Beat the heat: get next winter's ski pass now

Don't miss tomorrow's early purchase discount deadline if you're considering buying a Gore / Whiteface season pass for 2012-13. The unrestricted full season pass for adults is $739, a $19 increase over last year. The adult non-holiday pass is $585. Junior passes (ages 7-12) are $299 and age 6 and under is $30.

Since our family gets in 20+ days at Gore / Whiteface, the season pass is a no-brainer. Breakeven is less than 10 days, based on weekend and holiday rates of $75 and $79.

Early purchase discounts are also available at Willard ($290 adult season pass), West ($400 adult season pass deadline was June 1, now $585) and Hickory ($250). Willard and West offer additional family discounts.

One more option may warrant consideration for some skiers: the Ski Areas of New York Gold Pass for $888. The pass has no blackout dates and can be redeemed at the ticket window for one lift ticket per day at any SANY member area (just about every ski area in the state). Unfortunately there is no SANY Gold Pass junior rate.

If money is no object, $10,000 gets you a U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association Gold Pass. The pass is fully transferable and is honored for unlimited acces at any National Ski and Snowboard Association ski area nationwide. A significant portion of the purchase price is tax-deductible ($8500 last year) as a contribution in support of the U.S. Ski Team.

And if you can afford that, you can afford to hop a plane to Oregon's Mount Bachelor, which is re-opening this weekend for summer skiing. That sounds like the best way to beat the heat to me.

West-West-Willard: 02/29 & 03/01/2012

If you’ve followed my Wednesday night updates from West Mountain (OK, it’s been a couple weeks) you’ll know that we’ve had more scratch than soft for surface conditions this winter. But Wednesday night this week finally coincided with one of the few (only?) snowstorms of the winter.

When I left work in Albany late Wednesday afternoon, there were a few inches of wet snow on the ground. The snow continued to come down at a moderate to heavy clip as I pulled into West Mountain’s parking lot an hour later. The 3 to 4 inches of new snow that had fallen at that point certainly improved the trail surfaces, but it was still difficult to avoid bottoming out on the rock-hard underlayer. Eventually the accumulating snow improved the surfaces enough so that the last few runs of the night were noticeably better than the first few.

Season Preview Outtakes: Willard Mountain

Following is the fourth in my series of Season Preview Outtakes. In this post, Chic Wilson, owner and General Manager of Willard Mountain, talks about social media and summer operations, among other topics.

Jeff: What kinds of changes are in store for skiers this winter?

Chic: We’ve significantly re-graded the Bunnyhop trail. I can’t even begin to guess how much dirt we’ve moved to eliminate the flat section in the middle and make the trail more skiable. We’ve shifted the whole trail over to skier’s right and built it up by about 10 feet. It should make a big difference this winter, and we’ll do more work on it next year too.

With all that work on Bunnyhop, we thought it would be a good opportunity to come up with a new name. So we reached out to our friends on Facebook with a contest, and the overwhelming consensus – 60% – was to keep it as Bunnyhop. Facebook has really allowed us to communicate and interact with our customers, to keep them engaged and feel like they are involved with Willard in the off season. That’s one reason why we’re New York’s Coolest Little Ski Area.

Jeff: How about snowmaking?

Season pass math

It may seem like ski season is a long way off, but early purchase discount deadlines are approaching and it’s time to do the math. For many, buying a season’s pass is a no-brainer, but for others the calculation may be a bit more involved. For our family, the decision is driven by 3 factors:

Number of ski days – Obviously this is the factor that drives most season pass decisions. Our family will likely ski 20 +/- days at Gore next winter, well above the break-even point of 10-12 days.

Willard Mountain: 02/24/2011

Willard's side-by-side double chairs in operation

Since it's the February vacation week, we take a break from our usual Wednesday telemark nights at West Mountain, but I had promised Daniel that the two of us would go night skiing this week, so he and I headed over to Willard Mountain for a few hours this afternoon and evening.

Willard Mountain: 02/02/2011

I had been meaning to get back to Willard all season, ever since I interviewed owner and GM Chic Wilson back in November. With our kids home for a snow day, today seemed like the perfect opportunity to head over for a family ski day.

Base lodge from the Wipe Out trail

A chat with Chic Wilson

Chic Wilson is the affable owner and General Manager of Willard Mountain in Washington County, NY.  He and I had a chance to talk earlier this week not only about the upcoming season, but also about how he and his wife Kris have invested in Willard over the years and how the mountain has not just survived, but thrived.

Jeff: Could you give us a brief history of Willard Mountain, and how you became owner and General Manager?

Chic: Willard Mountain was started in the early 1950s by a group of partners who had the vision of creating a ski area in Washington County. I became involved in 1994. At that time I was the General Manager of a small ski area in Central NY, Toggenburg Mountain. I was also the President of the Ski Areas of New York association, and I was looking for a ski area that was a size that I could afford to purchase. This winter will be our 16th year.