Stuart: you live in New York and do a great job in promoting ski areas with lots of fluff and not a lot of substance. I am a Colorado native and I have skied Vail and Beaver Creek since they built each.
You are a tourist and get feed all of the Ski Area's Kool Aid. You failed to mention Beaver Creek/Vail Resorts did not open Grouse Mountain or Elkhorn Lifts this past ski season when they had adequate snow. You also mislead people on the lift lines at Beaver Creek--they are here. Not the 2 hour+ Gondola 1 and other lift lines of Vail, but waiting for 40 minutes+ in lift lines at Centennial, Strawberry Park, and Bachelor Gulch ski lifts?
What happened to being a true journalist is asking hard questions i.e. why did Vail Resorts screw its rank and file employees for not paying them for their actual time worked? See the labor class action lawsuit and the lousy settlement to employees. How about Vail Resorts firing its senior employees (one of the reasons they had labor problems as middle management people were fired) and replaced by the under skilled younger employees but at 40% of the older long term employee wage rates?
How about Vail Resorts not bothering to build employee housing, yet it has no problem building new lifts? How about increasing employee housing when you increase lift capacity? Don't listen to the argument about they need to do the East Vail housing project in the middle of Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep wintering area. Perfect example of Vail Resorts not carrying about the environment or the communities they do business in.
How about Vail Resorts paying their ski patrollers $15.75 per hour? Should you be paying these safety people cheap wage rates when your life might be on the line with a patroller rescuing you in a medical emergency? Check out the Park City Ski Patrol that was going to strike this ski season.
Another example: I am familiar with 2 snowcat operators who lived out of their car and truck because they could not find reasonably priced housing.
Vail Resorts knew well in advance of the labor challenges and senior management decided to do nothing about it. There are other businesses in the Vail Valley that take care of their employees by paying them a living wage and they did not have labor problems. Of course senior management has no problem giving themselves bonuses, stock incentive plans, non-qualified deferred compensation, and health insurance.
Bottom line is that Vail Resorts is not interested in the communities they live in. It is all about the bottom line and being able to shirk their responsibilities to their employees, environment, society, and customers. Look at the mistreatment of their lowest paid employees when COVID hit and telling them to immediately vacate their employee housing? These employees had to go on public assistance.
How about all of the infrastructure damage caused by Vail Resorts and their unwillingness to pay the Special Districts the funding to replace the assets that their guest and they wore out?
This is the tip of the iceberg for Vail Resorts mismanagement.
Stuart: you live in New York and do a great job in promoting ski areas with lots of fluff and not a lot of substance. I am a Colorado native and I have skied Vail and Beaver Creek since they built each.
You are a tourist and get feed all of the Ski Area's Kool Aid. You failed to mention Beaver Creek/Vail Resorts did not open Grouse Mountain or Elkhorn Lifts this past ski season when they had adequate snow. You also mislead people on the lift lines at Beaver Creek--they are here. Not the 2 hour+ Gondola 1 and other lift lines of Vail, but waiting for 40 minutes+ in lift lines at Centennial, Strawberry Park, and Bachelor Gulch ski lifts?
What happened to being a true journalist is asking hard questions i.e. why did Vail Resorts screw its rank and file employees for not paying them for their actual time worked? See the labor class action lawsuit and the lousy settlement to employees. How about Vail Resorts firing its senior employees (one of the reasons they had labor problems as middle management people were fired) and replaced by the under skilled younger employees but at 40% of the older long term employee wage rates?
How about Vail Resorts not bothering to build employee housing, yet it has no problem building new lifts? How about increasing employee housing when you increase lift capacity? Don't listen to the argument about they need to do the East Vail housing project in the middle of Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep wintering area. Perfect example of Vail Resorts not carrying about the environment or the communities they do business in.
How about Vail Resorts paying their ski patrollers $15.75 per hour? Should you be paying these safety people cheap wage rates when your life might be on the line with a patroller rescuing you in a medical emergency? Check out the Park City Ski Patrol that was going to strike this ski season.
