Ski Sunday

Just watched the repeat from Sunday and can not believe the piece they did on alta, Utah.

(btw if this has been discussed, sorry!)

I presume that the producers of the show heavily made the piece biased because that was the angle they were going for but after taking stock of it I am still appalled.

How can a resort in today's day and age (and recession) survive by turning away such a large market?! For anyone who didn't see it or doesn't know, they have a ban on snowboarders.

It also said there were two other resorts, anyone know where they are?

I have the usual banter with my mates who board (g**s on trays and w***s on planks etc) but don't actually believe any of the things that the people out in America were saying.

Am I on my own here in thinking its insane?

rossyhead wrote:

How can a resort in today's day and age (and recession) survive by turning away such a large market?!

It also said there were two other resorts, anyone know where they are?

Quite simple really, there are more than enough people who want to ski in an area without boarders, that they can afford to not have the boarders.

I think the three in America who ban boards are Alta and Deer Park, both in Utah, and Mad River Glen in Vermont.

Deer Valley + Mad River Glen IIRC.

Alta is right beside Snowbird (where you can snowboard).

It just seemed very backwards, outdated and stuffy, ESP the guy that harped on about it being a business decision!

Pablo, how are you keeping? Been up north much yet?

Deer Valley has the advantage that it is next door to PCMR. They bus their client's snowboarding kids a mile down the road.

I think it is as much of a status symbol as anything else. Deer Valley certainly appeals to people who want to go somewhere exclusive and don't want to ski with the masses. The crazy thing is that you can put bindings on board ala monoski - welcome, mount them ala alpine racing snowboard - persona non grata. It could be exactly the same board, but the binding better be aligned straight, not one degree to the side. I do like Deer valley in small doses, as the grooming is immaculate, the food great value and it is just so pretentious. Kinda like sneaking into a gentleman's club. The first time I went there I felt really naughty as I still thought of myself as mainly a snowboarder.

I don't see a problem with it, any more than I would see there being a problem with a snowboard only resort. The motivations of some of the people interviewed seemed to be based on dated predjudices they held against snowboarders, but that is inevitable in a segment for which the interviews will have been picked to support an interesting narative that the producers may have wanted to follow at the outset.

I expect there are lots of other people who enjoy skiing in a snowboard free environment and vice versa for reasons other than pure prejudice. I'm sure there are many snowboarders who would enjoy skiing lift serviced terrain without skiers. Snowboaders and skiers move down the mountain differently. It's a fact. It is one reason why they don't have a combined snowboard and ski world cup downhill. When you ski in a resort you are aware of the people around you and to a certain extent your anticipation of their likely movements. I expect that a beginner-intermediate snowboader or skier could feel 'safer' in an environment containing only snowboaders or skiers. Do snowboaders generate moguls in the same way skiers do? I'm not sure, but I suspect that a boader only resort might have fewer moguls and a skier only resort may have more regularly shaped moguls. If moguls are your thing, or not, then this may be a factor. It was a shame that these issues were not investigated in the segment. Personally I don't think it would make much difference to my skiing experience not to have boarders, but that's just me, others will see it differently.

At the end of the day, it is something that is likely to die out anyway. The social aspect of snowsports is so strong that spliting groups of skiing and snowboarding friends isn't going to be a very good long term business plan.

PS - the other reason it will die out is that it is a one way deal. The ski only resorts have probably been that way since the advent of snowboarding. They are likely to need the snowboard market eventualy, but there is no going back. Once you have regular groups of family and friends who ski and snowboard it is PR suicide to go back to one or the other.

Has anybody oon here skied a skier only resort. Did it realy make any difference?

steverandomno wrote:Has anybody oon here skied a skier only resort. Did it realy make any difference?

Only before boarding was invented :mrgreen:

Still the same issues ....
Some too fast and out of control and the ever present difficulty of the unexpected manoevre.
People stuck in the middle of pistes too difficult for them etc etc etc

I don't see this as an issue, if an area doesn't offer what you want then take the custom elsewhere - simples.

Bit like a watersports lake that doesn't allow powered vessels really. If you jetski then you go elsewhere.