at a fair price= $20 or even better 50% of day pass. ??? : :'(

I think we violently agree =8-O

Yup. Has to make sense for the business owner, not just the customer. I'd leave it to them to decide the price that makes sense for their business.

Maybe they should also allow snowmobile access to the sidecountry there? [we need a clown face emoticon]