Another example: I am familiar with 2 snowcat operators who lived out of their car and truck because they could not find reasonably priced housing.
Vail Resorts knew well in advance of the labor challenges and senior management decided to do nothing about it. There are other businesses in the Vail Valley that take care of their employees by paying them a living wage and they did not have labor problems. Of course senior management has no problem giving themselves bonuses, stock incentive plans, non-qualified deferred compensation, and health insurance.
Bottom line is that Vail Resorts is not interested in the communities they live in. It is all about the bottom line and being able to shirk their responsibilities to their employees, environment, society, and customers. Look at the mistreatment of their lowest paid employees when COVID hit and telling them to immediately vacate their employee housing? These employees had to go on public assistance.
How about all of the infrastructure damage caused by Vail Resorts and their unwillingness to pay the Special Districts the funding to replace the assets that their guest and they wore out?
This is the tip of the iceberg for Vail Resorts mismanagement.
Love the Beav! As an Epic Pass holder for as long as they've been available, BC is one of my favs in Colorado. Also love Tahoe where I grew up skiing at Squaw (now Palisades). FlatStar was our nickname for Northstar back in the day, but things have indeed changed. So many excellent runs on the back side, lots of long laps to put together, then you have Martis Camp. Pretty awesome. I think Beaver Creek and Northstar are somewhat similar, though I do like BC better. Master Plan for Northstar moves it into top tier status. Hope to see more terrain at both resorts.
Beaver Creek has been near the top of my list of favorite mountains since I first skied there in the mid 80's, it's simply a fantastic mountain. Combine superb terrain variety with limited ticket sales (re: zero lift lines) and excellent transport to and from parking lots and you'd be hard-pressed to find a better overall ski experience ... and the chefs walking around the base area with fresh trays of delicious chocolate chip cookies in the afternoon are the icing on the proverbial cake (which, by the way, they've been doing since I first went there in the 80's).
I don't ever have to ski Vail again, but I will always find a way back to Beaver Creek.
Stuart: you live in New York and do a great job in promoting ski areas with lots of fluff and not a lot of substance. I am a Colorado native and I have skied Vail and Beaver Creek since they built each.
You are a tourist and get feed all of the Ski Area's Kool Aid. You failed to mention Beaver Creek/Vail Resorts did not open Grouse Mountain or Elkhorn Lifts this past ski season when they had adequate snow. You also mislead people on the lift lines at Beaver Creek--they are here. Not the 2 hour+ Gondola 1 and other lift lines of Vail, but waiting for 40 minutes+ in lift lines at Centennial, Strawberry Park, and Bachelor Gulch ski lifts?
What happened to being a true journalist is asking hard questions i.e. why did Vail Resorts screw its rank and file employees for not paying them for their actual time worked? See the labor class action lawsuit and the lousy settlement to employees. How about Vail Resorts firing its senior employees (one of the reasons they had labor problems as middle management people were fired) and replaced by the under skilled younger employees but at 40% of the older long term employee wage rates?
How about Vail Resorts not bothering to build employee housing, yet it has no problem building new lifts? How about increasing employee housing when you increase lift capacity? Don't listen to the argument about they need to do the East Vail housing project in the middle of Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep wintering area. Perfect example of Vail Resorts not carrying about the environment or the communities they do business in.
How about Vail Resorts paying their ski patrollers $15.75 per hour? Should you be paying these safety people cheap wage rates when your life might be on the line with a patroller rescuing you in a medical emergency? Check out the Park City Ski Patrol that was going to strike this ski season.
Another example: I am familiar with 2 snowcat operators who lived out of their car and truck because they could not find reasonably priced housing.
Vail Resorts knew well in advance of the labor challenges and senior management decided to do nothing about it. There are other businesses in the Vail Valley that take care of their employees by paying them a living wage and they did not have labor problems. Of course senior management has no problem giving themselves bonuses, stock incentive plans, non-qualified deferred compensation, and health insurance.
Bottom line is that Vail Resorts is not interested in the communities they live in. It is all about the bottom line and being able to shirk their responsibilities to their employees, environment, society, and customers. Look at the mistreatment of their lowest paid employees when COVID hit and telling them to immediately vacate their employee housing? These employees had to go on public assistance.
How about all of the infrastructure damage caused by Vail Resorts and their unwillingness to pay the Special Districts the funding to replace the assets that their guest and they wore out?
This is the tip of the iceberg for Vail Resorts mismanagement.
Stuart: you live in New York and do a great job in promoting ski areas with lots of fluff and not a lot of substance. I am a Colorado native and I have skied Vail and Beaver Creek since they built each.
You are a tourist and get feed all of the Ski Area's Kool Aid. You failed to mention Beaver Creek/Vail Resorts did not open Grouse Mountain or Elkhorn Lifts this past ski season when they had adequate snow. You also mislead people on the lift lines at Beaver Creek--they are here. Not the 2 hour+ Gondola 1 and other lift lines of Vail, but waiting for 40 minutes+ in lift lines at Centennial, Strawberry Park, and Bachelor Gulch ski lifts?
What happened to being a true journalist is asking hard questions i.e. why did Vail Resorts screw its rank and file employees for not paying them for their actual time worked? See the labor class action lawsuit and the lousy settlement to employees. How about Vail Resorts firing its senior employees (one of the reasons they had labor problems as middle management people were fired) and replaced by the under skilled younger employees but at 40% of the older long term employee wage rates?
How about Vail Resorts not bothering to build employee housing, yet it has no problem building new lifts? How about increasing employee housing when you increase lift capacity? Don't listen to the argument about they need to do the East Vail housing project in the middle of Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep wintering area. Perfect example of Vail Resorts not carrying about the environment or the communities they do business in.
How about Vail Resorts paying their ski patrollers $15.75 per hour? Should you be paying these safety people cheap wage rates when your life might be on the line with a patroller rescuing you in a medical emergency? Check out the Park City Ski Patrol that was going to strike this ski season.
Another example: I am familiar with 2 snowcat operators who lived out of their car and truck because they could not find reasonably priced housing.
Vail Resorts knew well in advance of the labor challenges and senior management decided to do nothing about it. There are other businesses in the Vail Valley that take care of their employees by paying them a living wage and they did not have labor problems. Of course senior management has no problem giving themselves bonuses, stock incentive plans, non-qualified deferred compensation, and health insurance.
Bottom line is that Vail Resorts is not interested in the communities they live in. It is all about the bottom line and being able to shirk their responsibilities to their employees, environment, society, and customers. Look at the mistreatment of their lowest paid employees when COVID hit and telling them to immediately vacate their employee housing? These employees had to go on public assistance.
How about all of the infrastructure damage caused by Vail Resorts and their unwillingness to pay the Special Districts the funding to replace the assets that their guest and they wore out?
This is the tip of the iceberg for Vail Resorts mismanagement.
Love the Beav! As an Epic Pass holder for as long as they've been available, BC is one of my favs in Colorado. Also love Tahoe where I grew up skiing at Squaw (now Palisades). FlatStar was our nickname for Northstar back in the day, but things have indeed changed. So many excellent runs on the back side, lots of long laps to put together, then you have Martis Camp. Pretty awesome. I think Beaver Creek and Northstar are somewhat similar, though I do like BC better. Master Plan for Northstar moves it into top tier status. Hope to see more terrain at both resorts.
Terrific interview.
Beaver Creek has been near the top of my list of favorite mountains since I first skied there in the mid 80's, it's simply a fantastic mountain. Combine superb terrain variety with limited ticket sales (re: zero lift lines) and excellent transport to and from parking lots and you'd be hard-pressed to find a better overall ski experience ... and the chefs walking around the base area with fresh trays of delicious chocolate chip cookies in the afternoon are the icing on the proverbial cake (which, by the way, they've been doing since I first went there in the 80's).
I don't ever have to ski Vail again, but I will always find a way back to Beaver Creek.